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

by Natalie Dean

  There weren’t enough taxis out in the middle of nowhere, and they’d ditched David’s phone because of how easy it was to track so they couldn’t call a taxi either.

  They started towards the outskirts of the city, where they were less likely to be caught. It took them about an hour of nervous walking before they started seeing smaller roads with grass on either side. There were far fewer cars. It felt nice to be out in the country again. She’d missed it…

  “One more day,” David said as they walked along the grassy knob of land along the road, both of their feet aching. “One more day. That’s all we have left to find her.”

  She tried to think of something motivational or wise to say, but all she could think of was, “Yuuuuup.”

  Chapter 11

  It took forever for them to go all the way around the city. She’d known that it would when they started on their little adventure, but she had completely misjudged how long exactly. Hours passed, and they were still going. They took little jogging bursts before taking a minute or two to catch their breath.

  They saw cop cars a few times, but each time, they just ducked out of view. They were making excellent time. By the time the night was coming on, Jacob’s aura was driving Adrianna wild. He was close. How close? She wasn’t sure, but she’d be willing to bet it was within five miles or so. At that point, her feet were aching.

  “We’re close,” she told David.

  David was limping. He was a lot of heavier than Adrianna, so the walking was getting to him a lot worse than it was her. When he heard her say that they were getting close to the kidnapper, his eyes lit up. “Really? No kidding?”

  “Why would I kid about that?”

  “Honestly, at this point… I’m too tired. I’m not thinking straight.”

  Her aura blinked. “Get off the road!” she hissed loudly.

  Her aura pulsed as a new source of danger showed up – a policeman.

  Together, the two of them ducked out of sight from the road. A moment later, a police car drifted past slowly.

  “Good job,” David whispered.

  “Thanks,” she replied as the car disappeared from sight. “This is getting too close.”

  She poked her head out. She could still sense the aura of the policeman inside the car getting farther and farther away. The officer wasn’t getting any closer. Sometimes, Adrianna wondered what would happen if anyone else had her a tracking sense like hers. She couldn’t be the only person in the world to have those special tracking powers. They really were incredible. If anyone with tracking abilities like hers were chasing her and David right then, they would be caught in minutes flat.

  As they grew closer and closer, she started worrying. They were unarmed. They knew where Jacob was, based on his aura, but they didn’t know what else he was doing. They had no idea if they were walking in on a situation like Washington, where he hadn’t been prepared, or if Jacob was waiting for them, fully loaded.

  Even more horrible was the fact that, if things went wrong, Ellie could possibly end up growing up without her Dad and Adrianna.

  There was no question about it, they were going to get some sort of punishment. Adrianna and David also happened to be hugely popular. She was a star player for the FBI, which was good and also bad. There were two kinds of people – those that liked her popularity and liked to try to give star players the benefit of the doubt, and those that felt jealous and wanted to punish star players for their popularity. The same thing went for David.

  So the question wasn’t really if they would get arrested, but what they would get as punishment when they did get arrested. So far Adrianna and David hadn’t murdered anyone, and they could claim self-defense with the little stint with Jacob. They had, however, shot at a couple of people. They’d also busted in Washington’s house, and tied him up. Then, to finish everything off, they’d also escaped the federal government. They had an extensive list of illegal activities that they had been adding more to ever since Ellie had gone missing.

  “Have you thought this whole thing through more than I have?” Adrianna asked. Her aura was throbbing. They were getting very close. They tilted back towards town. She was willing to bet they were within three miles of Jacob now, but the last thing she wanted to do was just sit around and get nervous.

  “Thought about what?” David looked like he’d done more than just think about it. He looked like he’d gone through a bunch of different scenarios, all of which ended really violently for Jacob. His eyes were dark and angry.

  “So, what? We save her and turn ourselves in?”

  “Unless you were thinking about running.”

  “I mean...”

  Her senses suddenly kicked in. “I feel Ellie. I can feel her.”

  His head snapped over. “What? Really?”

  She focused. “Yeah. She’s close!”

  They took off towards the direction she could sense her in. She no longer doubted herself – Jacob and Ellie were together. She had expected him to be inside the city, but as it turns out, he was on the outskirts. Her heart started pounding wildly. It was actually happening. After all the hard work they’d gone through, all the heartache they’d endured, they were finally catching up with Ellie and her kidnapper.

  Unarmed.

  Why was she unarmed? She couldn’t think of why. She was a professional whose entire life dealt with being armed and prepared. Even since she was a kid, she hated not having a plan for every contingency. She was that girl that had spare batteries for the calculator and three extra pencils just in case something happened. In the FBI, she was the exact same way.

  So she felt extremely uncomfortable going into a scenario without a great plan.

  She could sense Jacob’s aura getting stronger as well as Ellie’s. They were together. Where? She wasn’t sure yet. She hadn’t been able to do any research on where he actually lived. She figured out the cabin thing, but as far as the actual residence, she was lost. They’d done a little research on Washington, and that was about it.

  So she was a little surprised when following the aura lead them to a large, decrepit old hotel. The sign was faded, promising excellent rates. She could just barely see a pool that had been drained, and a few cheap cars lined the parking lot.

  They had found their man. They had found Jacob and therefore their sweet little angel.

  Adrianna didn’t care much about Jacob. In the end, all she wanted was for him to be punished. If they rescued Ellie and left him for the police to deal with, she’d be happy. She had no intention of busting into the hotel room, guns blazing. First of all, Ellie could get hurt. Second of all, even if they wanted to, they were utterly unarmed, and it wasn’t like they could stop by a local weapons store and pick something up. By that time, the officers had surely gotten around to putting their pictures up as wanted. Any good gun shop would check, and the gig would be up.

  “Are you sure?” David asked, looking up at the motel and squinting. The sun was glaringly bright right over the roof. “This is the place?”

  “Unless my senses are wrong, and they’re never wrong…”

  He nodded. There was a brief moment there, one where Adrianna was struck by the fact that one of them could easily die. Superhuman she might be, but indestructible she was not. She’d been shot before, most notably when David was still The Celtic, and they were being pursued by a crime boss, but she had never gone into a scenario completely, painfully unprepared. Even though things often didn’t go her way, she at least had a shot at surviving.

  Looking up at the hotel, she couldn’t help but get a dark feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something about that hotel just gave her the heebie-jeebies. And to think that Ellie, sweet, innocent Ellie, was stuck in there with a deranged ex-convict….

  “Hey,” David said, leaning over to her and looking her in the eyes, shaking her out of her stupor. “It’s going to be alright. I promise.”

  She feigned a smile. It felt wrong. “I sure hope so.”

  “Is he alone?�
� David asked as they walked towards the motel.

  “I don’t know. I can’t tell.”

  Her sixth sense was pretty outrageous, but it did have limitations. There were certainly people in the motel, but she couldn’t reliably say that they were or were not with Jacob. She felt the pit in her stomach grow.

  They entered the hotel, pulling open the glass doors. Jacob’s aura was almost overpowering. She’d spent so much time trying to follow the aura that now that it was in her face, it was drowning out everything else. She was just relieved she could sense Ellie. Ellie’s aura was a little tense like she might be scared, but she didn’t show any signs of pain or absolute terror.

  That would all change here as soon as they found the room. The relative placidity of the hotel would be absolutely demolished.

  David walked up to the man at the front desk. “Hey,” he said. His hands were balled into fists, just under the counter. To the worker, he looked like a normal dude. To Adrianna, from behind, he looked ready to lose his cool at any moment. “I’m looking for a friend of mine here. Names Jacob Jackson?”

  The man tapped away at the computer for something. “Okay…I see nobody by that name.”

  David smiled tightly and pulled away. “Sounds great. Must have been my mistake.”

  Of course, Jacob hadn’t put his room under his own name. He was an idiot based on the crude nature of how he’d kidnapped Ellie – on camera with a very distinguishable truck – so Adrianna had been hoping he’d follow through and make a huge mistake like identifying himself on the room. Evidently, she’d been wrong.

  “Mind if we have a look around?” David asked, starting to walk towards the rest of the hotel.

  “I’m sorry, sir.” The guy didn’t stand up, but he positioned his small frame in such a way that said he would try to stop David if necessary. The idea of him actually preventing The Celtic, famed fighter, from doing anything he wanted was pretty ridiculous. But it was also one that Adrianna had to deal with. If the clerk called the police in a vain attempt to stand up for company rules, the whole expedition would go down in a hurry. Five, maybe ten minutes is all it would take for the officers to arrive and tip Jacob off. It’d probably take longer than that for Adrianna to identify the right room based on her senses. “You can’t go inside without showing a room key.”

  “I just want to look to around.”

  “I’m just telling you company rules, sir. No customer is allowed to -“

  Adrianna stepped in. “We’d like to get a room, please.”

  The clerk leaned back, evidently relieved. “Awesome. For how many people?”

  “Just the two of us,” Adrianna replied, starting to get nervous. In the little waiting room, there was a TV on, broadcasting the news. The volume was off, but she saw her and David’s picture pop up. She stepped between the guy and the TV. “Any room at all will do just fine, please.”

  He started looking through his options. “Smoking?”

  “Sure.”

  “Double bed?”

  “Single.”

  David gave her a funny look. Why are you changing anything? We’re not going to use it.

  “You two look awfully familiar,” the clerk said, looking her up and down. “Are you movie stars or something?”

  “I’m a porn star,” David blurted. “So is she.”

  Adrianna closed her eyes with an internal groan.

  “Oh,” the clerk said. “Oh.”

  “You’re one of the only people who has outright admitted to seeing me before.”

  The guy cleared his throat. His cheeks were bright red. “Room 101. First floor, down that way. Cash or credit?”

  “Cash,” David said. “How much do I owe you?”

  He said the amount and David dug up the cash to hand it to him. He made sure to keep his ID away from the guy’s view. David was the kind of man that carried around cash at all times. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Usually about five or six hundred, which Adrianna always thought was a bad idea. Any would-be robber would get away with the motherload.

  The clerk’s eyes caught the cash and faltered for just a second. He didn’t say anything, but he seemed amazed.

  “Must be an exciting business,” he said, trying to kick-start a conversation about David’s fake career.

  “Yeah,” David said as he slid his wallet away. “Really lucrative.”

  “What’s your porn name?”

  David was hard to read to people that didn’t know him very well. Adrianna could tell he was mildly frustrated, but the guy probably couldn’t. “Oh, I’m John Johnson, and she’s Samantha Foxxx.” He snatched the room key. “Anyway, nice to talk to you.”

  They moved into the rest of the hotel.

  “Samantha Foxxx? Really?”

  He slid the card into his pocket. “I panicked. I didn’t know what else to say. Get to tracking.”

  She let her mind sink into the hotel, crawling through the walls and chasing down the aura. She could smell Jacob’s mental stink. It was as sickening as the day she’d first seen him at the mall. She locked onto his aura. Upstairs. He was above them.

  They got in the elevator. As the doors slid shut, Adrianna spoke.

  “You have a plan, right?”

  “Yup. Get in, save Ellie, get out. Boom.”

  “That’s not a very good plan.”

  “Yeah, well…it needs some work. We’ll figure it out when we get in there.”

  The aura became unbearably potent in front of one of the doors – just a mint green hotel room door. Number 208, the numbers scratched off from age.

  “This one,” Adrianna whispered, so that whoever was inside couldn’t hear her. She could make out the sounds of a television in the room.

  “Is Ellie - “

  “She’s in there too.”

  Together, the FBI agent and MMA fighter faced the door, the only thing lying between them and Ellie.

  Chapter 12

  Adrianna searched the room for its inhabitants using her special abilities. As far as she could tell, and she could be wrong, there were only two people inside – Ellie and Jacob. She searched them for any signs that she might be able to use. Ellie was scared…but also a wee bit angry at her captor. Brave girl. And him…even his aura made Adrianna wrinkle her nose.

  Ellie’s aura seemed slightly farther away like she was looking out the window or something. His aura seemed closer. He was probably on the bed, watching whatever was on TV at the time.

  “I think he’s on the bed,” she whispered. “Ellie’s on the other side of the room.”

  “Is he armed?”

  “How am I supposed to know that?”

  “I dunno. You’re magic or something,” he hissed back.

  “I sense people, not steel.”

  “Whatever. You ready?” His eyes were shining like before one of his fights in the ring.

  “If you are.”

  “You get the door,” he said. “I’ll get the man.”

  Fair enough. Adrianna was less prepared to deal with hand-to-hand combat than David was. If Jacob had a gun, that changed matters up. They were both just hoping he was unarmed or at least didn’t have his gun right on him. It wasn’t going to work too well if Adrianna busted the door down, David rushed in, and Jacob put a couple bullets in each of them.

  She reared back a foot, appreciated the silence at the moment while she was still bringing it back, and pushed it forward. The agency, once again, came through. The things that they taught her were invaluable. The heel of her foot connected right next to the doorknob, ripping the door clean open with a loud crash.

  David darted through the opening, Adrianna right behind him.

  Adrianna’s estimations were right on. Ellie was, indeed, looking out the window onto the drained swimming pool. Jacob was leaning back on the bed, a pizza box to his right, remote in his hand. David tore into him before he could even register that they had entered the room.

  “Daddy!” Ellie shrieked, running back towards them.
>
  She started towards Adrianna in her little dress that she’d worn to the party…only to have David go flying into the TV in front of her. She retreated, shrieking, as Jacob lunged up from the bed. The veritable giant loomed over the whole family.

  He grabbed at Adrianna, who ducked away from him. He wasn’t very fast, but holy smokes…she could tell that if he got ahold of her, she wasn’t going anywhere.

  David swore, stumbling up from the remains of the television. “Ellie, run! Get outside!”

  Ellie dashed past him, towards the door, but Jacob got between her and the door and slammed it shut.

  “How’d you find me?” he growled. His voice, like his hulking frame, was broken.

  “What does that matter?” David stepped forward so that he and Adrianna were between Jacob and Ellie. “Just let us take Ellie and then you can do whatever you want.”

  Jacob’s nose was bleeding. Apparently, David had gotten a good shot in before Jacob launched him into the TV.

  “You’re done. We won. We found her, and the cops are on their way,” Adrianna snapped at him. Not true, but he didn’t know that. “Anything you do from now on will just make it worse.”

  “Worse?” he snorted. “Worse? Tell me. How could it get worse? I stand to spend life in prison.”

  Adrianna’s thigh started tingling, where she normally kept her gun sheathed. What she would have given to have her 9 millimeter with her right then…the kidnapper was a huge target. He blocked out the entire door. Instead, they were about to go hand-to-hand with him unless he moved away from the door, but she doubted that he was going to do that.

  She was right.

  Instead, he attacked.

  Watching him go on the offensive was a bit like looking at a walrus attack a person on a nature show: slow, powerful, and still quite scary. Adrianna and David managed to get out of the way, but his fist took out a chunk of the wall.