“They’ve got my mom. They say they’ll kill her if I call the police.”
Bounty hunter Daisy Lopez felt her breath catch in her throat as she stopped dead in her tracks and read the threatening text on her phone. Her heart hammered so furiously in her chest that it seemed as if her lungs wouldn’t work. And her stomach suddenly felt like a twisted block of ice. She tore her gaze away from the words and held out her phone with the screen facing her boss and fellow bounty hunter, Alvis Carter, so that he could see the message.
“This is no idle threat,” she added, the tension in her tightened throat making the words come out as a distraught whisper. “They really will kill her.”
Alvis sighed and nodded. “You’re right.” Sunlight filtered through the pines surrounding the dirt parking lot where they were standing and shone down on the gray stubble covering his upper lip and chin. Alvis was still mentally a sharp tracker, but he’d reached a point in life where the physical side of the job took a toll on him pretty quickly. That meant he counted on Daisy to do most of the running and climbing when they were chasing bad guys, which was fine with her. “What do you want to do?” he asked.
That was a good question.
At the moment they were on the trail of a pair of mob-connected professional hit men trying to escape the long arm of the law out of Miami by hiding in Jameson, Montana. Daisy had started the hunt for the bail jumpers five days ago, showing photos of Beau Daltrey and Ivan Bunker to people at hotels, gas stations and restaurants, and to Realtors who specialized in short-term rental properties. Alvis had finished up another case he’d been working and had joined in Daisy’s chase this morning. They’d just left a realty office where an employee had looked at photos and confirmed that she’d seen Daltrey and Bunker when the text announcing the abduction of Shannon Lopez arrived on Daisy’s phone. Clearly, the Miami mob assassins had figured out that Daisy was hot on their trail.
She and Alvis resumed walking toward her SUV when her phone chimed again with a text message from the same unknown number.
She tapped on the message and was once more stopped in her tracks when she saw the horrifying video image that opened on the screen. It was her mother, with her hands and feet bound with duct tape and a strip of cloth tied across her mouth. Her eyes were huge and filled with terror.
A voice off camera started to speak and Daisy quickly increased the volume. “Stop looking for us,” a man said. “When we get far enough away, we’ll set your mother free. Until then, back off. If you call the cops, she dies.”
Daisy’s entire body was shaking by the time the short message ended. She played it three more times, with Alvis coming around behind her to peer over her shoulder and watch it with her. It took several seconds after the last viewing before she could take a step. Her body was numb and it felt like her feet were encased in concrete. She barely made it to her SUV, where she dropped into the driver’s seat as a cold wave of terror slammed through her.
“This is bad,” Alvis said, his voice husky with emotion. “I know they said not to do it, but maybe getting law enforcement involved is the best call.”
Daisy met his gaze and she saw the sorrow and defeat in his eyes. He was probably thinking the same thing she was. That the two hit men would likely kill Shannon no matter what Daisy did. They had nothing to lose. They were already facing murder charges back in Miami and they were obviously desperate to stay out of prison.
But this was Daisy’s mom. She couldn’t give up on her. There had to be something she could do. She watched the video again, this time forcing herself to shove her emotions aside and focus on what she could see. Because in the middle of her heartbreak and horror while viewing the video the previous times, her brain had registered the sight of something familiar.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” she asked Alvis, tilting her phone slightly to give him a better view.
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “That looks like the Jameson Recreation Hall on the east side of Lake Dillon.”
The video focused mainly on Shannon lying tied up in the back of the SUV with the hatch open. But several yards away was a section of a wooden structure that looked familiar. Daisy couldn’t see the whole thing, but it appeared to be a segment of the L-shaped building with dining facilities and an area where paddleboards and other pieces of sports equipment were rented out in the warmer summer months. Now that it was early October and already dropping to near-freezing temperatures at night, the building would be closed up for the season.
Daisy started the engine of her SUV. “They might not still be there, but let’s go have a look. I don’t want to call the police yet. The last thing we need is an officer in a patrol car up there looking around. That could spook Daltrey and Bunker, and if they have to make a quick escape, they might decide that dragging my mom along with them is too much trouble.” She swallowed thickly. “They might decide they don’t want to leave a witness behind who could help the cops find them. They might shoot her.”
Daisy gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles were white as she drove to the recreation hall as fast as she could, hoping and praying that the fugitives from Miami didn’t realize how easily identifiable the building was to someone who’d lived in Jameson all her life.
As they crested the rise just before the lake came into view, she took a deep breath and forced herself to slow down so she’d look like a typical citizen out for a drive. There was no telling if the bad guys were watching.
She continued along the road as it hugged the edge of the lake, driving as close to the recreation hall as she dared and then pulling off to the side and parking under the cover of the pine forest. She slid out of the SUV, her hands and knees still shaking from the surge of adrenaline that nearly had her heart bursting out of her chest with worry for her mom, and crept forward until she found a good vantage point. Alvis stayed close behind her.
There was an SUV in the parking lot. It matched the one in the video. They might have just abandoned the vehicle here. Or they might actually be inside the building with her mom.
It made sense that the fugitives hadn’t gone far. Ditching Shannon somewhere and sneaking out through the regional airport wasn’t an option. Federal authorities had been alerted to be on the lookout for them for a while now. And even though Jameson was a good-sized town by Montana standards and home to Dawson University, it was also surrounded by miles and miles of rough terrain and very few roads. Since the fugitives were still driving the same SUV shown in the video, if Daisy had contacted the police and the hit men had tried to jackrabbit out of town, the Montana Highway Patrol would have easily intercepted them. The bad guys must have decided to stay put for a while until they were certain they had achieved their goal by kidnapping Shannon and that Daisy had stopped hunting them.
“Time to call the cops and wait for them to arrive,” Alvis said.
“Agreed.” The panic that had been radiating from her chest up into her throat finally subsided enough that Daisy could take a deep breath. She had to keep herself together if she was going to help get her mother out of this situation alive. The bail-jumping fugitives who had taken Shannon had killed before. They wouldn’t hesitate to kill again.
Daisy took another deep breath and silently said a quick prayer for guidance.
“Okay,” she said to Alvis. “Call it in. And while we’re waiting for the cops to arrive, I’ll go over and disable their SUV so they can’t get away.” She grabbed a multipurpose knife from the glove box, and then pulled her phone from her pocket and completely silenced it. It was quiet by the mountain lake, with only the slight sounds of the breeze rustling the tops of the trees and the water lapping against the lakeshore. She didn’t want sounds coming from her phone to alert the bad guys that she was there.
“I’ll go with you,” Alvis said.
“No. Stay back here where you’ve got a good overview of the area. Text me if anything happens that I need to know about. I won’t hear the notification, but I’ll make sure I glance at the screen a few times. Be right back.”
She scurried through the forest to the edge of the gravel parking lot, where she was forced to break cover to traverse the short distance to the fugitives’ vehicle.
Drag marks in the gravel beside the empty SUV and drops of blood on the rear bumper sent a deadening chill rippling across the surface of Daisy’s skin. For a few seconds she stayed crouched beside the SUV, paralyzed with dread at the thought of what the cops might ultimately find inside the building when they arrived. Maybe it was already too late to save her mom.
She forced her focus back to the task at hand and unfolded the knife. She pressed the tip of the blade into the sidewall of the passenger rear tire of the fugitives’ SUV, keeping the vehicle between herself and the building in case either of the bad guys happened to step outside. The air escaped from the tire and the SUV tilted downward.
Determined to learn everything she could to help the cops when they arrived, Daisy moved to the back of the SUV where she could get a quick look at the recreation hall while still remaining mostly hidden. From her position she couldn’t see the main entrance of the building, which faced Lake Dillon, but she could see windows on her side of the building. They were boarded over for the season. She also saw a couple of wooden planks that must have been put in place to secure the exit door from the kitchen but were now lying on the ground. They’d obviously been pried off and tossed aside.
Now it seemed very likely that the bad guys were in there.
Daisy desperately wanted to spring into action, rush into the building and rescue her mother. But given the situation, she knew the smartest thing to do was to wait. She was determined to do that. Until she heard Shannon scream, “No!”
Instinct kicked in and Daisy found herself racing for the kitchen door with her gun drawn. She stopped short and then slowly pulled it open, standing behind it to give herself a little bit of protection in case someone was waiting to take a shot at her. Of course, a bullet could still blast through the door. When nothing happened, she moved around to peer inside.
Her gaze fell on the empty commercial kitchen. She saw remnants set aside on the countertop where someone had heated up part of a gallon-sized can of clam chowder. Illumination spilling over from lights turned on in the dining hall, which was not in direct view from the kitchen, allowed Daisy to see smeared blood on the floor. The winters in Montana were harsh, so it was common for electricity to be left on even when a building was not being used during cold weather so that minimal heating could keep the pipes from freezing.
But whoever prepped the building for the winter would not have left the lights on.
Daisy crossed over the threshold into the kitchen, took a couple more steps and then stopped.
“Let me go!” Shannon demanded loudly, her voice echoing in the dining hall just around the corner. The gag over her mouth that Daisy had seen in the video must have worked its way free. That was not a surprise. Shannon Lopez was a fighter. Despite her fear for her mother, Daisy felt a faint, hopeful smile cross her lips.
Then she heard something. Like the squeak of a floorboard being stepped on. It came from the dining hall. The kitchen floor was linoleum, but the rest of the flooring in the building was wood plank. Maybe Daltrey or Bunker had seen Daisy when she’d first opened the kitchen door. Maybe one of them was waiting for her to move farther inside until they could get a clear shot at her.
Daisy reached for her phone and considered taking a quick glance at the screen. Maybe Alvis had sent her a text letting her know how soon the cops would arrive. Maybe they were already here. But looking away from her surroundings, even for a second, could be a fatal mistake.
The sound of wood splintering and a whoosh of cool air snapped her attention back to the dining hall, tempting her to quickly move around the corner so she could see what was happening. But she needed to stay as calm as possible. She needed to be smart. She could tell that sunlight was spilling into the building from the direction of the dining hall. And she could hear scuffling noises, like the sound of a struggle. She heard her mother’s voice again, only this time it was muffled.
A car engine started up. The sound didn’t come from the direction of the SUV with the now-deflated tire, but from the other side of the building. From the dining hall. What was going on? Did they have a second vehicle?
The sound of three rapid gunshots had Daisy sprinting around the corner and into the dining hall, ready to do whatever was necessary to protect her mother. The first thing that caught her attention was a side door hanging open with bright sunlight streaming in. She saw Daltrey, tall and slender with ice-blue eyes, standing by the doorway. Bunker was nowhere in sight. Daltrey pointed a gun at her. She ducked out of the way as three more shots rang out, the bullets tearing up the wood paneling behind the spot where she’d just been standing.
The instant the gunfire stopped, Daisy peeked around the corner into the dining hall again. The side door hung open, and she could see a pickup truck pulling away. There was a motionless body lying in a corner.
They’d killed her mom.
Dear Lord. Sick with fear, Daisy rushed over to the body and dropped to her knees.
It wasn’t her mom. It was Jimmy Nestor, a roughly forty-year-old small-time criminal whom Daisy had run across many times during her bounty hunting career. He was known for his willingness to do anything for money. He must have helped Daltrey and Bunker, told them this rec center would be a good place for a hideout. And this was how they’d paid him for his assistance. One or both of them had shot him in the chest multiple times. Daisy checked for a pulse despite the man’s catastrophic injuries. He was gone.
Daisy sat back on her heels, needing a few seconds to steady her nerves and recover from the wallop of fear and shock she’d felt when she’d thought her mother had been murdered.
After a couple of deep breaths, she got to her feet, hurried over to the open side door and stepped outside. The truck was nowhere in sight, but the paved road out here ended with a loop around the lake, so the fugitives would be forced to go back out the way they came in. She turned and jogged toward Alvis, who was already rushing in her direction yelling, “What happened?”
Daisy had barely uttered a few words of explanation when she saw a flicker of red and blue lights through the pine forest in the direction of the road. The reality of her situation hit her all at once. The criminals she was chasing weren’t stupid. She was. They’d set a trap and she’d walked right into it. They’d wanted her to find them. And then leaving her on the scene with a dead body meant she’d be tied up for the rest of the day being interviewed by the cops while Daltrey and Bunker made their getaway. The added benefit for the bad guys would be that local police resources would be stretched thin as the cops now had to investigate the murder of Jimmy Nestor along with the kidnapping of Shannon Lopez.
She started hurrying toward her SUV, Alvis right behind her, while mentally beating herself up for being so foolish. She realized now that she might be in over her head pursuing two professional killers who were this calculating. But she wasn’t going to let that stop her from doing everything she could.
“When the cops get here, tell them I couldn’t stay,” she said to Alvis as she pulled her key fob out of her pocket. “But I’ll come into the police department to give a statement later.”
Alvis shook his head. “That’s not how it works. You need to stay here.”
“I’ve got to go.” Daisy slid behind the wheel of her SUV. She needed to leave before the police rolled up and detained her.
“What exactly do you think you’re going to do?” Alvis snapped.
“I’m going to keep hunting them.” She connected her phone with her vehicle’s hands-free device. “First, I’m going to call them and see if they respond. Then I’m going to do anything and everything I can think of. I’ve got to find them before they hurt my mom.”
She hit the gas and drove away.
Martin Silverdeer barreled toward Jameson driving a bit over the speed limit. The thing that kept him from flooring his truck’s gas pedal was the realization that he could get pulled over and then it would take him even longer to get to Daisy.
He had to get to Daisy and make sure she was okay. He was desperate to make certain Shannon Lopez was safe, as well. Mrs. Lopez was like a second mother to him.
Shortly before Martin’s senior year of high school, when his parents were going through yet another round in a series of ceaseless—and sometimes violent—clashes, Martin’s great-aunt Rachel and great-uncle Oliver had suggested he get out of Stone River, Idaho, for a while and come stay with them in Jameson, Montana.
He’d jumped at the chance, and had quickly made friends at school with Aaron Lopez, who brought him home to meet his family, including his kid sister, Daisy.
Now, ten years later, Martin couldn’t possibly put into words what he felt for Daisy. It was a combination of so many different emotions. It was also the one single reality of Daisy being Daisy. She was quick-witted and funny, brave and determined, understanding and compassionate.
Their relationship was complicated. She was his best friend’s little sister. Plus, he and Daisy had a history of friendship and he was afraid of messing that up if he acted on the romantic feelings he couldn’t help having for her.
Aaron Lopez had joined the military right out of high school. He was a career United States marine who spent a lot of time serving overseas. The night before Aaron initially left Jameson to report for basic training, he’d asked Martin to look after his mom and sister while he was away. Not that he thought they were incompetent. Far from it. They were both strong women. But Aaron was aware that the world was a dangerous place. And that people needed to look out for one another.
Ten years later, Martin still took that request seriously. And when he’d gotten the call from Daisy’s boss, Alvis, telling him about the kidnapping and what had just happened at the rec center, Martin had felt his heart nearly drop to the floor. He’d told his own boss at Rock Solid Bail Bonds, Cassie Wheeler, that he had to leave the office immediately and why. She’d waved him out the door and told him to let her know if he needed any help.
Martin was nearly at the end of the two-hour drive from Stone River to Jameson when his phone rang. It was Cassie. “The cops are searching for Daisy right now for questioning,” she said as soon as Martin answered. “I’ve gotten calls from the Jameson PD and the Beckett County Sheriff’s Department asking if I know anything that could help them find her.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t have any information for you to pass along to them,” Martin said. And even if he did have information, he would keep it to himself. At least until he talked to Daisy. This was a dangerous situation on many levels right now. He was afraid some overexcited cop might put Daisy in harm’s way in their haste to find her and take her into custody. Because if he knew Daisy, she wouldn’t make it easy for them to stop her from doing her best to rescue her mom.
“Martin, I know how much you care about Daisy,” Cassie said. “It’s obvious by the look on your face and the tone of your voice anytime you talk about her. But I’m warning you to be careful. You don’t know what you’re walking into.” She sighed. “People change. Even people you know. Or think you know. They’ll do things that will surprise you.”
He understood what Cassie was implying. That maybe Daisy wasn’t the upright, trustworthy person he thought she was. But he knew better than that. In fact, he believed in her enough that if he’d handled things better, if he’d been able to shake off the fear that he might turn out to be like his parents, he would have proposed to her a long time ago.
There’d been a few weeks a couple of years ago when Daisy had flirted with him, but instead of flirting back, he’d frozen up in fear. And the same fear still haunted him.
What if he was like his parents? He didn’t lose his temper and get violent like they did. He never would. That was a commitment he’d made to himself in his early teens, and he’d stuck to it. But fear triggered by the realization that he didn’t actually know how to make a relationship work had sunk its roots deeply into him. Kept him from taking a chance at letting their relationship turn into something more than friendship.
He couldn’t stand the thought of being a disappointment to Daisy. Or ruining things between them. But he could love her from a distance. And hide his feelings. Although he apparently hadn’t done a very good job of hiding them from Cassie.
“I’ve tried to call Daisy multiple times,” Martin said. “She won’t answer. I’m in touch with Alvis. He’s been trying to talk to her and she isn’t answering his calls, either. He says thanks to people overhearing the police radio traffic about the person shot and killed at the rec hall, and then gossiping about it on social media, rumors are flying around that Daisy was actually the shooter. Some fool started speculating that she’s turned into a vigilante in order to rescue her mom.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Cassie said.
Martin sighed heavily. “The police have posted statements on their own social media accounts trying to squash the rumors. Maybe it will help eventually. But right now she needs my help, whether she knows it or not. I’ll call you when I have an update.”
He disconnected and called Daisy’s number. It went to voice mail, just like it had all the other times. Once again, he left a message, making it clear he knew what was going on, only this time he didn’t hide his frustration. “I’m almost to Jameson,” he snapped. “I haven’t called your brother yet to tell him what’s going on, but if I have to, I will. I’m here to help you. Whatever it takes. Call me back. Now.” He was banking on her tendency to withhold bad news from Aaron. In her brother’s line of work, being distracted could get him killed.
A minute after he disconnected, his phone rang. It was Daisy.
“Tell me where you are,” he said when he answered, too scared for her safety to bother with a polite greeting.
After a few seconds of silence on her end, he tried again. This time he spoke a little more calmly. “It’s just me,” he said. “No one else is listening in. I’m not trying to corner you. I need to see you. I need to understand what’s going on.”
“They’ve got Mom,” she said, sounding both defiant and fragile at the same time.
The sharp pain in his heart at the sound of her voice made it hard for him to breathe. “We’ll get her back.” He forced himself to sound calm. “You and me. Together. Tell me where you are.”
“I’m at the Acorn Valley Mall,” she said. “Daltrey and Bunker, the bail jumpers from Miami who have Mom, should be here in just a few minutes. I called them and told them I’d trade myself for my mom’s freedom.”
Martin felt the blood drain from his face. “You can’t do that.”
“Of course I won’t actually do it,” Daisy responded, with the exaggerated patience she often used when she was mildly annoyed with him. “But I can pretend I will. Alvis always says, ‘Work with what you’ve got.’ That’s sound advice. And right now, what I’ve got is that Daltrey and Bunker think I’m stupid.
“I realize now they wanted me to find them up by Lake Dillon. They included the recreation hall in the video they sent me so I’d know where they were. They knew I’d be too afraid for my mom’s safety to call the cops. And they knew that if they could get me there, with a dead body on the scene, I’d be so tangled up dealing with the cops that they could get away. They took a chance, and it paid off for them. They know there are rules bounty hunters have to play by if they want to stay on the good side of law enforcement and remain in business. Like reporting dead bodies as soon as they find one. And remaining on the scene.”
Martin was already in the middle of the town of Jameson. He turned into the mall parking lot. “You’re on the bad side of the cops right now, Daisy. We’re going to have to get that straightened out. But, first things first. Where exactly are you?”
“Behind the movie theater.” The theater was in a separate building on the edge of the mall complex. “Park your rig close to the stores and then walk over here on foot. You can hunker down out of sight in the back seat of my SUV, and hopefully the bad guys won’t know that you’re here. I haven’t seen them, so I don’t think they’ve arrived yet.”
“Copy that. Be right there.” He parked, then grabbed the bottled water and protein bars he normally kept in his truck.
Much as he wanted to run to her, Martin made himself walk over to the movie theater so as not to draw attention to himself. He could see Daisy watching his approach through her front windshield.
“Hey,” he said after opening the door, glancing around to make certain no one was watching, and then climbing in. He quickly lay down on the back seat. “You all right? You injured?”
“I’m worried about Mom,” Daisy said dully, sounding as if she was in shock. He couldn’t blame her.
“We’ll get her back. Here, I brought you something.” He passed a bottle of water and a protein bar to her. She tossed the bar onto the passenger seat beside her, but she uncapped the water and took several long swigs.
“So, what’s the plan?” Martin asked.
“A straight exchange. They drive up. They both hold on to Mom as they let her out of their vehicle and walk toward me. I walk toward them. They let go of Mom and grab hold of me. That’s it.” She took a sip of water. “I didn’t have time for a fancy plan. I’ve got a gun. I’ve got my martial-arts training. I figured I’ll come up with some genius move on the fly.”
Ah, the Daisy Lopez bravado. Sometimes it got her out of jams. Sometimes it made things worse.
“Well, now that you’ve got me here to help, what’s the new plan?” Martin asked.
“Once my mom’s in the clear and they’re holding on to me instead of her, we take them down. You pop out of the SUV. They’ll be surprised. I pull out my gun and take on whoever is on my right. You take the other one.”
A highly risky plan, but they were backed into a corner right now with few options.
Daisy’s phone chimed. “No,” she muttered. And then much more forcefully she said, “No, no, no.”
Martin’s gut clenched. Something was obviously wrong. “What’s happening?”
“I got a text from the thugs we’re chasing. They want to do the exchange in a different location.”
Martin’s heart sank. A last-minute change made the situation more unpredictable. And much more dangerous.