at their mercy.”
“Okay. We can probably hold them off until daylight. Jim and the other hands are usually here by six-thirty. That’s only nine hours or so.”
He knew they didn’t have that long. He looked at her, barely able to make out her features in the darkness. “If they’re as desperate as Hawk seemed to believe, they’re going to find a way in before then. We need to think of something else.”
She was silent long enough to have him watching her closely. The urgency of their situation would be enough to send most women into hysterics, and Cassie had looked on the verge of collapse just a few minutes earlier. But her voice, when she finally spoke, sounded remarkably steady.
“All right, then. I think our best chance is to make a run for it.”
Chapter 4
“What are you planning?” Shane couldn’t suppress a flicker of admiration. Not many women would be able to calmly map out escape routes with at least two armed intruders right outside. But in contrast to her earlier shaky moments, Cassie was composed.
“When we were kids, Hawk and I used to sneak out when the moon was full, to go for rides while our parents were sleeping. I think I can get us to the barn undetected.”
Shane considered the idea. “Are the pickups in there?” It was doubtful the couple outside hadn’t already rendered them undrivable, but it was worth a shot.
“Jim has one. The other should be parked nearby. It probably has been tampered with,” she added, as if reading his thoughts. “I think our best way out of here is by horseback.”
He was already shaking his head. “There’s no way we could get all the way back to town without having to take the road, eventually. We’d be walking right into their arms.”
“I’m not trying to get us to town. I’m thinking of heading for the forest.”
He started to dismiss the idea, before realizing it had merit. If they could get a good head start, or, better yet, give the kidnappers the slip completely, they could vanish into the wilderness, and to safety.
The plan wasn’t without risk, however. With the full moon, visibility would be better than usual. If they were spotted, they’d be sitting ducks. And the horses couldn’t outpace a vehicle, at least until they got to rougher terrain. He had no idea how many miles of open country they had to pass through to get to the forest bordering the area.
“There’s a cabin in the forest that my family used to camp in. We can hide there.” She paused, but when he still said nothing, a hint of impatience crept into her tone. “Well? What do you think?”
He was thinking that the risks were unacceptable. There was no way in hell he was willing to thrust Cassie and the baby into that kind of danger. But the situation was perilous, regardless. And he’d learned in Afghanistan that sometimes decisions had to be made when neither choice was entirely acceptable.
Hopefully, living with the consequences of this choice would prove easier than the one he’d made there.
“Let’s do it.” With the words came a sense of, if not peace, at least resolution. There were few in the state who could match Cassie’s riding ability, and she was familiar with the forest in a way the kidnappers couldn’t be. If something happened to him, she’d still have a good chance of getting away on her own. And those were probably the best odds they were going to get in this situation.
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