Texas Twin Abduction

by Virginia Vaughan

  One that he’d come to care about despite himself. His memories of Bree weren’t all bad. When they were younger, she’d had an easy smile and a kindness about her that he still saw. And she’d always been the one to see the best in others.

  He walked out to bring the horses in from the pen, but noticed one of them was missing. He walked into the barn, but the mare wasn’t in the stable, either—and he noticed one of the saddles was gone, too. Someone had taken out the horse.

  He reached for his cell phone to call his brothers to find out if one of them had taken her, but spotted a message on his phone from a number he didn’t recognize. He hadn’t heard it come through and realized his ringer was off. He opened the message and his blood ran cold.

  Forgive me for everything, Lawson. I had to do this. I’ll bring her home to you. Bree.

  He hurried inside and upstairs to Kellyanne’s room. The door was locked, but no one responded when he knocked. He didn’t hear her moving around inside.

  “No, no, no.” He kicked open the door just as Colby and Paul ascended the stairs.

  “Everything okay?” Paul asked.

  Lawson glanced around the room. She wasn’t there and the emergency ladder was hanging from the window. He glanced down, but she wasn’t anywhere in sight.

  “What’s going on?” Colby asked as he and Paul stood in the doorway.

  He took a long breath as he tried to process what was happening and what she’d done. She’d sneaked out on him, gone off on her own to rescue her sister and left him with only this text message as to where to find her. “It’s Bree. She’s missing.”

  His brothers looked at one another. “Don’t you mean Ashlee?” Paul asked, and Lawson didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  “That’s a whole conversation in itself,” he told his brothers. “All I know is that she’s gone. She sent me a text from a number I don’t recognize that said she was going to bring her sister home.”

  He held out his phone so they could see the message. Both their jaws tightened. They all knew this wasn’t good news.

  “Now, hold on,” Paul said. “She wouldn’t have left to track down her sister on her own—she’d know that you have better resources than anything she could manage by herself. If she left, then it means she knew where to go. Someone told her—and I’m guessing it was the same person who gave her whatever number she’s texting from.”

  His brother was right. “Mom said she got a package in the mail. Said it was from her office, but I don’t see any files.” He picked up the keyboard and a sheet of paper beneath it fell from the desk. He bent to scoop it up, already noticing typewritten words that indicated a ransom letter.

  He handed it to Colby who read it. Noticing an empty CD-ROM sleeve sitting next to the computer, Lawson booted up the machine and opened the video file on the disk. He watched the recording and his heart dropped.

  The kidnappers had sent another ransom letter and Bree had gone to rescue her sister alone.

  She’d sneaked away to hand herself over to a drug ring.

  * * *

  “So, let me get this straight. Ashlee isn’t Ashlee? She’s Bree, Ashlee’s twin sister?” Paul gave him a confused stare.

  Lawson shot his brother a frustrated look. “Her identical twin sister, yes.”

  “And how long have you known?”

  He gave a half-hearted shrug, but didn’t answer. He was trying to keep his thoughts focused on Ashlee and getting her back safely. He’d seen the fear written in her eyes in the video and it had shaken him. But he was surprised to find that his concern for Ashlee was nothing compared to his terror at the thought of the danger Bree was facing.

  He wanted to remain angry at her and he was, but his strongest feelings were worries for her safety and panic over the thought of losing her, too. She’d not only sneaked out on him to go rescue her sister, she’d also sneaked her way into his life, becoming the woman he wanted to get to know better.

  First, he had to find her.

  Josh’s phone rang and he scooped it up. “You’re on speaker,” Josh told Cecile as they all gathered around to hear what she’d found out about the cell phone number Bree had sent the text from. “Tell me you have good news.”

  “Some. The phone was activated two days ago and received an incoming text an hour ago.”

  “Any chance we know what that text said?” Colby asked her.

  “No, we only have a record of it arriving, but not what it said.”

  “Probably directions to the handoff,” Lawson said and his brothers nodded their agreement.

  “What about GPS?” Paul asked.

  “GPS is not active, so we can’t track it. However, here’s something interesting. The phone also made an outgoing call earlier this afternoon. You’ll never guess to whom—Jake Stephens.”

  “I thought we ruled him out as involved in this,” Colby stated, and Josh shook his head.

  “Well, he just jumped right back into the mix.”

  Cecile continued. “I pulled his credit card information and he just checked into the Sanderson Hotel and this morning made a twenty-five-thousand-dollar withdrawal from his accounts.”

  “He’s giving her the money,” Lawson stated. “To replace the money we have in custody.”

  “Thanks, Cecile,” Josh said. “We’re heading over to the hotel now to have a conversation with Mr. Stephens.”

  Lawson glanced at him as he ended the call. They’d never completely ruled out Jake Stephens being the threat against Ashlee, but it didn’t make sense he would withdraw the very amount of money Bree had supposedly taken from the ring. “You think he’s involved?” he asked his brother.

  “I don’t know, but he’s the only lead we have right now. Maybe he can tell us where she’s headed.”

  * * *

  Lawson drew his weapon and took his position on the left side of the hotel door. The manager had given them a key card to Stephens’s room. Josh and Colby took positions on the other side. Lawson entered the key card, waited for the green light, then he pushed open the door and they rushed inside.

  “Courtland County Sheriff, freeze,” Josh hollered.

  Jake Stephens was dressed, but stretched out on the bed when they rushed inside. At their entrance, he leaped up and raised his hands.

  “What’s going on?” he asked as Colby checked the bathroom and Josh the closet before announcing them both clear.

  “Where’s Ashlee?” Lawson demanded, keeping his weapon raised. He didn’t call her by her true name because he figured that would only confuse Stephens, who still believed she was his Ashlee.

  “She’s been kidnapped. Can you believe that?”

  “You spoke to her this morning and you withdrew twenty-five thousand from your bank account. What was that money for?”

  “She asked me for it. She said it would help her sister. Only, when I got there to pick her up, the woman waiting for me wasn’t Ashlee. It was her sister, Bree.”

  “You saw her, then,” Lawson said. “Where?”

  “Just outside the turnoff to your ranch. I thought I was helping my girlfriend. Now, I don’t know if I’ve been scammed or not. Maybe she took that money and left town.”

  Lawson lowered his gun and holstered it. Jake Stephens’s story seemed to make sense. “You didn’t get scammed. Ashlee really was kidnapped. We found the ransom note and video of her that the kidnappers sent to Bree. They must have grabbed Ashlee believing she was her sister.”

  “You said you picked her up,” Colby interjected. “Where did you take her?”

  “I didn’t take her anywhere. In fact, she grabbed my keys and took off in my car. I had to call a cab just to get back here.”

  Josh reached for his phone. “Your car have GPS?”

  “It’s a rental car, so yeah.”

  Josh hit redial on his phone and waited until C
ecile answered. “I need to know the GPS coordinates of Jake Stephens’s rental car. And send a deputy to bring Stephens back to the office. I want to know where he is at all times until this is over.”

  Colby placed a hand on Lawson’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, little brother. We’ll get your lady back.”

  He felt better hearing his brother sound so certain, but he was also concerned because he didn’t know which lady Colby had been referring to.

  Or even which one Lawson was more worried about getting back.

  * * *

  The car turned off on the entrance road to an old abandoned ranch that used to belong to the Tillman family. They pulled past the house and stopped in front of the garage. The back door opened and Bree was shoved out of the car and led inside.

  The man leading her didn’t stop, dragging her toward the back to a storage room that he unlocked with a key. When he opened the door, Bree spotted her sister huddled in the corner. She fell nearly on top of Ashlee, but grabbed her and pulled her into a hug, noting the bruises on her face and her busted lip. Those were new since the video had been made.

  “Ashlee!”

  Her sister clung to her as sobs shook her body. Finally, Ashlee calmed enough to speak. “I never thought I would see you again. Why did you come here? What were you thinking?”

  “I had to come. I couldn’t let you take the fall for this.”

  “You were out. Why did you come back?”

  Bree stroked her hair, pushing it from her face. “I couldn’t leave you here to die.”

  Ashlee pulled Bree to her. “I was so worried about you when you showed up with the money and then the shooting started.” A tear slipped from her swollen eye. “I didn’t know if you were dead or alive. It wasn’t until they forced me to make that video that I realized you must have made it out. What happened?”

  “Lawson Avery happened. He found me, Ashlee. He rescued me in every way a person can be rescued.” She pulled off her sister’s binds. “There’s only one problem. He thought I was you.” Ashlee locked eyes with her, looking shocked, and Bree felt her face redden. “I didn’t mean to deceive him. After I left you here, I was so traumatized that I had some kind of mental break. I passed out on the side of the road and when I woke up, I had amnesia. I couldn’t remember my own name or what I was doing here. Lawson was the one who was there when I woke up. As soon as he saw me, he assumed I was you—and it seemed to be true when we realized I was driving your car and had your billfold with your identification. I never meant to lie to him.”

  Ashlee pushed away her tears. “I believe you, Bree. I’m sure he will, too.”

  “I brought the same amount of money Travis took. They promised they would let you go if I returned it.”

  Ashlee’s fingers dug into her arms. “They don’t want the money, Bree. They want something else Travis took from them. A notebook of some kind. Do you remember it?”

  Bree tried to recall ever seeing something like that around Travis’s apartment, but she was coming up blank. There were still big, gaping holes in her memory. “I don’t remember anything like that. But wait, this doesn’t make any sense. Why would they ask for the money if they really wanted a notebook?”

  Ashlee shrugged. “Maybe they thought he kept the notebook with the money? If the info in that notebook is important, then I doubt they’d want you to look too closely at it. Saying they wanted the money would be a demand you wouldn’t question—and you’d have no reason to go digging through the bag.”

  “They were wrong either way,” Bree replied. “The notebook wasn’t with the money—and this isn’t the same money Travis took, anyway. The police confiscated that. I had to get the money elsewhere. There’s nothing in the bag I gave them other than cash.”

  “Then they won’t let us go. Either of us.” Ashlee was nearly hysterical with fear.

  Bree didn’t blame her after what she’d been through, but she knew they both had to remain calm and coolheaded if she was going to be able to get her sister out of this mess alive.

  “They will, Ashlee. I’ll make sure of it.” Her statement held more bravado than actual certainty, but it seemed to calm Ashlee down a bit.

  Bree sat with her sister and tried to think of a way out of this mess she’d created.

  Why had she waited so long to realize that Travis’s addiction would always control his life? If she’d realized it sooner, maybe she—they—wouldn’t be in this mess. No, she wasn’t responsible for what Travis had done. She’d tried to do the right thing in the end. She had to hold on to that. She’d tried to make a change for the better.

  She was just sorry, so sorry, that Ashlee had gotten caught in the middle of her mess.

  A verse from the Bible floated to her mind. She remembered it from her days of Sunday school, but she’d heard it recently from Diane Avery’s reading it aloud. Something about there being no condemnation for those who loved and believed in Jesus Christ.

  Bree nearly laughed at the concept. What would it be like to not be judged by her past mistakes, to find true forgiveness and freedom? To find love and build a life with someone... Someone like Lawson? She shook her head. That was out of the question and it was time she stopped thinking about him. She would never see him again. Even if she managed to somehow live through this nightmare, Lawson Avery would never give her the time of day again after the danger she’d brought to her sister’s doorstep.

  * * *

  Lawson rode with Colby to the grocery store where the GPS had pinged the location of the rental car while Josh returned to his office to connect with Cecile. The rental was in the lot, parked beneath a streetlamp. Lawson hopped out and ran to it. The door was locked, but he spotted the keys on the ground beneath it. He quickly opened the door and looked inside. Bree was gone and so was the money Stephens said he’d given her, but the cell phone was lying on the seat. He opened it and read the text that instructed her to get into a waiting vehicle.

  Frustration bit at him and he resisted the urge to toss the cell phone across the car. “She’s not here,” he told his brother. “And the trail has gone cold. They had a car waiting. She must have gotten into it.”

  Why had she gone off like that? Why hadn’t she told him and waited for him and his brothers to come up with a plan? She was too stubborn and determined for her own good. He rubbed his face and tried to calm his frustration and irritation. Of course, she was stubbornly determined to rescue her sister. He couldn’t really fault her for that.

  “Calm down,” Colby said, coming up behind him. “We’ll find her. Someone must have seen something. She can’t have been gone long. Let’s start canvasing the area. You start in the parking lot. I’ll go inside the store.”

  Lawson agreed and watched his brother walk briskly into the store. Once again, he was glad to have cooler heads prevailing because his mind was flailing, looking for some sense of order, ever since he’d realized Bree was gone.

  He understood that she wanted to help her sister—of course he understood that. But the fact that she hadn’t come to him for help...he could only see one explanation for it. She didn’t trust him to find her sister. It was that plain and simple. She didn’t think he had what it took to pull this off. Just like Ashlee, Bree didn’t believe he was good enough.

  When Ashlee had called him unambitious before she’d walked out of his life, he’d been paralyzed with doubt. He couldn’t allow that to happen now. Both sisters’ lives depended on his finding them and bringing them home safely. And he would do that, no matter what Bree Taylor thought of him. He wasn’t going to show her she was wrong about him as some way of proving himself. He didn’t need to do that. But he was going to find her and bring her home safely because he couldn’t imagine living without her.

  Whoa. Where had that thought come from?

  Since when could he no longer imagine living without Bree?

  He didn’t know how it had hap
pened, but that woman had managed to worm her way into his heart. She wasn’t the same woman he’d thought he’d known all those years ago. He’d judged her too harshly for her past mistakes. Thinking about what he’d said to her when he’d thought she was Ashlee made his heart sink. He had to get her back if for nothing more than to apologize and to let her know he’d been wrong about her. Bree was more than her past mistakes and he needed to ask for her forgiveness for his narrow-mindedness.

  Lawson approached several people in the parking lot, showing Bree’s photo and asking if they had seen her, but no one had. He had no idea how long ago it had been since she’d been here. He was ashamed to admit he had no idea how long she’d been gone before they’d realized she was missing, but, according to Jake Stephens, it had already been several hours since she’d taken his car. Anyone who had seen her coming and going might have been gone from the store by now.

  He spotted a man and woman loading groceries into their car and jogged over to them, deciding to take one last chance before calling it quits. “I wonder if you’ve seen this woman?” he asked, showing them her photo on his cell phone.

  The woman glanced at the picture, then nodded. “Yes, we saw her when we arrived. She was sitting in that car.” She pointed to the rental car. “As we were walking into the store, I saw her get out and get into another car with two men.”

  “You didn’t happen to notice the license plate of the car she got into, did you?”

  “No, sorry, but it was a black SUV.”

  “How long ago was this?”

  She glanced at her husband. “About an hour?” Her husband nodded in agreement.

  He thanked them for their help, then spotted the security cameras aimed at the parking lot and hurried into the store. Maybe the manager could give them access to that security feed.