Booted (Trails of Sin 3)

Jake attempts to call Erin and Conor again as I speed toward the vet clinic, spitting gravel. I take the back way through the woods, and that’s when I see her.

Tires screech in my attempt to stop.

“Oh, my God.” Jake opens the door while the truck’s still moving. “Conor!”

She stands in the middle of the path with a hand cupped to her neck. My relief crashes in waves with an undertow of horrifying realization.

Raina isn’t here.

Jake runs out of the truck as Conor raises her arms, reaching for him.

“What happened?” I’m right behind him, scanning the trees and road, my ears straining for sounds of movement. “Where’s Raina?”

Jake lifts Conor into his arms and buries his face in her hair.

“I don’t know. I…” Her breath hitches, and her hand returns to her neck. “I was injected with a tranquilizer. A woman… She brought her Basset Hound in for parasites. I went outside with her and stayed in camera range until she started screaming. She collapsed over the dog, claiming it was having a seizure. I didn’t think. I just reacted and ran to her.” She sucks in a sharp breath, and her gaze flies to me. “Did you just ask where Raina is? Is she missing?”

Jake meets my eyes and carries her to the truck. Setting her on the seat, he paws and probes her body for injuries. “What kind of tranquilizer? Should we go to the hospital?”

“No, I just…” She touches her throat. “My neck’s sore. As fast as it immobilized me, it was probably Etorphine or something similar. The main risk is overdose, which causes instant fatality. I’m still here, so…” She shrugs.

“Goddammit, fuck!” Jake launches at her, kissing her face and tangling a hand in her hair.

“Raina’s missing.” Impatience burns up my spine. “I need to know everything you remember. Every detail about that woman and everything she said.”

“Oh, no. Oh God, Lorne.” Her expression fractures through her shock and terror as she quickly outlines physical descriptions of the woman and the thirty-second conversation they had about parasites. “When I bent down beside her outside the clinic, she must’ve had the syringe ready. I didn’t even see her move. I was focused on the dog, trying to figure out why the woman was screaming. Then I felt a pinch in my neck. I knew what it was, but I had no time to react. It hit like a ton of bricks. Then I woke here. Alone.” She gestures at the road. “Maybe three or four minutes before you showed up.”

Jake glances at his watch.

“How long?” I ask.

“She was comatose for an hour.”

I pace away from the truck, shaking and flexing my hands. “An hour for the bitch to bring Conor here, where there are no cameras, and make the trade.”

“A trade for Raina?” Conor gasps.

I nod stiffly. “It would’ve been easy to watch the estate from the main road and determine our patterns over the past four days. Raina goes to the house to grab lunch, always around the same time, always with Erin, and she’s never left alone. John expected Erin to notice you missing and head this way, and he knew Raina would have to come.”

This was a trap for Raina, using Conor as a hostage. An exchange of one life for another.

John took her.

He has her in his possession, and I can’t begin to imagine the vitriolic state of his mind.

I own the land he wants, run the cattle operation he lost, and claimed the heart of the woman he’s infatuated with.

He’ll punish her for transgressions he believes she and I committed against him.

I stare at the end of the road where it winds out of view. The choices I make and the actions I take from this point forward will determine the rest of my life, as well as Raina’s.

My heart rate thunders, waging a battle inside me.

On one side is an inferno of hailing gunfire, madness, and mindless anger. On the other is a sharp sword of logic, focus, and frigid steel.

A snarling, impulsive, impassioned firestorm versus a methodical, emotionless, unforgiving blade.

The one that wins is the one I feed.

When John attacked Raina at the restaurant, I fed the fire, and he got away.

I need control. Diligence. Calculation. Heartlessness.

Something switches inside me, and in that terrible, defining moment, I lose my humanity.

In its place rises one purpose. One thought. One emotion.

Ice-cold cruelty.

I return to the truck, focused, sharpened, and planning ten steps ahead.

“Where did they get the tranquilizer?” I climb in behind the wheel.

“It would be used for really large animals.” Conor shifts to the center of the seat, allowing room for Jake.

When he slides in, I shove the truck into drive.

“I don’t have anything that potent at the clinic.” She rubs her neck. “But I’ve seen it used to bring down raging bulls that escape in town. The sheriff would have something like that.”