Nate. Delores Fossen
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because each word could be important.”
She nodded and smeared the tears from her cheeks. “Let’s get that other vehicle so we can look for them.”
Nate agreed, but he stopped and stared at the three letters written on the door of the van.
LAR.
“I already have a picture of it,” Dade reminded him. “You can study it later.”
Nate cursed. “I don’t need to study it.” He started to run toward Nate’s truck. “I know what Marlene is trying to tell us. I know where we can find the children.”
Chapter Four
“LAR,” Darcy said under her breath.
Lost Appaloosa Ranch.
Well, maybe that’s what the initials meant. Of course, Nate could be wrong, and it could turn out to be a wild-goose chase. A chase that could cost them critical time because it tied up manpower that could be directed somewhere other than the remote abandoned ranch. According to Nate, the owner had died nearly a year ago, and his mortgage lender was still trying to contact his next of kin.
“Hurry,” Darcy told the medic again. And yes, she glared at him. She’d spent nearly fifteen minutes in the Silver Creek sheriff’s office, and that was fifteen minutes too long.
Darcy didn’t want to be here. She wanted to be out looking for Noah, but instead here she was, sitting at the sheriff’s desk while a medic stitched her up. God knows how she’d gotten the cut right on her hairline, and she didn’t care.
She didn’t care about anything but her son.
“I’m trying to hurry,” the medic assured her.
She knew from his name tag that he was Tommy Watters, and while she hated being rude to him, she couldn’t stop herself. She had to do something. Anything.
Like Nate and his four brothers were doing.
Just a few yards away from her, Nate was on the phone, his tone and motions frantic, while he talked with the helicopter pilot, who was trying to narrow down the search zone.
“No,” Nate instructed. “Don’t do a direct fly over the Lost Appaloosa. I already have someone en route, and if the kidnappers are there, I don’t want to alert them. I want you to focus on the roads that lead to the interstate.”
Nate had a map spread out on the desk, and every line on the desk phone was blinking. Next door, Deputy Melissa Garza was barking out orders to a citizens’ patrol group that was apparently being formed to assist in the hunt for the kidnappers and the babies. The dispatcher was helping her.
Grayson, Dade and Mason were all out searching various parts of Silver Creek, interviewing witnesses and running down leads on the other black vans that had been spotted. The other deputy, Luis Lopez, was at the day care in case the kidnappers returned.
Darcy was the only one not doing anything to save Noah and Kimmie.
“I can’t just sit here.” The panic was starting to whirl around inside her, and despite the AC spilling over her, sweat popped out on her face. She would scream if she couldn’t get out of there and find Noah.
Darcy pushed aside the medic and would have run out of the room if Nate hadn’t caught her shoulder.
He got right in her face, and his glare told her this wasn’t going to be a pep talk. “You have to keep yourself together. Because I don’t have time to babysit you. Got that?”
She flinched. That stung worse than the fresh stitches. But Darcy still shook her head. “Noah is my life.” Which, of course, went without saying. Kimmie was no doubt Nate’s life, too.
Nate nodded, and eased up on the bruising grip he had on her shoulder. The breath he blew out was long and weary. He looked up at the medic as he put Darcy back in the chair. “Finish the stitches now,” he ordered.
Actual fear went through the medic’s eyes, and he clipped off the thread. “It’ll hold for now, but she should see a doctor because she might have a concussion.”
Before the last word left the medic’s mouth, Darcy was out of the chair. “Let’s go,” she insisted.
Thank God, Nate didn’t argue with her. “We’re headed to the Lost Appaloosa, Mel,” he shouted to Deputy Garza, and in the same motion Nate grabbed a set of keys from a hook on the wall.
Finally! They were getting out there and doing something. She hoped it was the right something.
“You have to keep yourself together,” Nate repeated. But this time, there was no razor edge to his tone. No glare. Just speed. He practically ran down the hall. “My brother Kade should arrive at the Lost Appaloosa in about ten minutes, and then we’ll have answers.”
“Answers if the babies are really there,” Darcy corrected.
Nate spared her a glance, threw open the back door and hurried into the parking lot. “Marlene probably risked her life to write those initials. They mean something, and if it turns out to be the Lost Appaloosa, then Kade will know how to approach the situation.”
“Because he’s FBI,” she said more to herself than Nate.
Darcy prayed Nate’s FBI brother truly knew what he was doing. It gave her some comfort to know that Kade would likely be willing to risk his life to save his niece. And maybe Noah, too.
Nate jumped into a dark blue SUV, started the engine and barely waited long enough for Darcy to get inside before he tore out of the parking lot.
“I need to know if you’re okay,” he said, tipping his head to her new stitches.
“Don’t worry about me,” Darcy said. “Focus on the kids.”
“I can’t have you keeling over or anything.” The muscles in his jaw stirred. Maybe because he didn’t like that he had to be concerned about her in any way.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, and even though it was a lie, it was the end of the discussion as far as Darcy was concerned. “How far is the Lost Appaloosa?”
“Thirty miles. It’s within the San Antonio city limits, but there’s not much else out there.” His phone buzzed, and he shoved it between his shoulder and ear when he answered it.
She listened but couldn’t tell anything from Nate’s monosyllabic responses. He certainly wasn’t whooping for joy because the babies had possibly been found.
Darcy leaned over to check the odometer so she would know when they were close to that thirty miles, and her hair accidently brushed against Nate’s arm. He glanced at it, at her, and Darcy quickly pulled away.
“Thirty miles,” she repeated, focusing on the drive and not on the driver. Nate put his attention back on the call.
That was too many miles between her and her baby, and the panic surged through her again. Nate was already going as fast as he could, but at this speed and because of the narrow country roads, it would take them at least twenty, maybe twenty-five, minutes to get there.
An eternity.
Nate cursed, causing her attention to snap back to him. She waited, breath held, until he slapped the phone shut. “Grayson just found another empty black van on a dirt road near the creek. Only one set of footprints was around the vehicle.”
So, not a call from Kade. Just news of another decoy van. Or else the team of kidnappers had split up. Did that mean they’d split up the children and Marlene, as well? Darcy hoped not.
“Shouldn’t you have heard from Kade by now?” she asked.
He scrubbed his hand over his face. “My brother will call when he can.”
Nate looked at her again, and his eyes were now a dangerous stormy-gray. “The