“Who’s there?” Her roughened voice, as though she hadn’t used it in a long time, barely sounded above a whisper.
“Kate, you’re awake finally. I was so worried about you.”
“Rose?” Kate groped until she grasped arms, praying it was Rose. That she had found her alive.
“Yes.” The teen fell into Kate’s embrace. “I thought you were really hurt. I didn’t know what to do. I’ve been praying you’d wake up.”
Although her head still throbbed, she ignored it and struggled to sit up straighter. The haze lifted a little. The damp coolness of the stones seeped through her clothes and shot ice through her veins. “Where am I?”
“You’re in the Deprivation Room at the ranch. King’s favorite place to put people who don’t follow his rules.” Rose clasped Kate’s upper arms and drew nearer.
“How did I get here? I was at the mall, then suddenly two guys threw me into a car and put a cloth over my face.”
“That was probably my uncle’s nephew and his friend.”
“Your uncle? You have an uncle? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“At first I didn’t remember a lot of what happened to me, but as I healed from the beating, I began to remember how evil King is and that he’s the reason I was left to die at the side of the rode. He’s the person behind the prostitution ring. I was afraid. He told me if I ever crossed him, he would make me pay and anyone I cared about. That he knows people who can protect him. He’s been doing this a long time. I believe him.” Rose’s voice quavered in the dark. Her hand on Kate’s arm tightened.
“Why did he kidnap me?”
“I suspect because you were getting too close to the truth.”
Kate found both of Rose’s hands and held them, wishing she could see the teen, make sure she was physically all right. “What is the truth? Where are we? You said a ranch. Where?”
“A ranch outside of Silverwood. It’s big. King owns a lot of land. He is powerful, and he’s done everything he told me he would do. I should have realized he wouldn’t let me go.”
“Listen to me. We’ll get out of this somehow. We’re not going to let him win.”
“How? I’ve tried to escape two times, and he has stopped me each time. I think he likes to see me try and fail.”
Like she’s his entertainment. And now she would be too. Kate gritted her teeth, fighting the fear eroding her composure. She couldn’t fall apart. Rose needs me.
Rose’s tears sounded in the unearthly quiet—like a tomb.
“We aren’t alone, Rose. God is with us.” Kate squeezed the teen’s damp hands. “Lord, anything is possible through You. Help us get away from King and bring this man to justice. Show us the way. Amen.”
“I’m not worth His time. Look at all I’ve done wrong. Lily is dead because of me. I recruited her for King. I’ll never be able to forgive myself for that. I’m paying now for it, but you shouldn’t have to. I deserve this. Not you.”
“No one deserves this. You might not be able to forgive yourself, but the Lord forgives you. We have something King doesn’t have. We have the God of hope and love on our side.”
Rose threw herself into Kate’s arms again and sobbed, “Will that be enough?”
Wyatt strode into his house and spied Maddie, his mother, and Susan sitting in the living room. Silence ruled. Somber faces turned toward him as he entered.
“I can’t get hold of Kate. I’ve tried calling several times, and it always goes to voice mail. She never leaves it off like that in case something happens at Beacon of Hope.” Susan pushed to her feet, clasping her purse to her.
“I’ve tried, too. I think something has happened. Susan, go back to Beacon of Hope and if you hear from her call me immediately. There may be a perfectly good reason she’s out of pocket.” But he didn’t believe it. “To be on the safe side, Detective Finch and a couple of patrol officers are headed to Beacon of Hope to make sure nothing happens to the girls.”
The color blanched from Susan’s face. “I’d better get back there now. The girls will need me when they see the police.”
“Keep me informed of anything that happens.” Wyatt walked the nurse to the front door and watched her until she climbed into her car and drove away.
He came back into the living room, taking a chair across from Maddie. With her head down, she twisted her hands together in her lap.
“I need to know everything Maddie. Who were you meeting at the mall? Why would you skip school? This is very serious. Kate is in trouble.” He felt that deep down as though Kate’s life was ticking away quickly.
“I’m so sorry. I’m . . .” Maddie cried, burying her face in her hands.
His mother started to move closer to Maddie. Wyatt waved her away. “Mom, I could use a cup of coffee and something to eat. I haven’t had lunch.”
His mother’s eyes widened. “Okay.”
He waited until she had left the room before saying, “Maddie, I don’t have time for hysterics. I need your help in figuring out what might have happened to Kate. I have the police checking the morgue and hospitals, but I don’t think she’ll be there.”
Maddie paled. “The morgue? Hospitals?”
“She’s disappeared. She wasn’t at the pickup at the mall.”
“It was hot in the mall parking lot.” His daughter raked a trembling hand through her hair. “She’s probably perfectly fine somewhere having a late lunch.”
“It’s been several hours. People have tried calling her. No answer. She isn’t where she is supposed to be and said she would be. That’s not Kate.” He fortified himself with a deep breath. “Let’s start with the name of the boy you were meeting.”
“Tyler Collins.”
“Why the mall? Why today?”
“That’s where I met Tyler a few weeks back.” Her eyes shone with unshed tears. “We hadn’t seen each other because I’ve been grounded.” She sniffed. “I was angry at you.”
Wyatt wrapped his hands around the arms of the chair in such a tight grip his knuckles whitened. “You’ve only known this Tyler a few weeks? You didn’t know him from school?”
Maddie shook her head.
“How old is he?”
“He’s a junior at Southwest Academy. They don’t start school until tomorrow.”
“He’s three years older than you. A high school student.” Somehow he managed to keep his voice level, but for a few seconds he felt his control slip. He scrambled to shore up his composure or he would never get to the truth of the matter.
“That’s not that much older than me. You were three years older than Mom.”
“That isn’t what we need to talk about right now. I need information. Did Kate know about Tyler?”
“I told her this morning about him, and she made me promise to tell you today. I was going to when you came home.”
“How did you meet this boy?”
“I bumped into him at the mall—literally. We started talking. He asked me to help him shop for school. I couldn’t believe such a hot guy was interested in me.”
“Did you see him other than that time at the mall?”
Maddie averted her gaze, rubbing her hands over her jeans.
“Maddie?”
“Yes, that night I came in late when I was grounded.”
“So you snuck out to see Tyler. Where did you meet him?”
“By the stream near Kelly’s ranch. I never left here. That’s the truth.”
“Did anything happen I should know about?”
“Dad!” Maddie’s face reddened. “Kelly and Chad were there too. Nothing happened.”
“Who is Chad?”
“A friend of Tyler’s.”
“Did Kelly skip school today too?”
“No.”
“What do you know about this Tyler besides what you’ve told me?”
His daughter opened her mouth to say something but snapped it closed.
“Maddie, this is important. Where does he live? Bluebonnet Creek? Dallas?”
“You were willing to break the law by driving without a license and skipping school for a boy you don’t really know?”
“I know his cell number.”
“Call him right now.”
“Why?”
“I’d like him to come over.”
“Dad!”
“This isn’t debatable.”
Maddie dug into her pocket and made the call. Her forehead crunched, and her eyes narrowed. When she hung up, she looked at him. “The number no longer works. I just called it a couple of hours ago. I don’t understand.”
“I know a guy who is a sketch artist for the sheriff here. I want you to work with him and come up with a good likeness of this Tyler Collins.”
“I don’t understand. Why? He didn’t do anything wrong. We didn’t even see each other this morning.”
“I want the number that no longer works. Does he drive?”
“Yes.”
“Then anything you know about his car.”
“Why?”
“Because Tyler may not be who he says he is. Because I’m worried about Kate.”
“You think they are connected? Dad, that doesn’t make . . .” Maddie covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes huge.
“What’s wrong?”
“I told Tyler I called Kate to help me with the stalled pickup. He was angry that I didn’t come get him. I told him I was going to school, and Kate was staying to have the truck towed. He wasn’t happy with me. Do you think that’s why his phone doesn’t work?”
“No, I think there’s much more going on here.”
“Maddie has finally calmed down,” Wyatt’s mother said when she came into the dining room where Wyatt was meeting with several members of the Child Rescue Task Force.
He wouldn’t leave the ranch until he knew that his daughter and mother were protected, because if what he feared was true, the people behind the prostitution ring he had been hunting down took Kate. When his wife had been killed years ago, he’d almost fallen apart. Only the fact he was a single parent and responsible for his daughter had kept him together. He wasn’t going to let a criminal take away someone important to him again.
“Does anyone else need more coffee?” his mother asked the group around the table.
Several immediately replied no, but Daniel held up his mug. “I could use some.”
Wyatt stared at the FBI agent. “Are you drinking the same thing I am?”
“Yes, I happen to like mine extra strong.”
Wyatt shook his head and returned to the sheet in front of him. “The cell this Tyler Collins used was untraceable—which sends up a huge red flag to me. We’ve checked with Southwest Academy and discovered there isn’t a Tyler Collins going there. Someone of that description registered a few months back as an incoming junior, but when we dug a little deeper, all the information given was false. Everywhere we’ve turned has been a dead end as far as this guy is concerned. Which leads me to think he was sent to recruit Maddie. When she didn’t go along with his plan this morning, he very likely took Kate instead.”
“Why? She doesn’t fit the description of the usual females they go after,” a fellow Texas Ranger said.
Wyatt stared at the photo of Kate that Susan had provided him. “I don’t know. To get back at me. I’ve been pushing hard on Rose’s case. We do know Kate hasn’t been seen by any of her colleagues, friends, or family in the past nine hours. That isn’t like her. With the footage from the parking lot at the mall, we don’t actually see her being kidnapped, but there are five cars that went down that row in the twenty minutes from when she called the tow truck to when the security officer showed up. We’re running those cars down now and hopefully will hear something soon.”
“What have Kate’s parents said? Has she ever done anything like this?” Daniel took the mug from Wyatt’s mom. “Thank you.”
“I have talked at length with her father who assures me she has never done something like this. She is very responsible, and this isn’t like his daughter.” Wyatt wouldn’t tell the team around the table what her mother had said. I knew something like this was going to happen. When my daughter works with people like the girls in that program, it was bound to get her into trouble sooner or later. “Her father has talked with the governor to make sure we do everything possible to get his daughter back.”
“What if she just got tired of it all and went off by herself for a while? A lot has happened in the past few days to make anyone stressed.”
Wyatt glared at the young FBI agent who assisted Daniel. “We have to assume the worst. If we don’t, by the time it is confirmed she could be dead or shipped out of the country.”
The man shifted in his chair and avoided eye contact with Wyatt.
“I’m going to follow a lead I got this morning.” Wyatt went on to tell the group about what happened at the Silverwood police station. “I’m going to pay the police chief a visit at his house this evening. Something isn’t right there. Call it a hunch. I do know Rose visited there five years ago. That is the best lead we have right now. In the meantime, I want to know everything there is about a Lydia Johnson who used to live in Silverwood.”
“I’m coming with you.” Daniel said as he stood up when Wyatt did. “You’re going to need backup if this lead pans out.”
“Keep working on tracking the cars. I know one only had a partial plate number because of mud. I would concentrate on that one. We’ve all seen that trick before. I think Tyler Collins is obviously an alias, but check that name out in the Dallas area. Y’all have a drawing of what Tyler looks like from my daughter and Kelly. Continue to press for information about the other two house fires on ranches in Texas. We need to find out who Rose’s parents were. If I can’t find out anything in Silverwood, that may be the only way we find Rose’s real name and her uncle.”
“Didn’t you say that Gladys at the police station said Rose visited her aunt? Maybe that is the uncle involved?” Daniel passed a photo of the sketch of Tyler to each team member.
“Gladys said the aunt Rose visited in Silverwood wasn’t married.” Had the older woman lied? He couldn’t shake the feeling she had been scared this morning. “Call if you get anything important.”
“Mrs. Jeffers, is your husband at home?” Wyatt asked, standing on the police chief’s porch outside of Silverwood.
“No. He probably won’t be back until late tonight.”
Daniel moved into the light. “Is there a way to get in touch with him?”
“He’s fishing and camping with a friend. He does it every year. They are out of cell phone range.”
“Please have him contact me as soon as possible.” Wyatt pulled out a business card and gave it to Mrs. Jeffers.
The large woman with short white hair pocketed it, then stepped back into her foyer and shut the door.
Daniel glanced at Wyatt. “I didn’t get any warm fuzzes from her.”
“More like biting Arctic winds. And someone is lying in this town. This morning Officer Bowen was supposed to be helping the police chief with a case. But his wife claims he’s fishing and camping. They need to get their stories straight.” Wyatt descended the steps. “I looked up Gladys’s address. I’d like to pay her a visit away from the office. I got some weird vibes today. I don’t think she was telling me everything. Like where Officer Bowen and the police chief were.”
On the drive to Gladys’s house, Wyatt received a call from the Texas Ranger at his house. “There hasn’t been a Lydia Johnson in Silverwood in the last fifteen years.”
“Thanks.” Wyatt hung up and told Daniel.
“So the woman lied. Why?”
“We’re about to find out.”
Wyatt drew up to the curb in front of Gladys’s small A-frame house. There was one light on in the front room. Lord, I need Your help. Something is going o
n here. I know I’ve let the anger over Rebecca’s murder push me away from You. But I don’t know where to turn. I feel the danger Kate is in. I don’t want to lose her too.
As Wyatt strode toward the place, an image of Kate in a tomb tortured his thoughts. She can’t be dead. Please, God, I need her. His heartbeat slowed to a painful throb.
At the front door, he rang the bell. The sound of the chimes drifted to Wyatt on the porch. A few minutes later, he pushed the button again.
Daniel wandered over to the window, the drapes pulled. “I can’t see much of the living room, but no one is in there that I can tell.”
Suddenly the click of the lock being turned riveted Wyatt’s full attention to the door opening. Gladys stood in the entrance, her brow wrinkled, her gaze darting about until it latched onto Daniel.
The woman’s stress hit Wyatt in the face. “May we come in, Gladys?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Please leave. I have nothing else to say to you.” She clutched the door, her fingernails digging into the wood.
“Please. This is a matter of life and death. Do you want a woman’s death on your hands?”
Gladys began trembling. Her grip clasped the edge of the door even tighter. “I can’t. I . . .”
Wyatt took a step closer. She tried to straighten but collapsed against the wood she held.
“I’m going to come in and you’re going to tell me what’s going on.” Wyatt sensed Daniel right behind him as he moved forward.
“I don’t really know. They will . . .” She compressed her lips into a thin line, but she backed away from the threshold.
Inside, Wyatt shut the door after Daniel entered, then faced Gladys. She folded her arms over her chest, but she still quivered. “Who are you afraid of?”
“If you ask too many questions, you might disappear. It’s happened before.”
“Who was Rose’s aunt she visited? We know it can’t be Lydia Johnson.”
“Belle Littleton.”
Saving Hope: Men of the Texas Rangers Book 1 Page 26