“Where’s Hope?” Noah asked, his eyes trailing back toward the kitchen door.
“Yes,” Jesse said, his eyes following Noah’s line of sight. “Where’s the luscious little Hope?”
Odd, now that he’d settled his relationship with Hope, James didn’t feel the urge to bash the man’s face in. “She’s hungry. She had a long night.”
“Yeah, she did.” Noah held up his hand and offered a high five.
James slapped at his brother’s hand in a sign of male solidarity.
“So juvenile.” Cade crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. “So, the rumors are true. You’ve settled your differences. The last time we saw you two you seemed to be at odds.”
“We’re brothers,” James said. “We always figure it out. Now, Hope said she’s just going to let her men buy her a new car.”
Noah pointed out the front window toward the shiny car in the driveway. “You know they restored that beauty. Hope would look awfully nice driving around in something like that.”
Yeah, and Noah would drive that sucker every chance he got. “Dipshit, our wife is not driving around these mountains in a sports car. Hell, Hope can barely drive as it is. No, we’ll find her something safe.”
Cade looked at him for a moment. “We’ll keep our eyes open. Stop brooding, Jesse. She’s taken, and it looks like she’s in a good place. We’re just going to have to keep looking.”
“Hey, maybe you can give Hope’s friend Lucy a call.” James was damn proud of himself for coming up with that little plan. Lucy was a pretty little thing, and as far as James could tell, she was alone. She worked doubles at Trio, and word was she sent most of her money back home. Lucy sounded like a woman who could use a couple of men looking out for her. And Lucy was Hope’s friend. He had to start looking out for Hope’s friends.
Jesse shook his head. “Lucy? That waitress at Trio? The pretty brunette?”
“Yeah, Hope was just talking to her.” James could guess what they had been talking about. Him. Noah. Hope was probably telling her friend all about the events of the last couple of days, and he was damn sure she was probably going into way more detail than he would be comfortable with. Women liked to talk more than men.
“I haven’t met Lucy,” Noah said, obviously curious about Hope’s friends.
“Uhm, they were talking about her this morning at Stella’s. She didn’t show up for her shift last night. The big Russian guy was really worried about her. I heard he and Holly and the doc were in the sheriff’s office trying to convince Cam to start a search for her,” Cade explained. “We were going to come out here, talk to Hope, and then we were going to head back and see if we could help with the search.”
James shook his head. “I don’t think you’ll need to do that. Hope was just talking to her.”
Jesse gestured toward the house phone. “Well, someone needs to let the Russian know. Apparently he checked her place this morning when he couldn’t get her on the phone, and he said it looked like she’d been in a struggle. The whole damn place was torn up.”
A cold fear ran along James’s spine.
Noah looked toward the kitchen door. “Does everyone know Lucy is Hope’s friend?”
James’s mind was making some horrible leaps. “Yes. Hope was the first person Lucy got to know. She and Lucy spend a lot of time together. It wouldn’t take much to figure out that they’re close. Hell, Lucy can talk a mile a minute, and she’s not exactly discreet. She’s not guarded. She’ll tell anyone anything.”
“What’s wrong?” Cade asked, seeming to sense the tension.
“Hope?” Noah called out as he strode into the room.
“Get her out here,” James ordered his brother.
They wouldn’t let her out of their sight. Christian Grady was out there somewhere, and it looked like he was trying to find a way to get at Hope. Since Grady hadn’t been able to walk off with her yesterday, it looked like he might try to find a way to bring her to him. James grabbed his phone and started dialing Cam.
He cursed the ringing phone. What was taking Noah so damn long? He was going to grab a shotgun and lock all three of them in the bedroom until this fucker was caught. He had a deep desire to be the one who found him, but he wasn’t about to turn his back on Hope.
The line picked up, and James started talking immediately. “Cam? Cam, listen to me, I think this guy has Lucy, and he’s going to try to use her to get to Hope.”
A calm feminine voice spoke back. Laura. Laura Niles was taking Hope’s place at the station house. She, Rafe, and Cam were all there and all had an extensive background in law enforcement. “James? We were just about to call you. We need you to get Hope down to the station. Until we figure out where Lucy is, Hope needs to be under lock and key. Rafe is out talking to Lucy’s neighbors, but we don’t have anything right now except a wrecked apartment. Cam thinks this is all about Hope.”
Noah walked back in the room, his face a pale white.
“Where’s Hope?” James asked before he realized things had gone very, very wrong.
Noah wasn’t alone. One of his new hands followed behind Noah, and James caught sight of the metallic gleam of a gun at his brother’s back.
James felt his heart flip, adrenaline beginning to pound through his system. He couldn’t lose his brother. He’d just gotten his brother back. And Hope. Where the hell was Hope?
And where had Jesse and Cade gone? He looked around, hoping for a little backup, but the mechanics seemed to have slipped away while he was talking to Laura. Cowards. Or were they something more? How long had this Christian person been watching them? How many people had he put in this town?
Just how fucked was he?
“Where’s Hope?” James asked. He had to force the words out of his throat. All he really wanted to do was scream.
“Jamie, I’m so sorry. I think she’s gone.” Noah’s voice sounded tortured.
The cowboy Trev had hired just a day before kept a hand on Noah’s shoulder. “She’s on her way to see her husband. And I’m not about to let you two screw up that little reunion. Your wife never met me, but I’ve worked with the boss for a long time. He’s obsessed with that dumb bitch. We aren’t going to move on and get back in business until he deals with her, and I would really like to get back in business. So I’m afraid I can’t let the two of you go after her.”
James met his brother’s eyes.
“Jamie, she’s more important and you know it,” his brother said.
“Shut up,” the cowboy said, shoving the gun deeper against Noah’s back. “We’re going to wait here until I get the all clear. It won’t take long, and then we can all go about our business.”
The man with the gun was lying. There was no way he would leave them alive. He was simply waiting until he was sure he didn’t need them for anything else. James could wait and pray that he was wrong, but he knew he couldn’t.
“She’s out there, brother,” Noah said, his eyes fairly pleading with James.
Damn it. Did he know what he was asking James to do? Fuck yeah, he knew. He was asking James to make good on the promise they had made. They might not have said it out loud, but they had grown up knowing this was the way a family worked. Hope was theirs. And Noah was willing to sacrifice himself if it meant James had any shot at saving her.
“I forgive you,” James said, letting go of all of his anger in that moment. He loved his brother—the man who shared a life, if not blood, with him, his constant companion, the other odd half of his soul.
Noah nodded and closed his eyes as though he didn’t want to see it coming, wanted his last moment to be something private. He would be thinking of Hope.
James braced himself because if he could save his brother, he would try, but there was no way he could stand there as Hope got further and further away.