Page 85 of Winning His Wager

“Will abducted me! Let me go!” Dylan fought, kicked, but he was strong. Big, as big as Fletcher. And she had just gotten out of the hospital not even two weeks ago. It was bound to be an unfair fight from the beginning. “Let me go, butthead!”

She kicked out.

And got lucky.

Dylan’s foot caught him right in the penis. He bent over, and she jumped back. “You little monster! You’re going to pay for that. I’m going to paddle your tiny ass for hours and I’m going to fucking enjoy it too. Damn, I love small women and always have. Small and sassy!”

“Just leave me alone!” Dylan wasn’t going to be able to get to the truck past him. She just wasn’t. And she wasn’t stupid.

Dylan ran.

There were old buildings back there, she could just see the silhouettes in the low moonlight. She was going to hide there.

And wait.

Because Fletcher was coming for her. She just knew it—and he would probably come blazing in with a bunch of pissed-off Tylers right behind him, ready to fight evil with just sticks and fists if they had to.

Dylan darted behind a small barn, almost tripping in the half-melted mud in front. She was going to get inside and hide.

And wait for her chance to get back to the man, to the people she loved.

72

There wasa roadblock on Old Beise Road. Right in front of his cousin Derrick’s ranch. Men with trucks had both lanes blocked and every shoulder possible.

It took him a moment, but Fletcher recognized his uncles out there—Bill and Phil and Nick and Ned. And several of his cousins, including Michael and Derrick and Josh. Second cousins, too.

Fletcher whipped the truck off the side of the road and climbed out. The old Vanderguard Ranch was just up the road. No more than an eighth of a mile. “What do we know?”

Nick was obviously running things. “We are blocking the road, Fletch. We didn’t want to just go in, lights blazing, and cause someone to get spooked.”

“I’ve been trying to buy the Vanderguard place to increase my fields,” Derrick said quietly. “It’s damned flat around that bend there. We go in too obvious, anyone there will be able to see us coming from a mile away.”

Fletcher nodded. “Then we go in on foot.”

“We already have Jace and Holton going in on horseback. They are going to try to circle around. See what they can see. Get north of the ranch, to stop any traffic that way. There is another service road back that way—it’s the only one in from there. The one behind Beise’s old place washed out four or five years back. No one ever replaced it,” Derrick said. “Dad and Kirk and Kirk’s boys are going to block it. We were waiting for Clint or Ben to get here, to take the lead. We’re not stupid—we’re not law enforcement and we don’t want to screw anything up and get Dylan hurt in the middle.”

“Joel is on his way,” Phil said as more men joined them. Clint and Chandler and the twins and Brandt and some of Phil’s sons-in-law.

Hunter was there too. He clapped a hand on Fletcher’s shoulder. “We’ll find her, Fletch. We will.”

They had almost a dozen or so men out there, now, and even more blocking the roads. It gave him hope.

“I don’t know what to do now.”

He looked at one man who would. Clint had been a cop for years until he’d retired to be with Maggie and his kids and run his ranch. And Ben, Fletcher’s own brother, who had been a cop in the army for years. “I need one of you to help me. I don’t know how to get her back.”

“Clint, run point,” Ben said. “This is my girl’s kid sister. Let’s get her back.”

Clint looked at Fletcher. “We’ll do this together.”

73

She couldn’t getin the doors. Dylan somehow managed to climb over a pile of logs or something and could just reach a window that was broken out. It should have been boarded up a long time ago. She ignored the cold, and she ignored the broken glass slicing into her coat.

Dylan pulled herself inside. She wasn’t stupid—her footprints in the snow would be a clear path right to where she was, but the barn was big enough that as long as her hair didn’t give her away, she could maybe find someplace to hide.

Or she was going to be a sitting duck.

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