Page 139 of The Cowboy's Unshakeable Love

There was no way she was going to let stupid Jamie Hoffman take all of that away from her. She let her hands fall back into her lap. She had to keep going. She turned her back to the road and used her arms to pull herself in that direction – dragging her legs behind her. It would be slow going, but she was moving in the right direction.

Half an hour later, she hadn’t made much progress; she could still see the spot where she’d been sitting when she started. She sat perfectly still and listened when she thought she heard a vehicle.

The sound got closer, and her heart started to pound. She struggled to get to her feet and yelled as loudly as she could. A black pickup truck appeared through the trees, she screamed and waved, but it rolled on by.

When it was gone, she let herself fall back down to the ground and cried. They’d been so close. They could’ve found her, taken her home to Travis.

She wiped her eyes and gritted her teeth. She’d learned a long time ago – and she’d reminded the girls on her squad often enough after they lost in competition – there was no point in dwelling on what might have been. You just had to regroup and keep pushing forward.

~ ~ ~

When they reached the end of the driveway, Trip looked over at Travis. “Which way do you want to go?”

Travis looked up toward town and then down toward the park. “If she was coming from town, following Marty toward the park and she stopped here, would she keep going in the same direction she was traveling, or turn back?”

Trip stared at him. He knew that Travis wasn’t asking for an answer. He was thinking out loud – sharing his process so that Trip could chime in if he came up with anything. They’d done it when they were kids in grade school, when Trip was helping him with homework. They’d done it in the sandbox when they were on a mission gone wrong. Travis had spoken his every move to Trip as he carried him over his shoulder – not even sure if his friend was conscious.

He looked down toward the park. “I reckon she’d keep going – she’s obsessed with Marty; she wouldn’t deliberately double back away from him.”

Trip pulled out onto East River Road, going slowly enough that they could keep an eye on any turnoffs.

Travis knew the entrance to every property on this stretch of the road. He couldn’t think of anywhere that would look like a good option to get off the main road and disappear into the mountains – and he was thinking that was exactly what Jamie would try to do.

“The lake!” He looked over at Trip. “The turnoff for the lake’s coming up – she might have taken that road.”

“Let’s try it.”

Travis jumped when his phone rang. “Talk to me, Ty.”

“Nothing. All the cabins are empty,” said Ty.

“We’re going to search the whole property,” Ace called. “We’ll keep you posted.”

Travis ended the call, he wasn’t surprised.

Trip turned off the highway onto the gravel road that led up to the lake. He pointed ahead. “Looks like Tanner and Zeke had the same idea.”

Travis nodded. The road led across wide open fields before it reached the lake, and he could see Tanner’s truck maybe a mile ahead of them.

“Do you want to follow them?” Trip asked. “Or should we go back and explore a different option?”

Travis pursed his lips, trying to picture what other turnoffs Jamie would have passed before East River Road rejoined the highway farther to the south.

“Turn around!”

“Where are we going?”

“The old Ziller ranch. The entrance to that place looks abandoned – it looks like exactly the kind of place you’d go if you didn’t want anyone to see you.”

Trip stopped the truck and made a U-turn. Just as they reached the road, Travis’s phone rang again.

“You were right to turn around,” Zeke told him when he answered. “There’s no tree cover out here, nothing. You can see for miles – and I don’t see anything. We’re going to head back that way.”

“Okay. Tell Tanner that we’re going to check out the old Ziller ranch.”

“You want us to follow you?”

“I’ll let you know when we get there.”

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