Standing His Ground: Greer (Porter Brothers Trilogy 2)

Greer nodded. “Sutton called and told me she had told you, and you didn’t believe her.” Her green eyes stared back, the doubt still showing. “One of them is going to die, unless I can stop it.”

She motioned toward the field of flowers. “This is all because I chose a daisy as an icon? What would have you done if I had chosen a rose?”

“Then you would have been lying in a bed of roses.” Leaning down, he kissed her lips. “Loving me won’t be a merry-go-round, but I can swear I’ll go to bed every night and wake up every morning by your side.”

“It isn’t easy loving you, Greer.”

“I swear I’ll make it worth it,” he promised, laying the daisy on her outstretched hand before pulling her close when she turned into his arms. Running his hand over her hair, he told her, “I love you.”

She nodded into his shoulder. “I love you, too.”

He groaned, feeling her tits against his chest. “Woman, quit distracting me. We have work to do.” Standing up, he tugged his pants back on then tossed her clothes down on her stomach.

She giggled, getting up to put them on. “We can set a few chairs in this spot. It’ll hide what we were doing.”

He was smiling back when his cell phone rang. He lifted it to see Tate calling.

“You can come—”

“Logan is missing.”

Greer’s eyes went to Holly at Tate’s words. “What do you mean, he’s missing? He left with you an hour ago.”

Holly’s eyes grew concerned. Jerking her bra and shirt on, she then sat down to get her sneakers back on.

“He went to lie down in the spare bedroom to watch videos. We thought he was taking a nap. We didn’t know he was missing until Rachel went in to wake him up for lunch. We searched the whole house and outside. I called Dustin. He’s leaving work now. Sutton and I are going to start looking from the woods to the field. Maybe he’s trying to walk back to the field. He wanted to stay with you and Holly.”

“We’ll start walking the path, too. Hopefully, one of us will find him before we meet up.”

“We’re leaving now.”

“Us, too.” Greer grabbed his boots. “Let’s go. Tate thinks that Logan was trying to come here.”

“Logan!” Holly immediately started yelling as they made their way through the field to the trees.

“Logan!” Greer bellowed, taking Holly’s hand so she wouldn’t trip over any roots as they walked toward the small path.

“Logan!” Holly sobbed out.

“He’s okay. We’ll find him.” As he tried to reassure her, a sick feeling in his gut made him yell even louder. “Logan!”

Greer looked for telltale signs from the bushes that Logan had passed through them.

When he saw Tate and Sutton practically running toward them on the path, Holly became inconsolable.

Greer put his arm around her shoulder. “Sutton, take Holly back to your house. Me and Tate will search the woods.”

“I told Dustin to check your house. If he finds him, he’ll call.” Tate met Greer’s eyes that were just as worried as his.

“Logan!” Holly screamed.

“Go ahead and take her, Sutton.”

Sutton reached out to take Holly’s arm, but she pulled away.

“I’m not leaving Logan!”

“We don’t even know if he’s out here. Me and Tate will go faster. If Logan isn’t at the house, Dustin will bring out a four-wheeler. You’re not going to be able to keep up with us. Double-back to the house. Maybe he’s hiding. If he’s not, call Knox and tell him Logan is missing.”

Holly nodded, going with Sutton while yelling Logan’s name.

“You see anything on the way here?”

Tate shook his head. “You?”

“No.”

“Dammit. We’re going to have to backtrack and see if we can find his tracks. I should have done it before coming here, but I thought for sure that he would follow the path. Let’s go.”

They went back, Sutton and Holly ahead of them, as they double-checked to make sure the little boy hadn’t strayed from the path. As the women went inside, he and Tate circled the house. He found Logan’s small footprints jumping off the back porch. It was in the opposite direction from where the path led to the field.

“Where in the fuck is he going?” Greer muttered.

“Find anything?” Rachel asked, coming from behind the house.

“Yes. Go back inside and keep everyone there.”

“I will. I called Knox. He’s on his way, and Cash is getting a search party together. They’ll be here any minute.”

“Send them here. Call Dustin to get here.”

Rachel immediately started calling Dustin as she went back inside.

Greer found the spot where he had gone into the bushes. Kneeling down, he saw Logan’s footprints and several smaller prints.

“He went in here.” He took a stick, pointing to the set of smaller prints.

Tate leaned down, studying the prints. “Dog footprints.”

“A puppy. It doesn’t weigh but ten pounds.”