Tangled by Temptation (Doms of Destiny, Colorado 7)

He and Corey had to catch the bitch. They had to save Belle.

Corey turned right without slowing down, causing the tires to squeal.

“We’re half a mile from the bridge, sir.” Shane was one of the best shots that came out of the Agency, but he wouldn’t dare try until he knew he had a clean shot. Belle was in the trunk. “We are closing the distance.”

The car ahead went over the bridge.

Shooting Trollinger or the tires was a risk at this high speed. But they didn’t have a choice if they had any chance of saving Belle.

He aimed his gun, tightened his finger on the trigger. And then everything went to hell. The Silver Spoon Bridge blew up right in front of them.

Corey hit the brakes, bringing the truck to a stop just at the edge of the new drop-off the explosion had created.

Cursing, Shane slammed his fists into the dashboard. He’d failed Belle. She was gone, in the car of a madman’s sister.

* * * *

Juan is safe.

No matter what happened—that was the most important thing to Belle.

But she wasn’t ready to die. She had Juan, who needed her. She’d just found the loves of her life—Shane and Corey. My family.

Amber was going to have a baby. Belle was going to be an aunt. The orphans at the Boys Ranch needed her.

She had so much to live for.

Something had exploded just as they’d left Destiny. By the sound, she guessed whatever had suffered the bomb had to be near—the bridge or one of the buildings close to it.

Once again, she prayed for the sweet people of the town she loved. Paris, with her brilliant mind and warm heart. Gretchen and Ethel, the sweet matriarchs of Destiny. Kaylyn, whose love of animals and generous soul amazed everyone. And so many more. Every neighbor and shopkeeper, every teacher and student, every man and woman. Destiny was Belle’s home.

Lunceford and his horrible sister had declared war on the town she loved, and right now, Belle was the only one on the front lines. What did Cindy want with her? Was she only a pawn in a much bigger evil scheme of Lunceford? She had no clue but knew she must fight. She wasn’t going to give up until she drew her last breath. Nothing would stop her.

For the past couple of hours she’d been Trollinger’s prisoner. The bitch had thrown Belle’s cell to the pavement before shoving her into the trunk, leaving her no way to communicate.

Cindy’s car was quite old, so there was no trunk release and the backseat didn’t fold down. In the blackness, Belle had felt around for any tire-changing tools that could help her but found none. The only success she’d had was pulling out the wires from the brake lights. When she tried to push them out so she could stick her hand through to signal to others, neither one would budge. Her only hope was that a patrolman would see Trollinger’s brake lights were out.

Now, all she could do was wait and pray.

* * * *

Corey drove the brand new Boys Ranch bus, whose passengers were the rest of Shannon’s Elite—not counting Jena, Nicole, Cooper, and Jonas.

Jena had not only knocked Lunceford out of the system and off their ROC devices, but had also isolated the remote server farm where all his transmissions were originating. Kip’s digital eyes, ears, and mouth were offline because of her. Jena remained at TBK and was still trying to lock on to the physical location of his data center.

Nicole had remained with the two fallen teammates.

They’d learned from a call from Doc that Cooper would survive, but Jonas was dead.

Corey’s gut coiled into a knot of rage.

They’d lost so much time after the bridge exploded. Crawling down the ravine to the water below and swimming to the other side had slowed them down.

The Stone brothers had brought the bus down from the ranch, which was on the opposite side of the destroyed bridge. Their wife, Belle’s sister, had been scared to death and made him and Shane swear they would save Belle.

That was exactly what he intended to do. What I must do. His pulse pounded like a jackhammer in his temples.

Black and Jason were in constant touch with local Wyoming law enforcement, trying to tighten the noose around Trollinger. Unfortunately, due to the unprecedented visit of the vice president to Cheyenne, the team only had access to a lone sheriff and two deputies. Black had been the one to say what they all already suspected. Lunceford had clearly chosen well his day of attack on Destiny.