Saved by the Rancher

chapter Forty-One


JENNA WOKE AT dawn, cold to the bone but alive. For now. The sun peaked over the hills, brightening the horizon. She welcomed it because it meant the temperature would warm up soon. Groggy and thirsty, she turned to her side and awkwardly pushed herself up and leaned back against the tree. She didn’t hear anyone looking for her, only the sound of the wind in the trees, birds chirping around her. Didn’t anyone know she was gone? Jack would know. He’d come for her.

Help me, Jack.

With single-minded determination, she stood, gained her balance as her head spun. She braced herself against the tree. Her hands hurt, everything hurt. The pain sometimes overcame her. She had to stay awake. Move. Find Jack.

Face raised to the sun, she tried to picture the ranch, figure out the route David brought her. Hesitant about her decision, but needing to do something, she made the decision to head east toward the rising sun, and hopefully Jack.

I love you, Jack. I’m coming home.



EXHAUSTED, FRUSTRATED, AND going out of his mind, Jack almost believed he heard Jenna calling him. Crazy, just the exhaustion and his conscience calling to him. They spent all night looking for her, only to discover Sally, badly injured and near death in the brush out behind the house. Caleb rushed her to the animal hospital, hoping they’d found her in time. Sick over the dog’s injuries and the possibility he might lose her, even more devastating, Jack knew the bastard had a knife and was willing to use it.

No telling what he’d do with the knife on Jenna. How far would he go this time? That thought set Jack’s muscles solid as stone and had him desperate to comb every house, barn, farm, acre, mile to find her. Whatever it took, he’d never stop searching.

They hadn’t found a single trace of her. She’d vanished into the woods. Jack was thankful they hadn’t found her dead, but with the temperature dropping at night and the fact she’d been gone for so long, his thoughts turned morbid. If she were alive out there, she wouldn’t last another night. Jack knew it, and it was eating him alive.

What if she wasn’t on the property anymore, but somewhere else? The enormity of that thought swamped him in misery.

Caleb crashed on the couch. Jack drank coffee, trying to stay awake and alert. Midmorning now, the sheriff organized the men to start searching the other side of the property. Jack hoped they’d find Jenna soon. They had to find her. If he lost her, he didn’t think he could live.

He’d talked to Ben again. Jenna hadn’t called him, or his office, to say she was on the run. Ben’s source reported no news about Merrick’s whereabouts. The honeymoon remained a closely guarded secret, kept under wraps from the press.

The sheriff tried contacting Merrick International, only to be told David was on his honeymoon. He hadn’t really thought the sheriff would have any better luck getting information from the Merrick family or the corporate office. David had gotten away with this many times before, but he wouldn’t get away with it this time. Jack would make sure of it.

The phone rang and Jack jumped to grab it.

“I’m on a plane. I’ll be home in an hour.” Sam received Jack’s message and knew he wouldn’t have called unless the situation was dire.

“Thanks, Sam. You don’t know what this means to me.”

“What’s going on? Is it Mom and Dad? Summer? The baby?”

“No, they’re all fine. It’s Jenna. She’s been kidnapped. Just get here,” Jack said wearily.

“Who’s Jenna? And who kidnapped her?” Sam didn’t hide the surprise in his voice.

“Jenna is my fiancé and her ex-husband kidnapped her yesterday.”

“Fiancé! Well, I’ll be damned, brother. Okay. You got the local guys looking for her?”

“We’ve been out all night. We think he took her into the woods on the property, but he could have had a car stashed and taken her anywhere. He stabbed Sally. She’s still at the hospital. We don’t know if she’ll make it. We really have nothing.”

“I’m sorry about the dog, man.”

Jack appreciated the sentiment, but with Sally in good hands, his thoughts were on Jenna and finding her.

“So he’s armed and dangerous. All right. Who’s the ex? Maybe I can start with him?”

“David Merrick. You heard of him?”

“As in Merrick International?”

“That’s the one.”

Sam whistled. “That’s big money. If he’s got her, he could take her out of the country and hide her forever.”

“I don’t think he did. He just got married. I think he came to tie up loose ends. Namely, Jenna. She owns a big junk of Merrick International. He wants it back, in addition to being obsessed with her. It’s a long story. Get here, and I’ll tell you everything.”

“On my way. We’ll figure this out, and we’ll find her.”

“We need to find her. She’s everything, Sam. I can’t lose her.”

“So it’s like that, huh. Your Jenna must be something special to bring you out of your stupor and back into the real world. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure we get her back,” he assured Jack. “I thought maybe you’d end up like me, spending too much time working and not enough time living.”

“I’m only alive when I’m with her,” Jack responded, choked up.

“We’ll get her back.” Sam hung up.



JENNA SPENT THE morning walking and resting in intervals. Weak from blood loss and lack of food and water, she had to rest more often than she liked. Her head cleared in the warm sun, making it easier to concentrate on her surroundings. At one point, she realized she’d walked in a circle. Her vision doubled and she pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes. Frustrated, she found a relatively soft patch of grass, lay down, and closed her tired eyes. She didn’t think she’d run this far from the dirt road, but maybe in her panic she’d covered more ground than she realized.

Rested and refocused, she rolled to her hands and knees, hissed in a ragged breath when she pressed on the scrapes and cuts on her right knee, and cocked her head to the side to look down at the damage. Something off in the distance caught her eye.

“No way. I was this close and didn’t see it.” The dirt road lay no more than fifty feet ahead of her. Difficult to make out for all the trees and shifting limbs in the wind, but there it was right in front of her.

Back on her feet, she moved slowly on rubbery legs and made it to the deserted road. Still alone. Deep tire tracks rutted the road where David must have taken off in the Jeep, reassuring her he was gone. The coil of rope lay as an ominous reminder of what David had planned for her. She didn’t think he’d really stayed in the woods, but with all the spooky noises at night, she had scared herself good, imagining him out there stalking her.