Chapter 3
3
W ynona had never felt so helpless in her entire life. Not even when she’d realized she was pregnant with Chase’s child and facing her father’s sharp disappointment. Not that her father had stayed angry for long. Ogima was mush when it came to his grandson.
Where was Eli? Who had taken him? Why hadn’t they called her?
If Chase was as disappointed as she was, he didn’t let on.
“Come, Rocky.” The dog ignored him at first, but then wheeled and ran halfway down the parking lot before returning to his side. “Always on your own timeline,” Chase muttered as he bent to stroke the dog’s fur. “You never give up trying to maintain the upper hand.”
For the second time, she found their interaction amusing. But she couldn’t manage a smile. Seeing Chase after so long only reminded her of how much she’d cared about him. But that was before.
Too much had happened to pick up where they’d left off. And for all she knew, Chase was involved with someone else by now. Although the way he’d stared daggers at Dorian had reeked of jealousy. Ridiculous, as Trina’s presence had explained why they’d broken up. Commitment to a relationship was not Dorian’s strong suit.
“We’ll stop at that gas station up the street.” He opened the back hatch and gestured for Rocky to get inside.
“Looks like they have food.” She joined him up front. The heat blasting from the vents was a welcome relief. She’d grabbed warmer clothing when she’d stopped at her house for Eli’s things, but the wind still stole her breath. There were rolling hills and scattered woods to the north of Riverton where herds of wild buffalo and wild horses along with other large game like moose and elk grazed throughout the year. The city teemed with visitors during the summer months, especially those who wanted to see what it was like on an Indian reservation. Winters could be far more desolate. She shivered and snuggled down in her thick coat. “I’m not picky. Anything quick and easy works for me.”
“Okay.” He pulled away from the side of the road and continued down to the gas station. He pulled up to the pump closest to the building. She glanced over her shoulder to notice the trailer barely cleared the road.
It must be difficult to maneuver the long trailer and extra weight behind them. Would they even need the snow machines? She hoped not.
“Go inside and get warm,” he said. “I’ll be in as soon as I finish filling the tank.”
She nodded and hurried inside. The scent of tobacco and stale coffee made her stomach churn. Maybe she wasn’t as hungry as she’d thought. When she spotted several slices of pizza in a warmer, she headed toward it. Seeing the cheese pizza gave her pause, and her throat grew thick with emotion. Cheese pizza was one of Eli’s favorite meals.
Would he eat whatever the kidnapper gave him? She doubted it.
She must have stayed there staring at the food longer than she realized because Chase came up behind her. “Starving yourself won’t make Eli feel any better.”
“I know.” Logically, he was right. She needed strength to find her son. She gestured to the pizza slices. “Eli loves cheese pizza.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Chase said, an edge to his tone. But then she heard him sigh. “Sorry, do you want me to get one for you?”
“Yes, please.” She didn’t have a lot of cash on her. “I can use my debit card.”
“I’ll take care of it.” He nodded toward the restrooms. “I need a minute, then I’ll get the food.”
She followed him to the restrooms, realizing he was right to use the facilities while they were there. She needed to do a better job of planning ahead. If Eli were here...
She stopped herself from continuing that thought. As Chase said, there was no point playing the what-if game. The only way to get through this was to think positive. To believe they would find their son. And to believe Eli wouldn’t be hurt.
When she emerged from the bathroom, she found Chase was already at the counter buying their food along with bottles of water and a box of granola bars. As he handed cash to the clerk, she belatedly realized she never offered to pay for his services.
“I, um, didn’t ask how much you charge for this sort of thing,” she said as they headed back outside to the SUV. In the distance, a pair of red taillights disappeared into the night. Not unusual to see traffic on the roads. Now that darkness had fallen, their ability to even see a white pickup truck was diminished. They’d have to be right on top of the vehicle to identify the make, model, and color. She slid into the passenger seat, waiting as he got behind the wheel. “Rumor has it that you and your family only accept dog food as payment for services.”
“That’s true, but I would search for any child for free regardless.” His jaw tightened. “If I had known Eli was my son, I’d have brought several of my family members with me. I’m not sure that it will do much good to have them swarm the area now, though. But if we learn anything about where Eli may be, I’ll call them to help find our son.”
She winced, accepting the pizza from him. It had not occurred to her to have him ask for his family to accompany him. Would it help to have more eyes on the road looking for the white truck? Maybe. Although it could also be a colossal waste of time. “I understand. Thank you.”
He started the car but didn’t pull away. Instead, he closed his eyes for a minute. By the time she realized he was praying, he was finished. He took a large bite of his pizza, shifted into gear, and pulled out onto the main road leading through town.
She silently thanked God for the food and added another prayer for Eli’s safety before trying her meal. The pizza tasted like cardboard, but that didn’t matter.
The food was nothing more than fuel. Something to keep her going until she had her son back in her arms. “Where are we going?”
Chase shrugged. “We’ll go up and down some of these streets. There aren’t a lot of garages here, so maybe we’ll find more white pickup trucks to test with Rocky’s nose.”
She nodded. It wasn’t as if she had a better plan.
“Tell me about that job of yours,” he said after a few minutes. “I didn’t know you had left Lander to return to the rez.”
“You probably remember my father is one of the tribal leaders. He asked me to help with bookkeeping for the council.” She frowned as the timing suddenly seemed suspicious. “I did tell them last week that I had begun an audit. I noticed one hadn’t been done for at least five years, and they should be done annually or at the very least biannually.”
“I can’t help but wonder if your job is a part of this,” Chase said. “I mean, if the goal of taking Eli isn’t ransom, then why would they bother?”
“I have no idea.” She wasn’t sure what to think. “But as I said, if I’m out of the picture, someone else would step in and take over. And if they wanted to stop me from doing the audit, why go after Eli? Why not attack me directly?”
“Good point,” Chase admitted. “I guess it could be that the kidnapper is waiting until morning since there’s no way to access money at this hour of the night.”
She felt sick at the thought of the kidnappers making a ransom demand come morning. It wasn’t like she had a lot of money in her bank account. She’d hand every last dollar over to them if it meant freeing her son, but she doubted that would be enough.
What if they asked for some astronomical amount of money? Chase had offered to pay, but she wasn’t sure he had enough funds either.
The pizza she’d eaten churned in her gut. Would the masked intruder go as far as to hurt her son if they couldn’t pay?
She closed her eyes, then forced them open. No, she needed to stay focused. She turned and scanned the street outside her passenger door window. She needed to keep on high alert for a white pickup truck. That was the only lead they had.
She couldn’t bear the thought of missing it.
* * *
“Hurry up, we gotta get the kid out of here!”
Eli was startled by the scary man’s harsh words. He tightened his grip on the block and his stuffy.
Hard. Soft.
“Why?” Smelly Man complained.
“There was a search and rescue rig at the gas station.” Scary Man sounded upset. “I’m sure they’re looking for the kid!”
“How could they know we have him here?” Smelly Man asked. “We made sure nobody saw us.”
“I didn’t say they know our exact location, stupid.” Scary Man punched Smelly Man in the arm, making Eli flinch. Would he get punched too? He went back to his rocking. “I’m saying they’re too close for comfort. We need to implement plan B.”
“That’s going to cost more money,” Smelly Man argued. “I don’t wanna ask the boss for more, do you?”
“Shut up and grab the kid!” Scary Man shouted so loudly tears leaked down Eli’s face. He gripped the toys harder now, so hard his hands hurt. “The money doesn’t matter if we’re found. We have a secondary location to use in the case of an emergency. This counts in my book. We need to get out of here. And we’ll take both vehicles, understand? You take the kid in your truck. Follow me to the next house.”
“Okay, okay. Hold your horses.” Smelly Man rose from the kitchen chair, staggering a little. Eli kept his head down but knew the smelly man was coming toward him. “Come on, kid. You heard him. We gotta go.”
Eli slid off the couch. He stood quietly as the smelly man shoved his clenched hands into his coat sleeves. He managed to keep a hold of his toys, but the smelly man wrenched them from his hands and stuffed them into his pockets.
“You’re a weird kid,” he muttered as he zipped the coat shut. Then he crammed a hat on Eli’s head and forced mittens over his hands. Eli didn’t like wearing mittens. He wanted to pull them off so he could hold the toys in his pockets.
He wanted to feel them in his hands. Hard. Soft. Hard. Soft.
But it was cold outside. His nose ran again, and he swiped at it with the sleeve of his coat. When the smelly man set him in the back of the truck, he didn’t protest. At least Scary Man was going in the other car.
Eli rocked back and forth in the back seat, hoping his mommy would get there soon. He was tired and hungry and wanted to go home.
* * *
Chase finished his pizza, doing everything in his power not to lash out at Wyn. He was angry with her for keeping Eli a secret, yet he was also just as angry with her father.
He had not expected the guy to refuse his request to marry Wynona. And when he asked why, the old man had simply said he wasn’t good enough for Wyn, and he wasn’t Native American.
As if it was her father’s decision that his daughter would only marry someone from the tribe. Chase had never heard anything so ridiculous. And since he could be as stubborn as his K9, Rocky, he’d let the old man know the decision should be Wynona’s not his.
Looking back, he shouldn’t have asked permission in the first place. Maybe if he’d had proposed to Wynona, she’d have accepted, and they’d have been married and living together on the ranch when she’d discovered she was pregnant.
And they’d be raising their son, together. As a family.
The image of Eli’s somber face was burned in his memory. He wasn’t sure he could forgive her for not telling him the truth. Especially since he should have been there for her. It burned to know that if things were different, Eli’s last name would be Sullivan, not Blackhorse.
Well, his son wouldn’t be a Blackhorse for long. He wasn’t sure how he’d convince Wynona to allow him to change Eli’s name, but his son would become a Sullivan as soon as humanly possible. The way it should have been all along.
And Wynona needed to know he wasn’t about to let his son go without a fight.
Granted, they had to find him first.
It was difficult not to imagine this search ending like his last missing child case. With the child’s death.
He prayed like he’d never prayed before. After several long moments, he pulled himself together. He needed to stay positive.
“Maybe we should head back to your place.” He glanced at her. “It might be smart to leave the trailer in your driveway.”
She sipped her water. “I hate to backtrack. The one place we know for sure the kidnapper won’t go is my place. I live two houses down from Shana. They’d want to avoid the scene of the crime.”
“Wait, you live that close to her?” He frowned. “Is it possible the kidnapper thought Shana was you?”
“I can’t see how. For one thing, she’s a good eight years younger than I am.” She waved a hand. “For people who live on the reservation, one Indian doesn’t look exactly like the other.”
He winced. “That wasn’t what I meant. It’s just that you both have long, dark, straight hair. You’re both pretty, and Shana was sitting on the floor playing with Eli. I saw the blocks scattered about. Maybe the kidnapper saw them through the window and assumed you were there.”
“Okay, so even if that is the case, what does it matter?” Wyn sounded exasperated. “Shana was hit, not killed. The goal was still to take Eli, regardless of who was watching over him.”
“I don’t know, I just keep thinking that maybe your job is related to all of this.” He shared her frustration. Maybe he was on the wrong track. Without a ransom demand, there must be something else at play.
The simple truth was that he didn’t want to consider the possibility that their son was in the hands of a child-trafficking ring. Maya had told him about how she’d found a young teenage girl who’d run away from home and had ended up in a prostitution ring. There was so much evil in the world that he knew little kids could be targeted for a similar reason.
The way he and Rocky had found Alecia dead six months ago had bothered Chase for months afterward, until Maya had drawn him aside and reminded him that they were doing their best with the gifts God had bestowed on them. It would be highly unlikely that they’d find every single missing person they searched for.
Their parents missing for five years now was a primary example.
He’d done his best to move on. And he and his siblings turned to their faith rather than taking the situation personally when they failed to find their victim alive.
But failure was not an option tonight.
“Look, if you want to drop off the trailer, that’s fine.” Wyn’s comment interrupted his thoughts. “You’re the one who brought the snow machines along in case we needed to take a direct route between cities.”
“I know.” In truth, he was torn. He’d brought them because last month he and his brothers had used snowmobiles to get through a blizzard to find Maya and her now fiancé, Doug Bridges. Without the machines, they’d never have made it.
Winter weather could turn bad on a dime. And out here on the rez where there were more open areas without houses, the blowing snow was known to be wicked. Maybe he was better off keeping the trailer close.
“We can’t drive around all night,” he finally said. “I don’t want to give up searching for Eli, but you know as well as I do he could be anywhere.”
“Let’s give ourselves another hour before we head back.” She sighed. “I guess we should try to get some rest, even though I can’t imagine I’ll be able to fall asleep.”
He reached out to touch her arm. “I know. But my vision is getting a little blurry. By daylight, we should be able to see white pickup trucks more clearly.” He hesitated, then added, “It’s likely the kidnappers are tucked in with Eli for the night. If they have the car hidden in a shed or garage, we’ll never find it.”
“Okay. One more hour.” She turned to stare out her window. “I can’t explain it, but I feel like Eli is being held somewhere nearby.”
Likely wishful thinking on her part, but he couldn’t blame her. If Eli had been taken to a different city on the rez, they’d never find him.
And somehow, he didn’t think the tribal police would either. They weren’t bad cops, but their resources were limited.
It made him mad that Wynona had chosen to raise their son here.
“Why didn’t you call me?” The question came out sharper than he had intended. “I had a right to know about Eli.”
She glanced at him, then turned to stare back out the window. “I was scared,” she finally said.
“Of me?” That was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. “I’ve never harmed a woman in my life!”
“Of you taking Eli away from me.” She shook her head, still not looking at him. “I don’t want to get into this now, Chase. I’m sorry, okay?”
“Not okay,” he shot back. “You had no right to keep my son away from me.”
“You left me, remember?” She finally turned to look at him. “You left me. For months, Chase. Then I needed to care for my father’s sister who fell ill with cancer.” Then she abruptly held up a hand. “Let’s not do this. Eli is missing. I need to search for white pickup trucks. And so do you,” she added. “We can hash this out later once Eli is safe.”
He bit his tongue but grudgingly nodded. It wouldn’t make things any easier in the long run if he continued taking his anger and frustration over the lack of progress on the case out on her.
But it wasn’t easy to sit there knowing she’d lied to him by omission either.
He told himself the future was more important than the past. That while his son didn’t know him now, that would change the minute they found him. He would be a part of his son’s life moving forward.
There was no doubt in his mind that Eli would love living on the ranch. Interacting with their nine dogs, their four horses, and experiencing nature at its finest. Anna, their housekeeper, would cook him his favorite foods, and as the only Sullivan nephew, Chase knew the child would be spoiled by every one of his eight aunts and uncles.
Wynona could stay on the ranch, too, if she wanted to. But that would be up to her. She could control her fate. He’d already decided there was no way he’d allow his son to grow up on the rez.
Holding on to that silent promise was the only way he could bring himself to drop the subject of why Wynona had learned to hate and resent him to the point she had done this.
And while he drove, he couldn’t bear to think of the possibility of failing in their mission to find Eli.
He took side streets, not that there were many available, to head back to the east end of Riverton and her home near Shana’s. They had heard nothing from the tribal police on Shana’s former boyfriend, which only reinforced his low opinion of their ability to find Eli.
“Is it always this dead around town at this hour?” Chase glanced at Wynona. “I realize it’s ten thirty at night, but I expected there to be more activity.” To his mind, it was strange that he didn’t see many vehicles out on the road.
And other than the one truck in front of the Silver Spur, there wasn’t a white pickup truck to be seen.
“In February?” She shook her head. “Too cold for people to be out and about. Besides, all there is to do is to drink at the bar. Those inclined to do that find it cheaper to drink at home. Poverty is still a significant issue here, despite the casino money coming in.”
He grimaced. He’d nearly forgotten that when he’d been running his hunting guide business, February and March were their worst months revenuewise. He shouldn’t be surprised that things were slower all over the state. Even here.
“It’s not like those in small rural towns are living high on the hog,” he said. “Other than the rich tourists that flock to the ski slopes in Jackson this time of year, winters are slow for most folks. I just thought there would be more activity here in Riverton.”
“Poverty extends across the reservation.” Her tone was testy. “The people here need jobs more than anything. And of course, less access to drugs.”
Before he could ask more, a sharp crack of gunfire rang out. The steering wheel bucked beneath his hands as he fought to keep it on the road.
Chase instinctively punched the gas, desperate to put distance between him and whoever had fired at them. The SUV engine roared as it struggled to respond to the change while pulling the trailer.
“Are we hit?” Wyn asked.
“I don’t think so.” He couldn’t be sure, but he thought it was possible the bullet had pinged off the hard covering over the sleds on the trailer. He mentally braced himself for more gunfire, but several for long minutes, there was nothing but silence.
He realized they were only two streets from Shana’s house, which meant they were also close to Wynona’s place.
Were they wrong about the kidnapper’s intent? Maybe the real goal here was to eliminate Wynona.
Permanently.