Rule's Seduction (The House of Rule 4)

“Just letting you know that the rain has started and the weather reports aren’t looking promising. The Sudestada makes it the perfect condition for a flash flood—and you know how bad it was last year.”

“Yeah, thanks for giving me a heads-up. We’re prepared as always, right?”

“Si, but I wanted to make sure Señora Villarreal made it home okay. No one noticed her coming back.”

A stab of worry made Max’s voice too sharp. “Where the hell did she go? And when did she leave?”

“Around noon—and she was on foot, heading for the vineyard—said she was taking a walk.”

An unsettling chill moving along his nerve endings, Max didn’t waste time on more small talk. Surging to his feet, he yelled for his housekeeper to begin a search of the upstairs rooms—just in case Erin had come back. He checked the downstairs area, to no avail; Marisol’s troubled face said it all as she appeared at the top of the stairs. He dialed Erin’s cell, but it went straight to voicemail, so with terse instructions in case Erin turned up, he followed his foreman out the door to begin a search of the extensive estancia for his missing wife.

****

The next ninety minutes were the longest of Max’s life. As his men met to organize the search, the rain came in a steady downpour, the sky turning such an ominous color that Max’s panic steadily increased as the heavens rained down. His frame of mind continued to deteriorate as a sick feeling formed in his gut as the minutes passed.

Four teams of his men began a search for Erin that extended over thousands of acres. Max set off on his own mission on an ATV, making sure to stay in touch with his men by cell phone. He carried a two-way radio as well—just in case. As he explored the quadrant that he’d designated as his search area, the arid fields quickly turned muddy as the rains became torrential.

Although he was dressed for the rain, he became drenched within five minutes.

Wet and frustrated, he drove the perimeter of the vineyard and finding nothing, he drove it again. The rain was so blinding that he could barely see five feet in front of him. The mud became too slippery and he was forced to stop to put the vehicle into four-wheel drive. About to start out again, the wind became so fierce that fear made him hit the steering wheel in frustration before gripping it so hard his knuckles showed white. This shit wouldn’t have happened if he’d kept her tied to him.

As he put the vehicle in motion again and pressed the accelerator, the rain let up somewhat, allowing him to see the vague outline of the ruins that lay to the south. The old church was burned out and decayed from over two hundred years of neglect, but it was a shelter of sorts. Would Erin have known of its existence? Could she have somehow stumbled upon it?

Hoping against hope that he would find her there, it still took him another ten minutes of slow going before he pulled in front.

Climbing down from the ATV, he glanced around but didn’t see anything moving or out of place. Pacing around to the passenger side of the vehicle, he pulled out the pistol that was kept there and made sure it was loaded—the last thing he needed was to be slowed down by a wild animal seeking shelter.

The front of the building was missing, falling bricks, weeds and bramble made the entrance difficult to access. He fully expected Erin not to be there, so when he called her name and got an immediate response, elation hit him hard. His heart started beating a hot and heavy cadence.

Pushing into the darkened interior, he found her coming to her feet, wiping her hands on the jeans she was wearing. She was wet and shaking, her lips white from where she’d been biting them. “Are you all right?” he asked abruptly, taking her into his arms.

“I’m f-fine,” she said shakily, through cold, trembling lips.

After he’d established that she was unharmed, he called his foreman and let the man know that Erin was safe and to call off the search.

He slipped the phone into his pocket and gave his full attention back to his wife—his shivering, wet wife. The fact that she was cold and wet at all thoroughly pissed him off and now that he knew she was alive, safe and in one piece, his fear manifested itself in anger. “Why the hell would you leave and not tell anyone where you went?”

“I had no agenda, Max. I only needed to get away from—from the house.”

From the house? That sounded like bullshit—she’d been trying to get away from him. He couldn’t stop his fingers from digging into her upper arms. “You’re not to leave the house again unless you tell me where the hell you’re going, you understand?”