Page 129 of The Cowboy’s Intriguing Love

Ty pressed the balls of his hands to his forehead. “I shouldn’t have shouted for her. I should have kept quiet, but I just had to …”

Cash grasped his shoulder. “For all you know, shouting might have saved her. If he thought he had her all alone up here with no one coming after them …”

Ty shuddered. He couldn’t think about what might have happened – what might still be happening to her.

Kolby came over to join them. They’d set up a staging point where the trail split. Some of the guys had taken the left-hand fork. Cash had pointed out that Carey could have planted Shay’s necklace with the hope of sending them in the wrong direction.

Cash handed him the mug.

“Are we heading back out?” he asked Ty.

“Yeah.”

Cash’s radio crackled again. “Alma. We reached the tree line. On our way back down.”

Ty turned to go back up the right-hand trail. He didn’t want to be here when Alma returned. When she and Davin showed up, there was no mistaking that she was no longer in civilian mode. She was no longer Alexis, the woman he’d met in Summer Lake,she was Alma – the woman Cash and the guys had worked with on several ops over the years – and who’d earned their respect and admiration.

“Keep your radio on,” Cash called after them.

Kolby grasped his shoulder as they walked, shining the flashlight into the forest with his other hand. “Alma doesn’t blame you, you know.”

“I don’t care – I blame myself.”

“We’ll find her.”

Ty nodded. He had to believe that they would. He just couldn’t allow himself to think about what state she’d be in when they did.

~ ~ ~

Shayna leaned her head back against the tree and closed her eyes. She’d tried to get up and walk but had failed miserably. She’d fallen again – on her arm, since she couldn’t hold it out to protect herself.

She’d tried crawling, but that was next to impossible since she couldn’t put weight on her arm or her knee. She knew that she needed to get back down the mountain, so she’d resorted to lying on her side and rolling. It hurt like hell when she rolled over her arm, but she’d made a little progress. The trees were so close together that she had to reposition herself each time so that she could slowly make her way downhill. At the rate she was going, it’d take her days to get back to the road.

She’d panicked when she heard movement behind her a little while ago. It could be an animal looking for its next meal – werethere really wolves and bears in the mountains? Ty had told her that they lived around here, but he also made sure that she wasn’t out here by herself to encounter them.

She’d sat for a while, listening intently, but the sound hadn’t come again. That made her think it must be Carey – he was following her, stalking her. Worse still, was he using her as bait, wanting Ty to come and find her so that he could … No, she couldn’t let her mind go there.

She stared into the darkness. She didn’t know what time it was, but surely it must be nearly morning. The night seemed to have lasted forever. She was exhausted. She’d managed to sit herself up against this tree to rest for a while. She knew she needed to keep rolling her way downwards, and she would – after she rested for a while. She closed her eyes – it wasn’t as though she’d be able to sleep, she just needed to rest. It was so dark in the forest that closing her eyes didn’t make much difference. She felt her head nod and sank into the blackness that rushed up to meet her.

~ ~ ~

By the time dawn broke, Ty felt like he might go out of his mind. Yeah, he was tired, but he’d gone for days without sleep on deployments. Spending one night searching the forest was nothing – not physically. It was the pain that filled his chest that was eating him alive. He had to find her.

He could feel Kolby’s silent support propping him up as they made their way back down through the last stretch of trees – and he needed it. They were almost back to where Deacon was now manning the command post he’d set up where the trail split. They’d been all the way up to the tree line and back down againand seen no sign of Shay or Carey or anyone else. The only sign that they weren’t completely alone was the occasional report that came in over the radios that Cash had supplied them and everyone else with.

Each time his radio crackled, Ty held his breath. But each time he was disappointed by another report. It was as if Shay and Carey had disappeared. Not that that was hard to do out here.

Ty tensed when he saw Alma and Davin standing with Deacon. He stopped when she looked up and saw him. There was no mistaking the pain and anger in her expression as she strode toward him.

“I’m sorry. I …” Those were the only words he got out before she stunned him into silence by wrapping her arms around him.

“We’re going to find her, Ty,” she said as she hugged him fiercely. “We’re going to find her, and she’s going to be all right. That’s the only acceptable outcome.”

He closed his eyes and allowed himself to lean against her for a moment. When he straightened up, he felt as though some of her strength and determination had seeped into him. He nodded.

“I …”

“There’s no time and no need for blame or guilt. You’re not the only one who could have done things differently. I dropped the ball.” She gave him a tight smile. “I’ll beat myself up later – I don’t blame you. Are we clear?”

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