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By minute five, something in my gut was telling me something wasn’t right.

“Maybe she hasn’t seen it,” Kaleb suggested.

“She’d hear it,” I told him gruffly. “It’s not exactly noisy out there. Something’s wrong. I can feel it. I’m going out into the fields.”

“I’m coming with you,” Kaleb said immediately. “Tanner, take care of your wife, and call Ralph and tell him we might need him out here. It might be a false alarm, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. We’re going to find Reese.”

“I’ll call him on our way,” Tanner answered as he fell into step behind us after shooting a glance at my mother.

Mom nodded, silently agreeing to watch over Hannah while he was gone.

Kaleb had enough sense to grab my dad’s shotgun from the front closet before we were all out the door.

Reese

“Would you care to explain to me exactly why that lunatic hates you?” the man next to me asked in a dry voice.

My entire body was shaking with fear.

The two of us were tied by the ankles and wrists, and then we’d been roped together so it was impossible for us to get to our feet.

Somehow, Burke Kline had found me, and he was even crazier than he’d been when he’d shot Kyle and I in Spokane.

The only thing that had stopped him from killing me almost immediately after he’d snuck up on me at the pine tree had been Cole Remington.

Cole had been in his barns, and he’d heard Burke ranting and probably saw him punching me in the face as he’d stepped back outside again.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t seen the gun that Burke had been holding until he’d sprinted over to us, and it was too late.

Burke had been ready to put a bullet in my head when Cole had distracted him enough to make Burke hesitate.

Cole had told him that he was filthy rich and could give him the funds and the tools to make an escape, but that he wasn’t going to shoot me out in the open where anyone could hear and see it happen.

Technically, we hadn’t been on his property, but Burke hadn’t known that.

In the end, both Cole and I had been taken prisoner by Burke and were tied together in the downstairs level of Cole’s new home.

Cole had told Burke to go help himself to some food that was in the refrigerator, and we’d been tied up and left here while Burke was stuffing his face upstairs.

At this point, I wasn’t sure if Cole was just as evil as Burke, or if he was trying to save my life.

Maybe I was an idiot, but it was hard for me to believe that someone who had so many of Devon’s facial features was that evil. Cole looked like a Remington. The resemblance wasn’t as pronounced as it was between the three Remington brothers, but he definitely looked like family.

Since I wasn’t dead yet, I quickly and briefly explained what had happened in Spokane.

I also told him that I was being hidden in Crystal Fork until Burke was apprehended.

“He’s going to kill you, too,” I said in a tremulous voice. “He’s insane, and he won’t leave any witnesses, even if you do give him what he wants.”

“I have no intention of giving him what he wants,” Cole informed me. “If he would have taken that gun off you for even a single second, this would already be over, and that bastard would be dead. So, you’re Devon’s woman?”

I’d briefly mentioned that Devon and I were together in my explanation, so I simply said, “Yes. My name is Reese.”

He’d already told Burke that his name was Cole but hadn’t mentioned that he was a Remington.

But that was something I already knew.

“I guarantee that my cousin is already looking for you. He’s a hardheaded Remington,” Cole said calmly. “But I’m not counting on him finding us before this idiot puts a bullet in our heads.”