by Elle James
“Maybe I just want you dead.” The man stepped out of the shadows, wearing a mask over his eyes and nose.
He had a strong chin, olive-toned skin and the haze of a five-o’clock shadow darkening his chin.
“You have me now,” Emily said, walking toward him with her hands in the air. “Let them go.”
“I have the gun,” he grumbled. “I call the shots.” He motioned for her to stop. “Get down on your knees and put your hands behind your back.”
A van stood to the man’s left, half-hidden in the brush, with a sliding door opened wide.
Emily knew once in the van, she didn’t have much of a chance to get away. Still, he was one man against the three women. Though Molly and Brenna had their hands zip-tied behind their backs, their legs were free. They could run.
Scenarios ran through Emily’s mind as she knelt in front of the man and placed her hands behind her back.
He threw a plastic zip-tie at Brenna’s feet. “Secure her wrists.”
Brenna spit at the man. “I’m all tied up. Do it yourself.”
The man fired the gun. The bullet hit the ground two feet in front of Brenna.
She jerked backward, her eyes wide. “Bastard!”
Emily held her breath until she was certain neither Brenna nor Molly had been hit. She let the air out of her lungs and urged Brenna, “Do what he said.”
Brenna turned to pick up the plastic tie with her hands cinched behind her back. Then she crawled across the ground to where Emily knelt, holding her wrists behind her back.
Emily held her hands as far apart as she could, without appearing too obvious. Brenna struggled, but managed to apply the zip-tie. It appeared tight but was very loose when Emily relaxed her hands.
“In the van,” their captor said. “And don’t try anything funny. I’d just as soon shoot your sister as look at her.”
“What do you want from us?”
“I want what’s mine,” he said. “Get in the van.”
Emily struggled to stand and waited while Brenna leaned against her in order for them both to rise to their feet.
Molly straightened and looked from Emily to Brenna.
A plan formed in Emily’s mind. If she could get them to move toward the van, they could use the van for cover and run into the woods.
As Brenna passed Emily, she whispered, “Be ready to run,”
“All of us?” she murmured.
“Yes.”
“Be careful,” Brenna said.
“Shut up and get in!” their captor shouted.
While Brenna and Molly were moving toward the van, Emily inched forward until she was close to the man holding the gun.
Once Brenna and Molly were past her and close enough to the van to take cover, she made her move, diving toward the man, slamming into the hand holding the gun. He fell to the ground, the gun falling free of his grip and sliding across a bed of dried leaves before coming to a halt a few feet away.
Emily landed on top of him. She pulled her hands free of the bindings and scrambled across the man, reaching for the gun. If she could get to it first, they had a chance.
An arm encircled her waist and flung her away from the weapon.
Emily rolled to her feet and glanced behind her at the man with the mask.
Brenna and Molly stood frozen to the spot in front of the open van door.
“Run,” Emily screamed.
“Not without you,” Brenna answered.
“I’ll be okay. Just run!” Emily begged.
Instead of running away, Brenna ran toward her sister.
“No,” Emily cried.
The man scrambled across the ground, grabbed the gun and rolled onto his back, pointing the weapon up at Emily. “Move, and I shoot.”
Emily stared down the barrel of the pistol and knew she’d lost her chance. If Brenna and Molly hadn’t run, her effort to do the right thing would have been wasted.
“Now, get int the van. All of you.” He rose to his feet, holding the pistol steady.
Emily turned to find her sister and Molly had indeed left. Her heart soared. She could endure anything, knowing her sister would be all right.
“That’s right. Stay away if you don’t care whether or not your sister dies,” he called out.
“We care,” Brenna’s voice sounded from the other side of the van. She emerged into the open, hands in the air.
“Then let’s do it once and get it right this time,” he said. “Get into the van.”
Brenna and Molly stepped up into the van.
Emily crossed the clearing and was in the process of raising a foot to get into the van when a voice gave her pause.
“Put down your gun and step away from the van.”
All the air whooshed out of Emily’s lungs. She recognized that voice. Her heart swelled with love and relief. Setting her foot back on the ground, she turned to find Colin standing in the sunlight, like an avenging Viking, coming to claim his lady.
“Go ahead,” the man in the mask taunted. “Shoot. But you’d better do it before I pull the trigger on your girlfriend.
A shot rang out.
The man in the mask staggered backward, clutching at his chest. He fell to his knees and toppled over onto his face then laid still.
As Colin moved forward to take Emily into his arms, more men appeared, rising out of the underbrush, like ghosts coming to life.
Hank Patterson was one of the men. He knelt beside the man on the ground, turned him over onto his back and pushed the mask off his face. Then he pressed two fingers to the base of his throat, feeling for signs of life. “He’s alive.”
“Who is he?” Emily asked.
Swede joined Hank, standing in front of the man on the ground. “He’s Silas Hunt.” Swede reached into Hunt’s pocket and pulled out his cellphone. “His was one of the numbers listed on Alex Tremont’s secret phone. Known for his connections to the mafia, he’s considered dangerous and doesn’t play nicely with others. I bet if they do a ballistics match on his gun and the bullet they found in Alex’s vehicle, it’ll match.”
“That bastard…” Silas Hunt coughed, his lungs rattling with the effort. “He stole more than a hundred thousand dollars from me. I needed that money. It isn’t mine.”
“Guess your luck has run out,” Sheriff Barron said, as he approached from the direction of the highway. “You won’t get to spend that money where you’re going.”
“I should have killed the bitch myself,” Silas muttered. “Keats botched the job at every attempt and didn’t have the decency to die when he was shot.”
The wail of a siren sounded in the distance.
An ambulance arrived. The emergency medical technicians loaded Silas Hunt into the back and carried him away to the hospital in Bozeman.
Sheriff Barron followed to make sure Hunt made it there and wasn’t waylaid along the way by his own people or the folks he owed money.
Hank and Swede cut the zip-ties off Brenna and Molly’s wrists and loaded them into Hank’s truck to transport them to the Iron Horse Ranch house.
Colin slipped an arm around Emily’s waist and escorted her through the trees and out onto the road. They walked a tenth of a mile until they reached the spot where he’d hidden his truck and walked in on foot to stop Silas from shooting Emily.
“How did you know I was in trouble?”
“Silas must have been monitoring the law enforcement radios and knew when my brothers had gone out to investigate the campfire. He called my mother with a false report that my brothers’ vehicle had broken down and they needed me to bring my truck to transport the horse trailer back to the ranch.” Colin stopped beside the passenger door. “When I got out there and learned they didn’t need my truck, I knew something was wrong and hurried back to town.”
“Did you find me because of this?” She held up the necklace Hank had given her with the GPS tracking device.
He nodded. “Hank was the first person I called when I got in phone range. He guided me to th
is spot while he and his team were headed in the same direction. We just happened to converge on the location at the same time.”
“Remind me to thank Hank and his team.” She stared up at Colin. “And, Colin…”
“Yes, dear,” he said, circling the back of her neck with his hand.
“I love you and don’t want to go another day without you in it or another minute without telling you how I feel.” She let out a relieved breath. “There. I said it. And I don’t need any more time to think about where I want to be in the future. I want to be with you. If that’s following you around from post to post, I’m game. As long as I get to see you occasionally, I’ll be happy. And when you retire from the Marine Corps, I’d like to come back to my home in Montana.”
He swept her up in his arms and kissed her until she was lightheaded from lack of air.
“Those are the sweetest words I’ve ever heard. I love you, Emily. And I promise to love and protect you for the rest of your life.” He set her on her feet and dropped to one knee. “This might not be the best time or place, and I don’t have the ring you deserve, but I want to get this out before you change your mind…” He took her hand in his. “Emily, will you marry me?”
She laughed and dropped down to her knees in front of him. “Yes, Colin. And I’m not going to change my mind. I love you to the stars and back.”
Epilogue
Colin stood in the living room of the Iron Horse ranch house with Emily curled into the crook of his arm, feeling better than he’d felt in a very long time.
His family had gathered to share the evening meal.
Angus’s fiancée, Bree Lansing, sat on the couch beside him. They’d invited her widowed mother to come to dinner as well. She stood by Colin’s mother, talking recipes and animal husbandry.
Duncan and his fiancée Fiona sat on the floor, playing with their baby Caity. Molly played peek-a-boo along with them. Caity giggled and swung her chubby fist at Molly, making her laugh.
Sebastian stood with Parker Bailey, Iron Horse Ranch’s foreman, talking about the fences that needed mending the next day.
The only person missing was their father, James McKinnon, which saddened Colin’s heart.
But he couldn’t be completely despondent. Not now. “Emily and I have an announcement to make,” he said in a clear, loud voice.
“Let me guess,” Sebastian said. “She’s completely lost her mind and agreed to marry your sorry ass.”
Colin frowned at his brother. But the frown couldn’t stay in place. He was too happy to be cranky with his brother. “You got that right. I asked, she said yes and as soon as we find Dad, we’re getting married.”
His mother clasped her hands together. “Thank God.”
Everyone in the room laughed and swarmed around him and Emily, congratulating them.
“What? No ring?” Sebastian held up Emily’s left hand, bare of any jewelry. “What kind of proposal is that?”
Emily beamed up at Colin. “The best.”
He kissed her and held her close for a long moment. “We need to get this ball rolling. Dad’s been gone long enough.”
“Too long,” Molly concurred.
“What do we have so far?” Duncan asked the room full of people.
“A ring Roy stole off Silas Hunt and a co-op card that had been in Dad’s wallet when he disappeared.”
“I get the feeling he’s leaving breadcrumbs for us to follow,” their mother said, her brow furrowed. “We just need to follow them.”
A knock sounded on the front door.
“That must be Hank Patterson. He said he had some news and wanted to deliver it in person,” Colin had let the man through the gate minutes earlier.
His mother hurried to the door to let the man in. He was followed by his computer guru, Swede.
He glanced around the room with a smile. “I’m sorry, am I interrupting a family reunion?”
“Not at all,” Colin’s mother said.
Hank turned to the man bringing up the rear behind Swede. “I ran into Sheriff Barron at the gate and thought you wouldn’t mind if I let him in behind us.”
“Please. Come in,” Mrs. McKinnon said, waving the three gentlemen into the rapidly filling living area. “We were just going over what we had in our search for my husband. Please tell me you have something to add.”
“As a matter of fact,” Hank said. “We do.”
“And so do I,” the sheriff said. “I have more news from Silas Hunt.”
The family gathered around, all anxious to hear what they had to say.
Hank nodded toward the sheriff. “You go first.”
“Silas confessed to hiring thugs like Roy Keats to try to run Emily off the road and torch her house. He was also the one who ransacked it searching for the money Alex embezzled from his accounts. But he swears he had nothing to do with the explosion in the vault at the bank that destroyed Alex’s safe deposit box and the ledger he had stored there.”
“What about my father’s ring? Did Silas own up to where he got that?”
The sheriff nodded. “He said one of his minions showed up one day wearing it. He suspected the man was working another mercenary gig on the side. He took the ring from him and then fired him. He kept the ring in his pocket, knowing that if he was caught with it, he’d be accused of kidnapping or murder.”
“Did he ask his minion where he got it?”
“Silas said the guy refused to say and get anyone else in trouble.”
“Who was his minion? We need to question him,” Angus said.
“Not going to do any good,” the sheriff said. “Remember that clip a week or so ago on the evening news about a motorcycle rider getting hit by a tractor trailer rig?”
“That was him?” Bree asked.
The sheriff nodded. “Died instantly.”
“Convenient,” Sebastian muttered.
Emily frowned. “If Silas wasn’t responsible for the explosion, who was?”
“We don’t have an answer for that, but we might have a starting point,” Swede said. He looked to the sheriff. “May I?”
The sheriff waved a hand, giving him the floor.
Swede held up Alex’s secret cellphone. “I hacked into this phone number’s records and tracked down as many of the numbers called by this one. I found several to Silas Hunt or associates of his. One was an international number to a bank in the Cayman Islands.” He grinned. “Naturally, I strolled through the bank’s database and came up with an account under Alex Tremont’s accounting firm. The man had a lot of money set aside for a rainy day.” He smiled at Emily. “You’ll be happy to know, he put your name on the account. The money is yours. All you have to do is get in touch with the bank and claim it.”
“Just how much is there?” Emily asked.
“Over a million dollars,” Swede sad. “Some of the transfers came from accounts belonging to Silas Hunt. Others were from legitimate businesses. But there was an account for a corporation. I tried to poke around in the corporation’s records to see if I could find out who owns it.” Swede’s lips twisted. “I’m not saying I can’t get through the security firewall. But I am saying I can’t get through…yet. We’re wondering if another one of Alex’s dirty customers is afraid his information will get out and that’s why they destroyed the vault at the bank in Bozeman.”
“What would that have to do with our father?” Molly asked.
“The convict escaped to find the money he stole. Silas came looking for the money Alex stole from him,” Hank said. “Who’s to say Alex didn’t work with other unsavory characters who are now desperate to keep their secrets safe?”
“Looks like we have more work to do here.” Angus faced Hank. “Can we continue to count on you and your Brotherhood Protectors to help with the technical work?”
“You bet,” Hank said. “And if you should need any of my guys for anything else, just give me a shout. We’re here to help. And if any of you plan on getting out of the military and are looking for a civilian
occupation…come talk to me. I can always use more good men.” With that parting comment, Hank and Swede left the house.
With dinner over and the exciting news shared, family members left to go to their respective bedrooms or homes in town.
Colin took Emily’s hand and walked with her up the stairs. “Will you be moving in with me?”
She snorted. “No. We’re not married. And though your mother would be fine with it, now that we’re engaged, I still feel like I should sleep in the room next to yours.”
“Okay.”
Emily frowned. “You’re giving up already?”
He lifted his shoulder and let it drop. “You make a good point. And you’ve agreed to marry me. I can wait for you to move in with me until after we take our vows.” He gripped her around the waist and spun her to face him. “As long as you agree to a speedy wedding.” Then he kissed her long and hard, caressing her tongue in a slow, sensuous slide.
“I said I wouldn’t move in with you until we were married. I didn’t say sex was out of the question.”
Colin’s eyes widened with his grin. “In that case…” he took her hand and led her toward the stairs.
She planted her feet, bringing them both to an abrupt halt at the base of the staircase. With a sassy gleam in her eyes, she gave him a sly grin. “First one to the top, gets to be on top.”
Colin took the steps two at a time, slowing the closer he got to the landing above.
Emily reached it first. “Hey, you let me win.”
“Damn right I did. I’m all about letting women be on the top. Now, I can’t wait to collect my prize.”
“There aren’t any prizes,” she said with a chuckle.
“Au contraire, my sweet Emily. I’m the luckiest man alive. I won the lottery when you agreed to marry me.”
“That makes us both winners,” she said and stood on her toes to plant a kiss on his lips. “Now, quit stallin’, I won that race up the stairs, and I’m collecting on my prize.” She took his hand and led him into his bedroom where they made love late into the night, rocking the squeaky spring until they both vowed to shoot it the next morning.
Montana SEAL