Sheriff Daddy (Montana Daddies Book 10) by Laylah Roberts (good book club books txt) 📗

men much. And who had stood on the other side of the bedroom door, growling at him every time he tried to leave.

The poor guy’s clothes had been downstairs. Apparently, they’d started there. Along with his phone. So he’d decided to leave by going over the balcony. Why he hadn’t borrowed something from Melanie’s wardrobe rather than go out naked, Ed had no idea.

“When I finally made it out here, the truck was gone and so was Marisol.”

He frowned. That wasn’t like Marisol. She wouldn’t just leave Gigi.

“Are those shopping bags Marisol’s?” he asked.

“She only had one bag. I don’t know whose they are.”

“All right. Stay here, Gigi. Jace has called the ranch. We’ll find her.”

She nodded, still trembling. He looked around and then gestured at Sammy, who worked at the diner. “Come stay with Gigi, Sammy?”

The other woman nodded, walking over to talk quietly to Gigi.

Ranger pulled up and Ed quickly briefed him. “I’m going to check the shopping bags, Gigi says they aren’t hers or Marisol’s. Can you talk to everyone here? See if anyone saw anything. Also, check to see if there’s camera footage.”

Ranger nodded. He was a man of few words.

Ed walked to the bags and instantly spotted something that sent dread rushing through him. Kiesha’s enormous handbag. The one she went nowhere without. That she wouldn’t leave behind under any circumstances.

Unless it was life and death.

Fuck.

“When do you think he’s coming back?” Marisol asked nervously.

They were stuck in a dark basement. She’d already tried the door, but it was surprisingly solid. The light switch didn’t work, she was guessing that the power was cut off. It was so dark that she couldn’t even see the other two women.

“I don’t know,” Georgie answered as she tried to search around with her hands. She put her fingers into something squishy.

Gross. Gross. Gross.

“But we have to try and get out of here.”

“You know I wasn’t joking when they said this place is haunted. There was a murder-suicide here thirty years ago. Nobody comes out here. Nobody.”

Okay, first things first. Calm Kiesha down.

“Kiesha, we’re going to be fine. There’s no such things as ghosts.” She managed to make her way over to the other woman. Grabbing her hand and Marisol’s, the three of them sat. Funny, she’d thought if anyone was going to panic, it would be Marisol. Kiesha seemed to have the ability to cope with anything.

“Right, deep slow breaths, okay?” Georgie told the other woman soothingly. “I’m going to get you out of here. We’ll all be fine.”

“Sorry. Sorry. I just have this fear of basements and ghosts and spiders. Which is silly since I used to be a ghost hunter. I just had too many encounters with evil ghosts, you know?”

A ghost hunter?

Okay, she wasn’t going to touch that one.

“I’m an FBI agent, I’m used to dealing with high-pressure situations. I am going to figure this out.”

Except she wasn’t good at dealing with high-pressure. Not at all. Even now, she could feel her own panic bubbling in her stomach.

You got this. You have to. They’re relying on you.

“Gigi will report me missing. She’ll call Linc and the sheriff, everyone will be looking for us,” Marisol reassured Kiesha.

“Right,” Georgie added. “And Ed will tear this town apart looking for us. You know that.”

“Yeah. He will. He won’t let anything happen to you. To any of us.” The strength was coming back to her voice.

“Oh, I just remembered something,” Marisol said. “There’s a GPS tracker on the truck. They’ll be able to track us with that.”

Unless it had been removed. Or he’d used a jammer. Would he know how to do that?

Who was she kidding? Saber was a career criminal. Of course he did. But she didn’t say that to Marisol. Still, she wasn’t going to rely on them being rescued.

“We should still come up with a plan. Just in case.”

“Ed wanted me to wear a tracker but I refused. He bought me a necklace and everything,” Kiesha said. “Why didn’t I listen to him?”

“He did?” she asked, startled.

“Yeah. Haven’t you realized by now that he’s the ultimate caveman. Totally OTT protective. That’s what I yelled at him. I won’t do that again. I’m putting that necklace on as soon as I get home.”

“Everything’s going to be all right,” she soothed. “But I need you to keep it together for me.”

“The full force of JSI will be looking for us,” Marisol added. “They won’t rest until they find us.”

Marisol lived on Sanctuary Ranch, which was owned by the Jensens. Clint Jensen ran the ranch, while his brother, Kent ran Jensen Security International.

“Saber is insane to kidnap you,” Georgie muttered. “Anyone else notice how on edge he was? And why didn’t he head back to the Devil’s Kings? Why is he here looking for Tiger?”

“You mean the fact that he was acting like a lunatic on steroids? Yeah, I noticed,” Kiesha said dryly.

Okay, she was sounding more like herself.

“Maybe I should tell him the truth? About what happened to Tiger?” Marisol asked.

“You know what happened to Tiger?” Georgie asked sharply.

“Um, well, not exactly,” she said carefully. “But I have an idea. Only telling him the truth could be a really bad idea. For everyone.”

Georgie rubbed at her jaw, moving it from side to side, aware that she was clenching it tight. “And you never told anyone?”

“Not quite.”

“Does Ed know?” Georgina asked sharply. Did he know and he hadn’t told her?

“No. No, Ed doesn’t know.”

She breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Dude, you do remember she’s an FBI agent, right?” Kiesha said cautiously. “And you withheld information.”

“I’m in trouble?” Marisol asked.

Shoot. Fudge.

“Don’t tell me anymore. We didn’t have this conversation.” She let out a breath. “Just . . . I’m guessing he’s dead, right? Otherwise, he would have turned up like a bad smell.”

“I think so.”

“Right. Okay. Shoot. We cannot tell Saber that. Okay? If he finds out that Tiger is dead, it will send him over the edge. So you do not know anything about his son. Got