“Yes, we do.”
But it didn’t feel like we had it at all.
37
lina
“Please be there. Please be there. Please be there,” I prayed as we drove down the dirt road to the double-wide on the other side of the ranch. Reed had to be there. I tried calling him again, but he still didn’t pick up. “Shit!” I hit the steering wheel.
“What’s wrong?” Penn asked from where she sat in the front seat.
“Oh, nothing. Just don’t tell your daddy that you got to ride in the front without your booster.”
Penn giggled into her hand. “I can keep a secret.”
“Can you? Because I need you to keep this one. Hopefully, he doesn’t see us pull up just like he did when you were driving the UTV. Otherwise, I’m in big trouble.”
“Do you need me to hide?” She started to duck beneath the window.
But when we pulled in, Reed’s truck wasn’t there. “No …” My voice waned, biting my tongue to keep from cursing again in front of Penn.
I parked and cut the engine. “Let’s just go inside, and I’ll try calling him again. He may be on his way over here, so let’s juststay here while we wait. We’ll go inside and see if we can find a movie to watch. Come on.”
I jumped out of the truck and hurried to the passenger side to help her down.
“Can we watchFrozen?” she asked as I picked her up and set her feet on the ground.
“Absolutely.” Holding her hand, I fumbled for my key ring with all the ranch keys. I inserted the key into the lock but found the front door already unlocked. “Does he usually keep the front door unlocked?”
Penn shrugged. We got inside, and I helped her take off her boots.
“Can I go get my Elsa doll to watch the movie with us?”
“Sure, princess.” I toed off my boots, trying to find some semblance of calm so as not to worry Penn. “I’ll get the movie started, and then we can find some snacks.”
She skipped away down the hall to her bedroom while I went to the living room to turn on the TV. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to stream the movie, but once I had it cued up, I turned to head to the kitchen. Blowing out a big breath, I told myself everything was fine. There was no need to worry. Reed probably just went back to the stables and would be back soon.
“Penn!” I called. “What would you like for a snack?”
Opening the pantry beside the fridge, I looked inside, searching through the different cereals and crackers.
Boots sounded in the hallway, and for a moment, I thought it must be Reed. But that didn’t quite make sense to me.
“Penn?”
I closed the pantry and walked out of the kitchen, stalling in my tracks. My heart lurched in my chest, my entire body going rigid.
“Hi, Lina.”
reed
“You can’t keep running from me!” I yelled into the pines, starting to get frustrated.
He was still a few yards in front of me, fallen branches cracking under his boots. I was leading with my 9mm as I navigated through the trees. Wayne Urban was a sneaky bastard. I had to give him that. Probably why he was so good at stalking Lina.
I had to be on his heels now. My ears strained to listen to his movements, to follow which direction he was going, but my heartbeat was so loud in my ears, it was nearly drowning out his footfalls. It didn’t help that we were starting to go deeper into the wooded area, away from the ranch, where dried pine needles created a carpet on the forest floor, muffling the sound.
“We had an agreement!” I called out to him. “And I made you a promise if you didn’t follow through on your end!”
