Page 62 of River Legacy
Bailey hugged herself. She’d never dreamed she could be this happy. She couldn’t help but worry about her brother Treyton. Their father was finally happy. He and Charlotte Stafford were engaged and would soon be married. She didn’t want anything to spoil that.
Victoria surfaced with a start to find herself bound and her mouth covered with duct tape in the passenger seat of a vehicle racing down a highway. Her gaze flew to the driver. Claude, she thought with a groan as everything came back. Ryder! She thought her heart would burst at the thought that Claude had killed him.
“Are you demented?” she tried to yell, but it came out a muffled groan behind the duct tape covering her mouth. “My father will have you thrown in prison.” Again her words were more like muffled groans.
Claude let out a curse, reached over and ripped the tape from her mouth. She let out a cry of pain and saw him grin. She hadn’t been afraid until that moment when he’d struck Ryder and taken her captive and she’d awakened bound and gagged. She’d always thought Claude was harmless. Now she saw that he wanted her to suffer. She felt a moment of regret for the way she’d treated him and said as much.
He laughed. “Easy for you to say now.”
“Was Ryder all right when we left the ranch?” she asked, terrified of what he might say since he could have gone back and finished the job before they left.
Claude shrugged. “I didn’t check.”
She rode for a few moments in silence as she tried to assure herself that Ryder was strong. He would be all right. He had to be. Her heart lunged in her chest at the thought that he might die. She’d never felt about anyone the way she did Ryder. It had happened so quickly, yet she knew this was thefirst time she’d been in love, and the last. She’d always laughed about her friends wanting to find their so-called soul mates.
Whatever, she used to think. But in her heart, she knew that was exactly what Ryder was. He was her soul mate, and she his. It was funny how Montana had played a part in it, she thought. This place she thought she wouldn’t like had seduced her. Ryder’s love for this land and ranching had in turn drawn her even closer to him as if her fate was always going to lead her here.
Ryder had to be all right. Claude couldn’t have killed him. If her hands had been free, she would have attacked him. “Where are you taking me?” she asked.
“To the airport. We’re flying back to Dallas.”
She studied him for a moment. “Did my father tell you to do this?”
“Your father doesn’t tell me what to do anymore.”
Still trying to assess what was going on here, she asked, “Did he fire you?”
Claude let out a bark of a laugh. “He just isn’t calling the shots anymore. I am.”
Victoria really doubted that, unless her father was dead. “Where is Wen?”
“Last I saw him he was going to get a geologist to inspect his new property...” He glanced over at her. “Stafford Ranch. Before he begins drilling.”
That sounded like her father. “Does he know that we’re flying back to Dallas?”
He nodded. “I called him as I drove out of Powder Crossing. Sent him a photo of you all tied up and unconscious. Told him I’d meet him at the airport because he’s coming with us.”
She stared at him. Earlier she’d been afraid because Claude had seemed so different. Clearly, he’d reached the end of his patience with her—and her father. But if he thought this was going to work, he’d completely gone off the rails. “My father won’t just show up at the airport, and he certainly isn’t going to fly to Dallas with us unless he’s ready to do so,” Victoria said as he drove. “He’ll tell his pilot not to fly us at all. You’re going to get to the airport and only be disappointed.”
“I’ve been disappointed from the moment I met you and signed that contract to work for your father. He dangled you in front of me like a prize if I went to work for him. What a fool I was.” He shook his head angrily. “I will fly home in the company jet because you’re going with me no matter what.”
Victoria sighed, shaking her head. “Do you really not know how far my father will go? He won’t do what you want. But he will make you pay.”
“He will when he realizes that I not only have you and that, unless he comes to the airport and agrees to leave with us, I will kill you.”
She couldn’t help being skeptical. “I don’t think you’re a killer, Claude.”
He shot her a look, then he pulled the gun from his pocket. “I wouldn’t bet on that, princess.”
“You overestimate his love for me. He lovesmoney and power a hundred times over what he feels for me. He was trying to marry me off to you. Think about it. Does that sound like a man who loves his daughter?”
“Insult me again and I’ll put the duct tape back on your mouth,” Claude said through gritted teeth as he pocketed the gun. “I know what I’m doing. He’ll show up. Your blood on his hands would be bad for business.”
They were almost to Billings when he pulled off in a wide spot. She watched him get out and make three calls. She couldn’t imagine who he was calling. She hoped her father didn’t take the bait. He knew Claude. She also knew her father. He’d call Claude’s bluff, and this time, he might be making a mistake that could get them all killed.
But as she watched Claude finish the last call, she saw that he was smiling as he headed back toward the SUV. What scared her was that he seemed... desperate, and way too sure of himself. She feared that she and her father had pushed the man too far.
“Any luck?” she asked as he slid behind the wheel and started the engine to pull back on the road.
