Page 26 of Captive at Rescue Ridge

Those words stung more than they probably should have. She’d blown their trust years ago.

“Is there an abandoned house somewhere that we can hide in? A boathouse? An RV parked in a driveway?” She was spitballing, hoping an idea stuck. “There has to be somewhere we can hide while your husband figures this out.” She was also realistic enough to know that an investigation would take time—time they didn’t have.

“Those are good ideas,” Chloe said. She looked to Kade. “What about the bunkhouse? Is there room?”

Annalee’s cell buzzed, shutting down all conversation.

She checked the screen:

It’s me. Mom

…

He wants money and backpack

…

Now

…

500k

…

Says he’ll release us

…

The dots disappeared.

Nothing.

10

Annalee tilted the phone toward Archer. He read the texts, then bit back a curse.

“That’s the reason my mother didn’t show. He got to her first just like I feared,” she said, staring at the screen, still wide-eyed and in shock. “Now, he wants money. A lot of money. There’s no way I can come up with this amount.”

Chloe leaned forward. “What is it? How much.”

“Half a million dollars.” Annalee shook her head. The defeat in her tone nailed his gut. He’d already let Owen down, and now he was letting her down, too.

“What am I supposed to do? Rob a bank?” She picked up the cell and started to type a response.

Archer reached over and covered her hand. “Let’s think this through for a minute,” he said, stopping her from a knee-jerk reaction.

“She stopped texting.” The panic in Annalee’s voice shredded his armor. “She started to say something else and then stopped. That can’t be good, right?”

“Let’s give it a second, okay?” Archer hoped like hell this was the right move. “They haven’t given any other instructions. And, at least now, we believe she’s safe.” He couldn’t say the same for Owen, but hope had seeded at the mention ofusinstead ofme. Who else could Becca be referring to other than his brother?

“Are you sure that’s coming from your mother?” Chloe asked. Smart question. One he should have thought of first.

“Ask a test question,” he said. “Something only she would know.”

“Like my birthday?”

“Choose something that can’t be found on the internet.” What could she ask? It had to be something that wasn’t public knowledge. An idea came to him based on one of their conversations. “Ask where she was supposed to leave the note two days ago.”

---