Colters' Woman (Colters' Legacy #1)(57)

“Shine the light, I’ll go in,” Adam directed.

He counted to three then rammed his shoulder into the rickety wooden door. It shattered and Adam stumbled inside. Ethan rushed in behind him, light raised, gun sweeping the area.

“There, in the corner!” Adam exclaimed.

Lacey burst in behind them, her pistol drawn. “Find anything?” she asked breathlessly.

Adam didn’t respond. His attention was focused on the small child huddled in the corner of the shed. Dropping to his knees in front of the boy, Adam reached out and touched the child’s cold skin.

To his relief, the boy stirred and opened his eyes.

“Thank God,” Adam murmured.

Lacey immediately began barking orders into her radio as she relayed their position. She requested EMS and told the dispatcher to inform the parents the child had been found.

“Sam,” Adam said gently. “We’ve come to take you home.”

“The bad man said I couldn’t go home,” Sam stuttered out. “Not until…”

“Not until what?” Lacey demanded.

Sam’s brow furrowed in confusion, his lips shook with the cold. “Said I had to serve my purpose. What’s that mean?”

Adam looked at the others and shrugged. What sicko had taken the child and left him here in the cold to freeze to death?

He reached down and picked Sam up, cradling him in his arms. “We’re going to take you home now, Sam. Your mama’s been awfully worried.”

“Don’t let the bad man hurt her,” Sam mumbled against Adam’s shirt.

“Don’t worry, son. He can’t hurt your mama.”

Sam raised his head. “Not Mama. The woman. The bad man said he had to take care of a woman.”

Icy prickles danced up Adam’s spine. He glanced over at the others, tendrils of dread clinging to him like a vine. “Take him for me,” he directed Ethan.

After Ethan hefted the boy into his arms, Adam dug for his cell phone. He punched in his home number and waited as it rang. He let it ring twenty times before he closed his cell phone. He swore softly.

“It’s the middle of the night,” Lacey offered. “They’re probably asleep.”

“Yeah and my signal sucks,” Adam said, trying to dispel the heavy foreboding that swelled in his gut. “I’ll try again when we get to town.”

“Ready to head out?” Lacey asked as she secured the rope to the rescue sled.

Ethan laid Sam down and arranged blankets around him. Then he and Adam took the rope and began pulling the sled through the snow. It was at least an hour trek back to town, and Adam carried a knot the size of a softball in his stomach.

Forty-five minutes later, out of breath and slogging much slower through the snow, Adam and Ethan stopped a moment to rest.

“It’s not much further now,” Lacey said.

Adam nodded, too winded to speak. The peal of his cell phone ringing rent the night air. Adam dropped the rope and dug frantically for his phone.

He flipped it open. “This is Adam.”

“Adam…” Holly’s voice, faint and wavery, filtered through the line.

“Holly?” Relief surged through him.

“Adam, thank God.” Her voice got a little stronger. “I don’t have much time.” He could hear tears, thick in her voice, and his pulse began pounding in his head. “He killed Ryan,” she sobbed.

Adam’s blood ran cold. “Holly, Holly, baby, where are you? Are you all right?” he shouted.

“I don’t know where I am,” she said, her voice desperate. “He took me. Please come get me.” Her voice broke.

“You bloody bitch, give me that!”

Adam held the phone, paralyzed as he heard the scene play out over the phone. Holly cried out. Adam heard the smack of flesh. Then the phone went dead.

“Sweet Jesus.”

Ethan grabbed him by the shoulder. “What the f**k is going on?”

“Holly,” Adam said hoarsely. “She said Ryan’s dead. Someone has her.”

Ethan dropped the floodlight he’d been carrying.

“We have to get to the cabin. Ryan. My God.” Adam couldn’t form another coherent thought.

“You two go on,” Lacey said. “I can take Sam from here. You’ll go quicker without the sled. I’ll radio for backup, get a car out there as fast as I can. My guys are still out on the east end coming off their search.”

Adam didn’t wait to hear anymore. He and Ethan began running through the snow. Ryan. Dead. The words hummed over and over, running through his mind in a sick litany.

The bastard had lured them out, kidnapped a child, and now he had Holly. His blood ran cold. Colder than the snow that wrapped around his legs. Holly would die if they didn’t get to her and get to her fast.

Ahead, the shine of the town lights glistened off the snow. Adam put on a burst of speed, his single-minded focus to get to the Land Rover as fast as possible. Ethan kept pace beside him, neither voicing the fears uppermost in their conscience.

The reached the back of Riley’s store and raced around to the parking lot and across the street to where the Land Rover was parked. Several townspeople, including Sam’s parents called out to them, but Adam ignored everything but the Land Rover.