Page 53

“Details. How long?”

Chance sucked in a breath. It didn’t help worth shit. “Not sure exactly, but within the last two hours, probably the last hour and a half.”

“Grif!” Boone yelled, “Get on the camera feed. Time frame today, the past two hours. I need to know who was on the ranch that shouldn’t have been, and I want to know yesterday. Get me?”

“On it, bossman. Any specific location. This is a bigass ranch.”

Chance answered. “The lodge first. After that, I need the footage for the last twenty-four hours for the Castelo pasture. Somebody cut the fence and spooked the bison. Obviously, to get us all away from home. I know who it was. I need to know where he took her. I pray to God he took her somewhere on the ranch.”

If he did, if James had taken her and headed out of state, it would be harder to get to her.

“The ranch makes more sense. Harder for police to get access to private property, and there are plenty of places to hide. We’ll find her brother. I’ve been where you are. Stay calm, and don’t kill him until we have a disposal plan.”

Chance disconnected the call. He didn’t think a disposal plan was too far-fetched at all. The only thing he knew to do was head back to the Castelo place. One cabin stood about a mile from where James had cut the fence. They hadn’t rented it out in years because most guests wanted to be as close to the mountains as possible. The Castelo cabin had no view to speak so it would be a logical place to hold up.

He scanned the fields on both sides of the road, slamming on the brakes when he returned his attention to the road. A young dark charcoal wolfdog with blue eyes stood in the middle of the road.

“Damn it, Dodger. I don’t have time for this.”

The wolfdog wouldn’t move, even when he blew the horn. He tried to pull around, but the wolfdog moved with him, continuing to block his way.

Letting the window down, he yelled, “Get out of the way, Dodger! Move!”

The dog stared at him, then darted to the north. “About damn time.”

But when Chance started down the road again, Dodger jumped back in front of the truck. No matter what Chance tried, the damn wolfdog put himself in the way. Finally, Dodger darted to the north, looked back at him and barked. When Chance didn’t follow, Dodger ran back to him and did it again.

Chance was a practical man. He wasn’t prone to fantasy and fairy tales. What he was thinking made no sense. None at all.

He wasted precious minutes struggling with a decision that went against everything he’d ever thought to be true.

One final time, Dodger ran back to him, barked his alarm, and took off toward the north. This time, Dodger did not turn back. Chance watched the wolfdog until it was almost out of sight.

“Fuck it,” he growled. Throwing the truck back into gear, he left the road and followed Dodger north.

To be fair, he’d seen stranger things that day, and Dodger had way more conviction in the right way to go than Chance had in the way he had been headed. So, he followed the wolfdog and prayed like hell guardian angels were real.

CHAPTER 24

It wasn't until they pulled up in front of the cabin and she saw the giant tree brushing up against the right side that she realized he had brought her to her cabin. The one she stayed in after she left the shelter.

Detective James had come in a different way than she had. Or she thought it was different. And when she’d left the cabin to go to the lodge, she’d been all but unconscious.

Before she could even imagine her Daddy thinking of looking for her there, Detective James scoffed at her. "I don't want to give you any false hope. There's no way anyone from the ranch will look for you here. Not in time anyway."

Refusing to let go of her hope, Joy lifted her chin. "You don't know that."

He wore a smirk she wanted to claw off his face. "Sure, I do. They're going to the opposite side of the ranch, almost."

Her hope flickered, but didn't die out. "You don't know that either."

"Course I do. I left a trail of breadcrumbs no one could miss.Who do you think made the bison herd stampede and bust through the fence on the east side of the ranch?"

Joy's heart sank. She knew that's where they had gone. She’d heard Trace talking about grabbing the dogs and heading that way. The smile on his face froze when she asked if he wanted Dodger to go with them. “Maybe next time, darlin’.”

Still, she wasn't ready to give up. "That doesn't mean they won't look here."

“Boy, you really are a dreamer, aren't you? They won't look here because there's a cabin less than a mile from where I cut the fence. Why do you think I cut the fence where I did? I left tracks even a blind man could follow from the edge of the pasture straight to the cabin. Besides, I don't need them to believe it for long, just long enough."