Lane Myers grinned. His day had just been made. Every shift he worked, and many of the days he was off duty, he found a way to get an eyeful of Betty Lou. Not that she was happy about it. He smiled. She frowned. And he got a big kick out of it. One of these days the stubborn woman was going to admit she wanted Lane as much as he wanted her. He’d always had. If things hadn’t blown up between them at the end of his senior year of high school, they probably would’ve been married with a few teenage kids by now. He’d never stopped loving her, and he was certain, if he finally managed to knock the chip off her shoulder, she’d realize they still belonged together, even after all these years.

He leaned against his department-issued SUV and crossed his arms, waiting for Lou to come back out of the bank. He’d parked right next to her pickup truck and she’d have to walk right up to him to get in. Her only other option was to get in the passenger side and slide over, but he knew she’d never do that. That would make her appear weak and Lou was anything but. She ran Bar None with an iron fist. She took no shit from her customers or employees, and, damn, if most of them didn’t love her for it. On more than one occasion, she’d threatened to bash a cowboy’s head in for starting trouble in her place. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they backed down, especially when the regulars started laying down bets on how many bones she’d break if she started swinging.

The door to the bank swung open and out strode Lou, looking incredibly delicious. Faded jeans molded to her curves, while a blue tank top showed off her tanned shoulders and hugged her breasts. Those puppies had filled out more since the last time he’d had his mouth and hands on them, and his palms itched to get at them again.

She’d been almost to the tailgate of her truck when she spotted him and slowed her stride. That pissed-off glare she’d perfected when it came to him appeared on her face. Her hazel eyes flared in annoyance.

“Morning, doll-face. Beautiful day isn’t it?”

Her jaw tightened. “It was until a few seconds ago.”

She reached for the door handle, but Lane stepped in front of her, preventing her from opening the door. She growled. “Get out of my way, Lane.” When he didn’t move, she rolled her eyes. “What do you want?”

“Just thought you might want to thank me.”

Her eyes narrowed. “For what?” she spat.

He shrugged. “For taking out the trash last night.” It’d been one of the few times a ruckus had gotten a little out of control at the bar. A drunk had hit on another drunk’s woman and shit had gone downhill very quickly. Lane had been heading home from his father’s house when he’d spotted the brawl in Bar None’s parking lot. He’d called it in on his radio as he’d pulled in, then hopped out of his vehicle. With his military training, it hadn’t taken him long to incapacitate both men—the fact that they were extremely intoxicated and exhausted from beating on each other had helped just a tad.

“I didn’t need or ask for your help. Now get out of my way or I’m going to tell the chief you’re harassing me again.”

Lane smirked. “Didn’t do you any good the last time you complained to him.” Graham Hughes was a wise man and knew when to placate the residents of Hazard Falls and when something really needed his attention. After all, he’d been Chief of Police for over fifteen years.

“Move, jackass,” she huffed. “I’ve got things to do. Go write a ticket or something, will ya?”

He was about to respond with a snarky remark when his cell phone rang. With his father’s health declining, he never hesitated to check the screen in case it was an emergency. He pulled the phone off his hip and saw the call was coming from the station. His brow furrowed. Why were they calling him on his cell instead of the radio, which always had better reception in some parts of the town?

Stepping away from Lou’s vehicle, he answered the call, disappointed when she took advantage and hopped into the driver’s seat and started the engine.

“Myers.”

“Lane, are you nearby?”

Caitlyn Wells’s voice sounded a bit frantic, and Lane was instantly on alert, ignoring Lou’s truck pulling out of the parking spot and driving away. “Yeah, I’m by the Stop & Go, what’s wrong?”

“Need you back at the station as fast as you can get here and stay off the radio. No lights or sirens, but hurry.”

Shit. Whatever’s up can’t be good.

Minutes later, he was striding into the police station with another officer, Tad Winslow on his heels. Apparently, he’d also gotten the SOS. Chief Hughes was standing behind Caitlyn at the call desk, frowning. He waved Lane and Tad over. The dispatcher’s face was pale, and she was wringing her hands together.

“What’s wrong?” Lane asked as he and Tad joined the other two.

Hughes gestured toward the computer setup that was part of the county’s 911 system. During the day, one of two department dispatchers answered the phones and assigned calls to the on-duty officers. At 4:00 p.m., the county dispatchers took over until 8:00 a.m. the following day. “A call came in on the non-emergency line that you have to hear. Play it again, Caitlyn.”

The three men and one woman were quiet as a recording of the phone call played back.

Caitlyn’s cheerful voice was the first they heard. “Hazard Falls Police Department, how can I help you?”

“Caitlyn, it’s Nicole Mathers.” The hair on the back of Lane’s neck stood up at the quiver in the woman’s voice. The call sounded like she’d made it through a speakerphone feature. “I need you to listen very carefully. I’m on a school bus with Clem and Melanie Dwyer, Paige Merritt, and fifteen first-graders. The bus has been hijacked, and we’re being held for ransom. At the moment, we’re all okay.” A gasp came over the speakers, and Lane assumed it had been from Caitlyn reacting to the information, but the dispatcher had wisely not interrupted. “There’s three of them . . .”

There was the sound of a scuffle, then a male mumbling something unintelligible.

“Ow! All right already!” Nicole snapped.

“Nicole! Are you okay? What’s happening?”

There was a pause before the other woman came back on the line. “Yeah, Caitlyn, I’m okay. I’m just supposed to tell you what they told me and nothing more. They have guns and want two-hundred thousand dollars in unmarked bills or they’ll . . . they’ll kill us all. They have a police radio, so they’ll know if you call in the sheriff’s department to help. I’ll call back in an hour and tell you where they want the money delivered.”

“Nicole, how—”

The call had been cut off before Caitlyn could finish her question. Shutting off the recording, she looked up at the three stunned lawmen.

Winslow spoke first. “What the hell do we do?”

Running a hand down his face, Hughes shook his head once, then started barking out orders. “Caitlyn, get on the phone to the school principal and find out exactly who is on that bus and where they were headed. Lane, call the sheriff’s department—we’re going to need backup. Tell them we need complete radio silence and have anyone who can, respond here. After that, call Shane, Tucker, and Hank—tell them to get over here—we may need their help. We’ll need to let the rest of the parents know their kids are in danger—shit, those are phone calls I’m not looking forward to. Tad, call Willard Knutt over at the bank and tell him to get his pathetic ass over here and to keep his mouth shut. I’ll call the fucking mayor. If we have to come up with some money as a way to trap these assholes, Knutt’s not going to do it without Kline’s okay.”

Everyone jumped into action. Lane’s first call was to the sheriff’s department, which covered the towns in the area that couldn’t afford their own police force, as well as any county-owned properties and roads. He then notified the other few police departments and got all available hands covertly heading toward Hazard Falls. It was easy for anyone to pick up a police scanner and enter the local radio codes so they could listen in. Finally, he made the second worst call of his life—the first being to a good friend and fellow Marine’s parents after they’d been notified he’d been KIA.

The call rang twice in his ear before it was picked up. “Hey, Lane, what’s up?”

He took a deep breath and let it out. “Shane, I need you to listen to me. Grab Hank and Tuck and get down to the police station. We received a call from Nicole. She and Paige are on a school bus with a bunch of kids, and they’ve been hijacked for ransom.”

There was a long pause on the phone, and, for a moment, he thought they’d been disconnected. “Shane?”

The man’s voice was low and threatening. “Tell me this is a really sick joke, man.”

“I wish I could. All we know is that at the time of the call about ten minutes ago, everyone was unharmed. Nicole said they were all okay for now. Just get down here and keep it quiet. Supposedly they’re listening to the police radios.”

“Fuck! I swear if anything happens to Ari or Paige—Lane, you better cover my ass for the murders I’ll commit.”

Shane disconnected the call before his friend had a chance to answer, and Lane hoped like hell he wouldn’t have to cover the guy’s ass.

About forty minutes later, they were no closer to figuring out where the kids and their chaperones were. Officers and deputies from around the county had responded, and many of them were now in unmarked vehicles, borrowed from the parents of some of the missing children, driving around the area trying to spot the big, yellow bus. A few state troopers had also arrived after being notified their assistance was needed. So far, everyone had kept radio silence unless it had to do with anything other than the hostage situation. Shane, Tuck, and Hank were standing in a corner of the reception area, having refused to wait in the American Legion Hall next door with the rest of the shocked parents. They’d been warned not to contact anyone else and reveal what was happening. As long as the three men stayed out of the way and didn’t hinder the investigation, then the chief was okay with them staying. It helped that Shane was like a nephew to Hughes, who’d been best man at the younger man’s parents wedding long ago.

Lane glanced at the clock. They had about fifteen more minutes, maybe less, before the call they were waiting for came in to let them know where to deliver the money. It hadn’t taken more than three seconds for the mayor to order the bank manager to get the ransom together after finding out his granddaughter was one of the hostages. The police would do everything they could to ensure the money was returned at the end of the day, but with nineteen lives in danger, they couldn’t risk trying to trick the suspects with a bag stuffed with newspaper or clothing.

The front door to the station burst open and the school principal, Marianne Burton, rushed into the police station waving a piece of paper. The forty-two-year-old woman breathlessly called out, “Chief! I may know how to find them!”

Everyone in the room stopped their conversations and stared at her.

Leaving the wall map he’d been using to coordinate the search, Hughes stepped toward her. “How?”

She took a few deep breaths as the entire room waited. “The town bought . . . the bus from another school district. It has a GPS feature and . . . and a panic alarm system in it, but the damn mayor said we didn’t need to activate them. He didn’t want to pay the extra money for the monitoring.” Clearly, she hadn’t seen the man standing in the corner opposite Shane, Tuck, and their employee. Kline, at least, had the decency to look remorseful. “Anyway, here’s the name of the company that monitored it for the school district we got it from. They may still be able to track it.”

Hughes took the papers from her and then kissed her on the cheek. “You’re a genius, Mari! Hopefully, it works.”

The chief hurried over to the closest landline, probably to make sure the department name came up on any caller ID. Within minutes, he had the longitude and latitude of where the bus was currently sitting on the property of an old, abandoned farm that’d been up for sale for years without any interest. It wasn’t far from the road the bus had been taking on its way to the Native American Village.

“How do you want to do this, Graham?” the county sheriff asked, having responded in person along with a bunch of his men.

It wasn’t the first time the sheriff, or other chiefs in the county, had deferred to Hughes when it came to a high-risk situation. Back in the day, the man had been in the Army’s Special Forces. He’d then served Garden City’s police force, as well as their SWAT team, for a few years until he’d taken a bullet interrupting a convenience store robbery one day while off duty. Six months later, after he’d recovered, he’d handed in his resignation and taken the top cop job that’d been offered to him in Hazard Falls. At fifty-four, he was still in excellent condition and sparred with some of his officers on a regular basis.

The chief checked his watch. “We’re too close to the time Nicole said they’d call back. I say we wait until they call with the drop location. It’ll probably be somewhere other than the farmhouse and that means at least one of the suspects will have to leave. We won’t be able to stage a rescue that fast. One less person guarding the hostages will reduce the chances of any of them getting hurt when we go in after them. We can hide a few lookouts along the escape routes and wait until the pickup guy is out of the way. Have a team waiting for him at the drop site. Once he’s out of sight, we’ll do a stealth approach and try to hit the remaining two suspects before they even know we’re there.”

“We’re going with you.” Shane stepped forward with Tuck and Hank right beside him. Rage and fear battled for supremacy on all three men’s face. “Deputize us.”

“Absolutely not, Shane,” Hughes responded, his voice filled with sympathy and authority. “I know Ari, Paige, Joey, and Nicole are in danger, along with all the others, but that means you can’t be objective on this. I trust that every shield in this county will do whatever they possibly can to get every single hostage back unharmed. Let us do what we’re trained to do.”

Lane knew it took a lot of faith and strength, when after a few moment’s hesitation, Shane, Tuck, and Hank backed down.