Cowboy Undercover

“Damn!” Chance said. “Ouch.”

“Chance! I’m sorry, I thought you were Jeremy!” She threw herself against him and he caught her, hugging her close for a second, then he raised a hand and gently touched the uninjured part of her cheek. “When I get my hands on that man—”

“Not now,” she said. “How did you get in here?”

He gestured at the window. The yard beyond was brilliantly illuminated. “But I don’t know how we’re going to escape,” he said. They heard a yell from outside. “I bet they found the ladder over on the far side of the house. Is that how they took Charlie? Through the window?”

“Yes.” She wasn’t sure how he knew Charlie was missing but now wasn’t the time for conversation.

“We’ll have to make a dash for that tree over by the fence. Are you up to it?”

His gaze studied her face and she could imagine what he saw. She knew one eye was swollen because she could feel it with her fingers and she suspected the warm sticky substance on her cheek was blood from Jeremy’s last punch. “Don’t worry about me,” she said. “But Chance, if I’m stopped and you’re not, promise me you’ll find Charlie.”

“Lily...”

“Promise me.”

“I promise. Come on.”

He stuck his head out the window, then turned to look back at her. “The tree is about twenty feet to your right. Can you climb trees?”

“If I have to.”

“Then go. I’ll be behind you. I have something to do here.”

“What?”

“Lily. Go.” He picked her up, and swung her outside.

“See if you can find my purse,” she whispered. “It has the car keys.”

“Will do.” He released her. She dropped to her feet and took off at a dead run. She found the fence and kept going until she got to the tree. Chance showed up earlier than she’d anticipated and hoisted her onto a limb over her head. She scrambled along until she got close to the top of the iron fence and threw herself to the ground on the other side, landing facedown, all but knocking the wind out of her lungs. Chance landed a few seconds after her, but he came down on his feet and absorbed the shock in his legs. He immediately stood and pulled her upright. She saw with relief that he held her purse in one hand.

They ran across the street, thankful to be out of the light.

“I don’t know how we avoided being seen,” Chance said as Lily led them to the nature trail.

“I don’t, either. What did you do in Jeremy’s office besides find my purse?”

He pressed her bag into her hands. “Wiped my prints away and kicked in the closet door from the inside. I didn’t want your husband knowing you had outside help. You didn’t tell him I was with you, did you?”

“No,” she said as she extracted the car keys. Would Jeremy believe she was capable of kicking open a door? Maybe, maybe not, but at least he’d wonder.

Lily took the passenger seat. A few seconds later, Chance directed the car onto the quiet road. “Where’s the nearest police station?” he asked. The moon illuminated the pavement and they drove without lights for several seconds before they’d turned away from Jeremy’s neighborhood and traffic began to appear. The headlights went on and they sped up.

“We’re not going to the police,” she said.

“But the man hit you, Lily. He locked you in a closet...”

“I’m not important. It’s Charlie we have to worry about. Jeremy says if the police get involved, the kidnappers will kill Charlie.”

“And you believe him?”

“I don’t know what to believe,” she said. “But for now, no police. I have to find out who took Charlie. It’s someone named White, I think.”

“We’ll find him,” Chance said.

Too caught up in her thoughts, she didn’t respond. A son for a son... That implied revenge. It had to be tied to Jeremy.

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