Taming the Rancher: Mail Order Bride (Brides and Twins Book 2)

by Natalie Dean

  The car sped up, but David’s car was much faster. Almost immediately, she was right behind him. She saw David whip out his handgun and start to roll down the window.

  “Hey!” she looked over at him. “What are you doing? You can’t shoot him!”

  “Give me one good reason!”

  “One, it’s illegal! Two, Ellie could be in there! Three, we don’t even know if it’s him!”

  She was almost sure it was their guy, but if she was wrong, they couldn’t just shoot him. She gunned it to try to make it beside him. The car engine roared, as they caught up with him.

  There, cooped up in the car, was none other than Jacob Jackson.

  He looked over at them. When he locked eyes with Adrianna, his eyes widened, and he snarled. He was a giant, which had been obvious in the mall but grew even clearer right then. His head was almost scraping the ceiling. He absolutely dwarfed Agent Stone, which was no small feat. All of his features were somehow… wrong, as though someone had taken a bunch of mismatched features - two droopy eyes, one oversized nose, a misshapen chin – and had glued them onto an ordinary man’s head.

  “Pull over!” she yelled at him.

  He didn’t stop. What he did was reach for a handgun and fired several times at them. The first shot, fired blindly, hit the very end of the car. The second one barely missed David, and the third busted a hole in the windshield. Spider-web cracks spread across the glass, blinding her view. She almost braked, but if she did, she knew Jacob would escape, so she just kept driving.

  That she could not allow. She just had to hope anyone coming the other way on the two-lane road would have enough sense to avoid them.

  Rather abruptly, in the middle of all that chaos, with Ellie’s kidnapper firing pot shots at them, with David returning fire, and with the whole group driving wildly on a small country road, she realized: she deserved to be a criminal.

  She wasn’t sure why it took so long for her to register that thought, or why it had hit her right then, but it was crushing. For a woman that had spent her entire life stopping criminals, to see herself being the one that she would normally be chasing was nothing short of horrifying.

  But she didn’t have time to think about that because at that exact moment the tire blew out from the fifth shot. The car swerved wildly. She tried to correct, but between the tire and not being able to see through the windshield, she overcorrected. The passenger side slammed into Jacob’s car.

  She immediately spun the wheel back the other way to avoid running him off the road. She still wasn’t sure if Ellie was inside, but if she was, Adrianna was going to do everything in her power to keep them on the road. Unfortunately, it meant that the car she was driving swerved to the right.

  There was a brief moment of silence, and the next second they hit a tree.

  Adrianna flew forward, through the already broken windshield. She clipped the tree, flipped a second, and slammed into the ground. She skipped across the earth before coming to a stop.

  “Auuuuuughhhhh….” She tried to breathe, but her lungs wouldn’t work. She scrambled up, pulling her gun out of her wool jacket to aim at the car, but Jacob Jackson sped off. She cursed, thinking about throwing her loaded gun down before thinking better of it.

  She looked back towards the car she’d just flown out of, trying to remember how to breathe. The car’s smoking engine had wrapped around the trunk of the tree. She hurried back towards it. “David! David!”

  The passenger door creaked open, and David peeled himself out. There was a sharp gash across his chin, but other than that, he looked okay. He wiped the deep red liquid off, groaning. “Remind me to not let you drive again…”

  “I couldn’t see!”

  He got away from the car. Its engine was smoking, and the laws of action movies dictated that it would explode. Adrianna wasn’t sure if it would, but she sure wasn’t about to stick around to find out.

  As they walked back towards the city, Adrianna spoke. “This is not good.”

  It did indeed suck. The kidnapper had gotten away, probably with Ellie unless he’d left her alone at the cabin. Even worse, they had shot at him. They were racking up their list of crimes, and he now knew they were on his trail. He wouldn’t be so careless if they got another chance.

  “You could say that again.” She could barely hear David speaking. He was trying to be calm, but she could see he was sizzling underneath. His daughter was kidnapped, he’d just let the kidnapper escape, his car was destroyed, and the police were probably on their way.

  Sure enough, a few minutes later Adrianna heard sirens. She strongly considered ducking into the woods, but it wasn’t a smart thing to do. The officers would eventually catch them, and she had no intention of actually running from the police at that point. Ignoring Stone’s instructions to stay away was one thing. Running from the police was another matter entirely.

  The police cars appeared on the horizon. Adrianna knew what to do. She walked to the road, put her gun on the ground, and stood in a way that they would know she wasn’t making a move. They’d probably heard that gunshots were being fired. Policemen were people too. Adrianna knew that if she walked into a situation where she knew there were armed suspects, she was much more nervous. She didn’t want the officers to feel that way.

  David followed her example, setting his gun down. “I hope you have a plan.”

  “Sure do.”

  She saw the cars come up and smiled despite herself. They were federal police. They’d probably caught a whiff of them and followed them. That was excellent news. David saw her smiling.

  “What on earth are you happy about? We’re being arrested…”

  “You’ll see.”

  A little-known fact – the federal and local authorities tend to not communicate. She’d watched a documentary one time where a guy had been arrested by the federal government and had escaped. The local authorities hadn’t even known he was wanted.

  The cars came to a stop. The officers popped their heads out. They looked like they were pumping with adrenaline. She could understand the feeling better than most people could so she just complied as they arrested her and David. Even if they didn’t know what they’d done to Washington, busting into his house and tossing him out at the police station, they must have heard about the gunshots.

  As they were read their rights, Adrianna was formulating a plan. She started wishing that she’d thought ahead. She did not want to escape from the police but at the time of the accident she hadn’t been thinking clearly. She was just thinking about herself. She didn’t want to run. She didn’t want to get in trouble. She didn’t want to get shot.

  But it wasn’t about her, not really. It was about Ellie, and the fact was that she had less time than ever now that Jacob had spotted her and David.

  So as she rode in the back of the car, feeling like a disgraced FBI agent, she looked over at David. He was still trying to figure out what she was thinking. She signaled her plan with her eyes. She wasn’t entirely sure if he got it, but she couldn’t declare her idea right there in the car.

  Whatever happened, it was going to be very dramatic. She was just hoping nobody got shot in the process. And by nobody, she meant that she hoped her and David didn’t catch a bullet while escaping.

  Chapter 10

  The officers didn’t speak to them while they drove, which Adrianna appreciated. She wasn’t in the mood for chatter. There was only one thing she wanted to talk about, which she leaned forward to tell them.

  “The man that kidnapped our daughter was here. He shot at us.” She realized she’d said our daughter. Not his daughter. Ours. It felt good. David didn’t correct her.

  “We’re doing our best, ma’am,” came the reply from the front.

  “Have you caught him?” she proceeded to explain the look of his vehicle in as good of detail as she could remember but she could tell they weren’t paying attention. They’d caught her and David. They were content to file that one in the report and worry about whoeve
r else was involved later.

  “We’re doing our best,” he repeated.

  She threw up her shackled hands in exasperation, but she didn’t say anything else. She just sat back in the seat, trying to come up with a plan. She was starting to realize the gravity of their situation.

  “Just…be ready,” she whispered in David’s ear. He nodded silently. She could tell from his eyes that he didn’t know what she was talking about, but it wasn’t like he could just ask her right in front of the police officers.

  Their opportunity came a few minutes later when they were being transferred to the holding area. The officers with them were not the finest the federal government had to offer – one was a skinny little guy, and the other was bordering on obese.

  When they opened the doors and took Adrianna and David out of the car, Adrianna saw her chance. Her hands were chained in front of her as she slowly shuffled towards the holding center. David was watching her, waiting for whatever signal she was going to give. Her mind spaced out. It was the moment, but she hadn’t thought through a good signal.

  So, like an idiot, she just said, “Now.”

  She pulled away from her guy, who was the skinny one. He didn’t see it coming so she pulled away before he could stop her. He shouted something, but she wasn’t listening. David followed her example and busted away from the big guy.

  Adrianna bolted. It was hard to run with her hands linked together, but even with the limitation, she was outrunning the officer. Her heart was pounding, making her run even faster. She could see David beside her as they ran.

  Soon, they had left the officers behind. They were far superior athletes. The officers tried their best, but they were left in the dust. She just felt lucky neither of the officers had pulled out a gun and shot them. They would’ve made easy targets.

  “This is nuts!” David yelled at her. “We’re running from the cops! Do you realize that? Do you understand what we’re doing right now?”

  Eventually, they came to a stop. They were pretty far away. She wasn’t sure how far exactly, but it was a pretty good distance away. They’d certainly left the officers long behind. They darted off the road into a convenience store bathroom. They had a few minutes before everyone and their mother showed up to arrest them.

  “What are we doing?” David asked as she locked the doors. “This will be the first place they look!”

  What he said was true – when she was tracking someone, she always seemed to find criminals trying to hide out in convenience store bathrooms, especially the bathrooms that were accessible from the outside. She wasn’t sure what was so appealing about them, probably the fact that they tended to be easy to get into.

  “I’m getting us out of these cuffs.”

  She pulled the pin out of her hair and picked the lock. It was a handy skill that the FBI had taught her, but they probably hadn’t had that particular scenario in mind when they’d taught her the art. A few moments later, the handcuffs fell off. They were free.

  “Adrianna, you know what we’re doing here is illegal…” His soulful eyes stared deep into hers.

  “Gee, wish I’d thought of that. I guess we should just go back now.” Her words were biting, more than she’d wanted, but she didn’t apologize for reasons she could not explain.

  She checked his phone. It had been a few minutes since they’d busted away, so she fired up the news app. Right there were headshots of both of them, as well as accurate descriptions of what they were wearing.

  “Uh-oh,” David said. “Uh-oh.”

  She stared at her name on the screen. She was a wanted criminal. Well…she had to succeed now – no second chances were waiting for either of them. She needed to protect Ellie, whatever the cost. Jacob would probably give the two of them until the next day to assassinate the governor. She didn’t know what his reason could be for wanting the governor dead. Maybe he hated him. Maybe he had an old beef with him. Maybe it was revenge. Maybe he was just completely nuts. She didn’t know, and honestly, she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to do it. The more she thought about it, the less she thought she could kill an innocent man regardless of who was at stake.

  The very thought made her stomach curl up. They left the bathroom and headed off just out of visibility from the road. She’d gotten a good whiff of Jacob back when she’d spotted him on the road. She was hoping she’d be able to track him, and therefore Ellie. It wasn’t like they had too many other options. They either had to track him down before the officers found them, or get arrested and have something awful happen to Ellie.

  She had to get somewhere quiet. There were too many cars constantly driving by for her to focus. She got out farther behind the convenience store, cupped her hands over her ears, and focused. David stepped back. This wasn’t the first time he’d watched her trying to get her sixth sense going. He knew to stay away to avoid bugging her and disrupting her concentration.

  She let her mind go blank, which was hard to do with everything that was going on.

  She started humming loudly, which drowned out everything else. She thought she could track Jacob. She was hoping she could. She’d felt his aura two or three times by then, so it was almost a familiar scent. Sure enough, she picked it up a moment later. It was faint, but it was there.

  “I found him,” she said.

  David clapped. “Well done, Mrs. Whetmore. Well done indeed.”

  “What’s this Mrs. Whetmore thing?” she smiled at him. For just a moment, looking into his eyes, she felt relief fall on her heart. “I think we’re probably on a first-name basis by now at the very least.”

  “Oh. Where are my manners? I meant Ads.”

  Her smile faltered. “Wait… did you call me -“

  “Ads. Like your friend at the agency. It’s a good nickname.”

  She tossed back her head. “Oh, good Lord. Now you too?”

  He reached up and popped her in the jaw affectionately. “I’m just kidding, Adrianna.” He looked back the other direction. “So where are we off to, bloodhound?”

  She raised up her hand and pointed back into the city. “If my senses are right, he’s gone that way.”

  They started walking in that direction. The gravel of the parking lot in front of the store crackled loudly under them. Adrianna’s sweater was itchy. Suddenly, she remembered – she was probably wearing the single most trackable sweater of all time. Bright colors, itchy, and horrible enough that no one else in the city would be wearing it.

  She pulled it off and set it on the pump, but before she put it down and abandoned it forever, she brushed off the top of the pump.

  “I think you might be missing the point of leaving behind old stuff,” he said as she folded the sweater and put it up there.

  “I feel guilty,” she admitted. “I mean, my friend really did put a lot of effort towards it…it deserves some respect.”

  And with that, they set off towards Jacob. She wished she could just track Ellie in case Jacob wasn’t with her, but she’d been with Ellie so much that her aura had become dull. She could recognize it without a problem, but for some reason, auras were hard to track when she was around them too much. She couldn’t explain it.

  They waited for the cars to cross the road and then dashed across.

  “That’s jaywalking,” Adrianna said.

  “We’re criminals anyway. I’m living the dangerous life now.”

  “You’re a real rebel.”

  “I’m crushed by guilt right now.”

  Adrianna wondered how long it was going to be before the officers found them. It was inevitable, really. If she had months or even weeks to plan, she might be able to have a car or plane ready and be out of the country using her connections before anyone could find her. As it was, she hadn’t thought a lick about it and had no clue where she was going. She could feel Jacob’s aura somewhere in the distance, but on foot, she doubted they could hide out for long. Even without her sweater, they were too distinguishable.

  First of all, she was much ta
ller than the average woman. She was just over six foot tall, so she tended to stand out – ivory skin, striking features, and a tall frame. People noticed when she walked in. And then there was David, whose fame as a fighter made everyone notice his presence.

  So honestly, unless both of them were walking along buck naked, there was no way they could draw any more attention.

  They ducked between a couple of houses, towards the direction she sensed him in. She kept an eye open for police. They were probably in the neighborhood already, but sometimes the federal government tried to work alone in catching criminals. If they saw a local officer, he or she might not have any idea that Adrianna and David were wanted. It was a glaring flaw in the system, but one that she was willing to exploit if it came down to it.

  The way to get caught in the city was…staying in the city. She’d been in the law enforcement business a very long time, and every time that a criminal remained in the city, they were caught. There were cameras and eyes everywhere. Out in the country, it was harder to enforce anything. Way out in the country, it was almost impossible. If police heard a gunshot on someone’s ranch, they often struggled to investigate it. All ranchers had the legal ability to kill a snake and certain kinds of animals with a gun whenever they pleased. In the city, if a gun went off, there was going to be at least a little attention.

  So she wasn’t pleased that they were going directly through the city, all the way through. She could still feel Jacob’s aura. It hadn’t moved in a while. Wherever he was, he was sedentary. At the distance they were from him, she couldn’t distinguish his mood.

  “I don’t like this,” David muttered. “No car. No guns. Nothing. We’ll be busted before we get ten miles like this.”

  He was right, as much as she hated to admit it. She wanted to get there as fast as she could, but heading straight through would put them on the streets. The feds were already looking out for them. She thought Agent Stone was already working with them, but if she was wrong and he was just getting started in the search, he’d have his techs scanning for them in all the cameras. They’d get maybe two or three blocks in the thickest part of the city before they were recognized. Stone had warned her once. Now that she’d ignored him, he’d be putting several of his resources towards catching them.