Okay, there are at least two of them beside Durbin, Nat thought. I just need to keep Durbin talking and distracted while I think of a plan to take them all out. Her glance slid to the fertilizer in the corner. Could she set it on fire or something?

“So what’s the plan here?” she asked Durbin. He was still keeping his distance, but she knew that could change at any second. She needed out of here, and fast. Maybe if she got out of the shed, she could run into the forest and hide from Durbin and his men. It wasn’t the best of plans, but it was really all she had.

“Are you going to kill me?” she asked. “Because that’s gonna be really messy for you. I’m not a junkie who everyone has given up on. I’m a businesswoman with friends and a lot of family and a husband who’s probably looking for me right now.”

Please, Rhett, she thought, trying to tamp down the hysteria she felt, the bone-deep female fear that was coursing through her as she was helpless and trapped in a shed with a dangerous man. Please, please be looking for me.

Had dinner come and gone yet? Even if Rhett was in surgery, her father would be worried by now, surely. He’d come looking for her and then he’d tell Rhett. Someone would find her… right?

You might have to rescue yourself, Nat.

She bit the inside of her cheek. Well, if she had to, she had to. She was a damn modern woman, and this wasn’t going to be the end of her.

“Think this through,” she continued, staring hard at Durbin. “If I disappear, there will be cops crawling all over this mountain. Search and rescue. Dogs. Helicopters. They’ll see your little poppy patch. You’ll be a person of interest instantly. You think you can scrub all my DNA out of this shed? Out of the forest? You need to let me go, Durbin. And then you need to run. If you let me go, it’ll take me at least four hours on foot to get back to the lodge from here. That’s a nice long head-start for you. You could be in California before dawn and in Mexico before tomorrow night.”

“Or I could just kill you and sink you so deep into Columbia River they’ll never find you,” Durbin said, with the kind of deadly accuracy that told her one thing: He’d done that before.

A shiver went through her. Her palms were slick with sweat. She needed a weapon. He was going to come at her. Any second, he was going to want to stop talking and start doing.

“Bad idea,” she said shakily, flinching as he stepped toward her. Four more steps, and he’d be close enough to touch her. Her legs began to tremble.

He took another step.

“Stay where you are,” she warned, trying to sound strong and afraid she was failing.

Another step. Two more, and she was done.

One. More. Step.

She screamed. A horrible, desperate sound as she whirled, grabbing the grow light that was hanging off ropes from the ceiling. She yanked, the ropes snapped, and she whipped the heavy fixture across Durbin’s face with all her strength. The bulbs shattered, sparks falling everywhere.

Durbin staggered backward, dazed, but still not down. The glass from the bulb had cut her hands and they began to bleed as she tried to keep her hold on the light—her only weapon.

But then, oh God, then there was Rhett! The shed door burst open and he leapt through the opening, striding inside like something dark and protective and primal. He grabbed Durbin by the scruff of the neck, shook him like like a rag and dragged him out into the clearing.

Nat stumbled out of the shed, following them.

“Natalie!”

“Dad!” Her father appeared out of the shadows and grabbed her, hugging her tight just as sirens began to blare in the distance and the headlights of the sheriff’s jeeps flickered as they drove up to the clearing.

Held tight in her father’s arms, she looked over to Rhett, who was still pinning Durbin to the ground, his face a solid mask of protective rage, but when he turned to meet her eyes, they softened. Minutes later, as the deputies hustled up to take Durbin and his henchmen that Hank was guarding away, Rhett finally released his hold on him, and Nat didn’t even hesitate.

She rushed into his arms, feeling truly safe as they wrapped around her, and finally, finally, she began to cry.