Page 80 of Dairy and Deadly

Over the next several minutes, he and Gage attempted to piece together who’d actually been behind the wheel of his truck.

“That’s all I know.” Tucker’s voice grew distraught. “Guess I just assumed it was you since Ashley was sitting in the center of the seat, and Caro was by the door. Figured y’all were heading to a restaurant or something.”

It sounded like he’d shared everything he knew. “Put Clint back on the line,” Johnny rasped.

“Sure thing, boss.” Tucker couldn’t have sounded more remorseful.

All the humor was gone from Clint’s voice. “Uh, so…your truck is still parked in the garage. I just ran over there and checked.”

Johnny’s chest grew cold. “Whoever did this made it look like it was me so you guys wouldn’t stop him.”

“Looks like. Man, Johnny,” his brother-in-law groaned. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

Johnny shot Gage an agonized look and switched over to the tracker feature on his phone. “I can’t locate a signal on Ashley’s phone.”

Gage lurched into motion. “I’ll have the sheriff put out an APB for a truck that looks identical to yours.”

“No need!” Clint’s voice broke excitedly across the line. “The truck in question just pulled into the driveway and—whoa!” He abruptly stopped speaking.

Johnny stood riveted as he heard the sound of gunfire. Though he shouted Clint’s name into the phone again and again, there was no answer.

He sprinted down the hallway.

“Johnny!” He heard Gage shout his name, but he didn’t look back. His supervisor knew what needed to be done, and there wasn’t a second to be wasted.

Ignoring a startled outburst from Fran Beecher, the sheriff’s office manager, he yanked open the front door and flew across the parking lot. He leaped inside his Jeep and started rolling forward before he finished shutting the door.

A scream of police sirens sounded behind him, but he ignored them.Chase me home.It was the best they could do for him right now.

“You shot him!”Ashley twisted around in the truck cab, trying to locate Clint Rhodes through the back window. There was no sign of him in the shadowy high grasses where he’d fallen.

“It’s okay. They’ll never trace the bullet back to me.” Martin gripped the steering wheel with both hands, kicking up a cloud of dust as he gunned the motor. They skidded ever closer to the dairy barn.

That’s not what I meant.Fearing her ex was losing his grasp on his senses, she sank deeper into the seat, feeling numb.We’re at the mercy of a mad man!She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing the nightmare she was trapped inside was one she could wake up from.

Caro’s fingers curled around hers, gripping them in the darkness, reminding her that she was not alone.

Martin slammed on the brakes, throwing all three of them forward against their seatbelts. Hard.

Ashley struggled to catch her breath, feeling bruised from the waist up.

“There!” Martin pointed angrily at his cell phone. He’d propped it against the dashboard so he could follow the tiny green flashing arrow on it. “The tracker I installed in the zip drive says it’s in the barn. Maybe one of your husband’s infernal cows swallowed it. If that’s the case, we’ll drop them one by one until we locate it.”

“Martin,” Ashley pleaded, unable to bear the thought of any harm coming to the innocent herd of cattle. “Don’t do this. I’m begging you!” She watched Caro from her peripheral vision, wondering if she’d fallen asleep or something. Despite how well-armed she was, she hadn’t so much as flinched when Martin had shot her boyfriend point blank.

“You aren’t leaving me with much choice,” he snarled, motioning for them to get out of the truck.

“We need to check on Clint.” As Ashley climbed to the ground, her knees started to shake. “He might be seriously hurt!”

“Keep moving.” Martin’s features were set in stony lines. “There’s no time.”

During their short trek to the barn, Caro stumbled into her. “He’s fine,” she hissed against her earlobe.

How?Ashley scrambled to make sense of her friend’s hasty assurance.What am I missing?She mentally replayed Martin reaching inside the flap of his shirt to withdraw a pistol —one of the two he’d confiscated from Caro. He’d shot her pistol, not his own, to ensure the bullet would be traced back to her instead of him, after which she was confident Clint remained unharmed. The only way she could possibly know he hadn’t been injured by the bullet was if…

The truth finally sank home. Caro’s pistol must have been loaded with blanks!The key to our survival is making sure he still believes he’s in charge,she’d said.

Is that what she was doing now? Merely giving their captor the appearance of being in charge, while slowly eroding his hold over them? Ashley fervently hoped that was the case. And if Clint was indeed still alive, he was now aware that she and Caro were in trouble. Serious trouble.

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