Page 105 of Brooke's Bliss
Bay chuckled even as his heart felt so damn full.“Was I?Idon’t know about that, but I understand what you’re saying.Be careful.I thinkyou might find me and Shane would welcome a couple of older brothers to adviseus.Max, I love her.Shane loves her.She needs to roam for a while.She needsto figure out what to do with all her talent.It’s not designing jeans for somesnobby fashion house.”
“You take care of her and you bring her home from time totime.”Max was the one who sounded emotional now.
“She’ll always come home, and someday she’ll want to putdown roots,” Bay said.“My vote will be for here, but she’s got to have herwork.”
Max’s head shook.“Damn cowboys.Knew you would be troublethe minute I saw you.”
“We were being paid to annoy you,” Bay admitted.“I wouldprobably take that back if I could.Especially if I’d seen Brooke first.”
“Little asshole,” Max said under his breath and then hestarted to turn and stopped in front of the gates.Which should be open.“What’s going on?The G’s gates are always open during the day.”
They were open most of the time since the owners neverdiscouraged visitors.He’d heard Jamie and Trev joke about never spending moneyon the gate since they didn’t use it.
It was the first time he’d seen it shut.
Max pulled up to the reception box.“What’s the code?”
He didn’t know there was a code.“No idea, man.”
Something was wrong.Trev wasn’t here.He’d called and askedMax to bring Bay back because he and Bo were going to help Beth.He wouldn’thave locked the place up because Jamie was taking Hope into Alamosa.None ofthis made sense, and every instinct he had was flaring up.
Max started to reach for the button on the call box.
It would alert the house that someone was trying to get in.
“Stop.”Bay’s heart rate ticked up as adrenaline startedpumping.“Let’s call Trev.”
Max put the truck in park.“You worried?Didn’t you thinkyour brother was overreacting?”
“I might have to eat those words.”He glanced at his cell.“Why don’t I have any bars?”
Max looked at his phone, too.“Yeah, I got nothing.Let’shead back.This feels like a Nate problem.We can find service and tell Brookeand Shane to stay where they are.”
Bay’s gut took a deep dive.“He texted me over an hour ago.He was bringing her back to the ranch.”
“My sister’s in there?”Max asked.
Bay’s whole fucking life was locked behind those gates.Shane and Brooke were in there, and he had no idea what was going on.
“Open the glove box.I keep binoculars in there.Paige iscrazy about bird watching right now.”Max opened the driver’s side door.“Whatkind of cameras do Trev and Jamie have on this place?”
Bay found the binoculars and handed them over, getting outof his side.“There’s one here, but it’s not on.It would have a light, and itwould move.”He’d read enough thrillers to ponder what had happened.“I suspectwhen they took out the cell signal it locked the camera.If someone’s here,they damn straight wouldn’t want to get caught on tape.”
“So if someone’s in there, they won’t know we’re here,” Maxmused, looking through the binoculars.
Bay needed to be clear.“Not someone.Kale Kingman, or atleast his crew, and I’m betting I was entirely wrong and my brother was right.They’re deadly, Max.If the rumors are true, it wouldn’t be the first time theygot rid of someone inconvenient.”
A single image passed over his brain.A young woman walkingout of the main house, a bag in her hand and a look of desolation on her face.
He’d drawn her because the emotion on her face had called tohim.It had been one of those moments when he’d known he had to draw.Thevision seared into his brain and late that night, he’d taken his sketchpad anddrawn the scene.Now he remembered Kale Kingman had been in the background.He’d been holding something.A tool of some kind.Maybe a hammer, which wasweird because it wasn’t like the man did his own work.
He’d still been holding it when he’d gotten into the truckand driven her off.To go back home, he’d told everyone.
Except she’d told Bay she didn’t have a home.
Was she alive?
It was insane, but was this about him?Was this about thedrawing he’d made?It wasn’t a photograph.It wasn’t evidence of anything.
