Saved by the Rancher (24 page)

“Stupid dog. Get moving.” David’s arm bled down his sleeve and hand, but not bad enough to slow him down.

He grabbed her arm, digging his fingers into her skin, bruising. With a sharp tug, he led her deeper into the woods and down a long path, away from the house, heading down along the tree line. Tears spilled down her eyes for poor, devoted Sally. She hoped someone found her soon. She hoped some of Jack’s men were out scouting the pastures and checking on the cattle and horses and would spot them.

They stayed inside the trees, but sometimes she saw the pastures clearly. Scared and resigned to her fate, she walked in front of David, praying she’d live through this and see Jack again.

“H
EY, IT’S ME.
Is Jenna around?”

“Hi, Jack. No, Lily came in a little while ago for lunch, but Jenna stayed out back to finish planting flowers. You want me to get her?”

Relieved to hear she was okay, he hated to interrupt while she worked in the yard. She’d been planning the project for more than a week, and he was happy to see her treating the house like her own. “No, tell her I called and we’re finished at the auction. We’re off to the courthouse, and then heading to my buddy’s ranch. I’ll call her when I’m on my way back.”

“Okay. Anything else?”

“No. Is everything okay there?”

Jack’s bad feeling had stayed with him the whole trip. He couldn’t shake the uneasiness that something was wrong. It grew worse in the last hour. He didn’t want her scared every time he left. He’d just make things worse by harping on her about it.

“Everything is fine. The flowers Jenna and Lily planted are lovely. Lily is having ice cream before her mama picks her up.”

“Hi, Uncle Jack,” Lily called to him.

“Tell her I said hi.”

“I will. I’ll tell Jenna, too. Bye.”

“Bye.” Jack’s gut was working overtime. Maybe he should have had Beth go out back and check on Jenna. Before he called her back to do just that, Caleb called out for him to join him across the street at a diner for lunch. Beth said everything was fine. No need to upset Jenna by nagging her about not being safe without him there.

Chapter Thirty-Five

J
ENNA’S LEGS ACHED
thanks to the fast pace David kept, pushing her along. Each time she slowed, he shoved her or punched her in the back. She’d fallen twice already, and with her hands bound behind her back, she couldn’t use them to break her fall. She’d torn her jeans and cut her knee badly. Limping, she tried to keep up. She’d rather have sore muscles than be punched in the back again.

They came to a halt standing just inside the tree line next to an empty pasture. The ranch stretched across the land in a long rectangle with the valley of pastureland down the center and the trees and hills on each side. That’s part of what made the landscape so beautiful, the rolling hills with trees that came down to a wide-open green valley. Jenna and David stood at the shortest distance between the two sides of the tree lines on both sides of the valley. They’d have to cross about three hundred yards of pasture to get to the other side. In some areas, several miles separated the hills and trees.

“We’re going straight across. You had better run and hope no one sees us, because if they do, you’re dead.”

Unable to speak with the gag, she nodded. Shoved from behind again, she ran across the field. She stole a glance both ways, but didn’t see any of the ranch hands. No cattle or horses grazing on this piece of land, so none of the men were out checking on them. They made it to the other tree line and into the woods without being seen. Jenna’s spirits dropped. She’d hoped someone would have seen her and David and try to help her. She didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but she didn’t want David to take her off the property and someplace else. He could hide her forever, and no one would find her.

The guards didn’t patrol this part of the property. That’s how David had gotten past them. They’d concentrated on Summer’s and Jack’s houses, not the outlying forested areas. Her nightmare had come back to haunt her again. He’d taken her and no one knew.

Jenna screamed in her head for Jack to come and save her. Deep in the woods, David used a compass to keep them on some course she couldn’t determine. Each time she slowed, he’d hit her in the back, in the head, in the shoulder, like she was some kind of punching bag. Biding her time, she waited for the right opportunity to make her move.

They finally cleared some of the trees and rough terrain and came to a narrow dirt road. They headed down the road for about a mile when they came upon David’s jeep. Open with roll bars and no doors, covered in dirt. Additional rope along with a black canvas bag sat ominously in the back. She didn’t want to know what it contained.

No way was she getting in that car. If he took her somewhere else, he’d kill her. How many times had the cops told her, never let him take you to a secondary location? Time to take a chance and try to get away, because if she didn’t . . . She didn’t want to think about what would happen if she didn’t.

David spun her around and slammed her up against the side of the jeep. He hooked a finger in the bandana and dragged it out of her mouth and pulled it down around her throat.

“Scream all you’d like. No one will hear you.”

The truth of that threat hit her hard, like a fist to the gut.

“Where are we going?” she asked to distract him.

“A special spot I’ve picked out. I went back to the cottage after the last time we were together, but you’d already gone. You’re fast. I’ll give you that. I’ve been searching for you ever since.

“I didn’t want to marry that bitch, but my family insisted. All I want is you. You’re everything I ever wanted.

“You and I are meant to be together. Fate carried me right to you at the college campus. From the moment I looked into your eyes, I knew you were my destiny.”

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. He called it fate, but now she wondered if he’d targeted her.

“You’re usually much better at hiding, but this time you made an easy mistake. Did you think I wouldn’t find out about the trust you set up for this land?”

“I did it for Jack.” She didn’t see the blow coming. He struck her with the knife handle on the side of the head above her temple and across her brow, cutting her above the corner of her eye. Blood ran down her cheek. He hadn’t hit her hard enough to knock her out, but white flashes of light obscured her vision and she stumbled back a few steps.

“I don’t want to ever hear another man’s name come out of your mouth.”

She didn’t want to instigate a fight, knew his jealousy would feed his rage. Better strategy, shut up and keep her wits about her.

W
ORRIED, FRUSTRATED AS
hell. Irrational, Jack knew, but as the day dragged on his gut got worse. Jack tried Jenna on the phone again. No answer, just the incessant ringing. He figured Beth went home early and Jenna was still out in the garden unable to hear the phone. He tried her cell, but got voicemail again. He and Caleb had another hour left of their drive to his buddy Rick’s place. Reluctantly, he stuffed his phone back in his pocket and tried to remember she was okay by herself. He didn’t have to be with her every minute of every day. She was fine. That became his mantra over the next hours.

Chapter Thirty-Six

J
ENNA HADN’T EATEN
lunch. Her stomach pitched and rolled, a sour taste left her mouth bitter. All the walking—well, jogging really—had made her tired and thirsty. Scared, she just wanted to run away, get away from David before he really hurt her. She needed to make a plan, find the best possible escape, so David couldn’t catch her and hurt her even worse. David held the advantage and she needed to find a way to turn things in her favor.

She didn’t know if this would be one of the incidents where he just tried to convince her to come back, or if he’d hurt her like the last time. He’d never brought a weapon with him. He’d always used his fists or something handy. The knife was a new, very bad twist. His eerily calm monotone voice chilled her.

“Time to go.” With a shove to her shoulder, she tripped on a rock and fell at his feet. His heavy booted foot stomped down on her thigh. She screamed in pain and tried to move away. Her legs shook, making it near impossible to get them under her and stand. Unable to lift her weight, she settled on her hip and waited for the throbbing to ease.

“Did I say take a break? Get up.”

No one around for miles, no one close enough to hear her screams. Which meant he didn’t need to worry about nosy neighbors calling the police. He could take his time with her.

“You need to understand, you belong to me. Only me.”

Those ominous words rang in her head.

Stunned into silence by his last words, still on the ground, he kicked her again. “You bitch! Get up! I’m not carrying your ass.”

“David, don’t do this. Let me go,” she begged.

“Let me go. Let me go,” he mocked in a menacing voice and grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled her up to her toes, his face in hers. “I’ll never let you go. You belong to me. We belong together. Accept it. You understand me?” he shouted.

David was going to kill her. She’d accepted that fact a long time ago. She’d fought to stop it from happening, and now that it was near, she wished with everything in her heart that she was somewhere else with Jack. She wished she could close her eyes, sleep, and wake up from this nightmare.

Jack, please, come get me.

“I’ll leave that other bitch, and we can be together.”

“Do you really think it’s that easy? To go against your family and your wife’s, divorce her after a few days of marriage, and live happily ever after with me? You’re insane.”

He’d completely deluded himself into believing he could make this happen without any consequences.

“Shut up. Just shut up,” he shouted, shoving her back a step and releasing her. He pressed his bloody arm to his middle. A weakness. Maybe one she could capitalize on.

David pulled out a bottle of water from his bag, doused his bleeding arm, and took another gulp of water, trying to calm himself. It didn’t work, and that was bad news for her.

“You’re all I want. Why can’t you understand that? I can have any woman I want. Women flock to me, but you won’t return my love, my adoration for you.”

His kind of love and adoration hurt. She felt it even now, swelling her face and wrists, throbbing in her bruised and battered back and thigh. Obsessed, she had become a virus to him, infecting his system, destroying his rationality.

“Why do we keep doing this?” she asked, futilely trying to get him to see reason where he clearly had none.

“You can be a good wife. I know we’ll be happy together, like in the beginning.”

“Things were fine until you accused me of cheating on you with every man within five feet of me. You did this. You destroyed our marriage and any chance of us being together. You killed our baby. You’re a monster. I won’t go back. Do you hear me? Never,” she screamed at him now. She couldn’t take this anymore. Years of fear and abuse drove her anger.

His face contorted with pure fury. “My fault! You’re the lying, cheating bitch. The baby probably wasn’t even mine. Stop playing games. I’ve had enough of you running away, making me chase after you to prove my love. I’ve had enough,” he shouted, spittle spraying her cheek.

“You’ve had enough. You’ve had enough. I’m the one you tied up and kidnapped, you delusional, twisted—”

He rushed forward, grabbed her by the hair, yanking her face to his. His breath came out in harsh bursts.

“David . . .” She began, but his words stopped her cold. His tone flat and menacing, every word he deliberately spaced out to emphasize the finality of their meaning.

“Either you come back, or . . . I. Will. Kill. You.”

“You won’t get away with this.” Her gaze locked on his, letting him know she meant every word. “Jack will find me. He’ll save me.”

She’d done it this time. Gone too far. If she hadn’t said the last, he might have left her and walked away to hunt her again someday. But she’d retaliated the only way she could, used her words to hurt him and piss him off.

Right in her face, their gazes still locked, he shoved her. She stumbled back several steps, momentum sending her down onto her bottom and back with a thump on the hard-packed dirt. Straddling her, his nose pressed into her cheek, he grabbed the bandana around her throat, twisted it tight and choked her. She gagged and tried to buck him off. Too heavy, too strong, she lost this fight. Again. Her eyes rolled back in her head and the blackness closed in. Unexpectedly, he released the bandana and fisted his hand in her hair. She gasped for breath, but he ignored her difficulty.

“I told you, I don’t ever want to hear you say another man’s name.” He pounded her head backward into the ground and the rocks beneath her. Pain shot through her skull, bright lights exploded in her eyes, and blessed darkness took over and blanked out all the fear and pain.

J
ACK TRIED
J
ENNA
again that evening when they arrived at Rick’s ranch and delivered the colt. Past dinnertime, he thought she should be in from the garden by now. No answer. No answer on her cell phone either. Beyond worried, even Caleb grew concerned now that Jack had told him he couldn’t get her on the phone.

Jack had enough. He dialed the head guard’s cell number.

“Where’s Jenna?”

“She was gardening until this afternoon. That’s the last we saw her outside. There’s a light on in the kitchen and upstairs. She’s in the house.”

“Why isn’t she answering the phone?”

“She’s probably in the shower. She and Lily were full of dirt last time I saw them outside.”

“Is everything quiet there?”

“Yeah. No problems. Nothing to report.”

Maybe she was in the shower, or working in the office and ignoring the phone. Sometimes she did that, thinking it was just another rancher calling him about business. Still, he’d left her several messages and she hadn’t called him back. She hated when he was too overprotective, but her circumstances called for it and she understood.