The Rancher Meets His Match (10 page)

             
He just sat there looking at her.  She was so beautiful and so right in so many ways.  She was great with his daughter, more like a mother than anything else.  He watched as she looked at Josey who was talking and she swept Josey’s hair behind her ear so she could see her face better.  He hadn’t even noticed how close the two of them had become.  She even sounded like a mother, the way she got on to Josey for talking with her mouth full.

             
He had fallen in love and here he sat just staring across the table at her instead of telling her his feelings.  He wanted to but he didn’t know how he would stand it if she didn’t share those feelings.  He’d been crushed once before and those feelings didn’t even come close to the way he felt now.  J.W. had never been scared of anything in his life but he was terrified now. 

             
The conversation finally ended, and lunch was over.  Willy asked J.W. to show them around so Hilary could get back to her training.  She needed to begin working with the new horse and Josey was having a fit to ride Pep.  So they got up from the table and headed outside, going their separate ways. 

             
Josey, saddled up Pep, talking nonstop the whole time about what a beautiful horse he was.  Hilary was working the future cutter on the lunge line on one end of the arena and Josey and Pep were on the other.  She enjoyed starting new horses.  She was concentrating on the young colt, when she heard Pep squeal.  She turned to see what had happened and was hit with a powerful force from behind that knocked the air out of her, preventing her from screaming.  She got to her knees gasping for air.  Someone grabbed her from behind twisting her arm behind her back and covering her mouth.  She heard duct tape being ripped and seconds later the hand over her mouth moved and someone else put duct tape over it. 
They wrapped the duct tape around her wrist behind her back then she was tossed over the shoulder of a very large man that could make J.W. and her brothers look small.

             
Once she realized what was happening she had a sudden boost of adrenaline and she fought to get away.  She had to get to Josey.  She had to find J.W. and her brothers.  She managed to wiggle her way free from the man only to get hit, hard by his very large fist.  Her last thought was of Josey, right before she blacked out.

             
When Hilary awoke,
she was deep in the woods, surrounded by men with guns.  Most of the men looked citified and she was sure they would stick out like a sore thumb in town.  She immediately thought of Josey and she scanned the area for her.  Josey was tied to a tree to the right of her, but she wasn’t looking at her, she was looking at someone else.  Hilary followed her glare to a nervous looking Lisa, sitting by the fire. 

             
Hilary thought,
I should have known that Lisa would have something to do with this.
  She didn’t speak a word careful not to draw attention to herself. She reached as far as she could with her hands tied behind her back to get the small knife out of her right pocket It was a pink browning knife and it was very, very sharp.  She had cut herself with it several times.  Once she got it, it took some time just to get it open then she leaned back against a tree careful to conceal the knife and went to work trying to cut through the duct tape.   It was thick and tough going but she finally got it.  She managed to cut a slice out of her hand too.

             
She waited until it was dark and everyone was sleeping then she snuck over to where Josey sat and cut her loose.  She told her to run and don’t stop
until
she got to the ranch. 
She stood up to follow, but they caught her before she took two steps. 

             
Frankie, the one that seemed to be the boss held her jaw in his hand and squeezed tight, shoving her head backwards until she hit the tree.  The blow to her head hurt
badly
but she managed to stay awake this time.  He started hollering, waking his men up,
and telling
them to chase after the girl.  Hilary hoped and prayed that Josey would make it back to the ranch.

             
An hour later, the men came back.  They lost her in the dark and they wanted permission to start after her at dawn. Frankie scowled but nodded his acceptance.  They all crawled back into their tents and lay back down for the night.  Hilary noted that Lisa slept in Frankie’s tent, how convenient for her, she thought.

When J.W. noticed the horses were running loose in the arena and Hilary and Josey were nowhere in sight he called all the men.  They searched the grounds thoroughly, every last inch of it.  No one could find any trace of the two missing females.  Hilary’s brothers were beginning to get mad and J.W. was getting the blame.  Willy started hollering at him but J.W. was in no mood to argue. His daughter and the woman he loved were missing and this was only complicating things.  Willy shoved him into a stall and J.W. tackled him. 
The two men were rolling around on the barn floor, throwing lick after lick when Justin and Reid found them.

             
They were tempted to let it go on just to see who would win.  J.W. was giving as good as he got.  They knew that Willy had let his hotheadedness get the best of him and they struggled to pull the two men apart and calm them down.  “Stop it this is not going to help us find them.  Did anyone look for a note?” Justin said trying to get the two to think.  “I’m going back to the arena and I’m going to check every square inch of it until I find something.  I would appreciate it if the two of you would stop fighting and help me.” 

             
They all spread out searching for anything that would give them a clue.  J.W. went to get the horses that were still running around the arena.  In all their
searching,
no one had bothered
to do anything with them.  He started taking the saddle off Pep when he noticed the saddlebags.  He hadn’t thought about them before, but he did now.  He searched through the packs pulling everything out, then finally just dumping the contents on the ground.  A piece of yellow
paper caught his attention
.
It was pinned to the flap.
  He picked the piece of paper up and realizing what it was he dropped to his knees, calling out to anyone who would listen. “God, no, oh please no.” he cried.

             
The letter pinned to
the saddlebags was a ransom letter:

We have your daughter and we will kill her and the woman if you do not get us $200,000.00 in cash within the week.  Someone will contact you by phone and schedule a meeting place.

Sincerely,

F.

             
Justin, took the yellow slip of paper from his hands and read it.  “Willy!” He shouted.  He handed the note to his brothers and they each read the letter.  “We have to call the cops.” Justin said.  “Where are we gonna get that much money in a week?” Reid asked and looked down at J.W.
whose
jaw set in a hard line and was balling his fist up so tight his knuckles were white.  “I can only get that kind of money if I sell my stock or take out a mortgage on the ranch.  It may look like I have a lot of money but it’s all tied up in this ranch.” J.W. told them. They shook their head to acknowledge they understood.

             
Samuel walked up behind J.W.  “Boss, Sheriff James is on his way, I called him as soon as they went missing.  What is it? Did you find something?” Samuel Knew J.W.s looks and he knew that it was bad news.  Reid held out the yellow paper with the ransom note on it.  “J.W. found this in Peps saddlebags.” He said. 

             
Heath ran out to them yelling. “Sheriff’s here!”  Then he ran back to tell the sheriff where they were.  The boy was talking nonstop about how they found the horses in the arena and no women.  J.W. was sure that the sheriff had almost all the information by now but he still didn’t know about the note.  “We found this a few minutes ago, Sheriff.  It was in the saddlebags on Hilary’s horse.  Josey was saddling him when we left them.”  J.W. told him.

             
Sheriff James noted that J.W. was trying hard to remain calm.  Yet, he could see through the set of his jaw and the white of his knuckles that he was trying hard to conceal his emotions and it was definitely a struggle that he was not winning easily.

             
Heath listened quietly to the conversation between the older men.  He was beginning to worry about Josey, and he didn’t know why she had suddenly became so important to him.  But he knew that they had to find her and Hilary or J.W. would go mad.  He didn’t want to be around if that happened.  He had seen what he could do when he lost his temper.  He had an idea and decided to share.

             
“Sheriff, do you mind if I say something?” The sheriff nodded.  “Well it seems to me,” Heath said, “that they must be somewhere on this ranch.  I mean think about it.  They didn’t come in here with vehicles or we would have noticed.  They had to have walked in.  I mean there’s thousands of miles on this ranch, with a lot of places they can hide.”  J.W.s head popped up.  “He’s right.  They have to be somewhere on this ranch.  We need to start looking for them.” 
J.W 
said, “Sam, get me a map of the ranch!”  

             
Samuel ran to get the map and bring it back to the men.  He spread it out on a barrel that stood just outside the arena for barrel racing.  They pointed out all the places that they thought would be a good idea.  There were a couple of places where the road met with a wooded area.  They decided that they would be the best places to start.

             
“J.W
I don’t have enough men to cover all that ground.”  The Sheriff said. “But I have men, Sheriff and they know this place backwards and forwards.” J.W. said.  The sheriff scratched his beard.  “I don’t like to do it but I’m afraid I have to J.W. 
You’re
right your men do know the place better than any of mine do
.  I tell you what,
I’ll
do it but no one makes a move until my men get there.  I want to spread them out where I can have at least one of my deputies
in the same vicinity.” 

             
They discussed everything that was going to happen within the next few hours.  They discussed, what to do if they came upon armed men, and what to do if they found them unharmed.
Everyone carried a radio and reported to the sheriff if they
found anything.  They saddled up good horses and
explained to the deputies how to handle them
.

             
“What I can’t figure out is how anyone got Hilary without going through, Bubba.” Reid said.  They all looked at him suddenly realizing the dog was also missing.  How had anyone gotten past Bubba, the dog was very protec
tive of his owner.  They started
to look for the dog.  He would have been easier to miss than a woman and a girl and no one had really been looking for him the first time they combed the area.  They spread out calling him. 
J.W 
found him behind the barn. 
He was
lying
behind a pile of manure, and
was
ble
e
d
ing
from the head. 
He whimpered when J.W. kneeled down beside him.  “Reid,” J.W. shouted, “back here!” 

             
They all came running.  J.W. was picking him up and carrying him toward the house.  He laid him down on the porch.  “Heath, get me something to stitch him up, Samuel get me some clean towels and tell cook to get me some warm water.”  J.W. ordered the men.  “I’m gonna
need one of you to hold him while I stitch him.  I don’t want to get bit.” He said looking at Hilary’s brothers.  He knew the dog would be more comfortable with one of them.  Justin knelt down and lay the dogs head in his lap.  He ran his hands down the
dog’s
body and spoke calmly to him. 

             
J.W. cleaned the wound but the bleeding wouldn’t stop.  He told cook to bring him some tea bags.  The wet teabags helped to stop the bleeding.  He finally got the dog stitched up and got up.  He got Bubba some food and water.  After a few minutes the dog was up and moving.  He was weak but he was better.  He whined and cocked his head at J.W. as if to say
what’s
going on? What happened? Where’s Hilary?
 

             
“It’s ok, boy,”
J.W
said
,
petting the dog, “we’re gonna find them.”  J.W. looked around at all the men around him. He looked each one in the eye before finally saying to them; “We start early in the morning.  Have the horses ready by five.”  He turned to go in and held the door open for the dog
that
was on his heels.  Bubba followed J.W. to his room where he began packing things into his saddlebags.   Then they headed to the kitchen and added more stuff to the bags.  J.W. knew he would get no sleep so he didn’t even try.  He, went to the coffee pot, putting coffee on and headed into his office.