Page 76 of Montana Heat

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jensen

I paced to the window in the office at Resting Warrior Ranch and ignored the throbbing in my head.

But damn, it hurt like a fucking bitch.

It didn’t fade as I turned back and strode to Jude’s desk on the other side of the room. Back and forth. Over and over. I couldn’t stop thinking about Kenzie. She had to be terrified. Was she hurt?

Worse?

I couldn’t even allow myself to think about that.

I pivoted too quickly and almost lost my balance. Once my head quit spinning, I started my steps again. Back and forth. There was no goddamned way I could stand still. I needed to move and burn off energy, too full of pent-up anger.

“Jensen?” Lucas asked from behind Daniel’s desk, where he was staring at the computer screen. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital and at least have them check for a concussion?”

I grunted, debating if I should even answer him. My reply would remain the same.No.

When I’d woken up at the cabin, I’d found my head a bloody mess and Kenzie gone. My heart had almost stopped as I fearedthe worst, but she hadn’t been dead. I’d clung to enough clarity in my mind to call Lucas.

Lucas and Harlan had been in town and raced to the cabin immediately. While Lucas was helping me, Harlan did a quick search, confirming what I already knew. Kenzie was gone.

With effort, they both got me into the truck and drove back to the ranch to rally the others while Harlan filled in Charlie on the phone. He was currently off following up on a lead from the highway patrol, but he said he’d check in with us soon.

“Jensen?” Liam repeated, his tone even, when I didn’t answer Lucas.

They were handling me. Managing me. I was a liability, and everyone in here knew it.

“No. There is no way in hell I’m wasting time worrying about myself.” I rolled my eyes, regretting it immediately as pain pierced my skull, and started pacing again. “We need to focus on finding Kenzie.”

Because of the attack at my cabin and Kenzie’s kidnapping, it was now all hands on deck. A couple of the Resting Warrior guys were out of town, but everyone else was searching and calling in every favor they could to try to find her.

They’d found nothing but me at the cabin, and I hadn’t seen much except a guy in a mask and a baseball bat swinging at my head. It was lucky I’d managed to get my arm up to partially deflect the blow or I’d probably be dead now.

Harlan had searched the cabin inside and out. He’d managed to find two sets of footprints in the snow but not much else.

Tracks from another car were there, but they didn’t help much either. I couldn’t even confirm a timeline; I had no idea how long I’d been unconscious. We had nothing to go on, but my friends were all determined to work on this from as many angles as we could.

Liam watched the security camera footage from nearly everyshop in town that had one, hoping we’d get lucky and capture an image of the vehicle that had taken Kenzie from the cabin.

Harlan was checking back through the hotel employee list. I knew I should have looked too, but with the pounding in my head, I was afraid I’d be sick if I tried. I’d only seen my attacker for a few quick seconds, and he’d had a mask covering his face. I recalled the man was tall and thin, but without being able to see his face, I knew there was no way I could match him to anyone in the records.

We’d gotten slightly luckier with the second man, a bald, stockier guy, whose image had been captured on an old camera I’d set up near the back of my cabin to catch still images of wildlife that came by. The image was blurry, but at least it was something.

Jude had contacted every computer specialist he knew to see if we could get the image cleaned up and obtain info on the man. Since he’d been outside alone, he hadn’t put on his mask yet, so we might get lucky with his ID.

Jude slammed his hand down on the desk. I winced as we all turned toward him. “Finally caught a break. Got an ID on the bald guy. It’s Mark Cruz.”

Lucas scoffed, shaking his head. “Now, why am I not at all surprised by that?”

I turned toward him, hating how fast I moved my head. It hadn’t been just my head that had taken a hit. My neck was sore too, likely from the angle I’d fallen and passed out. I wouldn’t complain, though. I couldn’t, not when I feared Kenzie suffering a far worse fate.

“Who is Mark Cruz?”

“A lowlife we’ve had a run-in with before,” Lucas summed up.

Harlan nodded. “He’s got a brother who’s done time for assault. He’s the worse of the two, but apparently Mark’s making a name for himself as a criminal too.”

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