Chace sucked in breath through his nose but the burn it brought seared through every inch of him.

“She delivered me,” he whispered.

“I know that, Chace,” Deck whispered back.

“She’s better than a dream.”

“I know it, brother.”

“She’s gotta be terrified.”

“No she isn’t. She’s Faye and she’s waitin’ for you.”

That cut through because, his Faye and her backbone, that was undeniably true.

Chace sucked in another breath and his phone went again.

He engaged it and put it to his ear.

“Keaton.”

“Chace, Max,” Max replied. “Jeff just arrested George but I got to him first. He admitted he fiddled the figures on his taxes. Fuller found out because George’s accountant was on his payroll. Not enough to make him an ugly target, just enough for him to pay the toll and tow the line. Since Fuller fell, George hasn’t heard shit. He thought it all died and was shocked as shit when Nina got up in his face. This shit tonight has flipped him out. He has no idea what’s going on and he had no idea there were others until it was all over. He’s not in with this group, Chace. He was small time. Just a toy for Fuller.”

Dead end.

“Right,” he muttered.

“I’m on my way to Carnal. You got somethin’ you need me to do?”

“Go home to your family. You wake Nina, tell her tomorrow she may be gettin’ a call from me, this gets ugly.”

“I’m an extra pair of hands, Chace,” Max told him quietly and Chace pulled in another breath.

“Then call Wood or Tate. They may be workin’ something I don’t know about.”

“Right. Done,” he muttered then he said, “Keep it together. Shit happens but more often than not, it tends to have a happy ending.”

The damsel was in distress waiting for her happily ever after.

Fuck.

“Thanks, Max,” he muttered.

“Later.”

He heard the disconnect, pressed the button on his phone and drove.

* * * * *

Bubba rolled his truck off to the side but before he did that and Chace followed, Chace saw it.

Two cars in the ditch. By their positions, one had forced the other off the road.

He stopped, put his SUV in park and cut the ignition.

Deck was already out, Deke and Bubba out in front of him.

Chace jogged beyond Bubba’s truck, rounded it and came to a rocking halt as a figure formed from the shadows.

Samuel Sterling. Self-made, African American multi-millionaire. Friend of Ty. Good man.

But not a local unless Aspen was considered local.

Fucking hell.

“What the f**k?” he asked, Sterling stopped four feet away and put his hands up.

“Ty knew I was in the area. He received some information. He gave me a call.”

He wasn’t in the area. The minute Ty heard Faye was in danger, he decided all hands on deck, he’d made a call and Sterling moved out.

There were unmistakable noises in the distance and Chace looked beyond him into the dark, seeing nothing.

“It’s my understanding you’re an officer of the law,” Sterling noted and Chace’s eyes cut to him.

“You got someone out there?” he asked.

“I recommend you allow me and my colleague to handle this,” Sterling returned.

“You got someone out there?” Chace repeated.

“We acquire the information you need,” Sterling said low, “and I assure you, we will acquire the information you need, you find your woman, she’ll need you clean and free.”

Chace moved toward him, starting, “I will not stand here –”

Sterling put a hand in his chest. Chace stopped, dropped his eyes to the hand in his chest then sliced them to Sterling’s face.

“For your woman, you will,” he whispered.

Fuck.

Fuck.

He would. He’d already swung his and Deck’s ass out there tonight.

He had to let this be.

Fuck.

Sterling looked in his eyes. Then he dropped his hand, turned and disappeared into the darkness.

Deck, Bubba and Deke closed ranks.

The noises came from the distance.

Chace’s hands balled into fists.

Deck looked at his watch then shouted, “As of now you got one hour and fifty-three minutes and we’re forty-five outta Carnal! Get the lead out!”

He’d memorized the time of the text too.

Chace’s phone rang. He engaged it and put it to his ear.

“Keaton.”

“Chace, Wood.” He heard. “Dewey got some names. Coupla guys who do dirty work for members of this Elite. Ty and Twyla are with me, we’re on one. Gave the info of the other to Tate who’s connecting with Max and they’re on the other. Ty’s texting you names and specifics now. You on the lead Krys and the gang got?”

“Sterling is,” Chace said into the phone.

“Good. I’ll tell Ty that connection worked. We’ll keep in touch.”

Then he was gone.

“Brief,” Deck grunted when Chace beeped his phone.

Chace gave the short brief.

Then the men stood in the night and listened to the remote sounds.

Chace looked to his watch.

One hour forty-eight minutes.

“Fuck,” he whispered, every inch of his body buzzing, everything that was him urging him to sprint into the distance and take care of business and he was using everything he had to stand where he was.

“Keep it together, brother,” Deck whispered back.

“Fuck,” Chace repeated.

“Ice, Chace,” Deck muttered.

Chace’s phone rang and he took the call.

“Keaton.”

“Chace Keaton?” a woman asked in his ear and his body jolted at the unexpected and unknown voice.

“Yes.”

“Right, this is Ally Nightingale. You know me as Serenity.”

Instantly, Chace turned on his boot and started jogging to his truck.

“Chace, what the f**k?” Deck called.

“Talk,” Chace growled into the phone.

“She’s buried in your backyard.”

Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.

His backyard. His f**king backyard.

The woman kept talking. “She’s beyond your fence. Mid-line, seventy-five yards out. The ground will be disturbed. I got the stuff they were looking for and I handed it over to their contact two minutes ago. They gave me the details. I’m an hour out. I hope you’re closer.”

Chace angled into his truck already aiming the keys to the ignition.

“I’m forty-five minutes out,” he told her deciding he was actually thirty.

“Righteous,” she whispered. “She’ll have an hour.”

Deck angled in beside him as Chace threw the SUV in reverse, his door still open, Bubba and Deke jumping into the truck in front of him.

“See you there,” she told him.

“See you there,” Chace replied then threw his phone on the console without disconnecting.

When he shifted to drive, the forward motion of the truck slammed his door. Once he’d executed the turn, his cell careening, Deck’s hand darting out to tag it, he put the pedal to the floor.

“She’s in my backyard,” he told Deck.

Deck’s phone started beeping. He was making the calls.

Chace drove.

* * * * *

Faye

I didn’t know how much time I had.

And I didn’t want to lose my shot.

I thought about Dad and Mom.

But when I turned on the phone, the display said low battery and my thumb automatically hit Chace’s numbers.

I put it to my ear and after one ring heard, “Keaton.”

God, I loved his voice.

I’d made the right choice. If I died here, the last thing I’d hear was his beautiful voice.

I took the tank from my face and whispered, “Hey honey,” then put it back.

“Jesus, f**k, Faye, baby,” he whispered back. “You okay?”

I took the tank away and told him, “The phone they left me to say good-bye only has a minute –”

“I know where you are, darlin’. I’m on my way. Everyone’s on their way. You got time. Be there soon.”

I took the tank away and told him, “The tank’s almost out.”

“What?”

“I’m in the red zone.”

“You got over an hour.”

“I’m in the red zone.”

“Faye, someone will be there soon.”

“Okay.”

“Soon.”

“I love you Chace.”

“Soon, Faye.”

“Okay, I love you.”

“I love you too, now someone will be there –”

The phone died.

I put the tank back and breathed.

I waited.

And I breathed.

I waited more as I breathed.

I did this until there was nothing left in the tank to breathe.

My mouth pulled in nothing.

My eyes fluttered closed.

Ella Mae sang in my ear.

* * * * *

“Just f**king dig!” I heard shouted in my dream.

My eyes fluttered, my mouth sucked in breath.

It got nothing.

Scraping.

Thumping.

My eyes closed.

Banging.

Loud, loud banging.

Wood splintering.

Air rushed in and, my body moving without me telling to do it, I shifted toward the weak breeze, sucking it in.

More banging, scraping, the sounds of something beating through wood, the piercing, scratching noise of someone tearing it away. I felt dirt shower on me, wood falling on me, air streaming in and I sucked at it, taking dirt in with it and choking.

Then I heard a loud thump and Chace’s, “Fuck me, Jesus, f**k, f**k me.”

A loud crack of a sheet of wood breaking then hands under my armpits and I was pulled out.

Out.

Air.

Clean air.

A lot of it.

No dirt.

I sucked it in.

“Give her to me,” I heard rumbled and I was jostled, in different arms, my eyes opening and closing, my mouth sucking in air. “I got her. Give him a hand,” the same voice ordered.

I was shifted then jostled and new arms closed around me, familiar arms, and then I was down, my ass in Chace’s lap, his arm tight around me, his legs cocked, cocooning me, his other hand shifting my hair away from my face.

“You breathing, baby? Faye, you breathing, baby?”

I looked into his face and saw the bad kind of raw.

So I gave him what he needed to take it away.

“Yeah.”

Before I could watch it melt away, he shoved my face in his neck, his voice thick and hoarse when he muttered, “Fuck me, f**k me, f**k me.”

I looked over his shoulder and saw Ty, Tate, Wood, Deke, Twyla, Bubba, Deck and Nina Maxwell’s husband dirty, filthy, mud caked up their arms, on their chests.