Page 124 of The Cowboy’s Intriguing Love

“She hasn’t arrived to pick the kids up from school.”

Ty was already dialing her number.

“She’s not answering,” said Wade. “The school called Sierra. Sierra tried her and got no answer, so she called me. I told Sierra to keep trying and I couldn’t get through to you so …”

Ty barely registered what his brother was saying. He was listening to Shayna’s message.

“This is Shay – leave me a message!”

“Where are you, Shay? Call me back as soon as you get this, sweetheart.”

His heart was pounding, and his head was filled with the roar of white noise. She wasn’t going to call him back – he knew it.

He dug in his pocket for his keys and ran for his truck. Wade was right behind him and climbed into the passenger seat just in time before he took off.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to drive the route to school. Last time I talked to her she was on her way to get the kids. She left a while ago because she wanted to read while she waited for them. She should have been there early, not …” He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to.

Just as he was approaching the big house, he cursed when Kolby’s truck pulled out in front of him, forcing him to stop.

Kolby climbed out and came running. He pulled the driver’s door open and glared at Ty. “Get out. I’m driving.”

“Fuck that!”

“Get out, Ty. You know it makes sense. I’ll drive, you make the calls. Sierra called me, and she was going to get ahold of Ford and Tanner. You need to talk to Cash and her people at the lake.”

Ty blew out a big shaky breath. Then he jumped out and ran around to the passenger side that Wade had just vacated to go and move Kolby’s truck out of the way.

“I’ll follow you,” he called.

“You’d better go get the kids,” Kolby shouted. “Rocket and Spider are on their way, Ford and Tanner are … Right there …” He pointed when Ford’s truck came flying around the corner.

Just when Ty was about to explode with impatience, Kolby put his foot down, and Wade backed out of the way just in time as the truck surged forward.

“We’ll find her, bro. She’ll be fine. She’ll probably wonder what all the fuss is about when we all show up …”

Ty didn’t bother to answer. He knew in his gut that they weren’t going to find her at the side of the road with a flat tire and no signal. He closed his eyes and held his phone tight, silently begging her to prove him wrong.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Shayna could barely see through her tears as she trudged up the trail. Why hadn’t she trusted her instincts? She’d known something wasn’t right about that car.

She’d noticed it when she turned onto the road from the ranch. It’d been parked a little way past the entrance to the driveway and it pulled out to follow her. It looked like it might be an unmarked police car, so she’d watched her speed. She’d discovered on her errands that it was all too easy to go ten or more above the speed limit before she even noticed on the empty roads around the valley.

She’d kept an eye on the car the whole time. Police car or not, it was following a little too close for comfort. Her heart had sunk when she saw blue and red flashing lights appear. She’d thought it was weird that they ran along the top of the windshield on the inside, but then she had no clue what was normal for unmarked cars out here.

She slowed right down and pulled over at the next safe spot – which happened to be the entrance to a forest service road. She’d reached over to the glove box for the truck’s registration – Ford had shown her where it was kept along with the insurance card. By the time she had the registration and her driver’s license ready, she’d turned to find that her door was being pulled open. She had a moment of horrified understanding – the man who opened her door was no policeman, he was Carey Duncan – and then, everything went black. From the way her cheek and the side of her head were throbbing, she knew that he must have hit her.

When she came around, she’d been lying on the back seat of the truck, and he was driving up a bumpy road into the trees. When she struggled to sit up, he’d stopped the truck and turned to point a gun at her – a freaking gun!

She glanced over her shoulder – he was still pointing it at her now as he followed her up the trail that was taking them higher and higher, deeper into the trees that covered the foothills.

“Keep going, Shay. We’ll be there soon.”

She turned back around and stumbled on, hating the sound of his voice, the way he said her name.

She had to do something; she couldn’t just let him march her up into the forest and rape her, and probably kill her afterward. She had no idea how he’d found her, but she knew damn well that if she didn’t do something, there was no way Ty would be able to find her.

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