Page 41 of The Cowboy's Unlikely Love

“Get on with it!” Jeb growled.

Taylor sucked in a tremulous breath and began again. “This grocery bag holds all of my clean bottles. You should have plenty for a couple of days. The diaper bag has enough diapers and wipes for at least that long. And this bag”—she pointed to the thermal bag—“holds my frozen breast milk. Since I won’t be around—”

Her voice broke, and she swallowed hard. “Since I won’t be able to breastfeed JJ, I suggest that you buy formula and give him one bottle of formula and then the next bottle of breast milk until he gets used to drinking formula.”

Jen nodded and, in a faint, soft voice asked, “What does JJ stand for?”

The corner of Taylor’s mouth lifted. “Joshua James, like in the Bible.”

Jeb tore JJ from her arms and started for the door, saying, “You know what to do, boys,” over his shoulder.

Desperate now, Colt gauged the distance to his gun, but Gantry said roughly, “Don’t even think about it. I’ll shoot you where you stand.”

“Give me your cell phones,” Jared snarled.

Colt’s heart fell. He needed that phone to get help—to have that van followed as soon as possible.

When the man had all three phones, he dropped them one by one on the floor and stomped them to pieces.

Then Jared brought three chairs from the kitchen into the living room and produced a roll of rope that Colt hadn’t noticed before. While Gantry held the gun on the women, Jared tied a furious Colt to the chair. Soon the women were tied up as well.

Colt turned to Gantry. “Listen—”

The butt of the man’s shotgun crashed into Colt’s temple, and the world went dark.

***

Colt’s mind swam throughswirling dark pools into an awareness of something very wrong. He opened his eyes and saw Taylor and Shannon slumped unconscious in their chairs. Thick, nearly dried blood oozed from a cut on the side of Taylor’s forehead where she must have been struck. He groaned and started inching his chair toward hers, desperate to find out how badly she’d been hurt. How much time had passed?

He had a small knife in a scabbard on his belt. If Taylor could reach it, she could cut his bonds.

Shannon groaned, and her head lolled to one side.

“Shannon? Wake up!” he yelled. “I need your help. Wake up!”

She looked at him, opening her eyes wide and then narrowing them as if trying to focus. “What? I’m... What did you say?”

He scooted toward her, looking at her bound hands. “I’ll free your hands. Lucky for us, that asshole did a shit job of tying you up.” Shannon had a large goose egg in the center of her forehead, already blue and purple with bruising. He backed his chair up to hers and fumbled with the cords for a moment or two until at last she yanked her hands free of the rope.

“Take my knife and cut me loose,” he said quickly. “It’s on my belt.” He had no idea how much time had passed since the men had left with JJ. Taylor was still out. Once free, he sliced her bonds and laid her on the couch. He was becoming very concerned about her.

Panic fueled his thoughts as he figured out his next move. “I’ll drive to my house and call the sheriff from there.” He raced outside. “Son of a bitch!” Two tires on every vehicle had taken a shotgun blast. None were drivable. His panic knew no bounds now.

Shannon was at the door. He called, “I’ll go on foot. They’ve ruined the tires.”

“Damn it!” Shannon covered her mouth with her hand as she began to sob.

He took off at a run, eager to put as much distance behind him as possible until he had to slow and catch his breath. What took him ten minutes to drive would take him over an hour on foot.Please, God, let Taylor wake up okay—and protect little JJ until I can get to him.

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