“And why on earth would I do a stupid thing like that?”
Her face went red as her anger began to grow. “Because he’s supposed to be with me,” she declared vehemently. “We belong together. We’re meant for each other. It’s been that way since we were kids, and it’ll always be that way. Nothing will ever change that.”
My phone began ringing again, but I ignored it, my tone calm and breezy as I stated, “Odd, because it was just this morning that we were discussing his moving into my house, us getting married, and eventually starting a family.”
At that, my mother’s squeal broke through the soft din of voices. “Oh, honey bunch! That’s so exciting!”
I turned and smiled at her over my shoulder, issuing a soft “Thanks, Mama.”
The phone rang for a third time while Laurie snapped, “That’s never gonna happen.” Her face was now a shock of pale white, but I had to hand it to her, she never lost her bravado. “The only reason he’s with you is out of some sick, misguided sense of nobility because you took in that homeless boy. He feels drawn to you because of how he grew up, but that’ll eventually wear off. He’ll come back to me. He always comes back. I was his first love.”
It was as if I was coated in Teflon. Whereas in the past, her words would have twisted my heart and made me question Cord’s real feelings for me, now they just rolled off without making any impact.
“And I’ll be his last,” I offered sympathetically. “I’m sorry, Laurie. I know how it feels to lose him, believe me. And I know the pain you’re going through right now. But you two are over. You made the choice to let him go, and now you have to live with the consequences of that choice. I’m with Cord now. We love each other. He’s the man of my dreams, and I won’t be making the same mistake you did. I know what I have, and there’s no way in hell I’m letting it go.”
“H-he’s… but he’s….” she stammered before finally finding her words. “We’ve been through everything together! I’ve always been there for him, through everything—”
“Except him being shot and nearly dying,” I cut in, making her wince.
“He loves me. I know he does.”
“He did. Once,” I replied. “But now he loves me. We’re starting a life together. He’s moved on. And I think it would be best for you if you left Hope Valley and tried to do the same.”
Her pretty face twisted up into something ugly as she hissed, “He’ll come back to me. He always does. He’ll get tired of playing with some redneck bartender, and he’ll come crawling back. Just you wait and see.”
My lips parted, ready to inform her that I wasn’t going to waste my time waiting on that, when the door flung open and Cord came storming in.
“Honey—”
He cut me off, getting close and taking my face in his hands. “Baby, is Zach with you?”
My eyes went wide. “What? No, he’s at school.”
He shook his head, and my stomach dropped. “They just called me when they couldn’t get through to you. He hasn’t been to any of his classes. He’s not there.”
I clamped my hands over my mouth as I gasped, “Oh my god.”
“I’ll call Bill right now,” my mother spoke up, “have him check your house to see if he cut class and snuck back.”
“Cord,” I whispered, my heart in my throat. “What if he’s hurt? What if something’s wrong?”
“I’m sure he’s fine, dollface. Like your mom said, he probably just ditched. But either way, we need to find him.”
“Yeah,” I replied, nodding. “Okay. Let’s go.”
He grabbed my hand and started for the door when Laurie spoke his name. And as he led me out of the bar, I turned to look up at him and found he had no reaction to his ex what so ever. She didn’t even register as he walked away from her… like she didn’t even exist.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Zach
It was a little after one when I stopped at a gas station for a bottle of water. It used up most of my five dollars, but it was hot outside. I’d gotten off the school bus at seven forty-five that morning and had been walking—sometimes running to put more distance between me and that town—ever since.
That was more than five hours ago.
The guy behind the register gave me a funny look when I first walked in, but he didn’t say a word as he rang up my water, so I figured I was in the clear when I headed back outside, opened the bottle, and downed half of it. I knew I needed to make it last longer, but I was just so freaking thirsty.
I started back on the road again and had barely made it out of the gas station parking lot when I heard the sound of a car coming up fast behind me. I turned to look and had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit. I lost my balance and rolled into the ditch, landing in the mud at the bottom.
The sound of brakes squealing cut through the air as I climbed my way out of the muddy ditch, and when I turned to look, the car had come to a complete stop. “Asshole!” I shouted, throwing my middle finger up at the driver. Then the white lights on the back end flipped on, and the car started driving backward just as fast as it had been going when it almost hit me. I was frozen in place while I watched it getting closer. There was something about that car, something familiar. I’d seen it before, I just couldn’t remember where.
Then it hit me.
But by the time I remembered why I recognized that car and turned around to run, it was too late.
Rory
“This doesn’t make any sense,” I whispered, the tears leaking from my eyes of their own accord. I sat on the floor of Zach’s bedroom with the textbooks and notepads I’d found shoved under his bed scattered all around me. The drawers were hanging open from where I’d pulled them out, and a ton of his clothes were missing. I looked up at my mom, who was sitting on his bed, and asked, “Why would he run away? Did I do something wrong?”
“No, honey,” she whispered, her own tears falling as she pushed off the bed and came to her knees, pulling me into a her embrace. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Kids just do these things sometimes. You threatened to run away at least a dozen times when you were his age.”
“I threatened it, yeah. But I never actually did it.” A sob ripped its way from my chest as Mom began to rock me. “Zach actually did it. Why?”
“Shh now, honey bunch. We’ll find him. Don’t you worry.”
It had been two hours since we discovered Zach was missing. Two hours since my world stopped. Those two hours were the longest, most miserable hours of my life. My father had already searched the house and barn by the time Cord and I got there and was just coming back from taking his truck out to check some of the spots he’d shown Zach on the ranch. He couldn’t find him anywhere.
The police were called and showed up within a matter of minutes, with a bunch of guys from Alpha Omega on their tail. Word spread fast that Zach was missing, and a short time later, my girls arrived as well, holding me close and offering comforting words as I silently lost it. Cord answered all of the officers’ questions, and I found a recent picture for them to get out there so people in town might recognize Zach if they spotted him somewhere.
Once that was done, I’d gone back into his room, hoping I’d stumble on something I missed before. Then I found his schoolbooks.
He’d left that morning with his backpack. I remembered that clear as day. But all of his books had been shoved under his bed. He’d dumped it out to make room for his clothes. Then he took the bus—the driver confirmed he’d dropped him off in front of the school—and from there, my boy took off.
I was a wreck after finding that out. A complete and total disaster. Cord had to handle everything with the cops and the guys from the Alpha Omega, because I was barely holding it together.
“We’ll find him, sweetie, and we’ll bring him home. I promise. We’ll bring him home, and we’ll get this all worked out. You’ll see.”
“Rory!” my father’s voice suddenly boomed from my kitchen. “Rory girl, get out here.”
&
“What?” I clipped, moving to Cord and grabbing hold of his shirt at his chest. “What’s happening? Did you find him?”
“Baby,” he said, his voice sounding like he’d just gargled rocks. “I need you to stay calm, okay? Stay with me, dollface.”
Standing on my tiptoes, I fisted the material of his shirt tighter and demanded, “Tell me.”
But it was Lincoln who spoke, and as he did, I felt the others in the room circle us and start closing in, like they were worried how I might react and wanted to be close to contain the damage. “Call came in from a gas station clerk just outside of town who reported seein’ a boy matching Zach’s description.”
“Well, that’s good, right?” I asked, my voice rising with hope. “Why are we just standing around? We need to get over there!”
“Rory,” Cord started, his fingers wrapping around my arms when I tried to pull away. “His initial call was to report a kidnapping in progress. Uniformed officers went out there to investigate, showed him the picture of Zach, and he confirmed it was him he saw being shoved into the back of a car against his will. He ran out there, tried to get to him, but the driver took off before he made it.”
“Wh-what?” I whispered in disbelief. “Someone kidnapped my boy?”
“We got a description of the woman and the car. Rory, it was Miriam Weathers.”
“No,” I breathed, my voice coming out in a whisper. “No, no, no, no, no.”
“We’re gonna get him back,” Cord proclaimed, his tone unwavering. “We know which direction she was headed in, and we already have units out. Someone’ll spot her, and we’ll get our boy back. I’m joinin’ up with them right now, but I wanted to let you know first.”
I pulled my arms from his grip and shoved through my friends and loved ones on my way to the door. “I’m going with you,” I declared, grabbing my purse off the kitchen table and yanking the strap onto my shoulder.
“Rory, no—”
“This isn’t up for debate, Cord!” I barked, leaning in close to him. “This is me telling you the way it’s gonna be. That’s my son out there.”
“Sweetheart, I know. But it’s not safe—”
“That evil, wretched woman has my son, and there’s no goddamn way I’m sitting on my ass and waiting for you guys to track her down and bring him back to me. Now I’m done arguing about this. It’s a waste of fucking time, so let’s go!”
With that, I spun on my boots and threw the door open wide.
“That’s the spirit I was tellin’ you about, son,” I heard my dad announce curiously. “All you can do is hold on.”
But I stopped listening as I stomped down to Cord’s truck. By the time I made it to the passenger door, he’d already beeped the locks, and I took that as a good sign that he was giving me my way in this. He climbed in the driver seat a moment later, and together we headed out to get our boy.
Zach
“Your fault. All your fault,” Ms. Weathers muttered as she turned the wheel and whipped the car down a narrow mountain road.
I hadn’t liked the woman from the first moment I met her years ago. There was something about her that made me feel weird. Fortunately, I hadn’t had to see her a lot, considering she never did her freaking job.
But sitting in the seat beside her, listening to her mumble a whole bunch of nonsense, I knew what it was I didn’t like about her.
The woman was freaking crazy.
She’d nearly run me over, then kidnapped me in broad daylight in front of a gas station. Now she was driving like a maniac on dangerous roads. The longer I was stuck in the car with her, the more scared I got that she was going to wreck.
Totally crazy.
“Uh… Ms. Weathers, maybe you should slow down.”
“Devil’s spawn!” she shouted, turning her demented eyes to me. “That’s what you are! The child of Satan. Evil through and through.”
She whipped around another turn so fast that I slammed into the door.
“I’m sorry,” I said as my whole body began to shake. “I don’t know what I did, but whatever it is, I’m really sorry.”
“Lies,” she hissed, sounding almost evil. “All lies. You’re a sinner. A dirty, rotten sinner. Should’ve done away with you first time I laid eyes on you. Knew then you were a bad seed. You’ll always be a bad seed. Saw you on the side of the road and knew what I had to do. It was God giving me the chance to right a wrong.”
My teeth began to chatter as a fear unlike anything I’d ever felt took over. I shouldn’t have left. I shouldn’t have run away. I should have stayed with Rory and Cord. I could have talked to them, told them I’d do my best to help out when they started having kids. I’d be good, I’d clean, I’d learn to cook. If they’d just let me stay, I’d do anything they asked.
But I didn’t. I ran away, and now I probably wasn’t ever going to see them again.
That sting started back up in my eyes, but instead of fighting it, I let the tears come. I didn’t even bother trying to stop them.
I let them come as I squeezed my eyes closed and prayed.
I prayed that I’d make it out of this okay.
I prayed that I’d get away from this crazy woman.
But mostly I prayed that I’d get to see Rory and Cord again, and if I did, the first thing I was going to tell them was that I loved them.
Then the car filled with flashing blue, white, and red lights, and the sound of police sirens pierced my ears.
“You did this!” Ms. Weathers shrieked as cars seemed to come from everywhere on all sides of us. She hit the gas and started going even faster. “This is all your fault!”
“Ms. Weathers!” I cried. “Please, please slow down!”
But she didn’t, and I started to panic. I caught something out of the corner of my eye, and when I turned to look, I saw a big white SUV with Hope Valley Police Department painted along the side. The man in the driver seat waved his hand, and when I glance up at him, he grabbed hold of his seat belt and pulled at it.
I nodded, letting him know I understood, then quickly tugged my seat belt and clicked it into place. The SUV on my side suddenly sped up and drove way ahead of us before pulling into the lane in front of Ms. Weathers’s car. Another car came up on my side and took its place. I looked over and noticed an SUV on the driver side and craned my neck to see two police cars were riding close behind us.
Five cars, all of them boxing us in.
Then it happened.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Rory
“They’re gonna crash,” I murmured, watching with trembling hands as Hayes sped up, the SUV he and Trick were in moving a good five car lengths in front of Miriam Weathers.
“They know what they’re doin’, baby,” Cord replied as we trailed behind the sea of cars.
Five minutes ago, his phone rang and I answered the call, putting it on speaker. The car had been spotted near Tolliver Mill Road. That wasn’t far at all. By the time we caught up, there were cars everywhere, and Cord had to slow down to hang back so we didn’t get in the way.
“I don’t want him to get hurt.”
“He won’t, sweetheart. He’s gonna be just fine.”
My heart was pounding against my ribs as I watched the two other detectives on the force I knew, Leo Drake and Micah Langford, come up on the passenger side where Hayes and Trick had just been. Lincoln’s guys Bryce and Xander were in the car that was at the driver side, and two police cruisers were riding on Miriam’s tail.
“Stay with me, baby,” Cord murmured, his hand coming off the steering wheel and reaching across the console of his truck to clutch mine. “Just stay with me. Only a few more seconds.”
I held my breath as Cord slowed the truck even more. Then I heard multiple tires screeching. The sound was so loud, so sharp, I slammed my eyes shut and winced. It seemed to go on forever, and then there was a crunch of metal.
My eyelids flew open to see that Miriam’s car had hit the SUV, though not hard enough to really injure anyone. Cord gunned it, getting close to the pileup, whipping his wheel at the last second so he came to a stop with his truck stretched across both lanes with my door closest to the action.
I threw it open and started running as fast as I could, faster than I’d ever run before, as I screamed Zach’s name.
The passenger door of Miriam’s car flew open and my boy shot out. The second I saw him healthy and standing, a sob tore from my chest. “Zach!”
He whipped around, his big eyes coming to me, and then he took off in a sprint. I barely had time to hit my knees before he collided with me, his whole body shaking as he squeezed me tighter than he ever had before, buried his face in my neck, and started crying.
“Oh god. You’re okay. You’re okay, honey. I have you. It’s all right.”
The sound of running boots came up on us, and a second later we were both wrapped in Cord’s strong, secure embrace.
“I-I’m sorry,” Zach sobbed, his tears drenching my shirt. “I’m s-so s-sorry. I shouldn’t have run away. I’m sorry, Rory. Please don’t be mad.”
“Oh, sweetie.” I pulled my arms from around him and cupped his cheeks, forcing his face from my neck. “I’m not mad, Zach. I’m just so relieved you’re okay.”
“I shouldn’t have run away,” he repeated, shaking his head as tears poured from his eyes. “I shouldn’t have. I was just scared.”
“Scared of what, bud?” Cord asked.
“I-I heard you guys talking this morning. Y-you’re gonna get married a-and start having b-babies. I thought… I thought you wouldn’t w-want me anymore.”
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