Page 198 of Burn the Wild

The last thing I hear before I fade out is the crackle of the two-way radio.

Davis, Charlie, and the girls meet us on the porch.

I stalk toward them. “Where is Reese?”

The look of fear on Dakota’s face stops me in my tracks. “She went out.”

“Alone?”

Ruby looks near tears.

Fallon swears violently. “We should have gone with her.”

Charlie squeezes my arm. “Easy, brother.”

“How long has it been?” Davis asks.

“At least thirty minutes. She thought she heard Mouse,” Dakota says. “She went down the deck to the—”

I shake off Charlie and rush around to the side of the house. The rain whips my face, the sky still dim but casting enough light that I can see. I yell her name. Nothing.

Pure panic swarms me. I’m on the brink of a fucking heart attack. My girl snatched out of thin air. Gone. She’s just fucking gone.

That coward took her.

My brothers are right behind me, fanning out across the lawn. I duck beneath the deck. Rainwater has soaked everything. My gaze catches on something gold glinting in the shadows.

I kneel and nudge away the long grass with my fingers.

I nearly stop breathing.

Reese’s necklace. It lies on the ground, torn from her throat.

“No,” I choke out, curling my fingers around the thin gold chain.

I squeeze my eyes shut.Be wrong, I beg the universe.Please be wrong.

Davis is by my side in a flash. He crouches down, evaluating the scene. “Brother, I need you to stay calm.”

Calm. Calm is a word for a sane man. Because that’s sure as fuck what I’m not right now.

Davis hauls me to my feet, jerking me out of my daze, and then my boots hit the ground. I’m running across the ranch, splashing through mud and rain.

“Reese!”

Hard boot stomps behind me. The quick breaths of my brothers.

“Ford. Ford.”

But I don’t stop. I don’t listen. I’m off the deep end and nothing or no one can call me back until I find her.

All I see is Reese. Her beautiful face pulses in my mind like a heartbeat.

Those big emerald eyes. That fierce mouth. Her loyal heart. Her telling me I mattered, that she loved me.

I didn’t promise I would keep her safe only to fail her now.

I haul open the door to the chicken coop. She’s not in there. She’s not in my apartment or the garage either.

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