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Prologue

Cobi

“DO YOU KNOW HER, Mayson?”htly together in confusion over his blue eyes

I want to roar, “Yeah, I fucking know her She’sridiculous I don’t know anything about the wo besides the fact that her first name is Hadley, she sainst me, even if she is passed out

“She yours?”

“No,” I growl, htens

Getting closer, Frank drops his voice “Thenanytime one of them—” He jerks his thumb over his shoulder “—tries to touch her, and let them do their job”

I frown and look past hi unsure and nervous I don’t want to—as in really fucking don’t want to—let Hadley go, but I know I need to She has a cut on her forehead that hasn’t stopped bleeding, and bruising under her jaw I jerk up my chin, and one of the paramedics comes forward I must make a noise, because his head flies my hen he touches her and his eyes widen with fear when they meet mine

Fuck

My jaw clenches as I force myself to relax and release her, and I watch with my breath locked in my chest as she’s placed on a stretcher It takes every ounce of self-control I possess to not go after her, to not reach out and touch her again just to prove she’s real As they load her in the back of the ambulance, I wrap o with them to make sure she’s okay, but I can’t I have a crime scene that needs to be locked down and a dead body in the woods behindis, since I’ Hadley down, even if she’s released froet to her

“What the fuck was that about?” Frank questions froo on

I don’t look at hih ”

“You sure you don’t know her?”

“I don’t know her,” I et this shit sorted”

“Fuck” Frank looks around theabout “It’s going to be a long night I need to call the wife to let her knoon’t be home for a while”

“When you’re done with that, meet me at the body,” I say, and he jerks up his chin before walking off I grab a flashlight froet to work When I got the call fro she witnessed an unconscious wo dumped into the trunk of a car outside the local movie theater, I had no idea the unconscious woman was my cousin Harmony Not until her sister Willow called to say Harone during the

After Willow’s call, I had dispatch connect me to Hadley, as the one itnessedthe car, and I was close behind her—just not close enough After she informed me that the car turned off the road, I told her that she should keep driving, that the other officers and I were closing in and would be there, but she didn’t listen Instead, she hung up and kept following Fro with Hared to escape the trunk of the car she was in They both barely escaped death at the hands of a un at them in the middle of the woods

When I make it to the body, which is now covered in a white sheet, I know Frank was right It’s going to be a long fucking night Only, unlike him, I have no one to call to tell I won’t be home

Four and a half hours later, the cri with the coroner, and I catch a ride back to the station with Frank, where I pick upto the hospital When I arrive, I check in at the nurses’ station and ask about Hadley I find out she suffered a concussion and that the doctors are keeping her overnight just to be on the safe side

After being told she’s resting, I go check on athered around her I talk to my fa sure they’re good before I go to Hadley’s room It’s across the hospital, and when I reach her door, I walk straight in, expecting to see her faathered around her, but the room is empty except for the bed, where I can make out her form under the covers