Page 76 of Protected By the Mountain Man

I stared at the documents, lines and words swimming before my eyes. Unfinished paperwork, signatures missing, deals left hanging in the air…

Shit.

“So it was the developer, right?” I asked. “He hired these guys to kill Ben and…”

Chris shook his head. “Jones has an alibi and the guys have never seen him. Maybe they’re covering for him, but I doubt it.”

“Then who?” Dad's voice was sharp with concern.

Chris hesitated, then dropped the bomb. “Multiple sightings in town. Kat's cousin, Owen, seen with Nia George. And guess what? The description the home invaders gave? Matches perfectly.”

“Owen,” I echoed, my thoughts racing like a wild river breaking its banks. He’d always been a troublemaker, yeah…and he’d always wanted to screw Ben over. Every time Ben and I had fought, it had been instigated by Owen.

Owen, who was always salty that he hadn’t inherited that ranch.

“Yep.” Chris spread his hands on the table, a grim look in his eyes. “Nia’s been around, stirring the pot. And if these guys are talking, it's because they're scared of something bigger than jail time.”

“Damn.” Dad ran a hand over his beard, eyes narrowing. “Owen and Nia, huh?”

“Looks that way.” Chris said it plain and simple, but his voice had an edge sharper than any knife. “The sheriff is headed over to Owen’s place now, and he has another squad on their way to track down Nia. Heard you were over here so I swung by on my way to the ranch.”

“Kat needs to know.” The words burst from me before I could think them through. “We've gotta tell her. Now.”

“Agreed.” Chris stood up so fast his chair scraped loudly against the floor.

I grabbed my coat and hustled out the door, Chris hot on my heels. We bolted to his squad car, tires crunching over the frostbitten gravel. As Chris turned on his emergency lights, I hit Kat's number on speed dial, the phone pressed so hard to my ear it might've left a mark.

Ring after ring, but no answer.

“Come on, Kat,” I muttered, redialing the moment it went to voicemail. No luck. She wasn't picking up.

Fumbling with my phone, I pulled up the security app only to find static where there should've been a live feed. “Cameras are down,” I said, a sinking feeling in my gut. Jesus…Owen had been there the day I installed the cameras. This was bad, bad, bad… “Nothing's working.”

“Damn,” Chris cursed under his breath. He gestured toward a lockbox under the dash. “This is…very much against protocol, but the code is 7511; you need to be armed, just in case.”

I looked over at him, knowing that meant he suspected the worst.

If she was hurt…I would burn down the world to destroy anyone who’d harmed her.

The two of us armed, we skidded into the Martin Ranch driveway, the squad car's tires spitting up snow. I leapt out before we'd fully stopped, boots slipping on the ice. There was Kat's car, hatch gaping like an open wound, no sign of her or Livy. The front door to the house hung loose on its hinges, swinging lazily in the biting wind.

“Kat!” I yelled, voice swallowed by the vastness of the ranch. No response. “Livy!”

“Check around back,” Chris barked, already heading for the side of the house.

“Right.” My heart hammered against my ribs, each beat echoing fear.

Fear for Kat. For Livy.

We cleared the house room by room, finding nothing but the cold silence of absence. No Kat. No Livy. Just emptiness and the lingering scent of fear that seemed to permeate every corner.

“Outside,” I said once we came up empty. “She has to be here somewhere.”

“Let's move.” Chris's voice was grim, and we headed back into the winter air.

Just as we got back outside, a bark shattered the stillness, frantic and insistent. Bandit. I bolted towards the sound, Chris on my heels, our boots crunching in the snow.

“Where are you, boy?” I called out, breath clouding before me.

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