Page 115 of Rescued Heart

Nathan’s blood pooled closer to her tennis shoes, but she didn’t dare move.

Bianca couldn’t see anything except the sky above, the metal around her, and Nathan’s body. She pictured the newest arrival turning slowly toward the kidnapper.

“What do you mean not here?”

“It might get linked back tomycompany if they’re found.”

“It’smycompany now. Remember. I’m about to own this entire town. Don’t forget your place like Nathan did. Or I’ll make sure the bodies are found and you get tagged for them.”

Bianca’s heartbeat rattled three beats.

Roger Pointe.

That’s who the newest male voice was.

So Janice and Roger, but who was the other construction guy?

“I suggest,” Roger’s whisper rose, “you bury them deep enough that only the worms can find them.”

Bianca squeezed her fingers into a fist, and the rope tightened around her wrists.

She wasn’t going to be buried alive. Not that being shot was any better.

She pushed herself up and peeked over the opposite side of the bucket, and one of her knees buckled. The bucket reached a little higher than the blow-up slide. A pile of dirt sat next to the bucket, while the front-end loader butted up against a parked bulldozer—more than likely waiting for its turn to shove the extra dirt into the pit.

The limo was parked back at the curve of the drive that went farther ahead. What was likely Roger’s car had stopped before the front-end loader’s original tracks.

She turned, and on the other side of the bucket lay a shadowed forest surrounding a giant pit.

No wonder the front-end loader had stopped.

She didn’t need to squint in the dimming light to know that the hole below was far deeper than any stunt she’d survived before.

Her fingers trembled. Stupid heights.

The memory of Eddie lacing his hand in hers on the blow-up slide played through her mind. Then his focus on her as she sat in the car.

You don’t have to do this.

If only he were here now. A hot tear dropped onto her shoulder.

No, it was better that he wasn’t. Her life would have only brought him down.

And he couldn’t always help her. God provided everything she truly needed. Not a man. Not fame. Not money.

The slam of the front-end loader’s door had Bianca peeking over the other side of the bucket. The kidnapper had gotten back in the driver’s seat.

Lord, I surrender everything to You.

The engine rumbled but never turned over. Then a second time.

“What’s the problem?” Janice asked.

The kidnapper hopped down and walked away from the front-end loader toward Roger, who stood in a suit by a tree at the curve in the woods. “I’ve got to get some tools from my dozer.”

“You meanmydozer.” Roger laughed.

It was now or never. She would have to jump. But she couldn’t aim for the open pit. She probably couldn’t climb out without anyone seeing her. The loose dirt in front of the dozer might soften her landing. She’d been trained on how to do stunts. How to fall without injury. She’d never been so thankful for doing her own stunts before now.

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