Page 140 of The Moments You Were Mine

Tortured thoughts of what Ike would do to her pounded through me.

I acted on instinct, heading for the driver’s side of the ambulance.

“What the hell are you doing?” the EMT’s buddy demanded as I pushed past him and into the driver’s seat. I smacked my knees on the steering column. The keys were in the ignition. Istarted the ambulance as people yelled and shouted outside the door.

The last thing I saw as I put my foot to the gas was Beckett’s scrunched face shouting into the phone he had clutched to his ear.

I was out on the road and heading toward the ranch when the ambulance’s radio squawked.

“Parker Steele, this is Sheriff Wylee. Stealing an ambulance is not the way to go about this. We’re assembling a team. We will find her.”

I didn’t respond, taking the corners as fast as I dared in an unfamiliar vehicle.

I’d failed her.Again.

I pounded my hand on the steering wheel. Once. Twice. A dozen times. I’d have bruises to add to the cut on my head and the pain radiating up my right shoulder. I didn’t have a gun. But I had my hands, and I’d been trained to use them. I’d killed before using nothing more.

Where had he taken her? How long did I have before he ended her life? He needed her to lure Rafe here, and Rafe would expect to hear her voice, expect to know she was alive before he dragged his ass to California. Except, Rafe was already on his way.

Fuck.

I shook my head, focusing back on Fallon.

Ike would have to hide her somewhere.

Puzo had a place nearby, didn’t he?

Goddamnit, I needed my teammates. I wasn’t clearheaded enough to see all the angles.

The longer it took me to reach the ranch, the farther away she’d be.

It seemed like an eternity before I flew through the gates and down the drive of the resort. I was screeching to a halt in the nearly empty parking lot before I remembered she’d shut the resort down. Thousands of acres of emptiness. Was he stupid enough to come back here? Would he think he was safe because he knew where some of the cameras were? But he didn’t know about the new ones we’d installed. He couldn’t. Not unless Lance was involved, and I hadn’t seen any signs he’d turned on us.

Cranky jogged toward me as I climbed out of the ambulance.

“Fuck. You’re hurt,” he said.

I swiped at the blood again. “He took her. Ike took her.”

He gave a curt nod. “Wylee called. We’re pulling up the cameras now.”

“Lorenzo Puzo has a place in the hills not far from here,” I told him as we raced toward the security hut. “I need a gun. Comms.”

“Slow down, Baywatch.”

Anger and hate, primarily self-directed, spewed from me. “I’m not fucking Baywatch today. He took her. He has every intention of killing her. I have to find her before Rafe does exactly what Ike wants and shows up. If he does, Ike won’t hesitate to put a bullet in both of them.”

We’d just reached the security hut as a horse and rider flew up the crest beyond it. Every defensive instinct kicked in, and I shoved my teammate into the hut’s exterior wall seconds before I realized it was only Chuck on the horse’s back.

The kid was wild-eyed as he pulled the reins tight, jerking the horse to a stop as dirt kicked up around us.

“Fallon!” Chuck said, sliding off the horse. “He has Fallon!”

“Where?” I demanded, grabbing the kid’s shoulders and shaking him. His eyes turned even wilder.

“I was watching the hawks through my binoculars,” he said, pulling up the ones he had strapped around his neck. “I was across the river. It was closer to come here first. To get help.”

“Where the fuck are they?”