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He laughed and it sounded as deranged and crazy as he looked "You don’t get to give orders I give the orders Get in the fking car, Poppy"

"Listen, the police are already looking for you You just fired a gun in a crowdeddo you think you have before you’re surrounded by cops? If you want etting out of the way until you do You’ll have to shoot ood Not at all I went to tell Poppy to run, toin that car with a et the chance Oliver went back the driver’s door of his car and tossed the gun in the direction of the backseat If Poppy did get in the car like she seeet to the weapon before he could

"Now get in" Apparently his desire to have hed his desire to threaten and harain An obedient wife listens to her husband"

"Don’t do this, Poppy" I was pleading with her in desperation

She looked at me over her shoulder "Get in the car and call the police"

"He’s going to hurt you--kill you You can’t go with him"

"I have to You’ll save er door of the sedan and slid inside Oliver looked at un He pretended to shoot ht in the head just as the faint sounds of sirens could be heard He slipped inside of the car and raced off with er

I dove for my cell phone and called 911, Royal, Rowdy, my parents, and Sayer in that order The police were already on their way, and before I screamed at Rowdy that I needed hiether, I was surrounded by detectives and patrol officers They were all asking me a million questions

What color was the car?

Did I see the license plate?

What was he wearing?

What was Poppy wearing?

Did I knohat kind of gun it was?

Did I think he was going to hurt Poppy--or himself?

Where would he take her?

The questions were endless and I couldn’t answer most of them coherently I felt like I was numb I felt like I had walked into a bad shoot-’ely obvious way How did I not know better? I was crying silent tears I was shaking so hardspoken to me were just white noise over the roar ofof round and rock I wanted to get inoff in a randoically find Oliver and my sister if I did that I wanted to throttle Oliver, kick my dad, and shake my mom within an inch of her life

I heard ht of Rowdy’s tall fra of law enforce to me As soon as his arms closed around me I shattered into a million pieces I collapsed and let hieance on everyone I had never had anyone I cared about taken from me before Sure, I had left, walked away because I felt like I had to, but having someone I loved ripped fro It gave me an entirely new appreciation for those wounds Rowdy had suffered with his entire life I curled my arms around his waist and swore to God, the universe, and whoever else happened to be listening to ain

I felt hiot you" He did He absolutely did and I had hiot you, too"

Noe just had to stay strong and hold on to one another while Denver’s finest went after the lunatic that had kidnapped my little sister

CHAPTER 19

Rowdy

IT WAS A MISERABLE NIGHT The police weren’t being very helpful, and if it wasn’t for Royal showing up and being the unofficial liaison between Sale the case, I felt like there was a pretty good chance irl would have ended up in lockup herself

She was understandably frantic, but more than that, she was furious She was h I kept telling her it wouldn’t have un and he was deterardless if I had been with them or not, a bullet was a bullet and chances are he would have seen et me out of the way I should’ve kept quiet because that justThe idea of a crazed gun it off anywhere near her made me want to hurt everyone