by Wild Horses
“I’ll see you,” she offered at last, extending her hand.
He clasped it in both of his, squeezing, enjoying the feel of her soft skin against his one more time. “See you.”
She waited a beat longer, cool wind brushing her hair. When she made no move to withdraw her hand, he reluctantly did so first. She took a step back. So did he. A half smile was her goodbye, then she turned and fled, stepping off the porch with quick steps and moving for the car. She didn’t look back as she climbed in the passenger seat.
Too soon the car was off and Adam expelled a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, that vise on his chest squeezing harder.
“Well.” Carlee came to stand next to him and knocked his elbow with hers. “That was a really epic goodbye.”
“So romantic,” Dewey agreed.
“I had tears.”
“Oh, me too.”
“That’s enough,” Gus said before Adam had to. “Tash called—said to meet her in town for coffee to go over some things, if you would.”
Of course he would. Adam nodded, staring still as the car turned out of the driveway and disappeared past the hills in the distance.
****
Tash was waiting at the coffee shop but not inside; instead she sat in the truck bed out front, just down the road from the Bar and Grill, a folder in her hands. She was dressed similar to the day before but now her hair was tied back in a ponytail and a baseball hat shaded her face despite not being needed with the lack of sun.
Adam parked his truck next to hers. It was the old one they didn’t use much, Gus’s good one out for detailing since the day before. Tash made no move to rise, so he joined her on the truck bed.
The day seemed even darker, dampness hovering. Wind strengthened and Adam sensed a storm approaching. “So what’ve you got?”
“First, I’ve got your culprit from Friday night.”
Wait, what? “You did?”
“Yup.” She grinned, exposing white teeth. “Easy, too. Talked to the cops. Remember the Hartford Jamboree the week before?”
Hartford was a tiny neighboring town, barely a street to drive through. “Yeah.”
“Two seventeen-year-old boys and a sixteen-year-old girl broke in looking for liquor the night before. Stole some beer, trashed things. Not the first time they’ve done it, either.”
So not that much different than Gus’s assumption. He wasn’t entirely certain if he found that a relief or not. “How did they get in? Nothing was actually broken.”
“Oh!” She slapped his knee. “The best part. Girl’s actually the ringleader and she’s Mr. Young’s daughter. You know, the guy who runs the locksmith on the side?”
Son of a bitch. Breath blew past his lips as he exhaled. “That’s...good news, I guess.”
“Yeah, the brat was caught along with her minions. She’s caused all kinds of shit in town—I’m hoping he ships her off to reform school.”
Goddamn kids. They screwed around at the farms now and then but never so overtly—always on the fringes normally. And with that being the case...
Maybe Dani left for nothing?
“So she’s safe?” He glanced at Tash, the flare of hope burning against his breastbone almost too much to bear. “She didn’t need to leave?”
“Didn’t say that.” And she nodded at the folder. “Just the Friday night was accounted for—not your other vandal who possessed such colorful names for Dani.” She lifted her hand and pointed across the street. “See Carlos’s Variety over there?”
“He was robbed last fall?”
“Yep.” The folder fell open, revealing a stack of black and white photos, all on the grainy side. “Security cam was the best purchase he ever made on eBay and he will be happy to tell you this in great detail, which I had to listen to for forty-three minutes until he finally let me in the back room.”
Adam glanced over the first photo—it showed the front of the Bar and Grill, timestamp putting it at Monday night, near dusk.
“It’s not a straight video or anything,” she explained as she sat the first aside and went to the second. “Eight second intervals. Again, his big eBay purchase. So then we have here...”
The picture flopped in the wind as she raised it, and Adam took it to study the image. No license plate visible but he’d recognize it anywhere. “The farm’s truck.”
“Right.” She slapped the next photo down in his hands. “You and Dani Girl heading inside.”
There they were, hand in hand. Just the back of them, barely visible, but he recognized her miniskirt and dark hair.
“And then—” The next picture cut over the last. “You’re inside by this point. I left ones from the next thirty seconds back in the truck, but this one here,” she tapped the photo where a car was pulling up in front of Carlos’s, across from the Bar and Grill, “someone pulls up and just sits there. For like an hour.”
He stared at the car. Lighter color, four doors. Tough to make out details and, again, it wasn’t at the right angle for a license plate. His stomach tightened, dread rising. “Did anyone get out?”
“Not right away.”
“Did anyone see who was in it?”
“Hold on.” She grabbed the next security photo, time stamped an hour later, and sure enough, the car still sat there—and he and Dani had left the restaurant by then, the pair of them near the car. “Someone,” Tash said in a stage whisper as she stacked the following photo on top, “was very naughty in a public place.”
There were the two of them sneaking into the alley. “If you could maybe lose that one before Gus is scandalized by it, that would be great.”
“Will do. Anyway, ten minutes later, you left...” First she showed him their truck driving off, then immediately the next photo. “...our mystery driver stays and he finally gets out. Now look where he goes.”
And there was the man disappearing into the alley where he and Dani had just been. Ice blasted through him, his body suddenly chilled and it wasn’t the wind. Gooseflesh spread as he stared at the man slipping between the buildings.
“Last one, he comes out a few minutes later and goes back to the car. He left but there’s still no license plate.”
Adam plucked the last photo from her—the one with the man walking back to his vehicle. He narrowed his eyes, drawing it closer...
And paled.
“Get in the truck, Tash.”
“What—”
But Adam was already hopping off the truck bed, the stack of photos fluttering behind him.
****
Dani stared out the passenger window at the clouds gathering. She’d managed not to glance in the rearview mirror while they drove away from the ranch, chancing a look only after she knew she’d never catch a glimpse of it.
Gus invited me back—this isn’t forever. But she knew how easily things could change. Maybe she’d get to come back in a month. Maybe two. Maybe six months or a year.
And maybe everything would be different.
“You’re quiet,” Randy said.
She cast a wan smile his way before looking back at the window. “Well, someone stalks and threatens you, it takes the wind out your sails. Probably. If people stalk sailboats. Which I don’t think they do, but you know what I mean.” Even my rambling metaphors are off.
“You weren’t really threatened—”
“Uh, Randy? He did follow me around and write ‘whore’ all over the building where I slept.”
“That’s not...threatening, per se. Just...”
“Making a statement of fact?” She cocked a brow, looking at him skeptically, and shook her head. “Please. It sure as hell wasn’t a love letter.”
“Well, it wasn’t like you responded to those.”
A chill walked her spine and her heart thumped harder. She breathed deep and tried to change the subject to shake the feeling. “So Therese had to work?”
“Can’t get away on Thursdays.”
“That’s too bad. But, well, thanks for coming all the
way out to get me. Maybe you guys can come with me if I visit again. Therese would have fun, I think.”
Randy said nothing.
Therese should be here now. She’d been hoping her friend could at least glimpse Adam. All this time and she’d never...
Dani frowned. “Hey, did she say if she ever got my message? I called her on the weekend.”
His eyes were steady on the road. “I don’t remember.”
She still watched him, heart rate rising as the seconds ticked on. “It just doesn’t seem like her not to call me back.”
“She’s been busy.”
Too busy not to call back her best friend? Especially when I mention wanting to talk boys?
The rain started, just sprinkling but the windshield wipers came on, punctuating the silence with a squeak every few seconds.
Randy’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.
Dani’s pulse kicked into high drive and it took all of her energy to keep her breathing calm. Tension spread through her, coiling her nerves tight. “Maybe she just didn’t get it.”
“Maybe,” he responded.
She studied him in her peripheral vision while he stared at the road, keeping the car at a steady speed. He was bigger than her. A lot bigger. Could’ve passed for a linebacker with those shoulders if not for the glasses, which always gave him a harmless, geeky sort of look.
Which caused her to underestimate him.
“Oh shit!” Dani slumped in her seat and mock-smacked her forehead. “I forgot my damn boots. We haven’t been gone that long—can we swing back?”
“They can mail them,” he said.
“It’s just that I paid a lot of money for them—”
“I said, no!”
She froze from head to toe, scarcely daring to breathe.
“I’m sorry.” His tone softened. “You just...” Once more he flexed his hands on the wheel. “You walk all over people sometimes, Dani, and you don’t appreciate what you have.”
Shit. SHIT. “What do I have?” she asked in a small voice.
“Me!” He turned to her, exasperation clear in his eyes. “You’ve always had me and you just...” Randy turned back to the road, a sense of cold calmness falling over his expression once more. “I know you know it. You see it. Feel it. I care about Therese too, but...”
“Randy, pull over the car.”
His jaw set. “But you just had to be such a fucking slut. Begging her to call and talk about some idiot you just met. Really, Dani? Outside of a restaurant? You’re better than that!”
Tremors rocked her straight down to her marrow, terror palpable and blasting adrenalin through her veins. “Pull over the goddamn car now!”
“Blogging about it? That was what that moron doctor thought would piss me off? No, whoring around with the cowboy—ignoring me, pretending you don’t love me—”
She reached and grasped the steering wheel, jerking it in her direction.
Tires squealed, the vehicle careening to the side. Randy fought for control, yanking the wheel back. The road was slick with rain, tires sliding back and forth across the empty country road.
He gave her a backhanded swipe, cracking her across the face. She shot against the passenger door, pain blooming through her lip and cheek. Something warm and wet trickled from her nose, tasting of copper. Once more, Randy locked both hands on the wheel, fighting for control of the car as it slipped over the shoulder toward the ditch.
He eased on the accelerator, slowing them.
Dani reacted, popping open her seatbelt and reaching for the door in the same movement.
Randy saw her, cursed, reached—she narrowly missed being caught before the door swung open. They neared the ditch, wet grass and dirt rising up as the car swerved.
She jumped.
Chapter Nineteen
Tash hung up her cell phone. “Gus just talked to Dani’s friend Therese—she has no idea what’s going on. Randy was supposedly on a business trip. And her cell phone’s missing.”
Adam tightened his grip on the steering wheel, fear rising. “Police?”
“He’s going to call again now—I think there’s enough information to suggest kidnapping now.”
Not that they’re equipped to handle it. Regular break-ins, vandalism—the local police dealt with that. Anything bigger, he honestly had his doubts. Everyone knew Devin killed Chelsea but despite months of investigations, they supposedly didn’t find enough evidence. He had no faith in them when it came to finding Dani now.
Adam expelled a shuddering breath, flexed his fingers again, and stared past the rain as it began to strike the windshield. The country road ahead of him was mostly empty, their vehicle passing only a handful of cars along the way and none of them Randy’s. Far ahead, the highway was in sight, cars sloshing through growing puddles of rain and trucks speeding by.
“We should’ve caught up to them by now,” he said.
Tash drummed her fingers on the dashboard. “Okay, you guys said he was stalking her—like, sending notes and stuff, right? How he’ll find her? He’s that ‘I think we’re in a relationship’ type?”
“I think so, yeah.”
“So he’s unraveling.” Tash stared straight ahead, frowning deeply as she thought. She’d discarded the baseball cap and humidity left turned dark curls that had slipped from her ponytail into tight springs. “He’s not going to keep this up and take her back to the city—grab the next left before hitting the highway. Surf country roads—I’m gonna put out some feelers and see if anyone has seen the vehicle.”
****
The moment Dani’s knees hit the grass, she remembered something about supposedly rolling when leaping from a moving car, but then she didn’t have much experience with it, so those lessons never materialized. Instead, she landed hard, immediately tumbling forward into the ditch. Her hands came out to stop her fall, left striking something sharp. Could be a stone, could be glass—she didn’t know, didn’t care, the pain distant.
Dani glanced up through tangled damp hair as tires screeched, Randy’s car careening too far to correct. It wheeled off the road, hitting the ditch several yards ahead of her.
Barely a breath passed her lips before she was scrambling up, onto her feet, gripping wet grass to give her leverage as she climbed up the ditch. An empty field and woods beyond awaited her, broken wire fence sectioning it off. She bolted forward, feet slipping on grass and mud.
The car door opened behind her.
She ducked and slipped between the fence, wire catching her hair and tugging on her scalp. The field beyond was neglected, weeds and grass tall, no signs of animals. Several of the farms were up for sale and of course it was her luck that she ended up in an abandoned one.
“Dani!”
Shit. The bellow set her skin crawling. She trudged through the field, rain slicking down her face and soaking her clothes. A brisk wind sliced through her, chilling her to the bone. Her gaze scanned the area as she ran, searching for any sign of shelter—like, preferably shelter with a phone.
Or a shotgun.
She darted for the line of trees and wished like hell she knew the area better. In town was one thing, but out in the country was another—she didn’t even know what direction she ran in, especially without the sun to navigate.
Her heart beat like it was about to burst from her chest and breaths came in panting gasps. Just as she reached the trees, she glanced over her shoulder. Randy had made it through the fence and was still gunning for her.
She bit back a curse and slipped among the trees. Far less rain hit her, just the occasional fat drop falling from the leaves. Between the trucks, she spotted another field and a house this time.
Thank God.
Dani ran.
****
“There!” Tash pointed ahead.
Adam leaned forward, squinting. The windshield wipers slapped violently at the rain, which poured heavily and steadily now, ruining visibility. He slowed the truck to a crawl and then saw it—a vehicle in t
he ditch, front doors gaping open. The car was silver, four doors, and dread sank like a lead ball in his gut when he recognized it.
He pulled to the shoulder and braked, facing the other car. It was definitely empty—he scanned the fields but saw no one.
Tash grabbed her hoodie from behind the seat and angled her arms into it. “Stay here and—”
“Like hell I am.” He reached for the door handle.
She sighed and started dialing. “At least wait while I call—”
But he’d already thrown open the door and was slipping outside.
Rain hammered him hard right away, soaking his hair and T-shirt, and making it uncomfortable to move in wet jeans. He approached the other car but saw nothing—no sign of anyone. Did they struggle? Did Dani get away?
He’d seen her get in the passenger side—that faced the fenced off field to his left. Adam jogged in that direction, the wind cutting over Tash’s voice as she shouted behind him.
****
The house was empty.
Almost literally empty. Boarded up, at one point, though the boards had been removed over some of the windows—probably by kids. Dani had climbed through to survey the place and found nothing of use. A torn up couch. Trash. Random mattress. More beer bottles than she could count.
No phone.
A stale, musty smell hung in the air, probably from water damage and however long the place had been closed up. Little light from the gray day outside slipped through the boarded windows and she didn’t bother with any of the switches. Worry had her stomach twisted up and heart thumping erratically.
Dying here would be like something out of a horror movie and she refused. Steel wove through her spine, strengthening her, and she bolted for the stairs in search of something that might help.
Steps creaked under her feet, the carpet muffling the slaps of her shoes but doing nothing about the old floorboards beneath. Upstairs was as dark as below, if not more so in the narrow hall of partially closed bedroom doors. Dani glanced around for the room that would face the field so she could see if he—