Page 78 of Cruel Expectations

His eyes narrowed more. “You’re lucky you’re not floating in the swimming hole.”

Her bowels turned watery. For a pounding heartbeat, she battled more nausea.

That could be her floating in the family pond where they cooled off on hot summer days.

Then it struck her. Her daddy got them all into this mess with his gambling problem. It was all about money.

“You took me to get to my father.”

His lips twisted in some semblance of a sneer. “You’re finally catching on, little girl.”

“How much to let me go?”

He issued a rough laugh. “You can’t afford it.”

No matter how much she wanted to shift her gaze away from his, she held that ugly glare and forced him to see the strength inside her.

“Try me. I have money. Go get my purse. I’ll fix this right now.”

He eyed her, smart enough to realize she could be bluffing. She was too—she’d seen her father’s finances. He owed so much more than she had.

This guy didn’t know that, though. To him, she was a ranch princess. Pampered, affluent, rolling in hundred-dollar bills.

“Get me my purse,” she demanded again. “I dropped it back at the truck along with the food.”

Undecided, he scratched a blunt fingertip into the stubble on his weak jaw. Then he started to turn for the flight of stairs again.

Heart thundering with relief that her ploy worked—that she’d just bought herself a little time to figure out her next move—she watched him mount the stairs. Just before he reached for the door handle, she called out in her best sparkling princess voice, “And don’t scuff the Italian leather!”

Chapter Eighteen

Hunter’s fingers ached from gripping the console of the truck so hard. “Drive faster,” he grated out.

Colton didn’t remove his gaze from the road leading to Badlands. “I’ve got the pedal to the floor. We’ll get there.” He swung his gaze to Hunter. “We’ll find her.”

“How are you so calm? You let Meadow drive to the hospital alone!”

Colton slanted a look at him. “Marks is tailing her. I know she made it safe.”

Fuck. If they took her… His mind floundered with the thoughts spinning through his head ever since he heard those two words that changed him forever: Ivy’s gone.

His gut boiled with dread. His heart was cold, black ice, dead to anything until the minute the love of his life was back in his arms, safe and sound.

When a terrorist took a hostage, they didn’t fuck around. The damage they caused left the hostage forever broken. Would that happen to Ivy?

No. He would reach her before they stripped her will to live.

“Faster,” he ground out.

Colton found another level of speed. The truck shot like a bullet down the road between surrounding pastures. They careened around the final curve leading to the main street of town.

“God help any pedestrian who steps into the crosswalk.” Colton didn’t even touch the brake as he flew on toward Badlands.

As they closed the gap—fifty feet, twenty—Hunter’s heart blackened more. He wouldn’t just maim then kill the man who dared to touch his woman. He’d make him wish he was never, ever born.

Colton whipped into the parking lot. The truck hit the gravel and went into a skid, but he was adept enough to pull them out of it before they struck the building. Before the vehicle came to a complete stop, Hunter whipped open the door and leaped out.

Colton’s voice stayed him. “Stay here. Let me go in.”

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