through every shade of dread and panic.
Finally it was over. He hoped their life would slip back into a regular routine. That was all he’d ever wanted: a simple life on the ranch with Nicole by his side.
His sister, Carolyn, and other members from the search team responded to his gunshots. They poured into the root cellar, and Dylan held Nicole protectively as they brought bottled water for her to drink. The FBI agent who’d stayed behind to help with the search squatted down beside him and expertly picked the locks that fastened the chains and handcuffs.
All the while, Dylan held her. Even with the door wide-open, there wasn’t much light in this root cellar. Only one tiny window. At night it must have been total darkness. She’d been trapped, cold and alone. What kind of bastard could do this to another human being?
Carolyn tapped his shoulder. “Let’s get Nicole out of here.”
As he lifted her, she stirred. Her eyes opened. “I want to go home.”
“That’s where we’re headed,” he assured her. Back to normal. “Back to the ranch.”
“Actually,” Carolyn said, “we should go to the hospital first. To get you checked out.”
Weakly Nicole shook her head. “I want to take a bath first.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” he said.
A sigh pushed through her chapped lips. Her eyelids drooped shut.
He carried her up the concrete steps into the lateafternoon sunlight. The stairs leading down to the root cellar were well hidden behind the spruce tree. If she hadn’t been yelling, they wouldn’t have found her so quickly.
The ranch house on the Circle M property wasn’t where she’d been kept in the early days of her kidnapping. During their investigation they’d uncovered another hide-out—one that was more pleasant than this filthy dungeon. Apparently Nicole had been shuttled from place to place, always one step ahead of their suspicions.
In the backseat of the SUV, Dylan wrapped her in a wool blanket and arranged her so she was sitting on his lap. She’d lost weight. Her bones felt as fragile as a baby bird’s. He whispered, “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be fine.”
She turned her head to look up at him. Her cheeks were sunken. Smears of grit stood out against her pale skin, and dark circles ringed her eyes. “Do you mean that, Dylan? Everything?”
Before she was abducted, they’d argued. He never wanted to fight with her again. “It’s going to be exactly the way you want it.”
Carolyn started the engine and pulled up the long drive that led to the main road. “She needs medical attention, Dylan. Does Nicole have a regular doctor I can call?”
Only the specialists at the fertility clinic, and he wasn’t about to call those jerks. “I don’t know her doctor’s name.”
“I’ll contact Doc Maud.”
“Great idea,” he muttered. “Except for one thing. Maud is a veterinarian.”
“She’ll know other doctors. People doctors.”
Any old doctor wasn’t good enough. He wanted his wife to have the best of care. For too long he’d taken her for granted, hadn’t appreciated her.
“I’ll make the call,” Carolyn said, waving her cell phone.
“Back off. I’ll do it.” His sister’s take-charge attitude irritated him. Though she was only two years older than he was, Carolyn insisted on being the boss, especially after their dad had passed away five years ago. Dylan would be glad when she went back to running the Denver offices of Carlisle Certified Organic Beef. Carolyn belonged in the city.
And he belonged at the ranch where he managed two thousand head of grass-fed, antibiotic-free Black Angus. Before the kidnapping they’d had a pretty good life. A couple of bumps in the road but nothing serious. He and Nicole could be happy again. Maybe even better than before.
Through the window he watched the golden sunset spread above distant snow-capped peaks. Nicole loved these Colorado skies. When they got married, they promised to share every sunset. They’d even engraved that vow on their wedding bands with the words, “My horizon.” She was his promise, his hope, his final destination.
He looked down into her eyes. Her lips were unsmiling. “Those things I said, about wanting a divorce…”
“It’s okay,” he said. “You don’t have to explain.”
“If I hadn’t said that, we both would have been shot.” She swallowed hard. “There were two of them with rifles aimed at both of us. And that wasn’t all. If I had escaped, Nate said he’d go on a rampage. Kill my horses. The barn cats. Every person connected to Carlisle Ranch would suffer.”
In retrospect, Dylan realized that he should have guessed that she’d been forced to say what she did. But Nicole had been damn convincing. Looked him straight in the eye and told him that their marriage was over.
For the past several weeks they’d been arguing. She’d accused him of not listening to her, and that he paid too much attention to running the ranch and not enough to their relationship. She’d been angry at him. That was for damn sure.
But she’d never once said she didn’t love him or that she wanted a divorce. Those were Nate Miller’s words. And when Nicole spoke them, they were bullets to Dylan’s heart.
In that moment he’d wanted to die. Losing her to a kidnapper was hell. Losing her because she didn’t want to be with him was even worse.
Determinedly, he said, “We’re going to be okay.”
“Know what I’ve been dreaming about? What I really want?”
“Tell me.”
“An energy bar with peanuts and raisins.”
Dylan stroked dank strands of hair off her forehead. “You always liked those granola bars.”
Her predictability pleased him. Back to normal. Everything is going to be all right.
When her husband escorted her across the threshold of their upstairs bedroom at the ranch house, a strong sense of familiarity overwhelmed Nicole. Surrounded by memories, she truly felt that she was home. And safe.
Every detail—from the green-sprigged wallpaper to the sandy wall-to-wall carpet—matched her personal taste. She’d selected the dark oak furniture. The creamcolored duvet and the pillows plumped up against the headboard promised a comfortable sleep.
Her gaze caught on the framed family photos displayed above the dresser, and she reached toward their wedding picture. In his tuxedo with his black hair combed, Dylan was tall, dashing and gallant. Standing beside him, she looked tiny in her lacy white gown. Though she’d been wearing three-inch heels to enhance her five-foot-two inch height, the top of her head still didn’t reach higher than his chin.
