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Chapters (41)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  3. CONTENTS
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. EPILOGUE
  41. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

He ran his hands over her chest, abdomen, and back, searching for other wounds. There did not appear to be any injuries other than the gash on the back of her head.

Her face grew paler by the moment. “Jordan!”

She did not move or respond to the sound of his voice.

“Jordan! The paramedics are on the way. Put some of that goddamned stubbornness of yours to work and hang on.”

“Ambulance is fifteen minutes out,” the deputy said.

The wad of plastic behind Spencer appeared to have been sliced in two. Beside it were discarded T-shirt material and a billy club. “Casey was in the plastic, wasn’t she, Jordan? You saw her and ran inside.”

She made no audible response. There was only the faint gurgling of her labored breath. He rubbed his hand on her arm, hoping human contact would keep her rooted to this earth. The world narrowed to just the two of them.

“How much longer for the ambulance?” Spencer shouted.

“Ten minutes out!” a deputy said.

“Is there a med flight?”

“Med flight is on another call. They’re sending the rescue squad.”

“We have ten minutes, Jordan,” he said. “Ten lousy minutes.”

What the hell was it with time? It could be recklessly fast and make him beg for more of it. And, in times like this, so unbearably slow.

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER TWELVE

Thursday, April 15

3:00 a.m.

Spencer knelt over Jordan, bracing as helplessness and anger collided inside him. She lay so still, and the pool of blood seeping from the gash in the back of her head kept growing. He knew head wounds bled profusely and often looked worse than they were. What bothered him was that she was not moving or responding to the sound of his voice. Versed in the basics of field medicine, he knew the longer someone was unconscious, the more dire the injury.

“Detective Poe,” he said, lowering his face close to hers. “I need you to open your eyes.”

Her eyelids fluttered slightly, but she did not open them.

“Detective, you have to wake up. We need to find Casey.”

If she by some miracle opened her eyes, he was not going to let her do anything but wait for the paramedics, who were now about five minutes out. He mentioned Casey only because Jordan’s persistence on these cases told him she was the type to rally more for someone in trouble than she was for herself.

“Jordan, Casey needs you.”

Her fingers twitched, and he took it as progress. “The other deputies are searching for her now. We can’t find her. Either she was able to get up and run away, or whoever brought her here took her away.”

Eyes rolled under her lids.

Distant sirens echoed in the night. The paramedics. Finally. The wide-open spaces of Texas were stunning, but reaching a location like this often took too long.