Laura wanted to scream at her to be careful, not to confront him directly, but they both ignored her grunts. The tape over her mouth prevented her warning from getting through. Randall was a dangerous man and she could see Miranda thought she was the one in charge. Laura knew better, though. Randall never let anyone play games with him.
He picked up a bag he’d dropped by the door and handed it to her. “It’s what we agreed upon.”
Miranda took the bag, her eyes widening. “Wow, that’s a lot of money.” She giggled gleefully.
“It’s all there. I assure you. But maybe you’d feel better if you counted it.”
She opened the bag and pulled out a handful of money, a big grin spreading across her face. Miranda seemed satisfied at selling Laura out. Laura knew she should be angry, but she was only sad. Miranda had no idea who she was dealing with. Randall was lethal, and the fact that he’d come himself didn’t bode well for either Miranda or Laura.
As she was basking in her newfound wealth, Randall showed his true colors. He pulled a gun and pointed it at Miranda. She seemed surprised when she saw it.
“What are you doing? We had a deal.”
“I’m altering our deal,” Randall told her. Then he pulled the trigger.
Miranda jumped, then bent over. She grabbed the back of the chair as she slowly fell to her knees. Fear and shock rippled through Laura. He’d just shot the woman right in front of her.
Laura struggled against her binds, screaming against the tape over her mouth. All she wanted was to run far away from this maniac, but as she looked at Miranda slumped on the floor, blood pooling around her, she knew she needed help or she would die.
Randall put away the gun and retrieved his bag of money from the table. “I’ll be right back,” he said as he walked out the door.
Laura tried to scoot her chair toward Miranda. The woman’s face had grown pale and still. She was losing blood fast. Laura pulled again at her restraints. If only she could get free, she could try to help.
Miranda’s eyes moved her way, but they were the only things that moved.
Laura pulled and pulled until her chair tipped over and the tape gave way. She yanked her hand free, then freed herself from the other tape. She scrambled over to Miranda, dragging the chair behind her, a last remnant of the duct tape still clinging to her.
She tried to glance at the wound, but blood was gushing so fast. Laura looked around for something to place against it, grabbing a dish towel and placing it over the wound.
“It’s going to be okay,” Laura assured her. “You’re going to be fine. Where’s your phone?”
Laura groped for the phone, knocking it off the table. As she grabbed for the cell, the door burst open and Randall reappeared. He rushed to Laura and she managed to slip the phone into her pocket. She screamed and tried to fight him, but he quickly overpowered her and dragged her toward the door kicking and screaming. Miranda remained sprawled on the floor, unmoving.
When they got outside, Laura saw that Randall had pulled his car into the garage and the trunk was open. She tried to scream again as he shoved her into the trunk, then leaned down and rebound her hands and feet using the same duct tape Miranda had used on her. He tore off one additional piece of duct tape and placed it over her mouth. She was in trouble. Real trouble. As the trunk slammed shut, Laura was left with a deep, sinking feeling that she would probably never see the light of day again and she wished more than anything that she’d never left Colton’s side.
It had been dumb to leave Colton. She’d acted impulsively and without even giving him a chance to explain. Yes, she’d been hurt at learning about his past and more so by the fact that he’d hidden it from her. But in that pivotal moment, she’d made a grievous error. She’d lost her faith in him, decided he was someone she could no longer count on. That was why she’d believed Miranda’s lies so easily. But the fact was Colton had been there for her from the start. He’d seen her struggle and stepped in to help even when it would have been easier to walk away. He’d taken a chance on her and she’d let him down.
Oh, how she yearned to talk to him one more time. She wanted to tell him how sorry she was and how she wished she could take back all the ugly words she’d said to him. She wanted—she needed—to apologize to him. She owed him that much.
Laura struggled with the binds and hot tears flooded her eyes. She had no one now. She’d run from Colton and now he had no way to know where she was or to know she was in trouble. But she still had God and He knew where she was and what was going to happen to her. Would He intervene to save her? She didn’t know. She certainly didn’t deserve His intervention or His mercy, but that hadn’t stopped Him from sending His son to the cross to die for her sin.
She tried to focus on that. God had this situation in His hands, and no matter what happened to her, He would be with her.
She knew her death would kill Colton. He would feel as though he’d failed her, but it wasn’t his fault she’d run off. It wasn’t his fault she’d been tricked by Miranda into believing lies about him. If only she’d trusted more, trusted in Colton completely, then none of this would have happened. She’d realized too late that it was her own distrust that had done her in.
God, watch over him, she prayed. Keep him safe and help him to understand that this wasn’t his fault. It was mine.
Hope sprang anew as she heard and felt the car stop, the door open and shut, then voices. She realized quickly they were at a police barricade. If they had roadblocks set up, then that must mean that they were looking for her. She tried to scream for help but couldn’t, struggled to move around and kick her legs, anything to make enough noise to alert those outside that she was in the trunk.
Her heart lurched and she attempted to cry out when the driver’s door opened and closed again. Her hope faded as the roar of the engine kicked to life and the car sped away.
Dread settled into her and she grew still. Randall had done it again. He’d obviously talked his way through a roadblock that she knew had been set up to catch him.
The man really was bulletproof.
* * *
Colton waited at the main checkpoint into town along with Blake. He checked in with all the officers at the roadblocks set up around town. No one had had a visual of Randall or the car he’d been seen driving. Blake had shown him the FBI alert. They’d had a confirmed sighting that indicated Randall was headed to Compton. But that had been hours ago.
Colton’s gut was on fire, his instincts telling him something was wrong. They’d been out here for hours. How had they missed Randall? Where could he be hiding? And what was his plan? Had he turned around when he’d seen the roadblocks and hightailed it to another part of the country?
Blake sensed his nervousness and tried to reassure him. “We’ll get him, Colton. He won’t get out of town.”
“I’m less worried about him getting out of town than I am about what he might do while he’s in town.”
“We’ve got Compton on lockdown. Don’t worry. If he’s here, we’ll find him.”
Colton pulled out his phone and dialed Miranda’s number. He just wanted to hear Laura’s voice to know she was okay and his worries were unfounded. If she wouldn’t give him that, then at least he could get reassurances from Miranda that Laura was safe. But Miranda’s phone rang and rang, then finally went to voice mail. He didn’t leave a message. She would see the call and know what he wanted and call back.
He tried to busy his mind with coordinating the checkpoints, but after several minutes without a returned call, he dialed the number again. She still didn’t answer and the phone went to voice mail.
He shot her a text asking her to let him know they were safe, but she didn’t respond to the text, either.
He knew Blake was heading out to the north blockade. He would be busy for a while. Colton grabbed his keys and decided to head to Miranda’s house. Anger bit at him. Those women knew the danger Laura was in. It was childish to ignore his calls and texts just because of
one little misunderstanding. Laura had to know he only had her best interest in mind. He stopped, reminding himself that she didn’t believe that. But he’d made a vow to protect her, and regardless of what she thought of him, he was going to live up to it.
He pulled up to Miranda’s house, hopped out of the truck and approached the porch. He knocked but heard no movement from inside and no one came to answer. He knocked again, this time louder. They were probably upstairs and hadn’t heard him.
“Miranda, it’s Colton,” he hollered. “I’m only here to make sure you’re both okay.”
He listened intently but still didn’t hear any movement from inside.
Was it possible they were hiding from him? He didn’t think Miranda would. She was much more the in-your-face type. Besides, Blake’s fiancée knew he would never do anything to harm Laura.
He glanced in through the window again. The curtain obscured his view, but he didn’t see anyone moving around. Had they left the house?
He hopped off the porch and walked to the garage. He knew the code to open the door from when he’d helped Blake install the new garage door. He punched the code into the keypad and waited as the door rumbled up.
Fear shot through him when he saw the car parked inside. Not Miranda’s Nissan Maxima, but a silver Lexus with River City casino emblems. This was the car Randall had been spotted in. He rushed into the garage and looked inside the car. It was empty, but what was it doing here in the first place and where was Miranda’s car?
He hurried to the door leading into the house from the garage. Through the window he spotted a figure on the kitchen floor. A hand, unmoving, and what looked like blood around it. He tried the knob and found it locked, so he put his shoulder into the door and rammed it. It burst open and he rushed inside toward the figure and saw it was Miranda. Her blond hair was discolored from the blood spilled around her. He pressed on her neck for a pulse but found none. She was dead. His gut clenched both with sadness for Miranda and fear for Laura.
He rushed through the house calling her name even though his gut told him she was already gone. She was more than likely with Randall, traveling in Miranda’s car undetected. He searched upstairs, but as he suspected, she wasn’t there, either. He raked a frantic hand through his hair. Miranda was dead and Laura was gone.
Part of him wanted nothing more than to lie down and cry, but he wouldn’t. It wasn’t him. He was a ranger to the core and he had a job to do. Laura was still out there and he wouldn’t rest until he found her.
* * *
The call to Blake was one of the hardest Colton had ever had to make. Other Compton officers were already on scene when Blake’s patrol car roared up the drive.
Colton saw him leap from his car and run to the house. He stopped him at the porch. “Are you sure you want to see her?”
Blake’s eyes shot fire at Colton and he stepped aside. He’d known what the answer would be, but he’d had to ask, even if only to slow Blake down. He was about to experience one of the most devastating scenes he would ever face, possibly even worse than the night of the ambush.
Colton followed him inside. Two officers stopped him at the kitchen door.
“You can’t go in,” one said. “We have to preserve the scene.”
He pushed them away and stepped inside anyway, but Colton could see he was being careful as he stood over the body and stared.
Colton turned away from the scene to give him privacy. The other two officers had a duty to make sure he didn’t disrupt any evidence, but Colton’s only duty was to his friend.
When Blake emerged from the kitchen, he was pale and forlorn. He held on to the wall for support, then managed to compose himself. His face turned hard and Colton recognized his ranger get-things-done face. They’d all had one. It was the expression they made when terrible events occurred but they still had to carry on and complete the mission.
“He has Miranda’s car?”
“Yes,” Colton answered. “I figure he thought it’d make it easier to slip out of town in her car than his own, which he knew everyone was looking for.”
“We need to alert the checkpoints.”
“Already done, Blake,” one of the officers stated. “Everyone in town knows Miranda’s car and they’ve all been alerted to watch for it.”
“Does it have GPS tracking?” Colton asked.
Blake shook his head. “No, it’s an older model. No GPS.”
“What about her cell phone?” Colton asked. He looked at the two officers. “Did you find her cell phone?”
“No. We haven’t found it.”
“Miranda always had her cell phone with her. It was practically glued to her hand,” Blake said.
“I’ve been calling and texting it for hours with no answer. Maybe Laura grabbed it before Randall abducted her. If she was able to hide it from him, it might still be with her.”
Blake took out his phone. “She’s on my cell phone plan and I have the locate-my-phone app.”
Colton looked over his shoulder as Blake navigated through the app. A locator map came up, a blinking blue dot indicating a position.
“It’s definitely not in the house,” he said. He fidgeted with the settings and the map expanded.
The blue dot appeared to be moving along the old Braxton Highway. “There it is!” Colton exclaimed. “She must have taken the phone.”
“Or Randall took it. Either way, we can track their movement.” Blake turned to the two officers, his expression hard and determined. “You stay here and preserve the scene. Call me if anything comes up.”
“Will do,” they said.
Colton rushed out to his truck. Blake stopped at his squad car and opened the trunk, pulling out his shotgun. He glanced at Colton as he pulled on his bulletproof vest. “You have your vest?”
Colton nodded. “In the truck.”
“I think you’re going to need it.”
Colton got into the car with him and Blake took off. He could tell that his friend was hurting on the inside, and the next few months would be long and difficult for him, but Colton instinctively knew Blake was also now on the hunt for justice, and if that justice meant taking out Randall, then he was just the man to do it.
* * *
Laura managed to back up against something hard and metal. Although she had no idea what it was, it had an edge to it that she could use to tear the tape around her wrists. She rubbed against the edged piece until she felt the tape begin to give. Finally she heard it rip and was able to pull her hands apart. She pulled off the tape over her mouth and around her feet, then fumbled around for the cell phone she’d stashed in her pocket.
Hope soared through her when she found it. She pressed the button and saw that it was working. There were also six missed calls and a text message from Colton. It pained her to know he must be thinking she was ignoring his call.
She quickly dialed and the phone rang once, then twice, until finally Colton’s frantic voice answered.
“Laura, where are you? Are you hurt?”
Tears sprang to her eyes at the sound of his voice. He’d assumed she was calling, which meant they’d obviously found Miranda’s body. “I’m okay,” she whispered. “I’m in the trunk of the car, but I managed to sneak Miranda’s phone with me.”
“We’re tracking you by that phone. Do you know where you are?”
“No, I can’t see anything. I’m scared. Miranda—”
“We know,” Colton told her in a soft, soothing voice. “We’re coming to get you, darlin’. Just hang on.”
The brake lights flashed red and Laura heard the squeak of the brakes. “We’re stopping.” She heard the door open and the crunch of feet approaching the trunk. “He’s coming.” She scooted herself farther back as the trunk opened and Randall looked inside. Laura slid the phone behind her so he wouldn’t see it.
“So you managed to untie yourself, did you?” He reached in, grabbed her and hauled her out of the car.
Laura screamed and dropped the phone,
but Colton’s voice came through loud and clear.
“Laura! What’s happening?”
Randall heard it and reached for the phone. “How did you manage to sneak this past me?” He put his ear to the phone and listened as Colton demanded he let her go. Randall’s face darkened.
“You thought you could put one over on me, Laura? You called your boyfriend to come after me?” He raised his hand, then smacked her hard across the face. She cried out and fell against the car. Pain ripped through her head and blinded her for a moment. She pulled herself to her feet just in time to see Randall use his boot to smash the phone, effectively cutting off Colton’s angry tirade of promises of what he would do to Randall when he found him.
Her abductor grinned, satisfied he’d ended that problem. He slammed the trunk closed, then grabbed her by the arms and pulled her with him.
“Don’t try anything else like that,” he warned, pulling his gun on her.
Laura reluctantly went with him. She glanced back at the phone and wondered if that would be the last time she ever heard Colton’s voice.
NINE
The phone call ended abruptly. The last thing he’d heard was the sound of Laura frightened and in pain. What had Randall done to her?
“He found the phone.”
Fear raged through him. He might lose Laura. It was more real at this moment than it had ever been. He was at a loss to help her. She might die and there might be nothing he could do to stop it.
He’d never felt so powerless in his entire life.
Blake glanced at his own phone. “And we just lost our tracking capability.”
“At least we still know we’re heading in the right direction.”
Blake pulled over and together they looked over a map of the area. “We know that he was heading to this particular area. The routes out of town are blocked off, so he must be hiding out somewhere.”
Colton tapped a finger against his chin, considering. If Randall couldn’t get out of town, he would try to find somewhere to hunker down. Colton studied the map closely, looking for anything, anyplace, Randall might use for a hideout. Then it hit him. He scanned the area again, finally singling out one particular place.
Ranch Refuge Page 15
