Page 22 of The Heat of Intensity

Watching myself on the screen of the laptop while Cosima is sucking me off would be fucking awesome if she wasn’t missing. Now, though? I bat Rourke’s hand away to speed shit up and let the feed continue from the moment I step away to enter the kitchen.

We all watch how Cosima talks to me until I tell her I can manage without her help. Murphy appears from an angle that’s a blind spot for Cosima due to the loss of sight in her right eye.

The fucker has a syringe and stabs her with it. He kept her immobile until whatever he gave her tainted her blood, making her sag into herself. Cosima was unconscious as he threw her over his shoulder and dragged her off in the direction of the stable. Rourke tries to get another angle, but it’s as if the fucker disappeared into nothing.

“How the hell is that possible?” I snarl. “Why wasn’t the alarm triggered? How did he sneak past our defenses? And where the fuck did he take her ’cause we don’t see him walking off in any direction. He can’t have gone into the stables. You checked, right?”

“Yeah,” Walker states. “I just came from there and double-checked every stable. She’s not there. Besides, I was working in the stable when you asked me to keep an eye on her, remember? That’s why the alarm was off, we were all there walking around.”

Frustration, fear, and despair hit me as I try to make sense of this shit. “Was he working with the fucker who dumped the body in front of the ranch?”

Without another word, I whirl around and run out the door and I hear Rourke bellow, “I’m gonna call Decker to ask if they’ve seen something coming their way. Maybe that fucker has somehow gotten onto our land through the pasture or by truck, who knows. The fucker can’t simply disappear into thin air.”

I don’t reply but keep running. Kathleen is talking to someone on the phone. Her whole face is red from anger and she snarls something to the person on the other side of the line before she ends the call.

“Everything okay?” I question, not wanting to have a discussion since I have more fucking pressing matters at hand.

“No,” Kathleen growls but instantly readjusts her voice when she asks, “Did you find Cosima yet?”

“We have a visual of Murphy taking Cosima. He injected her with something and she quickly fell unconscious. We tried to see if we could get a different angle that gives a visual of the side of the stables, but so far nothing. It’s like they disappear into thin air.”

Kathleen jabs the screen of her phone. “I’m letting my deputy know so he can send out an alert. Did you check the side of the stables?”

“No. Walker did check the stables, and he was there when Cosima was taken. He didn’t hear or see anything.” I glance in the direction of the house. “I’ll double-check myself. What the fuck are we going to do?”

“Stay calm and find her,” Kathleen firmly replies.

I give her a tight nod and hope to fuck she’s right as I jog off to walk around the house in the direction of the stables. There’s nothing other than the wall of the house, the stables, pastures, fence, nothing out of the ordinary. Whipping my head left and right I come up empty as I search for any tracks or clues.

From the corner of my eye, I notice movement and direct my gaze toward Wrench.

Luke jogs my way. “Kathleen told me to let Wrench sniff things out, but he’s a cadaver dog, not a search and rescue. She called her father; he should be on his way with Sadie’s dog.”

I nod. It completely slipped my mind that Sadie is a search and rescue dog handler. She left the country two days ago with one of her dogs to help with finding survivors after an earthquake.

I jerk my chin in Wrench’s direction. “Is he on to something or what?”

Wrench has his nose to the ground and is walking in a straight line, heading in the direction of the Iron Hot Blood ranch. Luke and I both follow at a small distance to give Wrench the room he needs to do his thing.

My fingers curl into fists. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this useless in all my damn life. Fucking hell, I told her I’d protect her. How nothing will ever hurt her again, the way she suffered through the trauma of being assaulted a few months ago.

It took weeks for her to heal and then she finally regained half her sight back and only lasted barely two weeks of getting back to her full routine, and now this. Motherfucker, life can’t kick a woman harder in the guts than this shit right here.

For a moment my mind wanders off to the fact that I saw her slipping into oblivion. She’s not conscious and I hope to fuck Murphy keeps his damn hands off her. Anger unlike anything I’ve ever felt flows through my veins and I pick up my pace to keep up with Wrench.

The dog takes a hard left and picks up speed. He’s heading straight to a small pond located at the far end of our property. It’s a remote space where Wrench climbs on top of a large boulder and jumps off to start barking on the other side of it.

“Goddamn it,” I grumble and jog around the thing.

Luke is right behind me when I come to a stop. I stare at Wrench, the dog must have lost his fucking mind because there’s nothing here. The ground surrounding us is also untouched.

I fish my phone out of my pocket and hit Kathleen’s number. “Your dog has lost his mind.”

It’s useless to let her know because I’m fairly sure she can hear him barking through the connection.

“Is he standing, sitting, or lying down?” Kathleen asks.

“Lying down,” I reply.

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