Nick sat on the bed and lowered his head. “I just never thought she’d be taken away from me.”
I sighed and turned my gaze back to the screen. All of the pictures Hadley took in Wyoming were saved to my computer. I couldn’t stop looking at them, at her. “Neither did I,” I murmured.
For the next hour, I searched through everything I could find on George Rivers’ whereabouts. I called his office and all they would say was that he was out of town for a couple of days. There wasn’t much to go on, especially since he hadn’t paid for anything with any of his credit cards recently, so I could track his location. There was, however, a sum of five million dollars taken out of his bank two days ago, the day Hadley was killed.
“What are you up to, George?” I mumbled at the screen.
“What do you mean?” Nick asked.
I’d been completely engrossed in my work and forgotten he was in the room. I pointed at the screen and he walked over. “You see this? That’s five million dollars taken out of George Rivers’ account two days ago. Why the hell would he need that much money?”
Nick shook his head. “Have you figured out where he’s at?”
“Not yet. I’m trying to tap into his phone to see if I can locate him that way. It just takes time. Once I link in, all we’ll have to do is wait.” I typed in the information and waited for the wheel of death to stop spinning. Nick watched on in fascination and we both breathed a sigh of relief when my software synced with George’s phone. I knew it would, but being in the middle of a desolate town, I figured it’d take longer.
“How long do we have to wait?”
“I don’t know,” I answered with a shrug. “It depends on how far away he is. Once we find him, hopefully, it’ll give us an idea of what he’s up to.”
“You don’t think he had anything to do with the accident do you? He was always so overly protective of Hadley.”
“You’re right. I don’t believe he would ever purposely hurt her. I just want to know what he’s up to.”
I clicked over to another screen where a picture of her working in the barn popped up. She wasn’t looking when I’d taken it, but I had to have proof that I’d gotten her to shovel shit. She would’ve killed me if she knew I took it.
“Is that Hadley?” Nick asked. Nodding, I turned the computer toward him. His eyes lit up when he looked at her. “What is she doing?”
Chuckling, I pointed at her picture. “Shoveling shit. When she first came out to Wyoming, I didn’t want her there. I thought it was an insult to my talent to have to babysit a spoiled Hollywood brat.”
“She was never like that,” he snapped.
I held up my hand. “I know, but it took a while for me to see. Anyway, I made her sweep out the stalls and help me in the barn. She turned out to be one hell of a rider. Nightshade loved her.”
“I went about it all wrong,” he grumbled. “Who would’ve thought she’d want a guy who made her clean up horse shit?”
The memories made me laugh. “My thought exactly.”
A sad smile spread across his face. “Do you mind if I scroll through the pictures? I’ve never seen her like this.”
I nodded and turned the computer toward him. He burst out laughing when he saw the pictures of me in the Mexican pointy boots. I didn’t want to think about what it was going to be like getting on a plane and going home without her.
A phone rang. My pulse spiked when I saw who it was. “Logan. Got any news?”
“Do I ever,” he exclaimed. “Are you sitting down?”
“Yeah.”
“Good, hold on. I’m sending over a video.” He clicked away on his computer. “You’re never going to believe this shit. I was having trouble with the clarity, but I had one of my friends clean it up for me. Let me know when you get it.”
Heart racing, I grabbed my computer back from Nick and logged into my government email. “I have it. Clicking on it now.”
“All right. It’s dark, so we had to look at it through the night vision sensor. Tell me when you see the crash.”
Taking a deep breath, I held it in as I watched the car slam into the tree. I’d been in car accidents before and knew that hit shouldn’t have incapacitated them.
Nick gasped. “No fucking way. That’s it?”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand how they couldn’t have gotten out.”
“Who’s with you?” Logan asked.
I rolled my eyes and huffed. “Nick Myers. He followed me out here. The idiot thinks he can help me.”
“Prick,” Nick mumbled, flipping me off.
Logan chuckled. “I bet that has to be interesting.”
“You have no idea.”
“Well, things are about to get crazy. Tell me what you see now.”
Focusing on the video, I couldn’t believe my eyes. We watched as the driver door opened and Connor stepped out like nothing happened. “What the—”
“Exactly. Now watch. They aren’t alone.”
A car pulls up behind them and another man gets out, slapping Connor’s shoulder in passing. What the hell was going on? Connor proceeded to open the back door and lift Hadley into his arms, while the other guy dumped something into the front seat.
“Is that what I think it is?” I growled in disgust.
Logan sighed. “I think so. I don’t know where they got the ashes, but what else could it be? That guy dumps a container into the backseat as well.”
I watched Connor carefully place her into the backseat of the second car, as the other guy set flame to hers. “She’s alive,” my voice creaked out.
Nick fell to his knees. “Thank fucking God.”
Logan cleared his throat. “You know what this means, right?”
The car with Hadley inside of it sped away. “She’s out there and I’m going to find her. I don’t care how long it takes or what I have to do. I won’t rest until I have her back.”
Hadley
Cinnamon apples. I loved the smell of cinnamon apples so much that I had a candle in every room of my house. Was I home? How could that be? Footsteps sounded on the hardwood floor below me, but I wasn’t the one doing the walking. A set of arms held me tight and I sighed, thinking it was Blake but the cologne was different. I recognized it.
“Connor?”
“It’s me. I’m moving you to a different room,” he murmured. Ever so slowly, I could finally move my arms and my legs. My muscles ached across my chest; especially when Connor laid me down in the bed. By the time I could open my eyes, I watched him walk out the door.
“You’re awake,” a voice called out to my right.
Groaning, I turned my head to the side. “Dad?”
He smiled at me and grabbed my hand. “How do you feel?”
“Like I’ve been run over by a train. What happened?” I glanced down at my arm where a bandage covered the inside of my elbow.
My father glanced down at my arm and cleared his throat. “You were in an accident. They just took you off the IV.”
“Where am I?” It looked like a house instead of a hospital. A really nice house, as a matter of fact.
“Connor brought you here and had a private physician check you out. We didn’t want the media attention. They can’t touch you here.”
“Accident? What kind of accident? I can’t remember anything.” All I could remember was being in the car and then . . . nothing.
He squeezed my hand and stood. “Connor lost control of the car and ran off the road. He’s fine and so are you.”
“Where are we?”
For a split second, he hesitated and then answered. “In Canada. Connor knew you’d be safe up here.”
“Canada,” I shouted incredulously. “That makes no sense. Where’s Blake? He was coming for me. I have to let him know where I am.”
“Shh, it’s okay,” he uttered gently, kneeling down by the bed. “Blake knows where you’re at. The media is following him around, hoping he’ll come to you. Don’t worry, you’ll see him soon.”