Saved by the Rancher

chapter Thirty-Six


JENNA HADN’T EATEN lunch. Her stomach pitched and rolled, a sour taste left her mouth bitter. All the walking—well, jogging really—had made her tired and thirsty. Scared, she just wanted to run away, get away from David before he really hurt her. She needed to make a plan, find the best possible escape, so David couldn’t catch her and hurt her even worse. David held the advantage and she needed to find a way to turn things in her favor.

She didn’t know if this would be one of the incidents where he just tried to convince her to come back, or if he’d hurt her like the last time. He’d never brought a weapon with him. He’d always used his fists or something handy. The knife was a new, very bad twist. His eerily calm monotone voice chilled her.

“Time to go.” With a shove to her shoulder, she tripped on a rock and fell at his feet. His heavy booted foot stomped down on her thigh. She screamed in pain and tried to move away. Her legs shook, making it near impossible to get them under her and stand. Unable to lift her weight, she settled on her hip and waited for the throbbing to ease.

“Did I say take a break? Get up.”

No one around for miles, no one close enough to hear her screams. Which meant he didn’t need to worry about nosy neighbors calling the police. He could take his time with her.

“You need to understand, you belong to me. Only me.”

Those ominous words rang in her head.

Stunned into silence by his last words, still on the ground, he kicked her again. “You bitch! Get up! I’m not carrying your ass.”

“David, don’t do this. Let me go,” she begged.

“Let me go. Let me go,” he mocked in a menacing voice and grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled her up to her toes, his face in hers. “I’ll never let you go. You belong to me. We belong together. Accept it. You understand me?” he shouted.

David was going to kill her. She’d accepted that fact a long time ago. She’d fought to stop it from happening, and now that it was near, she wished with everything in her heart that she was somewhere else with Jack. She wished she could close her eyes, sleep, and wake up from this nightmare.

Jack, please, come get me.

“I’ll leave that other bitch, and we can be together.”

“Do you really think it’s that easy? To go against your family and your wife’s, divorce her after a few days of marriage, and live happily ever after with me? You’re insane.”

He’d completely deluded himself into believing he could make this happen without any consequences.

“Shut up. Just shut up,” he shouted, shoving her back a step and releasing her. He pressed his bloody arm to his middle. A weakness. Maybe one she could capitalize on.

David pulled out a bottle of water from his bag, doused his bleeding arm, and took another gulp of water, trying to calm himself. It didn’t work, and that was bad news for her.

“You’re all I want. Why can’t you understand that? I can have any woman I want. Women flock to me, but you won’t return my love, my adoration for you.”

His kind of love and adoration hurt. She felt it even now, swelling her face and wrists, throbbing in her bruised and battered back and thigh. Obsessed, she had become a virus to him, infecting his system, destroying his rationality.

“Why do we keep doing this?” she asked, futilely trying to get him to see reason where he clearly had none.

“You can be a good wife. I know we’ll be happy together, like in the beginning.”

“Things were fine until you accused me of cheating on you with every man within five feet of me. You did this. You destroyed our marriage and any chance of us being together. You killed our baby. You’re a monster. I won’t go back. Do you hear me? Never,” she screamed at him now. She couldn’t take this anymore. Years of fear and abuse drove her anger.

His face contorted with pure fury. “My fault! You’re the lying, cheating bitch. The baby probably wasn’t even mine. Stop playing games. I’ve had enough of you running away, making me chase after you to prove my love. I’ve had enough,” he shouted, spittle spraying her cheek.

“You’ve had enough. You’ve had enough. I’m the one you tied up and kidnapped, you delusional, twisted—”

He rushed forward, grabbed her by the hair, yanking her face to his. His breath came out in harsh bursts.

“David . . .” She began, but his words stopped her cold. His tone flat and menacing, every word he deliberately spaced out to emphasize the finality of their meaning.

“Either you come back, or . . . I. Will. Kill. You.”

“You won’t get away with this.” Her gaze locked on his, letting him know she meant every word. “Jack will find me. He’ll save me.”

She’d done it this time. Gone too far. If she hadn’t said the last, he might have left her and walked away to hunt her again someday. But she’d retaliated the only way she could, used her words to hurt him and piss him off.

Right in her face, their gazes still locked, he shoved her. She stumbled back several steps, momentum sending her down onto her bottom and back with a thump on the hard-packed dirt. Straddling her, his nose pressed into her cheek, he grabbed the bandana around her throat, twisted it tight and choked her. She gagged and tried to buck him off. Too heavy, too strong, she lost this fight. Again. Her eyes rolled back in her head and the blackness closed in. Unexpectedly, he released the bandana and fisted his hand in her hair. She gasped for breath, but he ignored her difficulty.

“I told you, I don’t ever want to hear you say another man’s name.” He pounded her head backward into the ground and the rocks beneath her. Pain shot through her skull, bright lights exploded in her eyes, and blessed darkness took over and blanked out all the fear and pain.



JACK TRIED JENNA again that evening when they arrived at Rick’s ranch and delivered the colt. Past dinnertime, he thought she should be in from the garden by now. No answer. No answer on her cell phone either. Beyond worried, even Caleb grew concerned now that Jack had told him he couldn’t get her on the phone.

Jack had enough. He dialed the head guard’s cell number.

“Where’s Jenna?”

“She was gardening until this afternoon. That’s the last we saw her outside. There’s a light on in the kitchen and upstairs. She’s in the house.”

“Why isn’t she answering the phone?”

“She’s probably in the shower. She and Lily were full of dirt last time I saw them outside.”

“Is everything quiet there?”

“Yeah. No problems. Nothing to report.”

Maybe she was in the shower, or working in the office and ignoring the phone. Sometimes she did that, thinking it was just another rancher calling him about business. Still, he’d left her several messages and she hadn’t called him back. She hated when he was too overprotective, but her circumstances called for it and she understood.

“Go in, check on her,” he ordered.

“She told us to remain in the background.”

“I don’t care what she said. I’m telling you to go in and see if she’s okay.”

Something nagged at him. They hadn’t been apart in the last three months. She’d answer the phone wanting to talk to him. Wouldn’t she? Couldn’t she? That question haunted him through the next ten minutes while he waited for a call back to let him know Jenna was safe. Or not.