Page 25 of Holding the Line

Nick stepped forward.“Oh, I know exactly who I’m dealing with, I just don’t give a shit.And I’m telling you to leave.Now.Before I forget my manners and simply arrest your pompous ass.I don’t have a charge at the moment, but I would have one before we made it to the station.”

The Colonel hesitated, then jerked his head at his driver.They turned and left, silence heavy in their wake.

Eli was trembling.Marsh turned to him, voice gentler now.“Hey.You okay?”

Eli nodded once.“I ...yeah.Um ...yeah.”

But he wasn’t.And Marsh knew it.

Nick lingered on the sidewalk, watching the Colonel’s black SUV drive off with one final glare thrown over his shoulder through the glass.The tension hadn’t left Eli’s body, and Marsh could feel it radiating like a wire pulled taut.

“Just so you know,” Nick said quietly, his voice low but firm, “that son of a bitch tried to file a missing person’s report on Eli this morning.Even went so far as to suggest kidnapping.”

Eli’s breath caught.His grip on the cart tightened.

Marsh didn’t move.“He what?”

“Didn’t get far,” Nick added, shaking his head.“When I rang over to the Ridge, I got Blake and he told me in no uncertain terms that not only was Eli here on his own free will, but and I quote, “Eli is one of ours, which makes him one of yours, Nick Jones, so you shoot that prick in the face and be done with it,” before he hung up on me.”

Nick looked after the retreating vehicle.“Still.He talks like he’s doing the right thing, for all the right reasons, all polished and professional.But I’ve seen men like that.Hell, I was raised by one.It’s always in the little things—the way he spoke about Eli, the way he looked down his aristocratic nose at those of us in the station, and how he spoke to Eli just now, like he wasn’t even standing there, like he was a thing to possess.”

Marsh turned slightly, catching Eli’s profile—pale, jaw tight, eyes distant.

“He’s not done,” Nick said.“You know that, right?”

“Yeah,” Marsh said darkly.“I know.”

Eli gave a small nod, but Marsh could almost see it now—gears grinding, panic pulling at the edges of his calm.He was making plans.Backup routes.Exit strategies.

He was thinking about running.

No fucking way was Marsh about to let that happen.

Chapter Six

Eli sat stiffly inthe truck as Marsh pulled onto the winding road that led back toward Obsidian Ridge.The trees whipped past in a blur of late-summer green and gold, but Eli didn’t see them.His mind was already cataloging what he needed to do.