Texas Holiday Hideout Read online

  His face contorted and he reached for Kellyanne, pulling her to him as she cried out. He took his gun and pointed it at Kellyanne’s head. “Come with me or I kill this woman.”

  Melissa took several steps down. “Okay, okay. Please don’t hurt her.”

  Kellyanne’s eyes were full of fright, but Melissa could still see her silently begging Melissa not to go. But Melissa had no choice. She couldn’t allow this family to suffer any more because of her. Paul and John both definitely needed a doctor. She couldn’t see Diane well enough to see what her injuries were, but she hadn’t gotten up and that couldn’t be a good sign. Once they were gone, Kellyanne could phone for help.

  Besides, going with this man would lead her to her son.

  She walked to the bottom of the staircase and stood to face him. “Miles is on to you,” she told him.

  He shoved Kellyanne away and reached for Melissa, pulling her against him and pressing the gun into her stomach. He sneered. “Then we’d better go before he gets home.”

  He pushed her into the front seat of the SUV, then climbed in beside her, started the engine and backed away.

  As he drove, she looked back with a sinking feeling that she would never see the Silver Star or the Avery family again.

  TEN

  They were a half hour away from the Silver Star when Miles received a phone call. He glanced at the screen and saw it was from the house phone at the ranch. He put it on Speaker. “Hello?”

  “Miles?” Kellyanne’s voice was high-pitched and strained. “Miles, a man broke into the house. Paul and Mom are hurt, and Dad—”

  “I’m fine,” his father grunted in the distance.

  Josh’s jaw clenched. “We’re on our way back. We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  He was worried about Paul and his parents being injured, but the fear in Kellyanne’s voice had him shaking and he couldn’t help noticing the name she hadn’t mentioned. “Where’s Melissa?”

  Kellyanne broke into a sob and Miles’s heart sank. “He took her! He took her, Miles, and we couldn’t stop him.” She broke down and ended the call.

  Miles glanced at Dylan already soundly sleeping in the back seat. He’d finally brought him back to Melissa and now she was gone, too. Would this nightmare never end?

  Josh turned on his lights and sirens and floored the accelerator. Miles phoned Lanie and Griffin to update them, and they kept up with Josh as they headed back to the ranch, making good time and arriving soon after the ambulance and Cecile. She met them as they parked and gave a rundown as Lanie and Griffin fell in behind them. But Miles didn’t need a summary to understand what had happened here. The big, gaping hole in the front of the house said enough.

  “It looks like Paul was standing in front of the window when an SUV crashed through it. He’s suffered multiple injuries, including a broken leg, and has already been transported to the hospital. Your father received a gash on his head, but the paramedics were able to close it. He’s refusing to go to the hospital, as is your mother, who had a blow to the head that left her unconscious for a few minutes. Kellyanne was shaken up, but suffered no serious injuries. She’s the one who called for the ambulance.”

  Miles stood and stared at the house, which was a shambles, and at his family, who were all in pain. Anger burst through him that Adam, someone he’d considered his friend, had created such havoc. And now Adam had Melissa and was going to hand her over to a killer.

  He turned to Lanie and Griffin and struggled to keep his composure. “We need to find Adam.”

  Lanie agreed. “I’ve been thinking about that since we left Dallas. I tried to access the GPS on his cell phone and his car, but both have been disabled. No surprise there. He’s too smart to leave them on when he knows we’re looking for him. However, when I was in his apartment, I found papers listing a cell phone that isn’t his number. I’m thinking if it’s a secondary phone he uses for his betting, he may not have thought to turn off the GPS on it since he wouldn’t expect us to know about it to trace it. I may be able to access it and track his location.”

  Griffin nodded. “Get started on that.”

  Lanie pulled her laptop from her shoulder bag and set it up using the hood of the truck as a desk.

  Miles pulled Dylan out of his car seat and carried him into the house. His parents and Kellyanne were sitting at the kitchen table and when she saw Dylan, Kellyanne hurried over and pulled him from Miles’s arms. “I’m so glad you found him.”

  “Would you take him upstairs and put him to bed? He’s had a long day.” She agreed and hurried up the stairs.

  Miles kneeled beside his parents. His mother was pressing an ice pack against the back of her head and his dad was sporting a large, bloody bandage. “We tried to stop him,” his dad told him. “We tried to stop him.”

  He hugged them both, then suggested they go to the hospital. “Someone needs to be with Paul. Keep us updated.”

  They finally agreed, but as his mother stood, she hugged him again. “What are you going to do?”

  He wanted to reassure her that everything was going to be fine. That he was going to find Melissa and bring her home and everything would be great, but he couldn’t. He was scared. She was out there somewhere and he had no idea how to even begin to find her. “I’ve got my team with me,” he said, motioning to his brothers and Lanie and Griffin outside.

  His mom must have seen his hesitation because she touched his face. “You can do this, Miles. You will find her and you’ll bring her back to the Silver Star, where she and Dylan belong.”

  He hugged his mother tightly, then sent them on to the hospital. He wasn’t worried about leaving Kellyanne and Dylan here at the house. Besides the police presence investigating the scene, the danger to Dylan was over. No one was coming after him any longer. Adam had the person he wanted.

  He walked back out to the car to check on Lanie’s progress with renewed energy. He wasn’t going to let Adam win. He was going to find Melissa and bring her home where she belonged—with him.

  * * *

  Adam gripped the steering wheel with one hand as he drove, keeping the gun trained on Melissa. She knew her best chance was to play it cool and look for an opportunity to escape before they got to wherever they were heading. But she couldn’t, not until he took her to Dylan. Plus, she couldn’t get past the fact that this man had betrayed Miles and an entire agency he’d taken an oath to. She couldn’t make herself keep quiet about it. If she was going to die, she was also going to demand answers.

  “Why are you doing this? What have I ever done to you?”

  His voice was flat, emotionless, as he responded to her. “You haven’t done anything to me. This isn’t personal. I have no choice.”

  “You’re the leak in the marshals service. You’re the one who’s been giving my location to Kirby and Shearer. And the attacks against me. That was all you?”

  “Kirby was in hiding, so he and Shearer tasked me with taking care of you. I couldn’t get too close either, or Miles might have spotted me, so I put the word out to the local teens. Some of them got a little out of hand.”

  “One of them nearly killed my son by placing him into a corral with spooked horses.”

  He shot her a regretful look. “I’m sorry about that. They got a little too aggressive trying to create chaos in order to grab you, but you jumped into the pen.”

  She touched the cast on her arm. She’d survived that incident but she might not survive this. “I thought you were being nice to me when you gave me back my necklace, but you were really tracking me the entire time.”

  “You don’t understand. I have no choice. If I don’t hand you over to them, they’ll kill me.”

  “And what about my son? Where is my son?” She lost her cool as she kept screaming the question. This man and his accomplices had taken Dylan and now they had her, too. The screaming startled him so much
that he lost control of the car and swerved. He swore, then shoved her backward in her seat.

  “Don’t do that again.” His tone was hard and firm, but she wasn’t afraid of him. If it meant getting her son back, she would do whatever it took.

  “I want to know where my son is.”

  “I don’t know where your son is. I didn’t have anything to do with his abduction.” She didn’t see any signs of deception in him, but someone had taken Dylan.

  “Then Shearer took him. I know he did.”

  “Shearer doesn’t need to be kidnapping kids to get whatever he wants.”

  She leaned back in her seat and realized for the first time that he wasn’t a part of the kidnapping of Dylan. Then where was her child?

  Oh, God, please let them find him.

  He would be safe with Miles if they did. She believed the Averys would take care of him—because she doubted she would be returning to him. This man was about to hand her over to a killer—the same killer who’d murdered her mother and had plans to do the same to her.

  “Don’t worry,” Adam stated. “If he’s out there, Miles will find him and take care of your son. He’s a good guy.”

  “He’s a good man who you stabbed in the back. He was almost killed in some of those attacks against me, you know. How could you betray your friends this way? Betray the people you’d sworn to protect?”

  “Look, you don’t know my life. I’ve gotten in over my head with some bad people. I had no choice but to comply. They wanted information. I gave it to them. They wanted you...”

  “And you’ll give me to them. Never mind that they’ll kill me. At least, your debts to them will be paid.” She couldn’t control the contempt she felt for this man, or the way it manifested in her tone.

  “What am I supposed to do? Just let them kill me? I don’t want to die.”

  “Neither do I,” she said, but she suspected that was exactly what was going to happen.

  His cell phone rang and he glanced at the screen in the cradle on the dash. “It’s Miles. They’re probably looking for you by now.” He glanced at her. “If I pick up, they won’t be able to track the call, you know.”

  She gulped as she realized he was going to answer it and saw the truth in his face. He was giving her a chance to say goodbye.

  He wiggled the gun to remind her he had it before he answered. “Hello.”

  Instead of Miles, she heard a woman’s voice through the speaker. “Adam, what are you doing?”

  “Hey, Lanie. What’s up?”

  “What’s up? You just kidnapped Melissa, didn’t you?”

  “I really can’t talk about that right now.”

  “You don’t have to do this. I know what they have on you. The gambling debts. That’s why you’re doing this, isn’t it?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I never meant to hurt anyone. I never meant for this to happen. I had no idea who was holding my markers.”

  “Come back to the ranch. Bring Melissa back here safely. We can figure this out. We can place you in protective custody.”

  Melissa watched him and saw real regret in his face. He wanted to do what Lanie had asked, wanted to turn around and make this all right. And for a moment, she hoped that this woman’s words had gotten to him.

  But then he laughed. “You don’t really believe I would be safe, do you?”

  “I’ll handle the protection myself. No one else would know.”

  He shook his head. “I used to wonder what would make all those people we’ve protected decide to turn on their friends. I always wondered what kind of person did that. Now, I guess I know. They were just looking out for themselves. Same as me.”

  “I guess that’s true, but you don’t have to do it.”

  Someone grabbed the phone, then Miles’s voice came on the line. “Adam, where is Melissa?”

  Adam gave her a look. “She’s here. She can hear you.” He nodded, giving her permission to speak.

  “Miles, it’s me. I’m here.”

  “Are you all right? Has he hurt you?”

  Hearing his voice was like a balm to her soul and she started to cry. “I’m okay...so far.” She heard the frustration and angst in his voice and longed to reassure him, but she didn’t know how. She was in serious trouble. “The good news is that I don’t think he had anything to do with kidnapping Dylan.”

  “Dylan is fine. We found him.”

  Relief flooded through her at those words. To know her son was okay made all of this a little more bearable. But tears pressed against her eyes at the realization that she would never get the chance to hug him again or tell him she loved him. “I’m sorry,” she told Miles. “I shouldn’t have lashed out at you the way I did. It wasn’t your fault and I knew it wasn’t. I was just so angry and upset.”

  “I know. Don’t lose hope because I’m not going to lose you, Melissa. We’re not going to lose you. Dylan and I need you. Where are you?”

  Adam grabbed the phone and ended the call. She cried out in anguish. He’d said they needed her. He needed her. She was done fighting it—she wanted to be with Miles. She wanted to be in his arms, where she felt safe and loved, and she wanted him to be a father for Dylan. Nothing else mattered.

  Adam rolled down the window and tossed out the phone. “If I know my team, they’ll keep trying to call and doing whatever they can to attempt to track us.” With that action, she felt her last hope of being located evaporate. At least she’d gotten to hear Miles’s voice. At least she’d gotten to learn that her son was safe. Adam had been right about one thing. Miles would take care of Dylan. The entire family would be there for him and he would grow up with a family who doted on him. She could at least take comfort in knowing that Dylan would finally have the life she’d always wanted for him.

  Adam turned onto a dirt road, then pulled up next to an unoccupied parked car. He opened the door, grabbed her arm and pulled her out. They walked to the car and he used a set of keys to open the trunk. He took out duct tape and grabbed her wrists, wrapping the tape around them.

  Fear rustled through her. This was it. He was readying her to hand her over to a killer. “Please, you don’t have to do this. You heard Miles and that woman. They can help you. They can protect you.”

  He ripped off another piece of tape and shook his head. “I’m sorry.” He slapped the tape over her mouth then shoved her into the trunk. She couldn’t speak but her eyes kept pleading with him not to do this right up until the moment he slammed the trunk shut and darkness enveloped her.

  He’d tied her up like a Christmas turkey ready to be handed over for slaughter. All that was left was the hand-off and there was nothing she could do to stop him.

  She was going to die.

  * * *

  Melissa had no idea how long of a drive it would be, but after several moments of self-pity, she’d decided she was not going quietly. If she was going to die, she was going to fight back the same way she was certain her mother had. These people would not make her child an orphan so easily.

  Still, she knew that her chances of survival were low. She couldn’t survive this without help and she knew Miles might not make it to her in time. Her only hope, the only solace she had left, was in Jesus. She would probably be seeing Him soon and she was scared, so scared, not of dying because she knew Heaven and her mom were waiting for her, but for what she was leaving behind. Dylan...and Miles. She wished for more time, for different circumstances between them. If only she’d met him years ago before this nightmare had started. But there was little point in looking back and wondering what might have been. She couldn’t change anything that happened—not the horrible parts, like losing her mother, or the wonderful parts, like meeting Miles. If she had to die, she would cherish the time they’d spent together, remember the feeling of being in his arms, the warmth of his embrace and the spark of his kiss. She wanted more. God kne
w she wanted more, but that was never going to happen. She was going to die without Miles ever knowing how much she loved him.

  God, please take care of both Miles and Dylan. They’re going to need You and each other to get through their grief.

  The car stopped and she heard Adam getting out. She frantically pulled at the binds on her hands as footsteps neared the trunk. This was it. Her last moments. Horror and anguish pelted through her as footsteps approached the car.

  Her time had run out.

  * * *

  Miles was glad Lanie was remaining calm and collected as she drove because hearing Melissa’s voice had shaken him to the core. Sure, he’d gotten Dylan back, but he couldn’t lose her now. Anger burned inside him—anger that his friend would do something like this to him, to any witness, but especially to the woman Miles had fallen in love with.

  “I owe you an apology,” Lanie said, wiping away a tear that made Miles realize she, too, was struggling to hold her emotions in check. “I’ve suspected something was going on with Adam for a while. He’s gotten so moody and he disappears for hours at a time. I was too quick to dismiss it as nothing serious.”

  He’d overlooked the signs, too. “In our profession, it’s easy to claim work as an excuse for seeming anxious or run-down.”

  “And he did. I should have listened to my gut. It was telling me something was wrong. Maybe I could have helped him before he got in this deep.”

  “This is not your fault, Lanie. Adam made his own choices.”

  “Isn’t that what I always tell myself about our witnesses? They made their own choices. I always thought maybe they deserved what they got. But it seems like they made the choices and it’s their families that have to pay the price.”

  He grimaced. “Now Melissa is having to pay the price for Adam’s choices.”

  “It’s not fair,” she declared.

  He looked at her. “Life’s not fair. If it was, we would be out of a job.” It was something they’d said to one another often when the weight of their work and all they had to witness got too much. But it was true. If real justice existed in this world, the bad guys would be punished for their actions and no one else would have to suffer. But sin meant that this world was often unjust and unfair. Only Jesus made everything right again. He held on to that. God was watching over Melissa and he was praying fervently for her, as he knew his family was, too. But was it enough? Would God honor those prayers? He knew sometimes the answer was no. God allowed bad things to happen because He’d given us free will. Right then, Melissa was paying the price for Adam’s free-will choices.