The Sheriff Catches a Bride (26 page)

“What if those men have been in touch with people back in Afghanistan? Do you really believe there aren’t any pictures of this girl anywhere? All it takes is a text or e-mail and they’ll know exactly who she is. The Taliban don’t just let people go—certainly not some woman who knows details about their operations in this country. Are you forgetting 9-11? These people are not stupid.”

The women exchanged another look.

“It doesn’t matter,” Autumn said, her eyes wide with concern. “In any case, we can’t tell you where they are.”

“Why not?” he thundered.

“Because we don’t know.”

Rose surged awake
when someone gripped her wrist.

“Someone’s outside,” Fila whispered in her ear. “I just heard a car door slam.”

She stilled and listened. At first all was quiet, but then she heard a strange metallic creak, like a heavy door being opened. There was a clunk as something hit the ground and all was still again.

She knew that sound. She’d heard it a dozen times, although she couldn’t place it right away. It brought to mind ranches—Ethan and Rob and Jamie on their horses…“That was the tailgate of a horse trailer,” Rose whispered.

Could it be Hannah, delivering her mystery horse in the middle of the night? She climbed carefully to her knees and peered out the main window. Fila joined her there.

“It might be a friend of mine. Hannah,” Rose said to her. “She’s been building a corral for a horse near here.

“Why would she come in the middle of the night?” Fila asked.

“Why corral a horse out in the forest at all?” Rose said. “I really don’t know. I’m afraid…” She finally voiced the fear she’d held inside her for several days. “I’m afraid she might have stolen it.”

It was silent while they thought that over. Rose figured she should have pressed Hannah for more details before agreeing to the corral at all. Hannah had always seemed like the steady sort, but now that she’d gotten to know Cody, she didn’t trust Hannah’s judgment as much as she had previously. A stolen horse was a big deal. If it were true, she’d have to tell Hannah to take it back again—before Cab got wind of it. Before they all landed in jail.

“She’s getting it out,” Rose said, and Fila nodded in the darkness. Those were definitely the steps of a heavy beast down the ramp.

A few seconds later, a female voice cried out from the woods, “Hey! Not that way, Gladys! Damn.”

Rose released the breath she was holding. “That’s Hannah, all right. I’d better go help her.”

“Gladys!”

Rose stiffened at Hannah’s shout, then shrieked when something large and dark hurtled through the clearing beneath them, shaking the ground, and took off into the woods at an alarming rate. She clung to the windowsill as the tree house swayed.

“What was that?” Fila cried.

“That was way too big for a horse!” Rose said.

“Was that…” Fila turned to her, her eyes huge. “Was that a bison?”

Were there bison in Afghanistan? Rose thought crazily. Of course not. Fila must have learned about them in school as an American child. “I think so,” she said. “But…” She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. Hannah thought she could keep a bison in the corral out back?

“Where did it come from? Do they live here?” Fila whispered.

“They don’t run loose, if that’s what you mean.” But this one certainly was. “It’s because of Cody—her boyfriend,” she exclaimed. “He was going on and on about that damned bison hunt last time we got together. She must have stolen it.”

Fila stared at her in incomprehension.

Below them, Hannah raced into the clearing. Stopped and looked up at the tree house. “Hello?” she called softly. “Rose, are you up there?”

Rose wrenched open the door and stuck her head out. “Was that a bison that just ran by?”

“Uh… yeah. I’m sorry; I thought I could get her into the corral without waking you.”

“Hannah!”

“It’s all right; I know how to get her in there,” Hannah said. “I just wanted to warn you she was out here, just in case.”

“Thanks for the warning. How will you get her into the corral?”

“She loves corn on the cob. I have a sack of them; I was going to use them to keep her calm while she got used to her new digs. I’ll guess I’ll put them in the corral and wait for her to find them.”

“As simple as that, huh?” Rose said, exasperated. How much could go wrong in a single night?

“I hope so.”

“Damn it, Hannah,
pick up your phone!” Cab wanted to smash his own phone to bits in frustration but he forced himself to keep his eye on the road ahead of him. After clarifying that Autumn, Morgan and Claire really had no idea where Rose had taken Fila, he’d wracked his own brain for where she might go. Her parents’ place was out. So was the carriage house. Could she be staying with Hannah and Cody? When Hannah didn’t answer her cell, he tried their landline.

“Hello?” a man answered sleepily as Cab pulled up in front of the house where Hannah and Cody lived.

“Who’s this?” Cab demanded.

“Who’s this?” the man said, more awake now.

“That you, Cody?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s Cab Johnson. You got Rose in there with you?”

There was a pause. “Rose?”

“I mean, is she staying with you and Hannah?”

“Nah. No one here but me. Hannah said she was spending the night with Autumn at the Cruz ranch. Something about a girls’ night.” His tone made it clear what he thought about that.

“Wait, Hannah is at Autumn’s place?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because I was just there and I didn’t see…” Cab trailed off. Whoops. Might have put his foot in it there.

“You were there? And Hannah wasn’t?” Sure enough, Cody was angry now. “You positive about that?”

“I’m not positive about anything.” Cab got out of his truck. The front door of Cody’s house opened and Cody stepped out onto the stoop still holding his cordless phone to his ear. Catching sight of Cab, he tossed it back in the house and came down the front steps. Cab shut off his phone, too.

“Why are you calling Hannah, anyway?” Cody demanded.

“Because I’m looking for Rose,” Cab said. “I thought she might be here.”

“Well, she ain’t. She’s probably off at some bar with Hannah cheating on you like Hannah’s cheating on me.”

“Don’t get all fired up before you know what’s happening.”

“I’ll get fired up if I damn well please.” Cody strode toward his car.

“Don’t do something you’ll regret,” Cab called after him.

“Oh, you better believe I won’t regret anything I do,” Cody said. A minute later he had backed his car out of the driveway and sped off into the night.

“Fuck,” Cab said, jabbing his phone on again. He called the detachment and filled a deputy in on the situation. There wasn’t anything they could do until Cody broke a law, but the deputy could alert the officers on patrol tonight and they could keep an eye out for him. He hoped Hannah was with Rose. Then Cody would have as much luck finding her as he was having.

Now what? Who else might know where Rose had gone? He scrolled through his memory, trying to think of all her friends. When the answer came, he felt a surge of adrenaline.

Mia Start.

He clicked through his recent calls until he found hers and hit the call back button. As the phone rang he held his breath.

“Hello?” Mia’s little-girl voice answered.

“Mia? Where’s Rose!”

“Uh…”

“I know she told you not to tell me, but she’s in danger. I need to know.”

“Why is she in danger?”

If he thought his tough-guy act could scare little Mia, he’d thought wrong. Cab opened his mouth to try again when his phone alerted him he had another call. It was the detachment.

“Hold on,” he growled at Mia and switched over. “Cab here.”

“It’s Tom from the station. Listen, you’ll never believe this. I’m at the hospital with Alan Higgens. He’s beat up pretty bad.”

“Alan?” The taxi driver? “I just spoke to him not long ago.” Cab got back into his truck and turned the engine on.

“Four guys broke into his house, found him and beat the crap out of him. He can barely talk, but he said they looked foreign and spoke with pronounced accents.”

Cab stiffened, his hands on the wheel, foot hard on the brake, remembering what Kevin had said. “Middle Eastern?”

“Yep. How did you know?”

“A little bird told me. What did they want?”

“Where he took one of his fares tonight. A woman. Alan said Jason Thayer put her into his cab and paid for her ride. He was supposed to take her to the Cruz ranch, but he took her to your place instead. Carl’s place.”

“That’s right,” Cab said, doing a U-turn and beginning to drive back toward Carl’s. “He did. And she slipped out of the car and ran away. Did Alan tell them all that?”

“Yeah. I think so. Like I said, they beat him pretty badly. Left him for dead, I think, but Alan’s tougher than he looks. Who are these guys? Who’s the woman?”

“I don’t know, but I can guess where they’re going.”

“I’ve already called units to Carl’s place. It might take a while, though. There was a bad car accident near the airport. Everyone we’ve got is over there.”

Cab frowned. The airport was in the other direction. “I’m not at my place. Neither is the woman. Rose got a hold of her and took her somewhere. I don’t know where.”

“Well, at least they’re out of danger, then,” Tom said.

“I guess,” Cab said, but a hunch told him they weren’t. Where was Rose?

Mia.

“Tom, I’m on my way back toward my place. Call you back in a minute.”

“Okay. No heroics, boss. Wait for the backup.”

Cab clicked off, not bothering to answer. “Mia? You still there?”

“Yes.”

“You need to tell me where she is right now. She’s got a runaway with her, Fila—a woman who’s being chased by some very bad men. They’ve already beat up Alan Higgens to find out where she went. If they find Rose and Fila, she’s going to be in serious danger. Alan told them they’d be at Carl’s place and they’re on their way there.”

“Carl’s?” Mia’s voice shot up.

“Mia? They’re not at Carl’s, are they?” He’d checked the whole house. Could they have hid from him somewhere?

“Not at the house,” Mia said in a small voice. “Rose is going to be really mad if I tell you.”

“Rose might be dead if you don’t tell me,” Cab said bluntly. “Spit it out!”

“The woods. She built a tree house in Carl’s woods.”

Cab was speechless for a moment. A tree house? He thought back to all the boards she’d been cutting—for her
shed
. The shed she’d never built. But a tree house for crying out loud?

In Carl’s woods?

Cab had a flash of the day he’d run into her driving on the road near Carl’s. The day he’d asked her in to dinner and she’d cried about Jason.

He remembered wondering where she’d come from since she’d been heading back toward town. She couldn’t have been at the Cruz ranch; that was the other way. He’d figured she’d come to see him, lost her nerve, driven right by his place, then come to her senses and turned back. But she hadn’t, had she?

Because now he remembered the sound that had woken him up the night before that, and the slim figure he’d seen in the woods when he went to investigate.

Rose.

“Cab? You still there?” Mia asked.

Cab didn’t answer her. It all made sense. Rose wanted time alone. She wanted to get away from Emory Thayer. She wanted to be by herself. Was she camping in Carl’s woods?

Was she there now?

“Shit!” Cab cut off the call and redialed the station, slamming his foot down hard on the gas. He swung onto the country road that led out toward Carl’s place. “Tom, get everyone out to Carl’s—everyone you can. Now! The woman is out there and so is Rose.”

He ended the call and called Ethan next, repeating everything he knew as he flew down the road, taking turns like a race car driver. All he could picture was Rose in the woods alone, four armed men hunting her. What would they do when they found her? He saw Sam Grady’s crime scene. Amanda Strassburg’s beaten and flayed body.

Not his Rose. Cab increased his speed, nearly losing control of the truck around the next curve.

“We’re on our way,” Ethan said without asking any questions. Cab knew he’d collect Jamie and Rob. They had plenty of shotguns on the ranch. Five minutes later he flashed past the lane to the Cruz ranch. He hoped the men were already on their way.

When he neared the mansion, he slowed down and parked near the end of the long driveway. Exiting his truck as quietly as possible, he crept up it slowly, taking his time and keeping as much as possible to the trees that fringed the property. He blew out a breath when he realized how right he’d been to do so. A car he didn’t recognize was parked in front of the house and the front door was wide open, light from inside spilling out. Like him, the foreigners had chosen to search the house first. He hoped they wouldn’t be more successful than he had been.

If the terrorists were in the house, however, that was good news for him and for Rose. All he needed to do was skirt around the yard, keep to the shadows and slip into the woods. Surely her tree house wouldn’t be that hard to find, now that he knew what he was looking for.

As he began to work his way around the wide yard that surrounded Carl’s mansion, he heard shouting from inside the house. A door slammed, several men spilled out onto the front porch. Cab froze.

He couldn’t understand the language they were speaking, and now he knew exactly what Kevin meant when he said they were obviously foreigners and obviously looking for trouble. Perhaps these men thought they’d blend into middle America, but they were dead wrong. No one around here dressed like that, and no one spoke like that, either. They were all armed, Cab saw with a twist of his gut. And armed well, several of them with sub-machine guns. His Glock wasn’t going to stand up to those.

He hoped they would head back to their car and drive away, but after a brief huddled conference, they ran down the steps, split up and raced around the mansion.

Straight for Carl’s woods.

Cab swore and began to follow them as quickly as he could, but they had the advantage that they weren’t trying to hide. He was. As they dashed across the lawn, around the house, and toward the woods out back, he had to trace a more difficult path, sticking to the shadows as much as possible, keeping far away from the house’s floodlights. He darted from one ornamental tree to the next across the swath of grass. When he saw the four men enter the woods, he picked up his pace and soon made it to the tree line himself.