Chapter 2
Tires spit out gravel. The sound was unmistakable. They’d turned off the highway and were now on a random country road. They could be almost anywhere in South Texas.
Ivy forced her shoulders to relax as she took in a few calming breaths, like she’d done on repeat for much of the ride.
If she was going to be ready to strike when the time was right, she needed all her strength.
She’d need every ounce of energy she could squeeze out of her body when the time came.
The two men in the backseat were strong.
One would be capable of keeping her under control.
Whoever was behind her abduction had doubled down, plus added a driver.
She had no idea how strong that person might be.
They hadn’t uttered so much as a peep the entire ride. They could be a woman for all she knew.
Ivy couldn’t see through the dark cloth that had been forced over her head. Entering the highway a while ago had thrown her for a loop. Her sense of direction had been flipped upside down since hitting the entry ramp.
And now she was only-God-knew-where with people she didn’t know.
The SUV stopped.
“Get out,” one of the bastards said, nudging her with the pointed toe of his boot.
She relaxed to the point of being limp. The element of surprise could determine life or death. She wanted it on her side.
“What’s wrong with her?” the second bastard asked.
“Don’t ask me,” Number One said before shoving her.
Stay calm. Stay ready.
Her decision to stay at the rear of the pack in Austin came back to bite her in the backside.
It had been all too easy to grab her without causing much of a stir.
Those first few critical seconds of shock had given these jerks the time they’d needed to get her into the SUV without causing much of a scene.
This time, she’d be ready for anything that might come her way.
“Don’t make me tell you twice,” the first bastard said, anger lacing his tone.
Sorry to inconvenience you, asshole, but I have no plans to make this easy on you.
Ivy kept still as she unclenched her back teeth.
A second later, she was being dragged out of the vehicle by her ankles. If she didn’t brace herself or reach for purchase, her head would slam against the ground. Was this a test to see if she was really awake?
This was going to hurt like hell. Being yanked out of the back already set her shoulders on fire. Ivy committed to the deception, keeping her eyes closed and her body as relaxed as humanly possible.
As expected, her head slammed against the hard, unforgiving earth a few seconds later.
This seemed like a good time to remind herself that pain was temporary.
The cloth bag slid up her face during the forced exit.
It was enough for her to get a peek at her surroundings and figure out where the hell they’d taken her.
A campground?
The place looked like it had seen better days. Waist-high weeds had overtaken what had probably been an open play area. Teepees had tears in their canopy as long as her leg in some cases.
Any hope a caretaker might interrupt this abduction died as she scanned the scene. No one had been here for months, if not years.
She could bide her time and wait for the right time before escaping.
And then what? Get lost in the woods? She’d be eaten alive by mosquitoes or worse.
There were worse predators in Texas than those blood suckers.
Her body involuntarily shivered at the thought of being alone in the woods to fend for herself.
She’d grown up in Austin, a city—and a crowded one at that.
Her biggest threats there were people and spiders.
Here, she could run into all sorts of predators, but were they worse than the bastards who’d abducted her? Out there, she had a fighting chance.
If they had her father, would she be putting him in more danger if she escaped?
No. These people wanted something from her or him.
Logic said they might use her to get to him since she knew nothing of value, unless someone needed rehabilitation counseling.
Ivy’s master's degree in rehabilitation counseling enabled her to support individuals with disabilities in achieving independence. She’d gone down that road after her brother had been born with Down syndrome.
Her mother’s advanced age had put her in a high-risk category for her second pregnancy.
Footsteps near her head brought her thoughts back into focus.
One of the men who’d abducted her wore cowboy boots. The other wore work boots. Cowboy Boots was the nicer of the two, which wasn’t saying much. Both were neanderthals, capable of brutality.
“What the hell are you doing?” Cowboy Boots asked. His attention turned away from Work Boots and her.
Could she slip away without being noticed? That was probably a pipe dream.
She had to do something.
An idea popped. It was probably crazy, and she would most likely end up getting caught and punished. What if she stayed put and played dead a little while longer instead?
Cowboy Boots stomped toward the front of the SUV. Work Boots followed. Overthinking wouldn’t keep her safe. She had to act, regardless of whether she was panicked or not.
Ivy took in a slow breath and then brought her arms to her chest, crossed them, and rolled underneath the SUV.
She kept going until she came out on the other side, half expecting meaty hands to grab at her or her clothing again.
She would fight and keep fighting until she had no fight left inside her.
Much to her shock, nothing happened.
Cowboy Boots and Work Boots didn’t appear to notice. Voice raised, Cowboy Boots was bitching someone out. The driver?
She had no intention of sticking around to find out.
Popping up on her hands and knees hurt. Muscles that had been kicked and grabbed screamed at her with every movement as she crawled toward the nearest teepee. It wasn’t more than twenty-five feet away and would offer concealment.
Ivy cleared the teepee. A moment of hesitation had her stopping to scan the wigwams for any sign her father was being held there against his will. Other than Cowboy Boots yelling at the driver, the campsite was quiet.
There was a thicket on the other side of the third teepee. Ivy popped to her feet and ran in a zigzag pattern. By the time she reached the third structure, the jig was up.
“How did you let her get away, Royce?”
“What?” A moment of silence was quickly followed by, “I’m sorry, Clay. She was right here a minute ago. I swear.” Royce spoke slowly with a thick southern drawl. He sounded like the type of person who took orders.
From Clay’s more forceful tone, he was in charge of this trio. There was no doubt in Ivy’s mind.
“Spread out and go find her,” Clay said after muttering a few choice words.
Ivy’s smirk was short-lived. She had no weapon to defend herself with. Quickly, she scanned the ground for a sharp rock or stick. Something she could use in case one of them caught up with her.
Or maybe she could create a distraction.
She dropped down onto all fours and ran her hands through the underbrush. Her fingers closed on a rock the size of her fist. She stood up and threw the rock as far away as she could in the opposite direction the guys’ voices came from and far enough away from her to create a diversion.
“Over here,” Royce said, his voice the same as a kid’s who’d just won the big prize at the State Fair ring toss booth.
Good.
Capitalizing on the moment, Ivy turned tail and ran as fast as she could through the thicket.
Branches slapped at already sore arms and legs as she plowed through knee-high scrub brush.
Running might be an overstatement. She half-hopped, half-ran as she put as much distance between her and the campsite as she could.
Right up until someone stepped out from behind a tree trunk, and she slammed into a brick wall of a chest.
Beau released a grunt as pain radiated from his shoulder. A wild-eyed woman, who looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties, had just slammed into him at a full run. Momentum knocked her backward. He reached out in time to stop her from falling on her backside.
Wide violet eyes stared into him, asking a million questions as she broke free from his grip and then tumbled backward. She scrambled away from him. The look in her eyes and the twitch in the muscles beneath her skin said she was scared to death of him.
“Whoa! Hold on there,” he whispered harshly, putting his hands out, palms up to show he didn’t have a weapon.
He’d tucked the gun inside the holster that was secured with a clip on the waistband of his jeans.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I only grabbed you so you wouldn’t fall and end up hurt.
” He’d seen her coming and thought she might need his help.
Selfishly, he also hoped she had some information about what was going on at the campsite.
“We have to go,” she finally managed to say, looking like she’d just forced her way out of shock. Silky black hair fell past her shoulders and framed a heart-shaped face with the most kissable plump lips.
He folded his arms across his chest. “Not until you tell me who’s chasing you.”
She stood up, scanned him, and then tugged at his good arm. “No time. If you want to live, you’ll listen to what I’m saying. Either way, it’s your choice. But if you stay and those assholes catch up to you, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything about seeing me out here.”
With that, she released his arm and took off running.
Beau had no choice but to follow despite the still-fresh shoulder injury. So far, his quick search of the campsite hadn’t yielded any answers. He was at a dead end, and this mystery beauty was the first break he’d had since starting this journey hours ago.
The raven-haired beauty stumbled as she pushed through the thicket.
He came up beside her at the first opportunity, reached for her hand, and then clasped their fingers when she didn’t resist. It looked like it was all she could do to keep running, and he needed to get them both to safety and away from whatever or whomever she was running from so he could get answers.
Saying Beau had questions was a lot like saying molasses was sticky. More piled on top of the ones he’d already had since Raven Hair had shown up.
He navigated them in the direction of the pickup, then stopped when he heard an engine idling on the nearby road.
“What is it?” she asked, pinching her side as she bent over and gasped for air after dropping his hand.
“Do you hear the engine?” he asked, reaching for his shoulder to check for blood.
Her gaze followed his hand. “What’s wrong?”
“Recent gunshot wound. I’ll explain later.”
She tilted her head to one side.
“What about the engine? Did you hear it?” he asked for the second time.
She nodded. “What the hell are we supposed to do now?”
“Wait it out,” he said. They weren’t near enough to his truck to get any distance between them. “I’m Beau, by the way.” He’d have offered a handshake if she hadn’t been struggling to breathe.
“Ivy,” she said, too quickly to be lying. At least she wasn’t trying to conceal her identity.
“I don’t want to scare you,” he said, hands up where she could see them. “I’m carrying a gun in one of those holsters made for the waistband.”
“Okay-y-y.” An eyebrow arched.
“I’m not here to hurt you in any way.” An inappropriate attraction—a draw like he’d never experienced—was her biggest threat, and he had zero plans to act on it.
She was safe with him. Besides, instant attraction never lasted.
Once you got to know the person behind the looks, it faded.
A voice in the back of his mind tried to say Ivy was different, that this attraction was different.
He ignored it and moved on.
“Why did you bring us here to the road?” she asked, her gaze scanning the area toward the road.
Thick, black lashes framed those violet eyes.
He’d noticed a small tattoo on the inside of her wrist, but stopped himself from asking about it.
Markings on her body were none of his business, especially not the small mole above her top lip and a bit to the right.
“I have a pickup stashed nearby.”
The panic in her widening eyes quelled any physical draw.
“Not because I want to hurt you,” he quickly added. “Because my mother has gone missing, and I thought she might be here.”
That violet gaze widened again. Staring into her eyes was like staring straight into precious jewels. “My father is missing.”
The engine cut off before they could get much further in their conversation. More questions flooded Beau’s mind like a tidal wave. He shoved them aside for now. “Trust me?”
She bit down on her bottom lip. “I’m not sure I have much choice.”
“You always have a choice.”
A slight nod of acknowledgment was all he needed to thread their fingers together again and move away from the road. He kept his voice low when he asked, “How many are there?”
“Three that I know of,” she whispered.
“I’m guessing you have no idea who these people are.
” He slowed his pace to listen. Beau hadn’t been back to this campsite since he was a kid.
Some of his memories of the place were sharp.
Others were fuzzy. If he could trust his recollections, a pond would be coming up in front of them.
There’d been a few paddle boats. Nothing that would help them escape the folks seeking Ivy.
“You would be correct,” she confirmed. “I know two of their names. Royce and Clay. That’s all I have.” She gave a quick and dirty explanation of how she’d ended up there.
“Does your father live in Austin, as well?” he asked.
Ivy nodded. “He’s the reason I moved back. I wanted to be closer to him.”
“What about your mother?”
A twig snapped to their left.
Beau lifted his finger to his lips, indicating they should be very quiet and very still. And then he reached behind him for the gun.