Page 48 of Ravenous

There was probably nothing to worry about. The ranch was safe. Remy was probably just out on the front porch.

I hoped. Still, my pulse raced as I reversed directions and jogged back through the house–just in case she’d been hiding inside–to the front door.

“Remy?” I threw open the screen and stepped outside.

Remy’s tiny clothes were strewn down the steps.

Huh?

Becky had followed me out, with Lily on her hip. “Find her?”

“No, but I found her clothes.” I pointed at the small pile.

“Huh,” Becky said.

“REMY!” I raised my voice and shouted into the cool Montana night. The moon was full, so I could at least see a little as I scanned the nearby landscape.

“She took off her clothes to be like a wolf,” Lily said.

“Ohhh.” Becky seemed to understand her daughter better than I did. “Did she want to find her daddy?”

Lily nodded her blonde head. “Yeah. She ran up the mountain.”

Oh, shit.

“What?” I tried to keep my voice calm to not scare Lily, but now I was genuinely worried. “Up the mountain?”

Remy ran naked up the mountain? Crap!

Becky’s voice matched my tension. “Okay, she couldn’t have gotten far. Let me get the others, and we’ll split up and find her.”

“Right.” I dashed in to grab my phone to use the flashlight, and the other women came in from the back lawn.

“I should call Wes,” I said, dialing his number.

“I, uh, don’t think they have reception where they are,” Audrey said. “We might be on our own with this for a little while, but we’ll find her. She can’t have gotten far.”

“Right. Lily only came out a minute ago,” Becky agreed, pasting on a nervous smile. “Probably right after Remy left.”

“No, I watched the movie for a while,” Lily said. “She left before the mice started dancing.”

I fought panic, running outside. “REMY!”

“Which way did she go, Lils?” Becky asked her daughter, staying right beside me.

I waited for the child to point, and then we both headed off in that direction.

“Marina and I will go this way,” Audrey said, pointing off to the right. “Riley, you and Emma go that way.” She pointed to the left of the direction Becky and I were headed.

“I’ll get on a horse,” Charlie offered. “I can ride out to try to find the guys to get them on the hunt, too.”

“I’ll come with you,” Natalie said.

Remy was fine. Remy was fine,I told myself.

Just like she’d been perfectly safe, eating a popsicle on my porch when Wes couldn’t find her on moving day. Right now, she was probably perfectly safe.

Then again, she was naked on a mountain at night. The weather was good, no chance of storms like the past few nights, and it was warm. But the odds of her getting lost or bitten by a rattlesnake or…

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