“I’ll get help,” Levi announced when he caught up, after there was no reply to multiple calls and texts to Nora’s phone. “We’ll canvas the town. There’s a possibility we’re wrong and the text was legit, maybe Nora stopped for gas or water.”
Mara had already called Aunt Kitty in case Nora had contacted her. She hadn’t, and since Kitty was clearly worried, she’d driven over to stay with her.
It was all conjecture at this point. The timing of the tree fire and Nora’s departure might be a coincidence. They had no real proof that Kai had assumed Zane’s identity, but Seth felt in his bones that Jude was right.
Seth tried to give equal weight to the alternative scenario. What if he was wrong and she’d just decided to move up her departure? Because of him? Wearing your feelings on your sleeve, again? She was planning on moving out of the trailer the next day, so wasn’t it possible she’d merely left earlier? But Bubbles and her yet unnamed foal hadn’t been bedded down for the night and Nora wasn’t the kind to leave her chores to someone else, no matter what the circumstances.
He fell back on that well of intuition that he’d relied on so heavily in his medic days. What did his gut say?
Something is wrong and Kai’s behind it.
If Kai had taken Zane’s identity, it explained so much. Seth ran through the timeline.
Felicia knew Zane well. She was close enough to find out the truth, so she posed a threat.
Kai staged the ATV attack and showed up as Zane, appearing concerned. Felicia might have suspected later that it was Kai’s doing, providing the perfect way to throw suspicion off the man who’d stolen his brother’s identity.
Kai continued the charade and pretended someone was watching, having already left the binoculars where he would appear to find them.
He wore a fake beard to make sure Nora identified Kai before he stole the photos that he feared might incriminate him. Worried Nora might stumble upon his real identity, he tried to corner her in the wash, left the letter bomb where she’d touch it.
Seth recalled snippets of Doc’s confession. How he questioned why Zane would destroy a dog he’d loved since he was a pup. The answer was that Zane wouldn’t. But Kai would.
The whole thing was genius really. Kai became his brother, took his assets, but used his real-life tarnished reputation to divert suspicion.
And Seth had played right into Kai’s hands by rushing off to fight the tree fire.
Without a word, Seth climbed in next to Jude in the squad car the second he arrived.
“What’s your take?” Jude demanded as he threw the car in gear.
“She wouldn’t have misspelled ‘burro’ in her text.”
“A misspelled word isn’t proof...but I’m inclined to agree. Nora won the middle school spelling bee two years in a row.” He gunned the engine down the road from the ranch. “We don’t have a warrant to search the date farm, so unless I see some kind of indication he’s taken her, I can’t do anything without his permission.”
“I can. I’m going to tear apart every square inch of that property until I’m satisfied she’s not there.”
“Can’t let you do that. You’ll mess up any case we might have.”
“I don’t care about the case. All I care about is Nora.”
Jude’s jaw clenched. “You don’t think I’m worried too, Seth? She’s my sister. How would you feel if it was Mara or Corinne we were talking about?”
Seth heard Jude’s teeth grind together. He breathed himself into a calmer tone. “I’m sorry. Nora’s very important to both of us.”
Jude shot him a side-eye. “How important?”
Seth tried unsuccessfully to come up with a reply as they headed for the date farm.
“Speechless, huh?” Jude said. “All right. If we get her out of trouble, you’re going to be sure to come up with something better than awkward silence, right?”
He blew out a breath. “She doesn’t want to stick around. She’s been clear on that score.”
“A stubborn Duke? Imagine that,” Jude said. “She’s got baggage, or haven’t you been paying attention? But she’s a Duke and, at the end of the day, she knows her roots are here and maybe even her future if she came to believe someone loved her enough to make her let go of all the past wreckage.”
Seth’s heart ached. He could not deny that he loved her madly, truly, completely. “I’m not sure she thinks I’m that guy,” he said after a moment.
“Then you’d better get busy,” Jude snapped.
They careened on, lost in their own thoughts, until Jude rolled to a stop before the bridge to the Freeman date farm, engine idling. “All right. I’m going to go talk to him and, unless I get a real innocent vibe or hear that Nora’s been located elsewhere, I’m getting back in my vehicle and securing a search warrant and more officers.”
Seth reached for the door handle, realizing he hadn’t brought his rifle along. Probably for the best, since Kai was still technically innocent. Innocent, my aching shoulder. “I’ll keep to the public land, circle around and see if I can spot her vehicle or any clue that he’s got her. I’ll text you either way.”
Jude grabbed his shoulder in a painful squeeze. “Seth, you’re not a cop and we have no rights here.”
“I got all that earlier.” Seth tried to pull away but Jude only tightened his grip.
“If Zane is actually Kai, he’s got everything to lose and he won’t hesitate to kill you. You see anything at all, you text and wait. Don’t go all cowboy on me.”
“Cuz I’m not a Duke?”
“Because you’re not a cop,” Jude said firmly. “And I don’t want you hurt.”
Been there, done that, Seth thought as he nodded and got out. He’d faced his injury and agonizing rehabilitation and what’s more, he’d accepted that he was not the man he used to be. But God kept him alive and kicking, and he would use up every ounce of that gift to find Nora.
Seth closed the car door quietly and slipped off the gravel road into the thicket. The pine needles dripped icy moisture as he ran along the river, paralleling the embankment where Nora had plunged when she’d staged her ambush during the ATV attack. He could see her in his memory, arms folded, hair streaming, jackknifing into the ice-cold water. And he remembered his own gut reaction. Awe and admiration. Since then, those twin sensations had only strengthened.
A woman like that would fight to her last bit of courage, he told himself. And if she hadn’t? If she was already dead?
He shoved the fear away and pushed himself to go faster. His arm was beginning to tremble, already stressed by his efforts to extinguish the fire. As he hunched down and kept to the trees, he visualized Nora, her energetic stride, the way her laugh seemed too big for her slender frame. He thought of the first time he’d seen her on Zoom and the way he’d gone all cold and hot and nervous and relaxed at the same time. The message screamed through his nerve pathways and pierced his heart like an arrow.
I love her. Lord, if she needs saving, give me the strength and let me be enough.
He ran on into the night.
Cold. Damp. The tang of mildew. Sensations assailed Nora’s senses as she swam back to consciousness.
When she’d hit the bottom of the shaft, the impact had left her stunned. She didn’t know how long she’d lain crumpled there, struggling to get oxygen in. Dull pain radiated through her side along with a rising sense of chill.
Breathe, just breathe.
When she was able to get her lungs to cooperate, she slowly sat up.
I can’t see, she thought with a flutter of sheer terror, until she looked up and discerned a vague light some fifteen feet above her. Faint moonlight, she realized. Behind her back, her bound fingers grazed a rotting wood beam and rough rock. She was in some sort of shaft, she realized. Not surprising. Death Valley was a labyrinth of underground mining tunnels.
The bottom of the shaft was covered with piles of leaves, dirt, stones and who knew what else.
Rocks stabbed into her hips. All right. First thing’s first. She scooted back and forth until she felt a particularly sharp rock poking at her. Ignoring the pain in her shoulders, she worked her wrists back and forth over that roughness, sawing at the tape. Sweat poured down her face, chilling her further, and she had to stop several times to ease the agony in her muscles. At long last, she was rewarded when the tape gave way.
Gasping, she ripped the pieces off and chafed life back into her bruised wrists before she peeled the tape off her mouth and ankles.
Elated, she wriggled her feet to restore the circulation. Clinging to the beam for support, she hauled herself up. Dizziness swamped her but she locked her knees until it passed. Head injury or the results of being drugged, she wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter. She had to get out of that shaft before Kai returned.
She wondered if Seth would ever realize what had actually happened to her.
What would he think when he got her text? Would he believe she’d decided to up and leave town so abruptly?
It was entirely possible since she’d rebuffed him. Why had she been such a fool?
No time for that now, she told herself savagely. There had to be a way out of this shaft. She took a step and collapsed in pain. Her ankle was damaged, broken maybe. Well, it wasn’t going to stop her from climbing out.
Measured breathing controlled the discomfort as she carefully got to her feet, putting her weight slowly on her uninjured leg. Then she set about patting her hands along the grimy walls. The shaft was some ten feet across, she estimated, with a generous eighteen inches of detritus on the bottom. Perhaps there was an old pipe or a series of rocks placed in such a way that she could climb out. She wished she had her phone flashlight. The moon did little more than paint the shaft in lighter tones of gray.
Would Jude actually stop at the date farm to look for her as Kai expected? If he did, would he be convinced by Kai’s innocent act? That was a factor she couldn’t control, so she did what came naturally now. She prayed.
When she finished, she hopped on one foot through the debris. Maybe there was something she could use down there, a discarded rope or cable. Unlikely, but she was going to explore every minute possibility.
As she staggered on her injured ankle, she thought again of what Kai had said. You left everything behind, so you’re an outsider... Small-town people can be narrow-minded. Holding on to grudges forever...”
Yes, Olivia was still angry, but Nora discovered that her brother, her mother, the Dukes, they were all willing to forgive, if she had only decided to let them. Her own stubbornness made her cringe. If she didn’t get out of that shaft, her realization wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans.
A hill...she thought. If there were rocks buried in the debris, maybe she could pile them up and reach high enough to grab hold of the ledge of rock she could barely make out above her head. It wouldn’t boost her enough to get out, but maybe it would show her another set of rocks or a jutting piece of wood that could lead the way to the next handhold.
Dropping to her knees, she pushed her palms through the rotting leaves. The vegetation felt as clammy as eels. Her fingertips encountered a piece of wedge-shaped wood or rubber. There was something familiar about it that her brain would not at first accept.
What was it?
Trailing her fingers along, she felt the material, both rigid and supple.
Leather.
The hard-tooled leather of a cowboy boot.
Not a cowboy’s boot, a farmer’s.
She understood now what Kai had done with his brother.
Her scream echoed back at her.