Rae flushed. The excuse sounded so weak now that she said it out loud.
“Not that it looks like that’s going to happen now, at least not on schedule,” she added in a small voice. Her tone shifted as she returned to the more important subject under discussion. She needed to tell Jonah anything that sounded even remotely relevant. The smallest thing could be instrumental in locating Maggie. “But I know Maggie—she gets something in her head, she doesn’t let it go. I’m positive that she was there somewhere on the ranch when the storm hit.”
“And you’re sure about this?” Jonah pressed.
He was still somewhat skeptical about this information. After all, it had been a significant amount of time since Maggie had gotten divorced and she and her husband had gone their separate ways. From what he had heard, hers wasn’t one of those divorces where the couple remained friends even after their marriage was dissolved. Maggie gave every indication that she didn’t want to have anything to do with her ex.
So why would she suddenly go wandering around his family’s ranch?
It didn’t make any sense to him.
But sense or not, it was the only lead he had about Maggie’s last whereabouts, so unless he found out something that was more immediate, he was going to act on this.
And he made up his mind that he was going to act on it alone.
“Absolutely sure,” Rae told him solemnly. There was a slight hitch in her voice. “You’re going to find her, right?”
“Right,” Jonah replied without a moment’s hesitation. “I’ll find her.” And he fully intended to do just that, even if it was the last thing he ever did.
More reports of missing residents were coming in even as Jonah stood there, listening to Rae. The volunteer search and rescue organization he and his brothers belonged to was already stretched to the limit, not to mention exhausted. He wasn’t about to ask any of them for help, but he didn’t plan on stopping until he located Maggie. The thought of her out there, stranded, possibly in danger and clinging to life, wasn’t something he could live with if things took a turn for the worse.
Even if he hadn’t already given his word to Bellamy and to Rae, he had made up his mind to do everything in his power to find Maggie.
By the sound of it, the wind was picking up again. Jonah looked out the rec center windows and saw the trees bending like flexible dancers before the oncoming winds.
Were they in for a second wave? It didn’t matter, he thought. He knew he needed to get out there now, before traveling on horseback became hazardous and maybe even impossible.
“Thank you, Rae,” he told the distraught woman. “You’ve been a great help.”
She began to say something more, but he didn’t have any time to waste. Jonah searched the area for someone he could charge with looking after Rae for now.
“Forrest,” he called to his brother. The latter turned toward him after a moment, eyeing Jonah quizzically. “Look after Rae, will you?” he requested. “She seems like she could use a friendly shoulder to lean on.”
Forrest didn’t look happy about the reassignment. “What about going to look for Maggie Reeves?” his brother asked.
“I got this,” Jonah said, shrugging off the implied offer to help. “You take care of Ms. Lemmon and anyone else who might need you.”
Forrest’s face darkened as he took offense. “I was shot in the leg, Jonah, not the head. I’m perfectly capable of going out there with you to look for Bellamy’s sister. Don’t treat me like I’m an invalid,” he warned his brother.
Jonah backtracked. “I know you’re not an invalid,” he said gruffly. He wasn’t accustomed to trying to tread lightly around any of his brothers and doing so was tricky. “After you make sure Rae’s taken care of, go out with the others and search for survivors. And I’ll do the same,” he declared authoritatively.
With that, Jonah headed out the door. He zipped up his rain slicker. Not that the outer garment would give him much protection if the storm got worse again. He supposed he was doing this more out of habit than anything else. If he followed a ritual, covering all the steps, maybe that would help him find Maggie.
No stone unturned, he thought.
Jonah hurried across the street toward what was left of the town’s stable. He and his brothers had housed their horses here to keep them from being left out in the open once the storm hit.
Once inside, he made his way over to his horse, a sleek palomino. Aside from the horses, there was no one around.
“How are you doing, Cody?” Jonah asked, taking time to interact with his mount before going out. He and Cody had been “partnered” for three years now. “Okay, boy, ready to play hero and earn your feed? I know, I know,” he said as he put the saddle on his horse and tightened the cinches, “I don’t want to go out, either. But there’s a crazy woman out there who needs us because she doesn’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain—or take shelter when a hurricane is predicted to come rolling through,” he said, talking to the palomino as if he was a person. Taking the horse’s reins in his hand, he swung into the saddle.
“Let’s go do this. The sooner we find her, the sooner we can come back.”
Cody whinnied as if he understood. Jonah never doubted that he did.
“I don’t like this any better than you do,” Jonah told Cody as he urged his horse on through the increasingly inclement weather.
He had been talking in a calm, steady voice ever since he and his horse had left the stable in Whisperwood. He wasn’t sure if he was talking for Cody’s benefit or his own, but it helped in both cases.
The farther away from Whisperwood he went, the more Jonah found that he had to steadily raise his voice, because not only had the wind picked up, but so had the threat of rain.
Actually, it wasn’t a threat any longer. Rain had turned into a reality, falling with a vengeance. It would recede, only to return, coming down harder than it had before.
If this kept up, the chances of floods throughout the already-beaten-down area was a given. Jonah drew in his shoulders, trying vainly to stay dry. His rain slicker and Stetson were fighting a losing battle, but it wasn’t in him just to give up. There was a woman out there who needed to be rescued.
“C’mon, where are you?” Jonah called out impatiently in his frustration.
He did his best to scan as much of the surrounding area as possible. According to his calculations, he had ridden onto the Corgan ranch about fifteen, eighteen minutes ago. Because of the rain that was still coming down, his visibility was limited. He hadn’t been able to make out anything except for an occasional tree here and there. Certainly not a person.
In any event, Maggie wasn’t near any of the trees he had made out.
“Maybe she’s not
