Celine stared in shock at the gun. Her heart nearly stopped, then thudded hard enough her chest hurt.

She swallowed. “It’s been you, hasn’t it.” She made the statement, knowing it was true. “You’ve been stealing from me.”

“You might be a bitch, but no one could call you stupid.” Monty motioned with the gun in the direction of his desk. He brought out a handful of papers that she recognized—the pages with the child’s and her mother’s footprints.

“Sign these.” He stuck the signature pages and a pen in her face.

She took them from him. She hadn’t had a chance to review them on the plane or later since he’d stolen the bag.

“What are these?” she demanded.

“Listen, bitch.” He pointed his gun at her head. “Shut up and sign.”

She saw the viciousness in his gaze. She didn’t have a choice, so she scribbled her name on the pages.

He snatched them from her and set the pages aside.

“Was there really a ransomware attack?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

He chuckled. “Damn, I’m good. You were forking money over to me left and right. Now if you’d just have given me control of your personal accounts, I’d be in Belize by now.”

Celine didn’t think she’d ever felt so stupid in all her life. “I trusted you with my company.” Her words were cold and hard.

“Which is why your company is going to go bankrupt.” He shrugged. “And if you don’t cooperate, you won’t be around to see the nothing that goes to that so-called dream project of yours. What was it? Some kind of horse ranch for kids?” he chuckled as he spoke.

He gestured toward her laptop with the gun. “Now log on to your laptop and go to your bank’s site and bring up your personal accounts.”

Celine slid into the seat in front of her computer. What choice did she have? Her money wasn’t as important as her life.

Her next thought chilled her through. Did Monty plan to let her live once she’d given him access to her personal accounts?

She looked at him. “You’re planning to kill me.”

“Why would you say that?” He looked amused, but it was a fake expression. “I just want your money, not your life.”

“I don’t believe you.” She set her jaw. “Why should I give you my money if you’re going to kill me anyway?”

Monty pointed the gun at her thigh. “I’ll shoot you one leg at a time, starting with that one. Why don’t you try me?”

Celine shuddered. She had to think of some way out of this, and being shot wasn’t going to help.

She lifted the laptop’s cover and retro flying toasters screensaver came up. She made slow, deliberate movements, trying to stall as much as possible. The more she hurried, the closer she could be coming to her death.

Could she get ahold of Jayson? How?

She’d told him where she was going and that she’d be back well before dinner—she’d planned to make her favorite casserole. Would he come looking for her when dinnertime came and went?

Yes, but it would probably be too late.

She pictured herself in a pool of blood and shuddered again.

“Hurry up.” Monty perched on the edge of the desk. He held his gun in his lap and she wondered if she could go for it and turn the tables on him.

Fantasy, she told herself. This isn’t TV and I’m not some kind of kickass hero in a movie.

She had no fighting skills, unless you counted grabbing a pair of Jimmy Choo ankle boots out from beneath another woman’s nose and avoiding getting slugged.

But she could use her brains. She just had to figure out how.

Monty’s voice lowered to a menacingly low level. “Stop screwing around, Celine. I’m losing my patience.”

The desktop, with a runway photo of a model wearing a Celine Original, appeared as the screensaver vanished.

She clicked on the web browser and brought up her bank’s login page. She glanced at Monty and the triumphant look in his eyes made her want to pick up the laptop and slam it against his head.

Now there was a thought.

But he had the gun.

Her fingers seemed to be tied in knots as she typed in her password. She fumbled and an error message popped up that she’d entered the wrong one.

She glanced at Monty, and when she did, something caught her eye on the wall beside him and her gaze riveted on a word written in script.

MERF.

Where had she heard that before? It was unusual enough that it stuck out in her mind. Wherever she’d heard it was so deep in her memory that she couldn’t grasp it.

Hard, cold metal pressed against her temple. “I’m sick of this. Get me into your accounts.”

Her hands trembled as she turned her attention back to the login page.

“What’s MERF?” she asked as she entered the password.

“Monty’s Early Retirement Funds.” He laughed. “I named my horse Merf back when I raced against your dad.”

Her attention swiveled to Monty and she stared at him. She knew she was supposed to be doing something, but all she could do was stare at him.

”You raced horses against my father?” she said slowly.

Monty shrugged. “It was a long time ago, but yeah, I did.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Nothing was sinking in right now.

Monty moved his face closer to hers. “Because I didn’t want you to know that our business relationship is built on revenge.”

“Revenge?” A sense of horror crept over her. Something wasn’t right. Something beyond revenge.

He nodded. “That’s right. Back when you were a spoiled little bitch instead of an all grown-up bitch.”

It came back to her, as if painted in a neon sign. “MERF.” Horror punched her like a fist into her gut. “That word was painted on the barn door the night the horses were poisoned.”

Her mind spun with the implications. “Did you murder the horses?” She couldn’t take her eyes off him. “Did you murder Sky?”

“How did you—” He glanced at the sign with MERF written across it. He shrugged again. “Your horse was collateral.”

For a moment, all she could do was stare at Monty, yet what she saw was Sky, dead.

Raging heat engulfed Celine. She could barely see, much less think.

She grabbed the laptop and swung it at Monty as hard as she could. She slammed it into his head so hard he fell off his desk and landed on his back with a loud shout.

The gun barked at the same time pain burst in Celine’s calf. She screamed and dropped the laptop. Her leg gave out on her and she fell to one knee.

Blood began to spread across the jeans covering her calf. The pain was unbelievable. She’d never felt anything like it.

“Bitch,” Monty screeched as he picked up her laptop and flung it at her.

It hit her in her breasts, knocking her breath from her. She collapsed onto the floor, trying to breathe at the same time pain burned in her chest and her leg.

Monty grabbed her by her hair and dragged her back to the desk. Her vision blurred and she felt as if tossed from one bank of the arroyo to the other by the flash flood, trees and debris slamming into her.

He dragged her into the chair and shoved her so that her spine hit the back of the seat. Blood coursed down his face from a wound on the side of his forehead, an egg swelling on his temple. He tossed her now closed laptop onto the desk.

The gun shook in his trembling hand as he pointed it at her. “Put in the fucking password.”

Stars continued to explode in her mind as she lifted the lid. The flying toaster screensaver came up.

She tried to collect her thoughts and drag them back into her mind.

Monty killed Sky.

Monty killed Sky.

She had to remember the password now. The bank account page came up on the password screen.

“Stop taking so fucking long.” Monty hit her in the face with his fist and her mind spun. He grabbed a handful of her hair and jerked her head back so that he was so close she felt his hot breath over her face.

Blood slid down over his cheek from the cut the laptop had made when she’d swung it at him. Red was even in his teeth, which he bared as he shouted at her, “Get into your fucking accounts before I shoot your other leg.”

He shoved his gun under her chin, hot metal boring into her skin. “Better yet in your hip or your shoulder. I’m told that hurts like fucking hell. So do it.”

Her entire body shook from the adrenaline and fear pumping through her body. Monty moved his gun and dug the barrel into her hip. Her fingers trembled and she struggled even more to get the right password in.

“One more try,” he said with a coldness she’d never heard in his voice.

She carefully typed in the bank password.

Her accounts came up. Unlike the business accounts, these numbers were exactly what she’d seen when she’d logged in the night in the hotel. The largest amount was the one her parents had set up for her that she hadn’t used since college, when she’d needed the funds for tuition.

“Finally.” He shoved her to the floor.

She cried out as she hit the wood flooring, hard. She stared at her soaked pant leg. Blood continued to spread. She looked at her sock feet, the left one now red from the blood sliding down her leg.

She looked up and saw Monty’s gleeful eyes. Her stomach pitched with the realization she’d likely soon be facing her own death.

Blood and sweat mingled on his face as he turned and looked at her with a maniacal expression. “Write down your passwords. I need them in case I get logged out.”

She blinked at him as he handed her a pen and a sticky note. He was an idiot for not having her do this to begin with. She could write anything down and he wouldn’t know any better.

“I watched you put in the password,” he said in a deadly tone. “I will know if you write down the wrong one.

Her hand shook as she placed the sticky note on the floor and scribbled the screensaver password, and the one for her bank on the paper, only she switched two of the numbers. Three drops of blood fell on its surface before she handed it to him. She hadn’t noticed her head was bleeding from him punching her, but now felt the sticky fluid rolling down the side of her face. He’d probably cut her with his ring.

Monty ignored the blood and set the note on the laptop. “Get up.” He stood and kicked her when she didn’t move.

His shoe connected with her calf and she screamed and wrapped her arms around her knee and rocked. Tears flooded her cheeks.

“Get up,” he screeched as he raised his foot again.

Celine forced herself to scramble to her feet the best she could. Her head spun as she grasped the chair with one hand to balance herself. She almost crumpled again when she put the slightest weight on her wounded leg.

He looked at the blood on the floor. “Shit.” He swung his gaze on her. “You weren’t supposed to bleed. I had other plans.” He clenched his fists. “Now I have to hurry and get you out of here.”

Monty strode to her side. Her skin crawled as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pointed the gun at her side with his opposite hand.

“I’m going to help you,” he said with deadly calm. “But I will shoot you if you try anything.”

He would kill her anyway, she knew, but she was in too much pain to know what to do. She needed her survival instinct to kick in, but right now she could barely think straight.

Celine stumbled and bit her lip to keep from screaming.

Monty assisted her through the house, prodding her with threats.

Blood slid down her leg, her sock soaked with it.

“Now I’m going to have to clean up this damned mess,” he snarled. “Blood everywhere. If I didn’t have things to do, I’d make you clean it up.”

She wondered if she should just drop to the floor and let him kill her. But she held onto a thread of hope. Maybe, just maybe Jayson would be out on his property and see them.

Monty urged her out of the house with him assisting her. He wouldn’t even let her put on her boots. Tears continued to roll down her cheeks as they progressed to the foot of the trail that led to his property from the forest.

Rocks bit into her sock feet as she went up the trail with him. Monty threatened her if she made too much noise. As if the sound of a gunshot wouldn’t. Still, she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out.

“Now I have to cover the blood on the trail.” He breathed hard from his weight and being so out of shape. He continually whined about one thing or another as they went. He jabbed the gun into her side. “All I need is a little more time to empty your bank accounts and transfer to MERF. I’ll be free to do whatever I please.”

“You’re crazy if you think that will work.” She held back whimpers and cries that tried to come out with every step she made. “They will figure out it was you.”

He waved away her words. “I’ll be long gone. I have a place in Belize I’m buying. Beautiful there,” he went on. “This time of year the weather is perfect. I’ll have people to care for me and do whatever I want them to do. I’ll have solitude, and all the luxuries I desire.”

“You’re dreaming,” she said then cried out when he jabbed the gun barrel into her ribs.

“Shut up,” he ground out. “I swear I’ll shoot you in the head if you don’t shut up and move faster.”

Celine’s thoughts whirred, caught in the middle of pain, fear, and struggling to come up with something that could save her life.

They reached the fork at the trailhead, where she had met up with Monty. Could that have just been an hour ago? Two at most. She really didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. Did it?

Monty forced her to take the other trail at the fork. This one went up, higher onto the mountain.

Her breathing came faster. She felt lightheaded, and cold. So cold.

Not more than ten minutes passed as they went uphill, and Celine said, “I can’t do this.” She barely got out the words. “I-I’m so tired. I think I’m losing too much blood.”

He stopped. “This is high up enough anyway.”

Her limbs had turned to mush and he kept her propped up. Shivers wracked her body so hard her entire body shook with it. She couldn’t save herself. Celine knew that now. She barely had the strength to stand. Even speaking was too difficult.

He pressed her away from the trail and they reached a rocky outcropping.

Monty push her to the edge, so that her heels rested on the very edge. He sounded almost amused when he said, “Goodbye, Celine.”

He shoved her chest hard. She flailed as she tried to grab him.

Her hands caught only air as she tumbled over the edge.

* * *

Jayson glanced at the clock and frowned before looking out the kitchen window once again. The sun poised just over the treetops to the west. Soon it would sink in the sky and darkness would settle over the mountain.

He’d missed her like hell today and had come home a little earlier just to be near her. But she hadn’t been here when he arrived, and she still hadn’t shown up.

Celine had said she would be back in the afternoon, early enough to fix one of her favorite dinners. She’d planned on having it ready by the time he got home from working up at the northern end of the property.

He sure as hell didn’t care about dinner, but he did care about her. Evening wasn’t that far away, and he didn’t want her walking home alone in the dark and stumbling down the trail. She could fall and hurt herself. Maybe she already had.

He shook his head. Worrying wouldn’t accomplish anything, and likely she was running late. She might have had more to accomplish with Monty than she’d realized.

The thought of Monty made Jayson’s frown deepen. He’d never felt right about the man, and the misgivings seemed sharper now and not so vague.

Was Monty bad news? He was a hard man to read, but Jayson had felt like something was off with Monty after the night Jayson had lost the bet. He was usually a good judge of character, but in this case… Jayson had a feeling he’d been wrong to trust the man at all.

Could Monty have anything to do with the missing bag with Celine’s laptop in it?

His brows narrowed. When she’d told him about the disparity in the business bank accounts and the company ledgers, he’d wondered, but Celine had insisted Monty was the last person who would do something like steal from her. If someone had embezzled from her, it had to be another employee.

Jayson shook his head as he mulled it over. Could Celine be wrong? Could it be that Monty was the one stealing from her company?

Could she be in danger from him?

She’d said Monty had sounded put out when she’d told him she was waiting a day to go to his place because another storm was due to come in. Yesterday’s monsoon storm had been on the radar maps as it traveled in from the southern part of the state, sweeping up from Mexico, so it hadn’t been a sudden storm that they were unprepared for. And it had been a hell of a storm.

Thor nosed Jayson’s leg and he looked down. The dog trotted to the door and glanced back.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Jayson studied Thor. “We should meet her at the trailhead to make sure she gets home all right.”

Thor barked twice.

“Then that’s what we’ll do.” Jayson shook his head and grabbed his hat off the rack before opening the back door and screen. He stood on the doorstep and checked the sky.

He stared up. The sky had darkened from both an oncoming storm and the sun lowering in the sky. Wouldn’t be long before they wouldn’t be able to see well. He stepped back into the house and grabbed a flashlight that could damn near illuminate a stadium to use later if he needed it. He closed the door behind him.

He wanted to cover ground quickly, before it grew too dark. He headed to the barn and made quick work of saddling Starlight. He grabbed his shotgun and sheathed the gun in its leather scabbard that he’d attached on the side of the saddle. Then he rode her to the foot of the trail that let out onto his property.

Thor bounded ahead on the trail. Starlight’s hooves sank into the soft, damp earth. The air smelled of oncoming rain.

Lightning illuminated the sky, and a short time later the roll of thunder followed. As they continued on, lightning flashed again, a rumble following much closer than the last one.

Jayson’s lips settled into a grim line. He didn’t like the idea of Celine being out here in the dark in the middle of a thunder storm.

They reached the trailhead. Thor checked out the ground and let out a low growl. He sniffed the ground toward Monty’s ranch then kept his nose to the ground and headed in the trail in the opposite direction.

Thor cast a glance over his shoulder at Jayson, and seemed to say, “follow me.” He took off and ran along the branch leading away from the trailhead, in the opposite direction of Monty’s place. He bounded up the mountain and vanished around a bush and pine tree close together.

“Where the hell are you going?” Jayson whistled for Thor to come back as he guided Starlight to the trail to Monty’s.

Thor barked and came back into view. He ran to Jayson, barked, then bolted back up the trail again.

Jayson glanced in the direction they should be going and cut his gaze back to Thor, who gave a sharp bark.

Could Thor know something Jayson didn’t? He was a damned intelligent dog and he adored Celine. Jayson had never seen Thor take to anyone like he had taken to her.

Why would she go up that trail instead of the one leading to Jayson’s ranch? Had she forgotten which way to go and took the wrong trail? It seemed unlikely, but she wasn’t a ranch girl and wasn’t familiar with this territory.

Jayson hesitated only a moment before he tugged slightly at the reins so that he and Starlight faced the direction Thor had headed. Jayson clicked his tongue and encouraged the horse to follow the Border Collie.

This trail was even less traveled than the other. Starlight picked her way through rubble and over downed branches.

Jayson watched Thor sniff the ground before he continued uphill.

What was Thor seeing that Jayson wasn’t? He frowned and brought Starlight to a halt before he dismounted. He tracked the ground with his gaze and stopped when he saw a dark smear on a large leaf, and a splatter on another.

He touched the sticky fluid. He grabbed his flashlight from Starlight’s saddlebag, then knelt and shone the light on the drop and the smear.

Black. He studied it on his fingers and saw it was actually dark red.

Blood.

His stomach knotted. Was he imagining it?

He looked closer at the smear that wasn’t just on the one leaf. It went across three leaves, not just one. The leaves were smashed onto the ground, the smear in the shape of a partial footprint.

Was it Celine’s?

In his gut, he knew it was.

Jayson’s heart threatened to explode. He swung onto Starlight’s back and called to Thor. “Take me to her, boy.”

Thor darted up the path. Jayson and Starlight followed.

The sky had grown darker, but he could see far enough ahead to follow Thor.

Lightning flashed, brightening the way a moment at a time. The crash of thunder followed. Closer and closer yet.

Thor veered off the path. In moments, he started barking, the sound sharp in the forest stillness.

Heart thudding harder, Jayson dismounted and hurried after Thor. He flipped on the flashlight again and pointed it ahead so it illuminated the ground as he made his way through brush, grass, and pine trees.

Jayson came up behind the dog, who stood at the edge of an outcropping of rock. Thor stared over the edge of the outcropping, then at Jayson, and barked again.

His throat grew dry and his mind raced. Was she down there? Had she fallen to her death? Could she still be alive?

“Celine?” he called out. “Celine.”

Nothing.

The forest remained silent.

Thor barked again. The dog bounded from one side of the outcropping to the other. He looked focused, intent on finding Celine.

Jayson lay on the rocks on his belly and peered over the edge, as far as he could go without falling over.

He caught a glimpse of a white object.

Thor’s bark changed into one of menace and he snarled.

A fist of pain and fear slammed into his chest.

The white object wasn’t an object at all.

It was a woman’s arm…

The arm shifted and moved out of sight.