Mark had never felt helpless before, but the panic surging through him as they tried to find a clue as to Lana’s location would have paralyzed him had he not been a Marine with combat experience. He’d seen a lot of horrible things, including watching his best friend get blown up on the side of a road in Afghanistan, but that had been war. This wasn’t. This was a stupid, petty, jealous woman who was hurting another woman for something she hadn’t even done. He was so angry it was hard to breathe, and he paced outside the waiting area of the local police department. They’d finally picked up the teenagers who’d surrounded and distracted Swede, and one of them was actually 18, so they didn’t have to wait for his parents in order to talk to him.

“What are they doing in there?” he demanded of Montana. “We need to know where Joyce is.”

“They know that,” the other man said quietly. “They’re trying to get the information before he lawyers up.”

“Give me five minutes,” Mark growled. “I’ll get the information.”

“You and me both,” Swede muttered. “This is my fault, dammit.”

“It’s not,” Mark shook his head, some of the anger dissipating. He wanted to be pissed at Swede, but he couldn’t. It had been a carefully orchestrated maneuver, one that was hard to circumvent. Getting physical with kids—boys that were under 18—could have landed Swede in all kinds of trouble. And there had been ten of them. In a public place filled with even younger children. There hadn’t been anything more Swede could have done without hurting one of the kids, and that wouldn’t have ended well either. No, this Joyce woman was to blame and he planned to find her, one way or another.

Montana had been pulled aside by a detective he knew from high school and suddenly was heading towards the door. “Let’s go,” he murmured out of the corner of his mouth.

They followed him quickly as he headed for his SUV. “My buddy listened in on the interrogation. Joyce is staying at a motel at the edge of town and we need to get there before the cops. Mark, Swede, you’re with me.”

“No, I need to come too,” Aaron ground out. “This is my fault.”

“You’re supposed to be staying out of trouble,” Montana said quietly. “Lana wouldn’t want you getting arrested because of her.”

Aaron scowled. “Either I come with you or I’ll hot-wire a car right in this parking lot.”

“You can’t hot-wire a car!” Swede rolled his eyes.

“Bet me.” Aaron didn’t back down.

“Fucking hell, I don’t care!” Mark yelled. “Let’s just go.”

Bear and the others stayed behind in case they didn’t find her or there was other news, but Mark wasn’t even paying attention as they piled into the SUV. His sole focus was on finding Lana. Hopefully, Joyce was less adept at torture and interrogation than she’d been at deceit and Molotov cocktails. He didn’t know what he would do if Lana was seriously hurt.

When they got to the motel, Aaron and Montana hung back, keeping watch as Swede and Mark knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” A woman’s voice called out.

“Pizza delivery!” Swede barked.

“I didn’t order anything. You have the wrong room.”

Mark and Swede exchanged a look and Swede pulled a 9mm handgun out of the back of his jeans as Mark took a step back and kicked in the door. Joyce screamed but Mark grabbed her, covering her mouth with his hand while Aaron and Montana shut the wobbly door behind them.

Aaron gave her a dour look, shaking his head. “You have 30 seconds, Joyce. Tell us where Lana is or I walk out of here and let these guys do whatever the fuck it’ll take for you to tell them. Me, I have a career to protect. These guys? They don’t report to anyone but themselves.”

Mark started to release her mouth but she screamed and he covered it again.

“We don’t have time for this shit,” Mark growled. “Shoot her, Swede.” He hoped his bluff would work because as worried as he was about Lana, he didn’t have it in him to kill an unarmed woman in a hotel room.

Swede sighed. “We have to do it quick?” he drawled. “I like makin’ them sweat it. Can’t we torture her first?”

“You can do anything you want to her after she tells me where Lana is,” Mark rumbled. Joyce was flailing but no match for him and he looked down at her in disdain. “You gonna scream?”

She shook her head vigorously so Mark released his hand. “It’s too late,” she spat. “Where I left her, she’s already frozen to death, or she will by the time you get there.”

“Where. Is. She.” Mark lifted her by the throat, holding her up as her feet kicked just above the ground.

“Lana’s his girlfriend,” Aaron said with a mild shrug. “Not mine. You fucked up big time, J.”

“I hate you!” she choked out.

“We’ve got about two minutes until the cops get here,” Montana murmured. “Get the info or finish her.” Hopefully, he was bluffing too.

Swede raised the gun.

“No! Wait.” Her eyes were bugging out of her head and Mark slowly put her on her feet again. “I can show you where she is. I don’t have an address.”

“Then let’s get going.” Mark nudged her towards the door. “And I swear to god, if you’re jerking me off, I’ll take you apart piece by piece until you tell me what I want to know. If you hurt a hair on her head, you’re done.”

“If she’s dead,” Joyce said defiantly, lifting her chin a notch, “it’s Aaron’s fault. He made me think she was his girlfriend!”

“J, I’ve never hit a woman, but I’m sorely tempted right now.” Aaron glared at her.

Montana produced handcuffs and put them around her wrists. “All right, let’s go. The cops are on the way.”

They got back in his SUV and Joyce directed them to the highway. Swede and Aaron sat in the back with her, while Mark sat up front with Montana. Joyce mumbled directions and they drove for 30 minutes until they were in the middle of nowhere, but not overly far from Eagle Rock.

“I don’t remember exactly where I left her but there was a pull-off on the side of the road.”

Montana slowed down as they searched for a familiar landmark. It was snowing heavily and Mark’s heart sank as he took in the steep, snowy mountainside.

“There.” Joyce pointed. “That’s where we pulled over.”

They stopped and got out of the SUV.

“Well?” Mark looked at her.

Joyce’s cheek twitched nervously.

“Where the fuck did you take her?!” he yelled.

Joyce bit her lip. “We just, um, pushed her.”

“Pushed her?” Mark’s eyes darkened and his fists clenched at his sides.

“We pushed her over the edge, okay?” she huffed. “But I mean, she didn’t roll that far. I figured she’d wake up and walk back up to the road.”

“Walk up to the…” Mark was so mad he couldn’t continue, he just turned and stared down into the snowy abyss. Dear god, had this woman literally pushed Lana down the side of a mountain and just driven away like it was nothing?

“What do you mean ‘wake up’?” Aaron sounded pissed.

“We, um, you know…” Joyce faltered as Aaron moved on her.

“God dammit, J, spit it out.” He looked as angry as Mark, and Joyce took a step back.

“Look, we knocked her out so she wouldn’t try to jump out of the car and then we just pushed her over the side. She didn’t roll that far so we drove away. She was maybe ten feet down. The guy that was with me asked me if he should push her further but I told him no, and we left. I swear, she wasn’t far from the road.”

“I’m going down,” Mark said, pulling a knit cap out of his coat pocket.

“Okay, hang on,” Swede put a hand on his shoulder. “We need back-up and—”

“You call whomever you need to call,” Mark shrugged off his hand. “I’m going after her. She’s from Manhattan, doesn’t know anything about mountaineering or hiking, and she wasn’t wearing…” His voice trailed off as he gazed at Joyce. “She wasn’t wearing a coat, was she?”

Joyce paled in the rapidly fading light and slowly shook her head. “N-no.”

“Just wait a second!” Montana yelled as Mark headed for the ledge. “Give me a minute and I’ll go with you—”

“No, this is on me,” Aaron said. “I should go.”

“You’ve got a broken hand,” Mark protested. “You’ll be a liability.”

“I’m going,” Swede said. “Montana messed up his leg a while back and this isn’t the time to test out his progress. You got any of those hand warmers in the glove box?”

Montana nodded, pulling rope, a blanket, a flashlight, the hand warmers and a small first aid kit out of the SUV. “I’m calling the authorities and the rest of the guys,” he said as he handed them over. “If she’s been out here without a coat for this long, we don’t know how bad it’s going to be.”

“Let’s go.” Mark headed down over the barrier and into the snow.

“Be careful,” Montana warned his brother-in-law. “He’s tough but he doesn’t know the terrain.”

“I got this.” Swede disappeared over the side.