Rancher's Dream

by B. J Daniels

  “Why do you need me back at the house?” she asked.

  Lena didn’t answer. “Slow down up here. Jet should be crossing that pasture anytime now.”

  As dark as it was, she was still able to see a figure coming from toward the back of the house. Lena had been telling the truth. So if Jet had really been in the house... Had he heard about the raid by the FBI in the morning?

  “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?” she said as she opened her window.

  “You’ll find out soon enough. Stop right here.”

  She braked and looked out her open window. She could see Jet coming across the pasture. Past him the lights of the house glowed from behind the curtains. If anyone happened to be looking out the back door they would see her stopped on the road and be concerned. But she doubted anyone was. Flint would be leaving soon, though. She looked for his headlights behind them but all she saw was darkness.

  The passenger-side door opened and she turned to see Jet climb in. “Any trouble?” he asked Lena.

  “Nothing I couldn’t handle.” She sounded as pleased with herself as Jet looked.

  “One problem,” Drey said. “The sheriff will be coming down this road in a few minutes.”

  “We won’t be here,” Jet said. “Get the car moving.”

  She had a bad feeling that if she drove them back to the house on the mountain, her premonition would come true. She would die in that house.

  “You hear me?” Jet snapped.

  “I hear you.” As she started to shift the vehicle into gear, she reached past the shifter, grabbed the keys and started to hurl them out into the darkness.

  Jet was faster than she expected. He caught hold of her arm as she made the throw. The keys didn’t make it all the way into the tall grass of the pasture. She heard them hit an instant before Jet cursed. “Bitch!” Then he backhanded her.

  Her head snapped back. Lena grabbed a handful of her hair and pressed the barrel of the gun against her cheek. She felt it smack into her teeth and tasted blood.

  The passenger-side door banged open as Jet jumped out. “Did you see where they went?” he demanded of Lena.

  “Not far. Straight-out.”

  Drey held out hope that he wouldn’t be able to find them, but unfortunately it didn’t take long. She heard the driver’s-side door open, felt him release her seat belt.

  “Get over,” Jet said, giving her a shove.

  Lena let go of her hair, but not quickly enough. It yanked her head back as Jet shoved her over into the other seat. She banged her knee on the center console and her head on the side window as Jet reached across her and slammed the passenger-side door and locked it.

  “Put your seat belt on,” he ordered as he inserted the key and got the engine going.

  He must have seen what she was thinking. Her hand started to go to the door handle...

  “Don’t make me hit you again,” he warned.

  She fumbled the seat belt on, checking the side mirror, hoping to see headlights. But she saw nothing. Flint must still be at the house talking to Hawk. Her knee hurt and so did her head. Her lip and mouth were bleeding. But she had a bad feeling that whatever these two had planned for her was much worse.

  “She tries anything else, shoot her,” Jet ordered. “I’m already tired of dickin’ around with her.”

  “She asked why she had to go back to the house with us,” Lena said.

  “Well, our plans have had to change, thanks to you,” he said. “If you’d just taken the pills like a good girl...”

  “But you had to call your hunky cowboy boyfriend, didn’t you?” Lena said. “I just wish Ethan had been here to see the two of you together. He would have lost his mind. You probably don’t know this, but Ethan goes crazy with jealousy when he thinks any man has anything he wants.”

  “You’ve made some bad decisions right from the start, including marrying my brother,” Jet said with a grin. “I wouldn’t suggest you make any more.”

  She’d been trying to put all the pieces together as she drove. While she couldn’t see the whole picture, at least a couple of things had become evident to her.

  “You drugged me on my wedding night,” Drey said and realized it could have begun even earlier than that. At the reception? She realized he could have been one of the serving crew and she wouldn’t have noticed. She’d been so...off balance her whole wedding day, fighting the nagging thought that she’d made a terrible mistake.

  “No,” she said, remembering how weird she’d felt on the way to the house that night. “You drugged me at the reception.”

  Jet laughed. “Not me. That would have been your loving husband. He told me he put something in your water glass at the reception and insisted you drink it because he knew you wouldn’t even take a sip of your champagne. He said not to worry about you. You’d be out until late the next day. Apparently it wasn’t the first time he’d used the pills on you.” He lifted an eyebrow at Drey’s shock.

  “So why did he marry me?” Clearly it hadn’t been out of love.

  “He needed a witness when he faked his death,” Jet said as if she was incredibly slow-witted.

  Faked his death? That was all she’d been? A witness? Another device for Ethan Baxter to get what he wanted. She said as much.

  “Don’t take it so hard,” Jet said. “He said he wished there was some way to take you with him when he disappeared. He was fond of you and actually felt bad about leaving you to deal with the FBI.”

  Drey shook her head. Fond of her? And she’d been feeling guilty about not loving him the way she felt she should have? She’d told herself that she’d loved him, but being around Hawk, she knew that wasn’t true. She’d been flattered by his attention, swept up in the fairy tale, but at their wedding all her instincts had told her to run.

  If only she had.

  “Where is Ethan now?” she asked.

  “Oh, you’ll be seeing him real soon,” Jet said with a laugh. He glanced in the rearview mirror and grinned at Lena. “We’ll all be seeing Ethan and then the fun can begin.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  “YOU MIGHT AS well have a drink and settle in for the night,” Flint said after Drey drove away.

  “What? Are you my babysitter?” Hawk couldn’t see himself settling in, not tonight, not knowing what was going down in the morning. “I just want this to be over.”

  “Then what?”

  Hawk looked over at his brother. “Then Drey will be safe. Look, I know what you’re getting at. I love Drey.”

  “That’s not news.”

  He sighed. “I want a second chance with her.”

  “Why now?”

  He groaned and raked a hand through his hair. “What are you asking?”

  “Did it take her getting married for you to realize that you want her?”

  “What if it did? I know it sounds stupid, but maybe I thought we would get back together somehow. But when she told me she was getting married...”

  “You could have tried to stop her.”

  He shook his head. “I thought about it. But she was marrying a wealthy businessman.” He shrugged. “I couldn’t compete with that. I wished her the best. What else could I do?”

  “So what’s changed?”

  He stepped to the fireplace and rested his arm on the mantel. “He doesn’t deserve her.” He shrugged again. “When I realized Drey was in trouble, nothing else mattered but making sure she was all right.”

  “Not the past?”

  Hawk shook his head. “Drey and I have talked. In the past all we did was fight. Things have come out that have changed things. That’s why I just want this to be over. Once the truth comes out about Ethan Baxter...he’ll be history.”

  “He might not be guilty in all this. Then what?”

  “He’s guilty enough and I suspect more will
come out tomorrow. She can divorce him.”

  “If she wants to after tomorrow. Don’t get ahead of yourself, little brother,” Flint said and got to his feet. “Whatever we find out tomorrow, Drey is going to need time.”

  Hawk nodded, although the thought made him anxious. They’d already lost so much time. “Let’s just see how it all goes down tomorrow. If Ethan Baxter is in that house...” He shook his head.

  “I need to get home,” Flint said and started toward the door. “You going to be all right?”

  “I am, knowing that Drey should be at Lillie’s by now.”

  “Try to get some sleep and don’t leave this house.”

  “No problem,” he said sarcastically. He looked at his watch. Cyrus should be back soon, he thought. He thought about waiting up for him, but maybe he would try to get some sleep. It was that or get drunk.

  But first he had to call Drey.

  * * *

  AT THE GATE, Jet demanded the code. Drey gave it to him, knowing from the look on his face that he would get it from her one way or another anyway.

  As they drove in, she looked around for the FBI. Not that they would be out in the open but right now she needed some sign that they were still watching. That they had a clue about what was going on. Not that she expected them to do anything until morning. They were after Ethan—not Jet.

  “Looking for the FBI?” Jet asked, amusement in his tone. “Wastin’ your time. They’re only interested in Ethan.”

  The house came into view and this time the premonition felt too real. But if she was going to die here, she had to know why.

  “What do you want from me?” she asked, hating that her voice broke.

  He seemed surprised by the question. “Just a little help with a problem we have. You’ll see.” He glanced in the rearview mirror at Lena. He gave her a satisfied look as if now everything was finally working out.

  She couldn’t understand why they were taking her back to the house. Before, with the pills, it was as if they hadn’t wanted her around. Now they needed her? That didn’t make sense. Her heart pounded harder. She couldn’t imagine how she would be able to get away from these two. Her only hope was finding out as much as she could.

  “Ethan didn’t call you from Mexico City, did he?” Drey said.

  Jet laughed. “Seriously? You really believed that?”

  “She still wants to believe that he’s her prince come to save her from her doldrums in life,” Lena said and scoffed.

  “You said we were going to see him soon,” Drey reminded him.

  “True enough. So he couldn’t be in Mexico City, now, could he?” He pulled into the underground garage, parked and used Ethan’s phone to close the door. She recognized it and wondered how he’d gotten into it. Maybe Ethan had a backup pass code that Jet had figured out. Or—

  The lights went out, pitching them into darkness for a few moments until the lights came on.

  He chuckled as he pocketed the phone. “Ethan really thought of everything, didn’t he? Too bad his system still has a glitch in it.” He turned to Drey. “Get out.”

  Drey started to, thinking this might be her chance to make a run for it. But even as she thought it, she knew she couldn’t outrun a bullet—or Jet for that matter.

  Not that she was given a chance to run. Lena jumped out of the SUV and grabbed hold of the back of her jacket. She still had the gun pointed at her. Jet came around the vehicle and grabbed Drey’s arm. “Come on. Let’s get this done. Keep the gun on her just in case she does something stupid.”

  They all three moved to the elevator. Once inside the small glassed-in box, Jet hit the button she noticed for the floor with the conference and guest rooms. That was where Ethan was meeting them?

  Drey felt sick to her stomach in the small space with the two of them. Jet still had a tight grip on her arm. In the reflection of the three of them in the glass-sided elevator, she could see that Lena kept the gun trained on her. Why were they so afraid she might get away?

  “What are we doing?” she asked. Jet had Ethan’s phone. He could operate all of the house with it. Why did he need her?

  “We ran into a couple of small problems,” Jet said. “Ethan lied to me about where he planned to put a few things. Like the safe. It took me forever to find it,” he said with a curse. “Ethan did one hell of a job hiding it.”

  “That’s what you’ve been looking for,” she said. The elevator stopped. Jet dragged her off, Lena following in their wake as he led her into one of the conference rooms.

  “Ethan and all his hidden rooms,” he said under his breath. “What kills me is all this high-tech security. Only a man swimming in money would go to these extremes. It was like he thought doomsday was coming.”

  Both Jet and Lena laughed. “And he was right,” Lena said. “He just didn’t expect it to come so soon for him.”

  “I still don’t understand,” Drey said. “If you found the safe—”

  “Opening it turned out to be a small problem,” Lena said. “That’s where you come in.”

  “I don’t know the combination.” She hadn’t even known there was a safe hidden somewhere in the house. But she should have. Of course Ethan would have one. Was that where he planned to put the money he had sent to her?

  “What’s in the safe that you’re so desperate for?” she asked not really expecting him to tell her. Something Jet wanted or needed so badly that he’d kept her drugged up while he searched for it, she realized.

  “Everything I need to keep from going to prison and more,” he said with a smile as he pressed a spot on the wall and the panel began to slowly slide back to reveal a huge safe.

  She stared at it, wondering how they thought she was going to be able to help them open it.

  Jet reached into his pocket and took out a small plastic bag.

  She recoiled when she saw what was inside.

  “Surprise,” he said as he carefully withdrew the thumb with obvious distaste.

  “Oh my God.” Drey took a step back only to run into Lena and the barrel of the gun she had on her. “It is Ethan’s.” That was how he’d opened her husband’s phone.

  Jet was studying the thumb and looking unhappy. “I’m not sure how much longer this is going to be any good. It’s now or never.”

  Lena pushed her toward the safe.

  “First yours,” Jet said as he grabbed Drey’s hand and dragged her closer to the safe. Her hands were trembling as he wrenched her thumb to turn it and force her thumb pad against the small glowing disk.

  A green light came on and pulsed before turning red again.

  Jet grinned and shoved her back at Lena. “Just as I thought. My brother, the crafty bastard.” He pressed Ethan’s thumb to the glowing disk on the front of the safe and seemed to hold his breath. She could see Jet’s expectant face. He was almost salivating.

  Nothing happened. He pressed the thumb again and swore. “I should have left it in the freezer.” He gave Drey a withering look as if it was all her fault. She gagged and tried not to throw up. Ethan’s thumb.

  “You killed your own brother?” she cried. She didn’t want to think about how Jet had gotten it, but she suspected it meant Ethan was dead. Had been dead this whole time? She gagged again.

  “I just took his thumb,” Jet said. “If he had simply opened the safe, he would still have it.” Her stomach roiled. “Don’t you dare throw up,” he warned.

  “I told you we should have made the glue copy,” Lena was saying. “They walk you right through it on the internet. But you were so sure it took the real thing. Now what are we going to do?”

  Drey couldn’t believe this. Ethan’s safe took both of their prints? As a precaution because he knew his brother?

  “We have no choice,” Jet said with a curse. He threw the thumb across the room. It slid on the white marble, coming to rest next to
one of the conference chair legs.

  “There’s only one thing to do.” Jet looked at Lena. “We’ll have to use the other one of Ethan’s thumbs, which means it’s time to pay my brother a visit.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  LILLIE ANSWERED ON the first ring. “So? Did she change her mind?”

  Hawk’s stomach dropped as his heart began to pound. “What?”

  “Drey? She decided to stay with you, right? I knew you both would come to your senses and realize you belong together.” She sounded delighted at that prospect. “Maybe she can get the marriage annulled or something, I don’t know, and then—”

  “Lillie.” His blood ran cold. “What are you saying? Drey isn’t there?” He knew the kind of people they were dealing with. Look what Jet and Lena had already done to Drey. If they had her—

  “Drey? No. I thought she was with you.” Fear immediately made his sister’s voice break. “Hawk, she texted and said she was sorry but she had other plans.”

  Hawk let out a curse. “That’s all she said in her text?”

  “Yes, I just thought she was with you. Tell me she hasn’t gone back to that house.”

  “I have to go.” He disconnected, his mind spinning. She wouldn’t have gone back to the house. Not unless she was forced to.

  * * *

  DREY DIDN’T WANT to believe Jet’s words meant what she knew they had to. Get the other one? The other thumb? She shuddered at the thought. But at the same time, she felt a sliver of hope. That meant they were going to wherever Ethan was. Ethan really was in this house. Hawk had said it could be what was called a billionaire bunker. She had no idea what that meant, but even if it was a fancy bomb shelter, she didn’t believe Ethan was hiding there. But she feared, she was about to find out.

  Was it possible he really had been watching her all this time on his latest-technology surveillance equipment? No, she thought with a shudder as she glanced at the thumb lying on the floor. What kind of shape was Ethan in if he was already missing one thumb?

  “Stay here,” Jet ordered. She heard him take the stairs down to the kitchen. She kept thinking about Ethan, somewhere in this house, missing one thumb. Alive? Was it possible? But wouldn’t he have left to seek medical attention? If he could have.