Page 74 of Her Reluctant Hero
“No time,” Danes repeated and tugged her toward the truck.
She looked past him down the empty road, twisted, her arm still captive in his big rough hand, to look behind her. Her stomach clenched. No sign of Alex. Danes was still pulling her, and she dug in the heels of her Keds and tried to tug free.
“I want to wait for Alex,” she said.
“Alex would want me to get you out of here.”
That was true, if there was danger. She took a couple more steps toward the truck, then stopped. “He’ll be worried when he sees I didn’t take anything.”
“Girly, do you give him this much trouble?” Danes asked, turning in frustration.
“Yes.”
With a growl, he dipped his shoulder and tucked it into her belly, swinging her over his shoulder. The abrupt movement knocked her breath out of her so she couldn’t scream before he tossed her in the passenger side of the truck.
Once she was in, she fought for breath and screamed her lungs out, scrambling for the window to roll it down. Surely Alex would hear her. Surely Alex would come.
Danes lunged through the driver’s side door and tackled her, clubbing her hard on the side of the head so she saw spots and lost her breath. Then he hit her again and she lost everything else.
Alex came back to the cabin hot, sweaty and frustrated. He didn’t know what the hell kind of traps Danes had been talking about because he’d followed the old man’s directions exactly and hadn’t found traps or animals. He had killed a big-ass snake and brought it back to show Isabella. Maybe that was a bad idea, maybe the carcass would freak her out, but he thought it was cool. He’d tease her a bit and tell her it was dinner. He’d love to see her face when she thought she’d have to eat it.
Maybe he’d take her back to that diner, tell her he had to check in again. She’d seemed so danged wistful.
But first, he needed a shower. He walked over to his truck to drape the snake over the tailgate, and that’s when he saw the stirred-up gravel.
Someone else had been here.
He whipped his head up. “Bella,” he shouted, his voice echoing back through the wilderness. “Bella?” He ran to the cabin, saw the door between the cabin and the screened patio open and her purse on the table. “Bella!” The trailer sounded hollow, empty. Had a neighbor come upon them, or had someone else found them? He knew Saldana had resources, but damn.
He pushed the thought out of his head. She could be looking for him, though he could hardly see her picking her way through the wilderness, unless she wanted him very, very badly. His heart jumped into his throat and he circled around. Which way could she have gone?
No, she wouldn’t have gone. She was too skittish about the alligators and snakes. Someone had been here. Someone had taken her. But who?
