With nothing to do but wait, Lawson continued taking out his frustrations by cleaning the stalls. His mind was rolling over and over the situation and the options seemed bleak. While the fingerprint situation confused things on the surface, he was pretty sure they all believed that it was Bree with them, not Ashlee. He could just see Bree getting arrested and giving her name as Ashlee, leading to those prints ending up in the system under the wrong name. This meant they still didn’t know where the real Ashlee was. Wherever she was, she was in trouble. That much was obvious to anyone with two eyes. Bree’s actions had brought down a world of trouble on her sister.
He took some comfort in the physical work even though it was a struggle, but couldn’t shut off his brain or stop himself from trying to fix the situation. Why would God give him a desire for a simple, physical life as a rancher when he needed to be skilled in law enforcement to save Ashlee from a drug ring? He didn’t understand it and so far, God wasn’t responding to his questions.
“Hi.”
The voice from behind him stopped him, but he quickly got himself together and continued to work. He couldn’t deal with her right now. He wasn’t ready for that. Why hadn’t she just remained inside and left him alone?
He ran a sleeve across his forehead to wipe away the sweat that was flowing. “What do you want?”
“We should really talk about this, Lawson.”
He knew she was right—but he wasn’t ready for that conversation. “Now isn’t a good time.” His brain was still trying to find a way to work through all of this. Patience and determination were the answers. They always were, but mustering either one right now had him stumped. He’d never thought much of Bree in the past, but he had to admit he’d never really taken the time to get to know her before, either. Now, during her time here on the ranch, he’d grown to care about her more than he wanted to admit.
He heard her footsteps approaching. All he wanted from her was distance while he figured this thing out, but she wasn’t even going to give him that.
“Lawson, please.” She touched his shoulder and he shuddered.
Her touch still had the power to do that and he hated it. An angry, hurting part of him hissed that she’d drawn him in, tricked him into falling for her, let him believe she was someone else. He knew he wasn’t being fair—for starters, he truly believed her amnesia was real—but he couldn’t be bothered about fairness just now.
“Can’t we talk about this? Let me explain.”
He turned to her and saw differences now, things he’d been blind not to see before. He’d chosen to ignore the clues that she wasn’t who she’d said she was. “What do you mean you want to explain? Have you started to remember?”
She shrugged. “It’s coming back, a little at a time. Not how I ended up in that car or where they’re holding her, but who I am, my past.”
He tossed the shovel against the wall and slipped off his gloves and hat, slinging them away, too, as he confronted her. “Your past. So you remember why your prints came up as Ashlee’s?”
Her face reddened and she lowered her head. But he was determined now to make her face up to what she’d done. Maybe if Ashlee had held Bree accountable for her actions back in the past, they wouldn’t be in this mess now. “No, don’t look away. You wanted to talk, so let’s talk. I want to know why those prints came back as your sister’s.”
She glanced up at him, resignation in her face. “Because I used Ashlee’s name once when I was arrested. I said I was her and they believed me. They eventually figured it out, but I guess it was never fixed in the system.”
He’d figured as much but, at the confirmation, anger washed over him again. “You pretended to be her then just like you’re doing now.”
“I wasn’t pretending, Lawson. I promise you. I didn’t know. I never meant to deceive you. I certainly never meant for Ashlee to get hurt, even though I know you blame me for landing her in this situation.”
“Who else is there to blame? Your ex-boyfriend who decided to overdose instead of saving your sister’s life?”
“I’ve made mistakes. Travis was a mistake, a huge mistake, but I had left him before all of this happened. I was trying to get my life together. Ashlee was helping me.”
He picked up a rake and leaned against it. “And look where that got her.” He turned away and started raking up one of the stalls. He didn’t like letting his anger release, but he’d needed to say those things. He couldn’t look at her, because the truth was that he had started to care about this woman—not just as Ashlee, but as herself. In all honesty, he’d come to appreciate all the little things that were different from Ashlee. He’d liked her nurturing touch and her eagerness to help. She had the ability to live in the moment and laugh without the need to strive for perfection. He’d liked that, too. It was so unlike the Ashlee he remembered that he couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen the differences. And whether it was true or not, it felt like she’d tricked him into falling for her.
“I can’t change what’s happened,” she said. “All I can do is say I’m sorry and try to make it better.”
“There’s nothing you can do. Leave this one to the professionals.”
“I don’t know if Ashlee ever told you or not, but our parents used to fight all the time. It often got very frightening, especially when we were kids. There were a couple of times when our mom was helping your mom with some church stuff that I came here with her to Silver Star. I remember how peaceful it was. I felt safe here then. I think that’s why this place felt so familiar to me when I first arrived.”
He didn’t recall them ever coming to the ranch, but he’d been young then, too, and probably had forgotten. But her words about their parents stung because Ashlee hadn’t told him about their fighting. He was beginning to realize there was so much she hadn’t shared with him.
“I’m going to bring her home to you, Lawson,” she told him. “I promise I’ll make it right.”
He was glad when she turned and left. He didn’t want to acknowledge the sincerity in her voice any more than he wanted to acknowledge the draw he still felt toward her. He wanted to remain angry, to hold on to that bitterness. It was the only thing that was keeping him going.
She had to act fast. That cell phone in her pocket could ring at any time and she had to be ready. After brainstorming ways to get her hands on the money the sheriff’s office had confiscated, she’d determined it wasn’t possible so she’d had to come up with a plan B. Now to execute it before that phone rang with the ransom demand and she ran out of time.
She walked back into the house and feigned a headache in front of his mother before telling her she was going upstairs to rest. The woman gave her a knowing look and Bree was certain Diane knew she was faking the headache, but she probably thought Bree was doing it because she needed time away from Lawson.
She locked the door to the bedroom, then pulled out the fire escape ladder she’d found under Kellyanne’s bed, positioning it toward the window. She sat and watched the barn, silently praying for Lawson to hurry up and go inside. She couldn’t act until she was certain he was out of the way.
She shouldn’t have tried to see him one last time. That had been a mistake. He would never forgive her for not being Ashlee, but if her plan worked, he would soon be reunited with the woman he loved.
Bree didn’t yet remember all of the circumstances of the canceled engagement, but she was sure that once Ashlee and Lawson were reunited, they’d find a way to overcome the past. It was clear Lawson still loved Ashlee, and he deserved to have everything he wanted. And as for her sweet sister... Ashlee deserved nothing but the best. And that was Lawson, no question.
The phone buzzed in her pocket and her heart stopped. She pulled it out and looked at it, glad to see the message wasn’t from the kidnappers, not yet. She still had time. She texted her coconspirator that she would be there to meet him soon.
Finally, Lawson entered the house. She heard the front door slam, then the sound of his footsteps on the stairs as he went to his bedroom or possibly to shower. This was her time to act. She carefully lowered the ladder so that it made almost no sound, then climbed down to the ground and hurried to the barn.
Careful to not alert anyone, Bree.
She quickly saddled up the horse she’d ridden before and led it outside. She was fortunate most of the family was gone this afternoon, but that still meant she had to be careful to sneak away without being seen or heard by Lawson or his mom. Both were inside the house. She led the horse to the back of the barn and caught a reflection of herself in the window. This woman she’d become here at Silver Star was the woman she wanted to be—but that life was gone from her now. She climbed onto the horse and it led her away from the barn. She would circle around to the road once she knew she wouldn’t be seen.
She reached the end of the field by the back gate and turned back to look. No one was coming after her. She’d made a clean getaway, but it wouldn’t take long before Lawson realized one of the horses was missing. He would certainly notice that before he noticed she was gone.
Once she was in an open field, she pushed the horse into a gallop and hurried toward the road. It didn’t take long to find a silver car waiting for her. She slid off the horse, crawled under a bar on the split-rail fence and walked up the embankment to the road.
The driver’s door opened and Jake Stephens got out. He ran to her, sweeping her up into his arms. “Ashlee! I’m so glad you called.”
She let him hug her, but didn’t return his embrace, which he didn’t seem to notice. She did stop him when he tried to kiss her.
“Did you bring the money?”
He pulled away, then walked to the car and handed her a bag. She unzipped it and saw stacks of bills.
“Twenty-five thousand dollars. It wasn’t easy to get in cash so quickly. That’s a lot of money, Ashlee. Are you going to tell me now why you need it?”
She stood to face him. She had kind of pulled him into her scheme under false pretenses. It was time to come clean. “I’m not Ashlee. I’m her sister, Bree. Ashlee is in trouble. She’s been kidnapped. The money I was found with was her ransom money, but the police confiscated it.”
His eyes widened in shock. “Surely, they’ll release it if you need it to rescue her.”
“No, I can’t tell the police what I’m planning—and you can’t tell anyone, either. I know these people who are holding Ashlee captive. They’ll kill her if I don’t do as they say.”
He stared at her for several long seconds. “Well, I’m coming with you.”
“I can’t allow that. They told me to come alone. If they see someone with me...”
He nodded grimly. “They’ll kill her.”
“Yes.” She saw the confusion and worry in his face. It was obvious he truly cared for her sister. “I will get her back, I promise. Give me your keys, then wait at the hotel until you hear from me.”
He handed the key ring over and she hopped into his car. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she sped down the road, and she wiped them away. There was no use crying over how she’d never see Lawson again. All that mattered now was getting to the kidnappers and getting her sister back safely. It didn’t matter what happened to her. Ashlee was the good one, the one everyone loved and cared for. She deserved to live a safe, happy life. Meanwhile, Bree was the one who’d gotten them all into this mess. She couldn’t escape her past. She’d been a fool to ever believe she could. No matter what she did, she would always be the one who’d endangered them all.
She glanced at Jake in the rearview mirror. He could find his own way back to the hotel. She had the money. Now she only needed to know where to take it.
A text message instructed her to drive to Milner’s Grocery Store and wait for further instructions. She glanced in the rearview mirror. No one was following her. Did the Averys even know she was gone yet? In this case, Lawson’s cold shoulder worked in her favor, but she couldn’t resist typing a text message to him telling him how sorry she was for everything and asking his forgiveness.
Not just for the last few days, but for all the years in the past that had dragged his opinion of her so low.
It was more than she deserved, but she hoped for his sake that he could forgive her. She didn’t want him to carry the burden of bitterness and anger after she was gone.
Once she pulled into the parking lot, she was dead. It was only a matter of time until the deed was done and she was only existing until then.
She’d told him about why she’d felt safe at the ranch, but she hadn’t shared why he’d seemed so familiar to her even without her memories. She’d been enamored with him since the first day she’d stepped foot on Silver Star as a child. She’d fallen off a fence while playing and he’d rushed over to help her, igniting a schoolgirl crush that hadn’t faded even when he’d started dating her sister.
She pulled into the grocery store lot and parked under the streetlamp as instructed. At the side of the building, headlights came on and a car pulled forward, stopping alongside her. She hit Send on the text message, then reached for the bag with the money, locked the doors and got out, dropping the keys onto the ground beside the car. The back door of the other car opened and a man got out. “Did you come alone?” he demanded, flashing a glimpse of the gun tucked into his belt.
“Yes. This isn’t a trick. I only want my sister returned safely.” She was alone, truly all alone.
“What’s in the bag?”
She held it out to him and he jerked it from her hand and opened the case, then motioned for her to get into the backseat.
“Where’s my sister?”
“She’s with the boss. Everything goes right, you’ll both be home in time for supper.”
She didn’t believe him, but she didn’t have a choice but to comply. They’d promised to release Ashlee and she was holding them to that. Whatever happened to her happened. She had no illusions about making it out of this mess alive.
She crawled into the backseat. The man shoved at her when she didn’t move quickly enough and she bit back a retort about how she was moving as fast as she could. She had to play it safe until she found Ashlee, until she ensured her sister’s survival and release.
The driver put the car into gear and took off.
Bree glanced back at the rental car and silently whispered a goodbye to Lawson and the future she’d been hoping to have with him.
Lawson exited the house after supper and went out to do the final night checks on the horses. Ashlee had stayed upstairs in her room. His mom had said she’d been upset when she’d come inside earlier, and shame had filled him. He’d been too rough with her, taken out his frustrations over this entire mess on her.
He didn’t blame her. He wanted to, but he knew as well as anyone how someone’s past could come back to bite them. If he was truthful with himself, he was more mad that he’d allowed himself to fall for her without realizing she wasn’t Ashlee. He’d chosen to ignore all the contradictions, wanting to believe that Ashlee had changed—that things were different now. But of course they were different. She was a different person.
One that he’d come to care about despite himself. His memories of Bree weren’t all bad. When they were younger, she’d had an easy smile and a kindness about her that he still saw. And she’d always been the one to see the best in others.
He walked out to bring the horses in from the pen, but noticed one of them was missing. He walked into the barn, but the mare wasn’t in the stable, either—and he noticed one of the saddles was gone, too. Someone had taken out the horse.
He reached for his cell phone to call his brothers to find out if one of them had taken her, but spotted a message on his phone from a number he didn’t recognize. He hadn’t heard it come through and realized his ringer was off. He opened the message and his blood ran cold.
Forgive me for everything, Lawson. I had to do this. I’ll bring her home to you. Bree.
He hurried inside and upstairs to Kellyanne’s room. The door was locked, but no one responded when he knocked. He didn’t hear her moving around inside.
“No, no, no.” He kicked open the door just as Colby and Paul ascended the stairs.
“Everything okay?” Paul asked.
Lawson glanced around the room. She wasn’t there and the emergency ladder was hanging from the window. He glanced down, but she wasn’t anywhere in sight.
“What’s going on?” Colby asked as he and Paul stood in the doorway.
He took a long breath as he tried to process what was happening and what she’d done. She’d sneaked out on him, gone off on her own to rescue her sister and left him with only this text message as to where to find her. “It’s Bree. She’s missing.”
His brothers looked at one another. “Don’t you mean Ashlee?” Paul asked, and Lawson didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“That’s a whole conversation in itself,” he told his brothers. “All I know is that she’s gone. She sent me a text from a number I don’t recognize that said she was going to bring her sister home.”
He held out his phone so they could see the message. Both their jaws tightened. They all knew this wasn’t good news.
“Now, hold on,” Paul said. “She wouldn’t have left to track down her sister on her own—she’d know that you have better resources than anything she could manage by herself. If she left, then it means she knew where to go. Someone told her—and I’m guessing it was the same person who gave her whatever number she’s texting from.”
His brother was right. “Mom said she got a package in the mail. Said it was from her office, but I don’t see any files.” He picked up the keyboard and a sheet of paper beneath it fell from the desk. He bent to scoop it up, already noticing typewritten words that indicated a ransom letter.
He handed it to Colby who read it. Noticing an empty CD-ROM sleeve sitting next to the computer, Lawson booted up the machine and opened the video file on the disk. He watched the recording and his heart dropped.
The kidnappers had sent another ransom letter and Bree had gone to rescue her sister alone.
She’d sneaked away to hand herself over to a drug ring.
“So, let me get this straight. Ashlee isn’t Ashlee? She’s Bree, Ashlee’s twin sister?” Paul gave him a confused stare.
Lawson shot his brother a frustrated look. “Her identical twin sister, yes.”
“And how long have you known?”
He gave a half-hearted shrug, but didn’t answer. He was trying to keep his thoughts focused on Ashlee and getting her back safely. He’d seen the fear written in her eyes in the video and it had shaken him. But he was surprised to find that his concern for Ashlee was nothing compared to his terror at the thought of the danger Bree was facing.
He wanted to remain angry at her and he was, but his strongest feelings were worries for her safety and panic over the thought of losing her, too. She’d not only sneaked out on him to go rescue her sister, she’d also sneaked her way into his life, becoming the woman he wanted to get to know better.
First, he had to find her.
Josh’s phone rang and he scooped it up. “You’re on speaker,” Josh told Cecile as they all gathered around to hear what she’d found out about the cell phone number Bree had sent the text from. “Tell me you have good news.”
“Some. The phone was activated two days ago and received an incoming text an hour ago.”
“Any chance we know what that text said?” Colby asked her.
“No, we only have a record of it arriving, but not what it said.”
“Probably directions to the handoff,” Lawson said and his brothers nodded their agreement.
“What about GPS?” Paul asked.
“GPS is not active, so we can’t track it. However, here’s something interesting. The phone also made an outgoing call earlier this afternoon. You’ll never guess to whom—Jake Stephens.”
“I thought we ruled him out as involved in this,” Colby stated, and Josh shook his head.
“Well, he just jumped right back into the mix.”
Cecile continued. “I pulled his credit card information and he just checked into the Sanderson Hotel and this morning made a twenty-five-thousand-dollar withdrawal from his accounts.”
“He’s giving her the money,” Lawson stated. “To replace the money we have in custody.”
“Thanks, Cecile,” Josh said. “We’re heading over to the hotel now to have a conversation with Mr. Stephens.”
Lawson glanced at him as he ended the call. They’d never completely ruled out Jake Stephens being the threat against Ashlee, but it didn’t make sense he would withdraw the very amount of money Bree had supposedly taken from the ring. “You think he’s involved?” he asked his brother.
“I don’t know, but he’s the only lead we have right now. Maybe he can tell us where she’s headed.”
Lawson drew his weapon and took his position on the left side of the hotel door. The manager had given them a key card to Stephens’s room. Josh and Colby took positions on the other side. Lawson entered the key card, waited for the green light, then he pushed open the door and they rushed inside.
“Courtland County Sheriff, freeze,” Josh hollered.
Jake Stephens was dressed, but stretched out on the bed when they rushed inside. At their entrance, he leaped up and raised his hands.
“What’s going on?” he asked as Colby checked the bathroom and Josh the closet before announcing them both clear.
“Where’s Ashlee?” Lawson demanded, keeping his weapon raised. He didn’t call her by her true name because he figured that would only confuse Stephens, who still believed she was his Ashlee.
“She’s been kidnapped. Can you believe that?”
“You spoke to her this morning and you withdrew twenty-five thousand from your bank account. What was that money for?”
“She asked me for it. She said it would help her sister. Only, when I got there to pick her up, the woman waiting for me wasn’t Ashlee. It was her sister, Bree.”
“You saw her, then,” Lawson said. “Where?”
“Just outside the turnoff to your ranch. I thought I was helping my girlfriend. Now, I don’t know if I’ve been scammed or not. Maybe she took that money and left town.”
Lawson lowered his gun and holstered it. Jake Stephens’s story seemed to make sense. “You didn’t get scammed. Ashlee really was kidnapped. We found the ransom note and video of her that the kidnappers sent to Bree. They must have grabbed Ashlee believing she was her sister.”
“You said you picked her up,” Colby interjected. “Where did you take her?”
“I didn’t take her anywhere. In fact, she grabbed my keys and took off in my car. I had to call a cab just to get back here.”
Josh reached for his phone. “Your car have GPS?”
“It’s a rental car, so yeah.”
Josh hit redial on his phone and waited until Cecile answered. “I need to know the GPS coordinates of Jake Stephens’s rental car. And send a deputy to bring Stephens back to the office. I want to know where he is at all times until this is over.”
Colby placed a hand on Lawson’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, little brother. We’ll get your lady back.”
He felt better hearing his brother sound so certain, but he was also concerned because he didn’t know which lady Colby had been referring to.
Or even which one Lawson was more worried about getting back.
The car turned off on the entrance road to an old abandoned ranch that used to belong to the Tillman family. They pulled past the house and stopped in front of the garage. The back door opened and Bree was shoved out of the car and led inside.
The man leading her didn’t stop, dragging her toward the back to a storage room that he unlocked with a key. When he opened the door, Bree spotted her sister huddled in the corner. She fell nearly on top of Ashlee, but grabbed her and pulled her into a hug, noting the bruises on her face and her busted lip. Those were new since the video had been made.
“Ashlee!”
Her sister clung to her as sobs shook her body. Finally, Ashlee calmed enough to speak. “I never thought I would see you again. Why did you come here? What were you thinking?”
“I had to come. I couldn’t let you take the fall for this.”
“You were out. Why did you come back?”
Bree stroked her hair, pushing it from her face. “I couldn’t leave you here to die.”
Ashlee pulled Bree to her. “I was so worried about you when you showed up with the money and then the shooting started.” A tear slipped from her swollen eye. “I didn’t know if you were dead or alive. It wasn’t until they forced me to make that video that I realized you must have made it out. What happened?”
“Lawson Avery happened. He found me, Ashlee. He rescued me in every way a person can be rescued.” She pulled off her sister’s binds. “There’s only one problem. He thought I was you.” Ashlee locked eyes with her, looking shocked, and Bree felt her face redden. “I didn’t mean to deceive him. After I left you here, I was so traumatized that I had some kind of mental break. I passed out on the side of the road and when I woke up, I had amnesia. I couldn’t remember my own name or what I was doing here. Lawson was the one who was there when I woke up. As soon as he saw me, he assumed I was you—and it seemed to be true when we realized I was driving your car and had your billfold with your identification. I never meant to lie to him.”
Ashlee pushed away her tears. “I believe you, Bree. I’m sure he will, too.”
“I brought the same amount of money Travis took. They promised they would let you go if I returned it.”
Ashlee’s fingers dug into her arms. “They don’t want the money, Bree. They want something else Travis took from them. A notebook of some kind. Do you remember it?”
Bree tried to recall ever seeing something like that around Travis’s apartment, but she was coming up blank. There were still big, gaping holes in her memory. “I don’t remember anything like that. But wait, this doesn’t make any sense. Why would they ask for the money if they really wanted a notebook?”
Ashlee shrugged. “Maybe they thought he kept the notebook with the money? If the info in that notebook is important, then I doubt they’d want you to look too closely at it. Saying they wanted the money would be a demand you wouldn’t question—and you’d have no reason to go digging through the bag.”
“They were wrong either way,” Bree replied. “The notebook wasn’t with the money—and this isn’t the same money Travis took, anyway. The police confiscated that. I had to get the money elsewhere. There’s nothing in the bag I gave them other than cash.”
“Then they won’t let us go. Either of us.” Ashlee was nearly hysterical with fear.
Bree didn’t blame her after what she’d been through, but she knew they both had to remain calm and coolheaded if she was going to be able to get her sister out of this mess alive.
“They will, Ashlee. I’ll make sure of it.” Her statement held more bravado than actual certainty, but it seemed to calm Ashlee down a bit.
Bree sat with her sister and tried to think of a way out of this mess she’d created.
Why had she waited so long to realize that Travis’s addiction would always control his life? If she’d realized it sooner, maybe she—they—wouldn’t be in this mess. No, she wasn’t responsible for what Travis had done. She’d tried to do the right thing in the end. She had to hold on to that. She’d tried to make a change for the better.
She was just sorry, so sorry, that Ashlee had gotten caught in the middle of her mess.
A verse from the Bible floated to her mind. She remembered it from her days of Sunday school, but she’d heard it recently from Diane Avery’s reading it aloud. Something about there being no condemnation for those who loved and believed in Jesus Christ.
Bree nearly laughed at the concept. What would it be like to not be judged by her past mistakes, to find true forgiveness and freedom? To find love and build a life with someone... Someone like Lawson? She shook her head. That was out of the question and it was time she stopped thinking about him. She would never see him again. Even if she managed to somehow live through this nightmare, Lawson Avery would never give her the time of day again after the danger she’d brought to her sister’s doorstep.
Lawson rode with Colby to the grocery store where the GPS had pinged the location of the rental car while Josh returned to his office to connect with Cecile. The rental was in the lot, parked beneath a streetlamp. Lawson hopped out and ran to it. The door was locked, but he spotted the keys on the ground beneath it. He quickly opened the door and looked inside. Bree was gone and so was the money Stephens said he’d given her, but the cell phone was lying on the seat. He opened it and read the text that instructed her to get into a waiting vehicle.
Frustration bit at him and he resisted the urge to toss the cell phone across the car. “She’s not here,” he told his brother. “And the trail has gone cold. They had a car waiting. She must have gotten into it.”
Why had she gone off like that? Why hadn’t she told him and waited for him and his brothers to come up with a plan? She was too stubborn and determined for her own good. He rubbed his face and tried to calm his frustration and irritation. Of course, she was stubbornly determined to rescue her sister. He couldn’t really fault her for that.
“Calm down,” Colby said, coming up behind him. “We’ll find her. Someone must have seen something. She can’t have been gone long. Let’s start canvasing the area. You start in the parking lot. I’ll go inside the store.”
Lawson agreed and watched his brother walk briskly into the store. Once again, he was glad to have cooler heads prevailing because his mind was flailing, looking for some sense of order, ever since he’d realized Bree was gone.
He understood that she wanted to help her sister—of course he understood that. But the fact that she hadn’t come to him for help...he could only see one explanation for it. She didn’t trust him to find her sister. It was that plain and simple. She didn’t think he had what it took to pull this off. Just like Ashlee, Bree didn’t believe he was good enough.
When Ashlee had called him unambitious before she’d walked out of his life, he’d been paralyzed with doubt. He couldn’t allow that to happen now. Both sisters’ lives depended on his finding them and bringing them home safely. And he would do that, no matter what Bree Taylor thought of him. He wasn’t going to show her she was wrong about him as some way of proving himself. He didn’t need to do that. But he was going to find her and bring her home safely because he couldn’t imagine living without her.
Whoa. Where had that thought come from?
Since when could he no longer imagine living without Bree?
He didn’t know how it had happened, but that woman had managed to worm her way into his heart. She wasn’t the same woman he’d thought he’d known all those years ago. He’d judged her too harshly for her past mistakes. Thinking about what he’d said to her when he’d thought she was Ashlee made his heart sink. He had to get her back if for nothing more than to apologize and to let her know he’d been wrong about her. Bree was more than her past mistakes and he needed to ask for her forgiveness for his narrow-mindedness.
Lawson approached several people in the parking lot, showing Bree’s photo and asking if they had seen her, but no one had. He had no idea how long ago it had been since she’d been here. He was ashamed to admit he had no idea how long she’d been gone before they’d realized she was missing, but, according to Jake Stephens, it had already been several hours since she’d taken his car. Anyone who had seen her coming and going might have been gone from the store by now.
He spotted a man and woman loading groceries into their car and jogged over to them, deciding to take one last chance before calling it quits. “I wonder if you’ve seen this woman?” he asked, showing them her photo on his cell phone.
The woman glanced at the picture, then nodded. “Yes, we saw her when we arrived. She was sitting in that car.” She pointed to the rental car. “As we were walking into the store, I saw her get out and get into another car with two men.”
“You didn’t happen to notice the license plate of the car she got into, did you?”
“No, sorry, but it was a black SUV.”
“How long ago was this?”
She glanced at her husband. “About an hour?” Her husband nodded in agreement.
He thanked them for their help, then spotted the security cameras aimed at the parking lot and hurried into the store. Maybe the manager could give them access to that security feed.
He met up with his brother who’d had the same idea and was already in the store’s office with another man. “This is Bob Lewis, the manager on duty. He’s pulling up the security feed for us now.”
The manager scrolled back through the video images until Lawson spotted Bree.
“There,” he said, pointing to the figure by the streetlamp as she got out of the rental car and into an SUV.
“Can you get an image of that license plate?” Colby asked and Lewis was able to stop the video so they could see the plate clearly displayed. “You have an excellent video surveillance system, Mr. Lewis. Especially for such a small store.”
Lewis shrugged. “My son-in-law sells security systems, so he got me a good price and did the installation himself. Times are hard and crime has become a problem. I believe it’s important to keep my customers safe if I want to stay in business.”
Lawson and Colby thanked him, then walked out and Lawson texted the info to Josh to get him to run the plates.
Josh had an answer for them by the time they returned to the sheriff’s office. “The car is registered to a company called Strategic Design Systems. Supposedly, they manufacture software.”
Lawson frowned. He’d been expecting to find a person at the end of this trail, not a corporation. “I’ve never heard of it.”
“Its official address is in Atlanta. But here’s the thing. When I ran the plates, they brought up a whole bunch of red flags.”
“What kind of flags?”
“DEA flags,” Josh stated. “I’m waiting to hear back from a friend at the DEA, but from what I can gather, Strategic Design Systems might be a shell company for a major drug distribution ring.”
Lawson took off his hat and pulled a hand through his hair. Bree and Ashlee’s captors were major players and that just made getting the sisters both back even more dangerous.
“Hang on,” Cecile said, digging through a stack of files.
“What is it?” Josh asked.
“That name—Strategic Design Systems... I know I’ve seen it before.” She dug through a file, then nodded. “We canvased some of the businesses around town to see if they recognized the man you shot at the hospital. We found something. He listed his employer as Strategic Design Systems on a rental application eight months ago.”
Josh grabbed the form from her hand. “What did he rent?”
“A backhoe from the hardware store. And he gave his address as 625 Cedar Ridge Road.”
Lawson recognized that address. “Bree and Ashlee’s grandparents owned a ranch on Cedar Ridge Road. The bank foreclosed on it years ago. But we’ve already checked that place out.”
Cecile shook her head. “Actually, 625 is the abandoned property next door to the old Taylor place.”
Josh shook his head. “That can’t be a coincidence. Cecile, call and find out who owns it now.”
“I already did. It was purchased from the city four years ago by Strategic Design Systems. In fact, Strategic Design Systems recently purchased six foreclosed properties from the city.”
“What does a software design company need with old abandoned farms?”
“They don’t—not for any legitimate business, anyway. If Bree’s old boyfriend was really working with them, he would know when the property was foreclosed on and could have passed along that information.”
Josh sighed and glanced at the mounting evidence of a major trafficking operation taking place right under their noses. “I can’t believe this is happening in my county. We knew there was some drug trafficking going on. Mayor Baxter and I have been going back and forth with ways to combat it, but I never would have imagined things had gotten this far out of hand.”
Colby slapped his shoulder. “A small town like this with lots of foreclosed and abandoned properties would be a trafficker’s dream. A lot of these old ranches would have enough buildings for storage and manufacturing as well as plenty of land for planes to come and go with very little scrutiny—not to mention other kinds of vehicles. Nobody blinks an eye when a truck rolls through with a trailer of any kind. They could move drugs in and out of here all day long and who would know it?”
Josh let out a deep breath. “Colby, phone your contacts in the DOJ and DEA and tell them to get to town ASAP. We’re going to need a lot of help on this.”
“On it,” Colby stated, pressing his phone to his ear and walking out.
He turned to Paul. “We need to get eyes on that property to confirm that’s where they’re holed up. Can you take point on that?”
Paul nodded. “Will do.”
Lawson leaned toward his brother. “I know you’re looking at the big picture, taking this drug operation down, Josh, but rescuing Bree and Ashlee is still our first priority, right?”
“Of course. We’ll get them out.”
Lawson walked out of the conference room. He believed his brother had every intention of keeping his word, but with the inclusion of the DOJ and DEA in the investigation, he prayed Bree and Ashlee’s safety wouldn’t get overlooked.