Chapter 3
Ivy crouched down, making herself as small as possible. Royce and Clay hadn’t used guns earlier, which didn’t necessarily mean they didn’t have them. She hadn’t gotten a good enough look at them to take inventory, and she wasn’t in the mood to take chances.
Beau was the epitome of tall and handsome. A twinge of sadness in those beautiful eyes of his connected with the sadness in her at the soul level. He’d seen pain. He’d experienced pain. He’d survived pain.
Ivy could relate.
Broad shoulders and muscles for days accompanied a face made of hard angles and a jawline that could crack concrete. His white teeth were almost perfectly straight. A half-inch razor-like scar above his left eyebrow was barely noticeable. She couldn’t help but wonder what had happened.
“This bitch has to be somewhere out here,” Clay said. The twig snap must have been him stomping through the thicket. Of course, they went toward the road, expecting her to walk to freedom. No one in their right mind would get lost in these woods, not on purpose.
Did Beau know the area? He must have some knowledge since he’d stashed his truck nearby and gone into the woods to…what?…survey the campsite? The fact that his mother was missing, along with her father, brought an onslaught of questions. This wasn’t the time.
Beau palmed the handgun. Ivy was a city girl.
Austin was considered outdoorsy, if you liked running along the Colorado River or going for walks outside.
There were plenty of parks and nature preserves, all of which were crowded with people.
Even in nature, you were never alone. Plus, her version of spending time outdoors was going to Barton Springs Pool in Zilker Park and throwing a blanket down underneath a shade tree.
Having black hair hadn’t given her olive skin.
She burned in the sun, so she avoided it as much as possible, considering she lived in Texas, where the sidewalk was so hot it could almost melt your flipflops.
The middle part on the crown of her head would get burned walking around campus when she’d been putting herself through school if she hadn’t worn a hat.
“Look over here, Royce,” Clay shouted.
More twigs snapped. “What is it?”
“Somebody lost their cell phone,” Clay said.
It couldn’t be Ivy’s since they’d tossed hers out the window. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Beau pat his pocket. The way he exhaled said that his was exactly where he’d thought it would be.
“What should we do with it?” Royce asked.
“Take it to Talon and see if he wants to keep it or toss it,” Clay said.
Talon. Talon. Talon. Ivy searched her memory for anyone by that name, but came up empty. Was it a nickname?
She locked gazes with Beau for a second longer than was smart. Electricity hummed in her body. She flexed her fingers a few times to stop them from reaching out to him. Making noise, even accidentally, could get them caught.
One look was all it took for her to realize he’d thought the same thing; the cell might belong to one of their parents.
Were the two of them together? Had they escaped? Was her father in bad shape?
A growing part of her wanted to borrow Beau’s gun so she could confront the bastards and demand to see her father. The other, more reasonable part of her, knew that doing so would be a bad idea. She would be giving up their location and the fact that she was with Beau.
Beau’s eyes lit up. He held up a finger, like he’d done before. She gave a quick nod of agreement. She would stay put and be quiet, no matter how much it pained her.
Then, he disappeared without making a sound. Her heart hammered in her chest. Had she just let her best chance of leaving these woods alive take off without her? They’d made no promises to keep each other safe. What if he was circling back to his pickup so he could leave her stranded?
Her chest constricted, as if her sports bra was suddenly two sizes too small. Had she been played for a fool?
No. Beau wouldn’t do that to her. There was no logical reason to trust her instincts about him.
She’d been tricked before. Plus, they’d just met and barely knew each other.
So, why did she feel like she’d known him for her entire life?
Why did she trust that he wouldn’t leave her?
That he would come back even if it meant placing himself back in danger?
Arms wrapped around her knees, chin to chest, she didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until she heard footsteps come up from behind her. Beau?
Ivy twisted her neck so she could see. Not Beau. Not Beau. Not Beau.
A fresh-faced kid who couldn’t be more than nineteen or twenty years old stood there, doe-eyed and staring. His mouth dropped open. To scream?
Oh, hell, no!
Beau slowed his pace. From the tree line, he could see the SUV. He’d heard two distinct voices in the woods. Was there a third person involved? A driver? Had Ivy said something about that?
From this distance, he couldn’t make out whether anyone was inside or not. The windows were too darkly tinted. He would have to get closer. Could he close the distance without being seen?
Make a mistake here, and he could end up shot.
The worst part wasn’t about being injured again or dying.
The thought of leaving Ivy alone, unsafe and exposed, was the real gut punch.
Keeping her as far away from these men as possible had been the best move.
He’d needed a plan to track where these bastards went.
He’d better move faster if he was going to get back to her in time.
Palming his cell, he hoped like hell this worked and he didn’t get caught.
The volume was already off, no worries there.
He prayed for a stroke of luck as he crouched down and made a run for the back of the SUV.
His height and build made it impossible to shrink enough to go unnoticed.
If someone was inside the vehicle, he was busted.
He could only hope the person would be too distracted to notice.
He moved like he was in stealth mode, making no noise as he hit his first location without the sound of bullets being fired.
He exhaled a slow, steady breath as he made himself as small as possible behind the vehicle. The engine was off. He took it as a good sign that the vehicle was empty. The bastards must not have anticipated needing a quick escape.
Rounding the side toward the driver’s seat meant exposing himself in the side-view mirror. A thought struck. Did he want to disable the SUV? Puncture the tires?
No. He quickly wrote the idea off as bad.
They wanted these jerks to leave the area.
It was the reason he intended to plant his phone on the vehicle, so he could trace its movements and, with any luck, locate his mother and Ivy’s father based on the “lost my phone” app he’d installed a few weeks ago.
Trouble had come knocking in and around Rescue Ridge Ranch, and he never knew when he might be parted from his phone or need to track it.
Before all the crimes, he hadn’t thought he’d need an app like that.
Now, his choice to download the app might just save a few lives, including his and Ivy’s.
Beau moved to the driver’s side and then risked a quick peek. No one. He sighed in relief that the vehicle had been left unattended. Had it been left unlocked, too? He tried the door. No such luck.
With no tools and no way to slip the phone inside, he walked the perimeter in hopes of getting inspiration on how to attach his phone securely without it being noticed right away.
Running his hand along the dark paint, his fingers stopped on the gas cap compartment.
If they needed gas soon, this was the worst of bad ideas.
He’d be busted before getting the information he needed.
What if they drove back to the place where his mother and Ivy’s father were being held without stopping?
Luck was a fickle mistress. Since Beau didn’t have a better idea, he pressed the gas compartment, and it toggled open.
He wished he had something to wrap his phone in to protect it from fuel residue or moisture—even a sandwich bag would work.
A gust of wind rattled the leaves in the trees.
His blood pressure skyrocketed. No. He didn’t have time to waste going to his vehicle to find something, and he needed to get back to Ivy.
Every minute away from her caused the knot to tighten in his chest.
The fact that there had been no noise coming from the thicket was the only relief he’d found so far. That could change at any moment.
He wedged the phone inside the flap, closed the compartment, and then raced back toward the location where he’d last left Ivy.
As Beau retraced his steps, he listened for any signs of the bastards or Ivy.
He’d left her near the pond with the men who were after her close by.
He’d seen it as an opportunity to plant his cell on their vehicle.
Had he made a critical mistake and put Ivy in unnecessary danger?
The decision might cost more than he’d bargained for.
Beau bit back a string of curses as fear warred with frustration—frustration with himself for making the wrong call.
Guilt for leaving Ivy to fend for herself.
Shame for letting his mother down when she’d needed him the most. Emma might not have done everything right as a parent, but she’d done her best. She loved him.
He’d never questioned the fact. When she took off, she always came back.
Always. Unlike the father he’d never known because the man hadn’t cared enough to show up even once.
It hadn’t been until Beaumont Sturgess’s death that he’d made any type of effort to be a father.
Beau had grown up living hand-to-mouth and paycheck-to-paycheck.
Then, there were the times when the paycheck hadn’t stretched far enough, and they’d gone to bed hungry.
By age twelve, Beau had worked odd jobs to cover the gaps.
He’d taken care of his mother, too. When she was too tired to drive him to baseball, he’d ridden his bike to practice.
He’d made sandwiches for dinner and heated cans of soup to make her feel better.
Growing up, he hadn’t had a word for his mother’s “low tides.” Now, he realized she’d suffered from depression.
It wasn’t a fate he’d wish on his worst enemy.
Beau mentally shook off the reverie as he approached the area near the pond where he’d left Ivy.
She was gone.
The urge to shout her name was a force growing inside him like a vine on speed.
He tamped down the need. Giving up his location wasn’t a smart idea.
Asking her to give up hers if she were in hiding wouldn’t be classified as brilliant either.
She could be anywhere. They could be anywhere.
He was without his cell. Maybe giving it up hadn’t been his best move. Well, shit.
The reality that she might have been forced to move or get caught dawned on him. Or she might have been discovered, in which case he should probably head back toward the SUV.
Wouldn’t he have crossed paths with the men as they dragged her back to the vehicle? She would have made noise to alert him that she’d been abducted. So, he shifted back to thinking she was hiding out here somewhere.
Where would he go if the situation were reversed?
Easy, he would head toward the pond.
The plan to plant his phone on the SUV felt a little more brilliant now. All he had to do was find WiFi for his laptop to trace their location once he located Ivy.
Beau was kicking himself for leaving her alone in the first place. He should have taken her with him. Fear that two people moving through the woods would draw too much attention had tipped the scales toward leaving her. He’d made the decision in a split second, needing to move fast.
When did you start second-guessing every move you make?
His mother’s life was on the line, for one.
His life was on the line for another.
And Ivy’s life, a life that was beginning to matter more than his own, was on the line, too.
Beau needed to find her and make this right. He breathed deeply to slow his heart and the pounding in his ears. Then he listened for voices. Royce and Clay had been regular chatterboxes before. Why were they so quiet now?
Ivy was a fighter. She wouldn’t go down easy. The men could have knocked her unconscious. It would be the only way to get her out of these woods without making a peep. Or had she screamed already, and he’d been too far away to hear?
If she was still hiding…where could she have gone? Was she somewhere close? Was he standing within feet of her? Would she be too scared to peek if she heard footsteps?
He’d been in stealth mode. There was no way he’d made a sound.
So, what now?
Since no bright ideas popped, he went with his first instinct to head toward the pond.
Moving through the trees, he kept his eyes and ears open, half expecting someone to jump out and ambush him.
He didn’t want to question why no one had seen fit to help a woman being abducted around people in broad daylight.
Royce and Clay had to have done this type of thing before. So, were they career criminals?
What did they have to do with his mother?