“I’m glad you found me.”
He held her, and it felt right. She wished that Jake wouldn’t give Ryan the cold shoulder like he’d been doing. They’d been friends, and Jake was treating her boyfriend like a… Well, like a jerk. And Ryan was the best guy she knew. They shared dreams, they wanted to share their future.
Everyone said she was too young to fall in love, but she didn’t believe them. She knew how she felt—and how Ryan felt. They weren’t planning to get married right after high school, but even if they did, so what?
They had a plan: two years at community college—she’d study agricultural business, and Ryan would study agriculture. He grew up in Cooke County but had always lived in town. He didn’t understand farming the way she did, and she wanted to learn how to make the farm profitable.
Then they’d get married. She hoped to work the family farm, maybe even be an accountant—she was good at math, and business was mostly math anyway. She wanted it more than Jake, more than Lyla, who only cared about horses. Bobby was still too young to know what he wanted.
But she knew. She wanted what her parents had: roots. And someone to plant them with.
They sat on the kitchen stools and Ryan turned the dials on the older radio to tune it to the emergency channel. The nice thing about the older units was that they were durable; the bad thing was that they could be sensitive to the slightest nudge.
Then he started talking. “This is Ryan Perez, SOS, over,” he said.
No response. He nudged the dial a hair.
“This is Ryan Perez, SOS, over,” he repeated.
Static. He continued to nudge the dial until the static was sharper, and he repeated his call, adding, “I need to be put through to Sheriff Perez, it’s an emergency, over.”
“Ryan? This is Sally at county dispatch. Hold on, your dad is looking for you. Don’t turn the dial! I’ll patch you through. Over.”
“Thank God,” Ryan muttered. Avery squeezed his shoulder, barely breathing.
A half minute later, Sheriff Perez’s deep voice came through the tinny speaker. “Ryan, is that you?”
Ryan grabbed the transmitter mic and pushed the button. “Dad!It’s me! I’m with Avery. I have so much to tell you, but we’re safe. We’re at Baldwin’s place. The power is out and the phone lines are down.”
There was a crackle, then his father’s voice came in clearer. “Ryan? You’re at Baldwin’s? Are you hurt?”
“No, we’re fine. Just wet and freezing and sore. We couldn’t reach Avery’s mom. Can you get through to Mrs. McKenna and tell her that Avery is okay?”
“Yes, but tell me what happened.”
Avery spoke up. “I was at the Mendozas’ house and three people were holding us hostage. Then the man named Brock left, and after, a woman named Rena took me, she was with her brother, Sam, who is really hurt, then she steered us into a ditch when she saw Ryan drive by. She carjacked Ryan, and he saved my life.” There was so much more she needed to say. “I can describe all three of them. But someone has to check on the Mendozas! They were tied up in their house.”
Crackle. Then, “Your mom was there, they are okay. No one can get into the north valley. Rock Creek is flooded so we can’t get in through the east, and Mule Run is flooding so I’m stuck on the south side. But we’ve got roadblocks on every possible road out of the valley, in case the suspects try to flee. The whole area’s boxed in, they won’t get out.”
“They’re in my truck, Dad.”
“I’ll change the APB.”
“They’re going to a place on Privett Road,” Avery said. “I don’t know where, but the only places I can think is either the Sudduth ranch or the Coulters.”
Crackle. Silence. Crackle. Avery looked at Ryan. “Did we lose him?”
Ryan pressed the button. “Dad? Are you still there?”
Crackle. “I had a call a couple hours ago from George Coulter. Someone impersonated their youngest daughter—someone whoknows a lot about their family. The person pretending to be the daughter said she’d been in an accident and asked them to come down and help with the kids. They left before Mule Run flooded, called me when they realized it was a hoax.”
“A hoax? That’s so mean,” Avery said.
“Coulter thinks it was a prank, but now I’m wondering if there’s something else going on. Because we’ve had a rash of robberies in the area, and maybe the Coulters were next. But I haven’t been able to get up there.”
Avery was in a near panic. What about her family? “You have to get someone out to my house. What if they go there?”
“I haven’t been able to reach your mom because of the phone lines, but I’ll keep trying. Not everyone’s lines are down, but I guess your area is completely out. There could be downed lines somewhere that we don’t know about yet.”
