Page 42 of Mad About Her Cowboys

She needed to trust them more. And she thought she was, then her mind swung a different direction. Doc Walker told her it was a pregnancy thing, that her hormones were messing with her emotions and sometimes adjusting her rationality levels, too. Franklin and Connor weren’t running out on her or their baby. They were in this whole-heartedly.

Shaking her head at herself, she looked around the apartment to see that she had everything. These days, going up and down the steps was tiring. She gathered the last of her things and scooped her phone off the couch and stuck it in her back pocket.

As expected, the stairs had been cleared and heavily salted, ready for her to take the short journey to her desk. What wasn’t expected was the man leering at her from the bottom of the stairs.

“What do you want?” she demanded.

“What do you think I want? I’ve been telling you for days.”

“No!” she screamed, backing up. Panicked, she tried to get away, but she was on the steps, with nowhere to go—not with as pregnant as she was. He was on her in an instant, his hand over her mouth while he dragged her away.

* * * *

“Something’s wrong.” Connor stared at Franklin, his face ashen. His stomach had suddenly hollowed out, a heavy panicked foreboding filling him. His limbs were cold as fear clenched over him. He tried to see what it was, to sense the reason for this impending doom.

Madison…

“What?” Franklin asked.

“It’s something with Mads. Something bad. I don’t know what. I… Just…”

Franklin momentarily froze before he sprang into action. Obviously, he had zero doubt Connor was right, that something was wrong.

“The baby?”

“I don’t know.” Connor had no clue what direction to go. “Let’s call Doc’s and check with her.”

“No,” Doc said, a few minutes later when he answered. “I just got here, and she wasn’t in the office yet. I was about to go check on her.”

“Please do it now. Connor’s got a feeling,” Franklin begged over the speaker phone. The physician was familiar with Connor’s intuition. It had brought Franklin to the office more than once. Each time nothing had been apparent until Doc had checked deeper.

“Hang on.” They heard the phone knocking against the desk top then silence while the doctor went to check on Mads.

“She’s not in her place,” he panted when he returned to the line. “And her purse is on the ground by the door.”

“Call Sheriff Middleton. Tell Joe she’s missing. We’re heading toward Gillette to look for her.”

“She’s missing,” Franklin rasped. They were already dashing toward the truck.

“That fuck took her.”

“That’s what I think.”

Connor gunned the truck, and snow, dirt and gravel sprayed from beneath the tires as they peeled out of the driveway. He was driving faster than he should on the snowy ranch road. Franklin didn’t say a word. They needed to get to Madison as fast as they could. They heard sirens as they approached the highway. The sheriff’s car sailed past.

Dread filled Connor as they turned out behind the cruiser. He drove just as fast to keep up. Then he saw it.

“No,” Franklin yelled at the smoke billowing up ahead. “No, no, no… God, no.”

As they got closer, they saw a dark blue sedan nose-down in the ditch. Likely, it had slid on the icy roads. The steam and gray smoke spewed from the mangled engine. Thankfully there were no flames, but they didn’t see any people moving, either.

No. They had a family. Their woman. Their baby. Madison and their child couldn’t be taken from them. From him and Franklin.

Franklin leapt from the truck before Connor had it in park.

“Franklin,” Connor yelled, but Franklin was already on the move.

“Stay back!” Sheriff Middleton hollered.

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