Southern Admirer (Southern Loving Book 2) (19 page)

Loosing up his tie and unbuttoning a few buttons
on his shirt, he strolled to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. He
grimaced as the thought of the horrible picnic replaying in his head. He was
surprised at how stocked the refrigerator was. When Sarah died he survived off
of frozen dinners and any meals that his mother or aunt dropped off for him.
Taking the ground beef that been unthawing since he left this morning, he began
to cook.

Jazzy makes an excellent wife,
he thought as he pulled
out all the fixins
for a romantic spaghetti dinner with Jasmine.
Hopefully, she would see the dinner as a peace offering. Reaching for his cell
phone off his belt click, he dialed her number which went straight to
voicemail. It was unusual for Jasmine not to pick up.

Maybe she doesn’t have a signal
, he told himself. Shane
texted her a few messages and started to prepare their meal.

Hours later the clock struck nine o’clock at night
and there was still no message or phone call from Jasmine. This was definitely
not like Jazzy, the woman prided herself on keeping a tight schedule for Shay.

He called her number a few times, and received the
same results. The call went straight to voicemail. Shane was beyond the worry
threshold at this point. Picking up the phone, he called the next person who
could shed some light on Jasmine whereabouts.

“Hello,” a voice answered on the third ring.

“Farrah, did Jasmine tell you where she was going
today? She left the house and hasn’t returned yet and it’s past nine o’clock.

Silence.

“Relax Ranger McBride, I’m pretty sure Jasmine is
on her way home. Plus, it’s only 9:02 p.m.”

“Something isn’t right,” he growled. “I can feel
it.”

“She went to go see her grandparents. What time
did she leave?”

“Before noon,” he walked out the house and down
the gravel road to look for any signs of Jasmine’s car. “I don’t know what I’ll
do if something happen to them…they all I have left in this world.”

 “I’ll be right there,” Farrah said quickly
before hanging up.

Shane knew he was running out of options. But he
couldn’t do a missing report until Jasmine was missing for 24-hours. He could
use his power in law enforcement, but he didn’t want to do anything that would
cause more friction in his relationship with Jasmine. He called the only people
that could help him.

“There better be a good damn reason why you’re
calling me,” a baritone voice barked.

“Jasmine is missing. She left at noon time to
visit your grandparents and hasn’t returned yet,” Shane rambled to his best
friend, as he waited patiently for Jasmine to arrive at the house.

“Did you guys get in a fight? I swear if you hurt
my baby sister, I’ll kill you,” Benjamin said, before muting the phone.

A car pulled up and Austin and Farrah both hopped
out the car and made their way over to him.

“I tried calling her non-stop in the car, but it’s
going to voicemail,” Farrah said, her voice was filled with worry. “Where do
her grandparents live?”

“I don’t know,” Shane replied, as he waited for
Benjamin to come back to the phone.

“Mama says that her parents said that Jasmine and
the baby left hours ago,” Benjamin said. “We’re going to come over there, Mama
and Daddy is going to ride to Tarak and Kushala’s.”

“You don’t have to ride all the way over here,”
Shane interrupted. “We got enough able bodies that can go looking for Jazzy.”

“What the fuck ever man, I used to trust you! I do
not trust your ass to find my sister!” Benjamin yelled. “If we don’t find her
in an hour we will put an APB out on her.”

Before Shane could respond his phone backlight
lit, Benjamin had hung up on him.

“What do you think we should do?” Austin asked,
looking at him.

“Farrah, you stay here, and call if Jasmine
returns. Jasmine normally take’s two routes back to the ranch.” He looked at
his cousin. “You take the highway and I’ll take the back road.”

“Gotcha.” Austin kissed Farrah before making a
beeline to his pick-up truck.

Shane sat behind the wheel of his car. He looked
at his trembling hands. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that
Jazz and his daughter were in trouble. Cranking up his truck, he pulled out the
driveway kicking up dirt as he sped down the gravel driveway.

***

Jasmine hit the steering repeatedly. She couldn’t
believe that she got a flat tire and her phone was dead from taking all those
pictures of her grandparents with Shay. Sighing, she looked back at Shay
sleeping peacefully in her car seat. She just had to get a flat tire on some
dark country road with poor lighting.

Well, at least her brothers and father had drilled
‘changing a tire 101’, into her brain. Popping the truck, she looked at Shay
one more time before getting out the car.

Walking the right rear tire she kicked it a few
times, like that was going to do anything. Going to the trunk, she closed her
eyes in frustration before opening them and searched for the spare. She
searched desperately for the spare that was she seen in her car the other day.

“You have to be fucking kidding me!” she screamed,
slamming the trunk. She was about to get back in the car, when bright
headlights pulled up from behind her. This is what Lifetime movies are made of,
a woman stranded on the side of the road with a child and is abducted and
killed. She looked around her surrounds, it was pitch dark and the way the
lights bounced off the forest seemed to cause her imagination to think there
was something out there.

She turned and looked back at the car, where the
driver sat there watching her. The hair on the back of Jasmine’s head stood up.
She lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the blinding light of the vehicle so
she could see the driver. The door opened slowly and a figure moved out the
car.

“You don’t have to wait, my husband is a Texas
Ranger and he should be here any moment.” She was taught to never turn her back
on someone. Jasmine slowly started to walk backward to her car.

“A fine thing like yourself shouldn’t be sitting
on the side of the road with your baby.”

His voice was deep with a hint of a Spanish
accent.

Jasmine hand stilled on the door handle as she
looked up at the man who was still standing by the door of his truck.
How
did he know I have a baby?
She asked herself. Glancing in the car, Shay was
still fast asleep. She was always trained to listen to her gut and her gut was
telling there was something off about the man. She opened her door and jumped
back inside the safe comfort of her car, locking the door.

Her heart pounded against her rib cage as the man
made his way slowly to her car. Jasmine blew her car horn repeatedly. Hoping
that someone lived nearby and would send rescue her way. She jumped back as the
man started to bang on the window with his fist, looking into a pair of cold
dark eyes, Jasmine saw pure evilness in them.

Shay started to wail. Jasmine scrambled to the
back seat. “Please, just leave us alone,” she cried.

 The man shouted something incoherently that she
couldn’t make out; he banged on the window harder. The man backed up from the
window as he searched for something on the ground. He bent down and picked up
what seemed to be a rock in his hand. With a forceful throw, the window
shattered.

Jasmine could hear sirens in the distance. The man
looked at her one last time before he ran back to his truck and disappeared
down the road.

“Shhh, it’s okay baby,” she said, running her hand
up and down on Shay’s back trying to soothe her as the sirens and blue lights
came closer.

***

The call came through over the scanner that a
woman matching Jasmine’s description was nearly assaulted on a back road after
her vehicle sustained a flat tire.

“Where is she?” he yelled, frantically searched
the scene for Jasmine. Shane needed to hold her in his arm, he need to make
sure
they
were okay.

The officer pointed to the ambulance. Shane looked
over to where Jasmine sat holding their daughter with a brown blanket around
her shoulders. Their eyes met over the chaotic scene. His heart began to
race-as he sprinted over to her.

“We’re okay,” she repeated, over and over again.

His arms engulfed her in his strong embrace. He
kissed Jasmine and Shay. “Are they okay?” he asked the paramedic sitting next
to Jasmine filling out paper.

“Both of them check out fine,” the man replied.

Shane hugged her again. He could feel that Jasmine
was literally shaking like a leaf. Pulling her back, he gave them the once
over. Except for the small cuts on the side of Jasmine’s face, and still in
shock—she was in perfect condition. He smiled at his daughter; her green eyes
were alert as she sucked on her pacifier.

 “What happened?” he asked softly.

“I…I had a flat tire,” she stuttered. Running his
hands down his face, Shane's eyes traveled to the car sitting on the side of
the road with a shattered window and a flat tire. “I thought I lost you.” His
eyes look back up and deeply into hers.

She held his gaze. “You didn’t,” she said softly.

His eyes shifted back to Jasmine’s car. “I always
knew that life was short…”

Jasmine reached out and touched his hand. “Hey,
you didn’t lose me, okay?”

“Okay.”

“We’re still here.”

His lips curled into a faint smile. “Yeah.”

Jasmine hesitated for a second, then leaned in and
softly pressed her lips to his, letting them linger. He inhaled and touched her
face gently.

This is what he needed, since finding out she was
missing and nearly assaulted. The physical closeness was proof that he hadn’t
lost his family. He pulled away slightly and brushed his thumbs over her cheeks
before letting his hand drop to the side.

Tonight was his awakening. There were still things
that he needed to do. But with Jasmine by his side, he knew he could do them.
He didn’t want to waste another moment letting the world know how much he
valued Jazzy.

“Are you guys ready to go home?” he asked.

She smiled and nodded at him as she placed her
hand into his.

“Ranger McBride, can I see you for a second?” an
officer asked as Shane safely put Jasmine and Shay in his truck.

“I’ll be right back.” Shane kissed Jazz’s forehead
before walking over to the waiting officer.

***

 It was three o’clock in the morning and
finally her overprotective family finally left. Sitting on the sofa holding a
mug of her mother’s infamous peppermint tea that made her toes curl after one
sip. Putting the mug down on the side table, she looked at her hands that were
still trembling.

“Everyone is gone,” Shane said, walking into the
room.

“Okay,” she sighed, standing up. But before going
to her bedroom she walked to ceiling window. Staring out into the darkness,
Jasmine couldn’t help the shiver that ran through her body.

For the past few hours she pretended to be this strong
woman, who wasn’t afraid of anything. “I was stupid,” she said, turning around
looking at him. “This could have been a bad ending.”

“Don’t say that!” Shane said.

“I’m scared! How could someone…” Her voice broke
as moisture clouded her vision.

“Not everyone in this world is good.”

She wrapped her arms around her midsection and
held her head low. “I’m going to check on Shay and go to bed.” She walked out
the living and to her bedroom.

After taking a hot shower and dressing into her
pajamas, she came out the bathroom to see Shane sitting on the bed. This would
be the first time in weeks she wasn’t going to argue with him about their
sleeping arrangement. Before slipping into the sheets in her bed, she peeked
into the crib at Shay sleeping peacefully.

“She’s okay,” Shane assured her, as he patted the
empty space next to him.

“Did you make sure the doors were locked?” Jasmine
asked. She knew it was a silly question, but she couldn’t resist asking.

“Yes, now come to bed.”

Slipping between the cool sheets, her body was
stiff as she laid there next to him. Turning around to face him looking at her,
she stared into his mesmerizing green eyes. “Please hold me.”

“I promise I won’t let anything happen to you, and
I would never hurt you. I swear,” he said leaning down, his lips gently pressed
against hers.

“I know,” she replied.

He smiled and wrapped his arms around her. “Go to
sleep darling,” he said.

Jasmine snuggled closer to him before falling into
a deep sleep.

Shane laid in bed next to Jasmine listening to the
soft sound emitting from her. He’d never seen her this scared. He touched the
dried blood on the side of her face. For the first time in his life, he knew it
was time to put aside the fear and live for the present.He stroked a tendril of
hair at her temple, the silkiness of her skin, the sheer fabric against her
body.