Runaway Heart Read online

  The panic that overtook her was immediate and all-consuming. Her heart rate skittered out of control as she fumbled for the phone in her back pocket and realized Kerri had not replied to her text message. The rule was to always reply. Ren picked up speed, looking into every room in the house as she called for the kids even though she knew she wouldn't find them.

  It was every worst nightmare she had had over the last four years. Always, Anita found them, but never had she found Kerri alone. She usually called Ren or tracked her down outside of her job—once, she had been parked at the end of the driveway when Ren had come home from running errands. They'd always had a chance to get gone before anything bad happened. Until now. In a blind frenzy, she ran full tilt into Dane's chest as she started outside to get him. He took hold of her arms to steady her.

  "I could hear you yelling from the barn. What's going on?"

  Ren felt numb from head to toe. Her mind raced over every possible scenario she could think of, but it kept circling back to the obvious one: somehow, her mother had tracked them down and taken not only Kerri but now Gage, irrevocably engaging the Baylor family in the disaster that was her life. Dane had asked her a couple of times in the beginning what she was so afraid of—this.

  "The kids are gone. I knew if we left them alone…"

  "They're not just gone, Ren. Calm down. Take a breath." He tugged her close to his chest but she was in full flight mode and the last thing she wanted was to be held in one place. Fear ricocheted through her bloodstream, a harsh contrast to all the endorphins she'd been awash with not an hour before.

  "They're not here! I checked everywhere."

  "There's a whole ranch out here, sugar. They're probably with Finn."

  "Dane, listen to me. We have to call the police. She's probably a hundred miles from here by now with them...oh God, and Gage. I'm so stupid, how could I think this would be okay?"

  She could see his jaw tighten—for a brief moment, he might have given himself over to a panicked thought, but he controlled himself quickly, smoothing out his features. His voice was steady and soothing when he spoke again.

  "If it makes you feel better, we'll call the Sheriff now… but we're just gonna have to call and cancel him when we find those kids."

  She wished she could believe him as he took her hand and led her into the yard, past Gage's bike which had been haphazardly leaned against the steps. Her heart was breaking. Everything felt wrong, right down to the cellular level.

  Dane finally accepted defeat after they'd checked with Finn and been through the barns. He made her sit on a bale of hay while he called the Sheriff. The conversation was short, his language more urgent than his tone betrayed. Afterward, he crouched in front of her, taking her trembling hands in his and waited until she made eye contact with him.

  "We will find them."

  Ren nodded, trying to keep her head in the game. Dane's calm demeanor seemed surreal—after all, Gage was missing, too. He didn't know Anita but from the stories she had told him, so perhaps he just didn't get how serious the whole situation was. Anita wouldn't hurt them right away. She had to sweeten Kerri up to her after years of no contact…but eventually, she would harm her. And God knew why she wanted Gage. Ren would never forgive herself if anything bad happened to that little boy.

  *

  Dane paced while he waited for the Sheriff to show up. Ren had gone inside with Finn but Dane couldn't quiet himself long enough to sit and he didn't want Ren to see him agitated. If anybody could handle this situation, he thought, it was Sheriff Banks Montgomery. He'd grown up practically a member of the Baylor clan and while they never had to make use of the law man's station, Dane had heard good things throughout the community about the young Sheriff.

  Banks' cruiser rolled in and Dane released a breath of relief. His deputy, Carter Collins had ridden along and Dane met them at the car, shaking each man's hand in greeting.

  "Banks."

  "Dane, it's been too long. Shame it's under these circumstances, though."

  "You're damn right." Dane sighed, shifted. "If you want to talk to Ren, she's in the house. She knows a lot more about what seems to be going on here."

  "You've looked everywhere here at the ranch?"

  "Just about every little nook and cranny we could think of. The James boys and Myrna and Jonas Pierce are riding the back, but we came from that way when we came in, so we would have seen them."

  "We'll call in a couple more officers to help with the search, but in the meantime, I would like to talk to Ren. You said she believes this is an abduction?"

  Dane nodded. The concept of Anita Maddock had seemed like something that couldn't touch them here in Three Rivers. Turned out maybe he had been wrong to brush off her concerns. He headed for the house with Montgomery and Collins on his heels. In what seemed like the most unnatural scenario, Finn was putting on coffee and Ren was seated at the kitchen table, her hands clasped together in front of her. He had to hand it to her—she had been near hysterics but she had reined it in and she hadn't cried a single tear. She had turned out to be every bit the strong woman he'd thought her to be when she'd first showed up.

  Banks sat in the seat opposite Ren, waving away the coffee Finn offered him. Carter sat also, but Dane stood nearby, his arms crossed over his chest, overlooking the scene. He'd tried more than once to put his arms around Ren and comfort her but that didn't seem to be what she wanted so he settled for being near if she needed him.

  In truth, he could have used her soft touch for comfort, too. He had no idea what Anita would want with Gage or why she would have taken the boy. His stomach roiled with the idea of anything bad happening to his nephew while his mind tried over and over to convince him they were just playing hide and seek in the hay mow—even though they'd checked there a dozen times.

  Finn busied himself putting on a second pot of coffee while Dane listened as Collins and Montgomery questioned Ren. He took a moment to consider the options. Ren was afraid of this woman—she'd told him about the things Anita had done to her and Kerri—what was stopping her from harming Gage? For the first time, and just for a brief moment, he regretted not heeding Ren's warnings. She had tried to tell him half a dozen times Anita would cause problems down the road but he hadn't believed her, and now Gage could pay the price for his uncle's stupidity. It was every fear about failing as the child's guardian that he had ever had.

  But heeding Ren's warnings would have meant no Ren. Strong, soft, giving, beautiful Ren. Who, even now, when she should be panicking, answered every question Banks asked with dignity—even the ones that irritated Dane with their redundancy. Ren, who had lit up his life when he didn't even realize how badly he needed the sunshine. And Kerri. The pair clearly needed the safe haven that had been the Baylor ranch. In the short time they'd been there, he'd seen both of them blossom, and Gage, too, and was proud he was a part of it.

  No, he wouldn't have sacrificed what he had in his life now to avoid the potential to get hurt. If there was one thing the Baylors had learned well through losing first Gavin and June, then Sunny, it was that you couldn't let the fear of being hurt stop you from loving. At the end of the day, even if you didn't have two red cents to rub together, you'd still be rich if you had a little love in your life.

  Dane shifted, moving closer to the kitchen table and dropping a hand on Ren's shoulder. He gave it a supportive squeeze.

  Banks shifted back in his seat.

  "I think we should move this questioning down to the station." Pushing his chair back, first the sheriff and then his deputy rose. Ren jumped to her feet.

  "Where are your mama and daddy?" Banks asked Dane.

  "I called them just before I called you. They're with Noah closing up the shop but we'll let them know to meet us down at the station."

  The four of them filed out of the Baylor house, leaving Finn behind to tie up loose ends.

  Dane helped Ren into the passenger side of his pick up the way he always did. When she flinched away from the hand he t
ried to put on her knee as they pulled out the lane of the ranch, he frowned, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.

  "Look, if you think I'm gonna let you just go off into the woods and lick your wounds alone, you don't know much about me." It was hard not to feel shirked when he was hurting too. There was a whole other layer to the pain and anxiety she was dealing with, though. No doubt she was reliving scenes of abuse and neglect with the sore topic of her mother all dredged up.

  When he glanced over, she was staring straight ahead, her eyes filled up with tears.

  "Sugar…" He reached out for her hand. "I didn't mean to be…"

  "I never meant for this to happen, Dane." She put her hand into his and the grip she took could have choked a turkey.

  "I know you didn't."

  "I didn't come here to Three Rivers to find some well-off cowboy and turn his life upside down. I came here to get away from Anita. And I couldn't even do that right."

  Dane squeezed her hand in return.

  "Nobody thinks this happened on purpose, Ren."

  "I should never have replied to your ad."

  Frowning, Dane pulled the truck over and shifted into park. He unbuckled his seat belt and reached across to unbuckle Ren's. With little effort, he tugged her across the seat into what the boys all called the 'girlfriend seat' and into his arms.

  "Stop trying to talk yourself out of this. Stop trying to talk me out of you. It ain't gonna happen. Even if you had been a waitress or bagging my groceries at Sawyer's, I would have found you."

  She sniffed, but no tears had spilled yet. He tipped her chin up with one finger.

  "Don't think for one second, Ren Maddock, that you are anywhere except exactly where you need to be. We will get through this, we'll find the kids, and we will hire every lawyer in the country to make sure your mother can't ever bother you again if we have to. Got it?"

  She gave him a long look before she finally nodded and nestled into his side.

  —TWENTY-THREE—

  After Banks had finished his questioning, Ren sat with Dane on a bank of hard seats at the sheriff's office, waiting. It felt wrong to go back to the ranch and sit on their thumbs now that the investigation had been taken over by the sheriff and the biggest hub of activity was here.

  The longer they stayed here, however, the worse she felt. Now that they had turned it over to the sheriff, it was real. Her mother was a suspect. No matter how far she'd gone to get away from her, it wasn't far enough. She had been foolish to believe there was any safety to be had in Three Rivers, or anywhere else. Dane had convinced her, made her feel wanted, comfortable, and safe. She'd become complacent, and now she wasn't the only one paying the price.

  There was no room for them to pretend nothing was happening between them with the urgency that filled the air and he had her tucked tightly against his side, as if he could transfer the strength and patience he had to her, if he had any left. She was sure he was roiling with the same sick feeling inside. She couldn't understand how he was managing to hold himself together when all she wanted to do was surrender to the flurry of feelings coursing through her. Anger, resentment, panic, giving in to any one of them would have been a relief. Carefully managing herself the way she was now was agony.

  Banks emerged from his office, beckoning Dane, and he gave Ren an encouraging squeeze before he rose to greet his old friend. He shook the sheriff's hand with a firm grip and cast a glance over his shoulder at Ren, his mask of calm cracking just a moment as she noticed worry knitting his handsome features for the first time.

  The rest of the Baylor clan arrived then. The sight of them made her feel even more ill - she wished for the hundredth time she hadn't brought trouble to the doorstep of this family who had been nothing but endlessly kind and open to her. She wouldn't have blamed a single one of them for hating her but they circled her immediately, Ella the first to close her in a tight hug. She could read the worry for Gage etched on the faces of these people she'd come to love, but they were still concerned about her.

  "I'm so…"

  Caine cut her off.

  "Sorry is for when the bad stuff is over and there ain't another thing we can do."

  Though she hadn't shed a single tear at that point, Ren's eyes were dangerously full at his words. He was the same kind of gentle, patient, masterful man that he had raised his son to be. She didn't deserve their kindness.

  "Listen, sweetheart. There ain't a single one of us in this whole room who hasn't had troubles in life that ended up spilling over on someone else by accident," he continued.

  She could see by the nods from Finn and Noah that they concurred. Of course everybody had regrets and made mistakes that affected others, but Ren was convinced hers went well beyond the threshold of what was reasonably acceptable.

  Dane returned to the group, his face not betraying whether there had been good news or bad news.

  "There's not much to go on yet, but local police went by Anita's house and she's not there...Which could mean she's at work, not that she's halfway across the country." He shrugged, reached for Ren's hand and drew her close. "They are going to try running her credit card in the system and see if there's been any activity."

  Ren let out a long breath and tried to swallow but her mouth was dry with fear at the thought of confirming their worst nightmare. She knew it in her heart, but hearing them confirm, out loud, Anita was here and had taken the kids would be a hard blow.

  Ushering the group to a long line of hard plastic chairs, Dane put an arm over Ren's shoulders and held her tight. Though Noah raised a brow, the expression Dane shot him shut down any questioning. Now was not the time.

  A flurry of activity in the portion of the office that contained all of the desks drew her attention abruptly and the whole family leapt to their feet.

  Banks exited his office quietly, nodding to a couple of officers preparing to go to their cars and approached the Baylors. His voice was quiet and tight—he was a man who spent his lifetime delivering bad news and he had clearly learned to manage himself to incite the least amount of panic.

  "We got a hit on her credit card at a motel just a few miles from here." Ren's heart clenched at his words. Had her mother been right behind them this whole time? Had she ever been truly safe?

  *

  Dane stepped forward. "Which hotel?"

  Banks shot an exasperated look at Dane. When he'd first started into law enforcement, he'd done his best to recruit the eldest Baylor boy—they'd been such close friends growing up, it only made sense to keep the peace in Three Rivers together after they'd raised so much hell as teenagers. Dane had chosen the ranch and never looked back.

  "Not a chance, Baylor." Rarely did Banks pull this authoritative voice on Dane—rarely did he need to, the Baylors were an upstanding family in the community. Because of their friendship, the sheriff clearly wanted to keep the family in the loop but knew the dangers of having a civilian on scene at what could turn into a terse standoff. Dane had ridden along with him a handful of times, but writing speeding tickets was a far cry from dealing with an abduction case—especially one that his friend was so close to. "I'll go, and that's the next best thing. But the lot of you," he gestured to the family, including Ren, "are staying right here, and Deputy Collins is going to make sure of that."

  Cursing quietly under his breath, Dane turned to Ren. She looked fragile now, a shell of the strong woman who had been holding his household together all summer, and it made Dane uneasy. There had been days she plunged headfirst into ranch chores he had been sure would have scared any other woman away, but she had been fearless. He had wondered if anything could affect her, and here they had found it. In one all-too-short afternoon, the world had drilled to the root of her weaknesses and exposed every one to the open air.

  "He's right, honey. We'd be useless, and he's practically an honorary Baylor. It'll be alright." Ella interjected, ever the voice of reason and cohesive bond in their family. "There's nothing any of us can do that Banks can't do te
n times over."

  Ella guided her son and Ren back to the chairs along the wall. They were meant for criminals in for booking, not anxious families, but asking everyone to go home would be futile. Dane recognized Ella's motives - the best she could do was try to manage the anxiety and panic in the room, and that was how she would manage her own. She had spent a lot of time organizing and guiding the Baylor family and she knew how to do it with efficiency and precision. No matter who else thought they were the boss at any given time, it was always Ella. His mother was the backbone of the family.

  She dispatched Finn and Noah to acquire coffee, 'and not the stuff from the machine here', and then she and her husband flanked Dane and Ren in the seats, offering their physical presence as a balm as they settled in for a long wait.

  —TWENTY-FOUR—

  It wasn't an hour later that Deputy Collins ushered the family into Sheriff Montgomery's office, arranging them in the small space carefully. The Sheriff was nowhere in sight so Ren could only assume, hopefully, this was a safety precaution and they were bringing Anita in. Though they'd displayed an exponential amount of restraint, she was certain the Baylors were not the type to let themselves be done wrong, especially this badly, without a little bit of bad blood.

  She could hear a commotion in the hallway outside and winced, causing Dane to tighten his grip on her hand.

  "They must have them, sugar. They're just fine."

  Banks entered his office not long after, removed his hat and took up a spot not behind the desk but sitting on the edge of it.

  "We've got them..." His face clearly showed he had some conflict.

  "Can we see them?" Ren's heart thundered in her chest with anticipation. All she really needed to do was lay her hands on her sister and make sure she was okay physically. Any mental damage her mother had done to her could be repaired later.

  "Of course. But I need you to stay, Ren, afterward. We need to have a talk."

  Ren could hardly think straight, but Dane nodded to his friend and helped her to her feet. The family filed out of the office to find Kerri in the hall with Gage clinging tightly to her hand.