47
D avis, 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.
I race to the Bullshit Box, nearly ripping the door off its hinges. My brothers file in behind me, their faces hard and alert. They snap into action. Davis is on the HAM radio to Chief Richter, while Charlie pulls up the security cameras. Wyatt slams the two-way radios onto the charger.
“Cameras are down,” Charlie announces, hitting the screen over and over.
Face grim, Davis hangs up the phone. “Richter can’t get anyone out here until morning. The road going in and out of town is flooded.”
A tortured roar erupts from deep within my chest. “ Fuck .”
My brothers eye me like I’m one second away from going on a murder spree and that’s what I feel like. Fucking insane.
Crossing the room, Davis grips my arm. “We’ll look, Ford. We’ll cover the ranch, no matter how long it takes.”
“It’s Gavin,” I grit out. “He’s here. He’s been checked in as a guest for two goddamn months.”
Charlie and Davis gape at me. Wyatt and I tell them about the scene at the chalet.
Davis swears.
“How did he get past us?” Charlie rumbles.
“He never tried. That day he surprised Reese, he never left. He checked in under an alias. We didn’t look at the registry because we didn’t know.” I seethe. “We didn’t fucking know.”
I check the clock on the wall. Minutes feel like they’re crawling by. It’s been an hour since Reese went missing. What is that motherfucker doing to her right now? What if she’s hurt and I can’t help her?
My throat grows tight. The possibilities scare me shitless.
I tear a hand through my hair. “What if he took her off the ranch? We don’t know a goddamn thing.”
The thought makes me want to put a fist through the wall.
A screw tightens in my chest. “He’s been here, watching her, waiting the entire time.”
“Waiting?” Wyatt asks. “Waiting for what?”
Reese’s voice sounds in my mind. The faintest memory from our swim at the lake. Reese laughing in my arms and saying, “If I die, Gavin gets everything.”
My head snaps up. “To kill her.” Icy terror settles in my bones. “He’s going to kill her. For her money.” I bend at the waist, hands on my thighs, trying to breathe. It feels like my world’s falling all around me.
A big hand clasps my back. “Ford, you have to be strong,” Davis says. “For Reese.”
I straighten up, breathing shakily. “I failed her. I promised she’d be safe here.”
“You didn’t fail her.”
“I did.” My voice breaks. I rest my brow against the wall, fighting tears. “Fuck.”
“We’re gonna get her back, brother.” Davis squeezes the back of my neck. “You feel her, right? That woo-woo shit?”
“Yeah,” I say quietly. “I do.”
With every bone in my body, I feel her. Her heart. Her laugh. Her black hole when it hangs too low, and she fights something bigger than herself. She fought so fucking hard to be on this earth. This bastard won’t take it away from her now.
He won’t take her away from me.
She’s still breathing. She’s fighting.
And I’m going to find her.
“Hold on to that,” Davis orders. “We’re gonna find your girl. We have to.” He grins. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to your grumpy ass.”
I nod curtly. “Damn straight.”
“Davis.” Charlie launches himself out of his chair. “What about Keena?”
Davis tenses, looking upset he didn’t think of it himself. “We can try.” He whips his head to me. “I’ll get her.”
They disappear out the door, leaving me and Wyatt alone in the Bullshit Box. But I can’t wait. Can’t sit around doing nothing.
I open Davis’s desk drawer and grab his gun.
Wyatt snags a half-charged radio.
“Let’s go,” I clip, moving instantly for the door.
“ Ford, please. ”
Reese’s breathless whisper stops me in my tracks.
I snatch the radio from Wyatt’s hands and hold it close to my ear.
“ Please, I need you. ”
Shock and panic rip through me.
“She’s here.” I holster the radio and race for the door. “She’s still on the fucking ranch.”