me,” Colton demanded, then watched eagle-eyed as the man scrolled through his social media pages. He stopped when he found what he was searching for and showed it to Colton. “Here it is. Like I said, I couldn’t believe it was her.”
The image stopped his blood cold—a photo of Laura with the caption Have You Seen This Woman? There was a reward for anyone who could bring her home.
The message had been posted this morning by an account named Bring Laura Home. Colton saw that it had already been liked and shared many times.
Colton noted that the man hadn’t yet given away Laura’s location...and he wouldn’t.
He pocketed the phone. “You’ll forget about her if you know what’s good for you. Bother her again and I’ll make sure you regret it. Got it?”
The man nodded solemnly. He didn’t seem like a threat, just an opportunist, and that was what Randall had been hoping for by sending out that message.
He’d in essence placed a bounty on Laura’s head and Colton was sure there would be a line of people hoping to collect.
He sent the man on his way, then retrieved Laura. “We have to leave now.”
He grabbed her arm and led her away.
“Wait! What about the buggy?”
“Leave it,” he barked, hurrying her along.
Anger bit through him at his own foolishness. He’d let down his guard and placed Laura in a perilous situation. Protecting her should have been his first priority.
“What’s going on?” she asked in a low voice as they made it to the truck. “What happened back there?”
Fear tinged her features, making him feel like a heel for getting so worked up.
“It was probably nothing, but I’d rather not take the chance.”
She crawled into the truck. Colton scanned the parking lot and the front of the store, making certain the mystery man hadn’t followed them out. Satisfied he hadn’t, Colton slid into the truck, gunned the engine and roared away before anyone had the opportunity to follow.
* * *
Whatever had happened at the store had Colton shaken. She could see it in his tense muscles and the vein throbbing in his neck as he drove like a maniac. He didn’t let up on the accelerator until he pulled into the ranch and stopped the truck in front of the house.
“What happened back there?” Laura asked him again as they got out of the truck and walked inside.
He locked the door, then turned to her. “Someone was watching you.” He pulled a cell phone from his pocket and handed it to her. “He had this on him.”
She opened the phone and saw a message on the screen asking for information about her location and offering a reward. She gasped at the amount. Ten thousand dollars was a lot of money, but she supposed that was only a drop in the bucket, since her father still owed Randall close to fifty thousand dollars.
“It looks like Randall is reaching out to anyone who might know your whereabouts.”
“This man had my picture and he was watching us.” She swallowed hard. “Did he follow us there?”
“I don’t think so. I think he just happened upon us and recognized you from your photo.”
Her heart started pounding and fear crept into her soul again. It seemed Randall would do anything to get his hands on her.
“I thought you said I was safe, that no one knew I was here.”
“No one does and no one is going to know,” he rushed to assure her. “We just need to stay low here at the ranch and not go out in public again.”
“But he knows. This man knows I’m here.”
“He only knows approximately. That store is ten miles away from here and there’s a lot of country between there and here. Besides, it’s centrally located. For all he knows, we could be in another city. We’re still okay.” He turned away, heading for the kitchen.
She stared at the phone number at the bottom of the message. It was most assuredly Randall’s number. She recognized it from the multiple calls he’d placed to her trying to win her affection.
Laura thought about the men last night. She’d seen their expressions in the lamplight. They’d been on a mission and she was their target. Had Colton not been there, she didn’t know what might have happened to her.
Without a second thought, she dialed the number. It rang twice before a man answered.
“It’s Laura,” she said through clenched teeth. “I’m calling to tell you to leave me alone.”
“Laura! Where are you? I’ve been searching all over for you.”
“I know you have. I’m calling to tell you to stop hounding me. Don’t you understand I don’t want anything to do with you?”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible, Laura. You belong to me now and no one is going to keep us apart...not even that loser cowboy you’ve taken off with. My men told me all about him swooping in and whisking you away. I will find out who he is and then I will find you and, when I do, you’ll have a lot of explaining to do.” The threat in his voice was real and terrifying.
“Who are you talking to?” Colton asked, reappearing in the den.
Laura was at a loss for words even as Randall ranted on in her ear. “Is that him? Tell him I’m coming for him, Laura. I will find you and, when I do, you’ll be sorry you left me.”
Colton grabbed the phone from her and listened a moment as Randall’s threats continued. The last words she heard before Colton threw down the phone and smashed it with the heel of his boot was Randall’s promise to butcher them both if she didn’t return home.
She stared up at Colton warily as common sense prevailed. “I don’t know why I called him.” She hardly even remembered dialing the phone. All she knew now was that it had been useless, pointless. Randall controlled her life now more than ever. Even when she wasn’t with him, she was thinking about him and wondering if and when he would find her. She hated the feeling of loss of control that he’d saddled her with. It wasn’t fair that a man she hardly knew could have so much power over her life.
Colton sat beside her on the couch. She expected him to be angry at her foolishness, but instead she saw understanding in his expression. “You needed to try one more time.”
She nodded. He did understand. “There should be something I can do, something I can say, that will end all of this and make him just leave me alone.”
“There isn’t,” Colton said grimly.
Well, she wouldn’t continue to be Randall’s victim. But she also didn’t want to depend on someone else to keep her safe. “I want you to do something for me, Colton. I want you to teach me to shoot a gun. I want to be able to protect myself if I need to.”
He
