Chapter 3
My knees nearly gave out.
“What did you do with her?”
Daniel ignored me.
Sheriff Cole pulled my arms behind my back.
Emily screamed and tried to reach me.
Daniel caught her around the waist.
She fought like someone drowning.
“Let her go!” I shouted.
Cole tightened the handcuffs.
Bear stepped between Daniel and Emily.
“She said not to touch her.”
“This is a family matter,” Daniel replied.
Bear’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“It stopped being private when she asked for help.”
Daniel released Emily, but his eyes promised punishment.
As Cole took me outside, Bear called after me.
“What’s the address?”
“Cedar Ridge Road,” Emily answered. “Number 418.”
One of the bikers, a woman named Jo, was already dialing emergency services.
Daniel hurried after the sheriff.
“You need to arrest Emily too. She helped Margaret escape.”
Cole hesitated.
That hesitation told me everything.
Daniel controlled him, but not completely.
Bear saw it too.
“She’s a witness,” he said loudly. “And everyone here just heard her accuse that man of coercion.”
The diner owner lifted his security tablet.
“I recorded all of it.”
Daniel’s confidence cracked.
He pointed at the owner.
“You’ll regret getting involved.”
Bear smiled without warmth.
“Another threat. Keep talking.”
Cole shoved me into the patrol car.
Daniel climbed into his black SUV.
Before he closed the door, he held up a small pink bracelet.
Sophie’s bracelet.
I hit the window with both hands.
Daniel drove away.
Cole got behind the wheel.
“Where is my granddaughter?”
He stared straight ahead.
“If you want her alive, stop asking questions.”
My blood turned cold.
May you like
The sheriff wasn’t merely protecting Daniel.
He was helping him.
