There was a phone in her pocket, though. Was it still on? Was Tanner even listening? In the few seconds between retrieving the phone and getting it into her pocket, she thought it looked like there was a call in progress, but she wasn’t sure. And it could have cut out by now. She needed to get it out and check, sneak a call in to 911. Something.

  “It’s time for Joanie’s show. I can’t fucking believe she wouldn’t let me come with her. But when I call her, when she sees how I was willing to go to such lengths to bring your sorry ass to her, to make her happy, she’ll come get us.” He had to put the gun down to use both hands, one to shade the sun’s glare from the screen and one to push buttons and hold it.

  Jen was tempted to try to kick the gun away, but he was still sober enough to put it on his far side, so she’d have to stand up to get to it, and he’d be able to grab the gun and shoot her before she disarmed him.

  It’s okay, she told herself. You can wait him out. Tanner will find you.

  But what if he didn’t? What if he’d sent her call to voicemail? He already told her he didn’t want to be with her, so he might have been willing to cut ties to the point of ignoring her calls.

  Don’t let that crap drag you down, Jen reminded herself. You might never meet a guy who cares about you the way you want to be cared about, but you’re not your mother. You do not need him to save you, literally or figuratively.

  Brock cursed and slammed his phone down on his thigh, which jarred his ankle, making him curse even louder. “Bitch won’t take my calls. Sending them straight to voicemail. After everything I’ve done for her.” He uncapped his booze and took another big drink.

  Oh great. She and Brock were in the same But why won’t you answer my calls? brain space.

  Well, Jen was nothing if not a great rationalizer, so she said, “She probably can’t answer while she’s getting ready to go on the air. Maybe you can get the show on your phone.”

  Brock blinked at Jen, then looked at his phone. Then he tossed it to her and picked up his gun. “Do it for me. No funny business.”

  Okay, so he’d reached the point of being too drunk to browse the internet, though he still had the use of his gun hand. She could work with that. If they could reach her, Jen’s mom would hear how messed up Brock was and find a way to send help.

  Jen managed to find the show, the overly cheery voice of Misty Marvin herself saying, “In just a few minutes, we’ve got a very special program planned, so get those phones charged and make sure your credit cards are handy because you’re about to have ringside seats to a brand-new exclusive product line from the creator of Homemade with Joanie—Joanie Greene!”

  Jen was surprised at the pang of sorrow she felt hearing Homemade announced without her name in the title. She really, really missed her mom right now.

  “Gimme that,” Brock said, then “How the hell am I supposed to watch this and call her at the same time?”

  Jen mentally rolled her eyes. “Maybe we can wait until they say it’s time to call, then we can switch to the phone app.”

  Brock closed one eye and squinted at her suspiciously, holding the muzzle of his gun to Jen’s temple. “If you screw this up, I’m going to screw you up.”

  Jen had no doubt that he meant exactly what he said.

  ***

  Tanner dismounted from Bullet when he was about a hundred yards from the clearing Jen had described so he could proceed on foot. This wasn’t a good time to charge in like, well, the cavalry because he’d likely get everyone shot.

  “Thanks, buddy,” he murmured to Bullet, who blew out a big horsey breath and took the brim of Tanner’s hat between his teeth, tossing it on the ground. In spite of how worried he was about Jen, he had to stop and hug the horse’s neck, just for a second. One of Bullet’s favorite games from before was to take Tanner’s hat and toss it aside. “Be good. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  It wasn’t steep terrain but it was rocky, and there was a lot of brush that would snap and crackle with each misplaced footstep, so it was slow going. He’d put the phone in his pocket, hoping the battery wouldn’t die on him. He hadn’t been able to hear much over Bullet’s hoof steps, and now there was some sort of interference coming in because he could hear faint music like from a commercial or something. Damn this outer-nowhere cell phone reception.

  He carried a rifle, a semiautomatic pistol, and enough ammo for a month-long siege. Nothing like getting outfitted for a mission by a crew of Army Rangers and a handful of war fighters from other branches, all champing at the bit to get involved. Adam had taken charge, however, and decided he and Rico would come in on foot behind Tanner and provide backup, while everyone else would stay at the ranch in case they’d gotten the location wrong and needed to redeploy.

  He reached the creek Jen described and worked his way up the opposite embankment until he heard… What was that? It was the same broadcast he was getting over his phone. It wasn’t interference; they were watching TV through a phone. He clicked off his own phone in time to hear a painfully perky woman introducing “a very special guest with a very special brand of makerism.”

  “New here to our Shopping Extravaganza Network audience is Ms. Joanie Greene!”

  “Hi, everyone,” a woman, presumably Jen’s mother, said. “Thanks so much for having me.”

  Hoping Brock’s attention was on the screen and not his surroundings, Tanner hazarded a glance over the edge of the rise and saw that Jen and Brock were about fifty yards away. She appeared to be okay, and he didn’t give a shit how Brock was except as it applied to how easily Tanner could get Jen away from him. Considering there was a gun in the hand not occupied with the phone, it wasn’t likely to be a walk in the park.

  “Dial,” Brock said, and held the gun up as he passed the phone to Jen.

  ***

  Jen thought for a split second about texting her mom instead of calling, but Brock was wound so tightly, watching her every move, that she didn’t want to take a chance. If they called and got Joanie on the line, she’d know something was wrong because she’d know Jen would never, ever go anywhere willingly with Brock, especially after Joanie told her she’d ditched him.

  It took her a couple of tries because she was so scared, her brain wouldn’t hold the phone number beyond 1–800. Finally, she wrote the digits in the dirt and managed to get them dialed. She put the phone on speaker, but the line was busy. She tried again. Again, same result.

  “Hurry up!” Brock ordered.

  “I’m trying but it’s not going through.”

  The third time was the charm. Except the call went through to a prerecorded message. “Our system will not accept calls from this number. If you feel you have been blocked in error, please visit the customer-service web page at—”

  “Are you kidding me?” Brock was incredulous, and while Jen was disappointed, too, she had to give her mom kudos for thinking ahead. It would really suck to get a phone call from your skeevy ex while you were on live TV. “Put it back on the show,” Brock ordered, taking another slug from his bottle.

  The only thing Jen could think to do was to wait for Brock to drink until he passed out, and then somehow get out of this harness. At least she knew there was no way he could follow her. That leg was seriously messed up. She was afraid he might have screwed up his circulation because the red staining his leg earlier was beginning to darken. What happened if you lost the blood supply to your leg? The affected parts would die from lack of oxygen, and then you’d probably go into septic shock or gangrene or whatever and die a horribly agonizing death. Jen didn’t want that to happen to Brock. Even though he was an evil pig, she didn’t wish suffering and death on him. How long would it take? Would they both die of thirst and sunburn first? And what if Tanner was the one to find her bloated, decomposing body? Would he blame himself? Could she freak herself out any more completely?

  She shook her head and focused on her mom’s show.

  ***

  Jen was between Tanner and Brock. Tanner was a good shot, but not that good. Besides, lethal force was a last resort. Not so much because Tanner didn’t want to kill the monster who held his woman in jeopardy but because he didn’t want Jen to have to live for one second with Brock’s brains splattered on her body, or that image in her head. It was obvious Brock was focused more on watching Joanie at the moment than shooting anyone. Of course, Tanner wasn’t a hostage negotiation specialist, so what did he know? He’d driven the damned vehicle when his squad went on patrol.

  The one thing he did know was that the woman he loved was in danger, and he was going to save her if it was the last thing he did. They were next to one of the big rocks Jen had mentioned in her description of the place, so there was no way to come up behind the guy and get the gun away from him. Unless…

  Tanner sized up the second big rock, a few feet away. If he could get up on the rock, he might just be able to jump down on Brock. A six-two, two-hundred-pound pissed-off soldier landing in his lap would definitely distract the asshole long enough for Jen to get away. But the way things were situated, he’d crush Jen on his way to crush Brock.

  He thought about it for a couple more seconds, then carefully picked his way around to the other side of Brock’s makeshift hideout.

  Once he was in place, he pulled his phone from his pocket and checked. Grateful for the small miracles, he found that not only did he have reception, but he had some battery left. He tapped around on Google for a minute, spent another minute downloading an app for the shopping network, entered all of his personal information, including his PayPal account, and finally got to make a call.

  He didn’t think he’d get through, but surprisingly, his call was answered on the second ring.

  “Hello, you’re on Shopping Extravaganza!” he heard from the chipper call-center person. “I see you’re a brand-new member! I bet you’d like to order one of Joanie’s homemade soy candles, wouldn’t you?”

  “Actually,” he said, keeping his voice low, “I’m a friend of Joanie’s daughter, Jen—Jennifer—and I need to give her a very important message about Jen.”

  “What is your name, sir?”

  “Tanner Beauchamp.” He spelled his last name for her.

  “And what is your message?”

  “I–I’d like to deliver it directly to Ms. Greene. It’s an important message from Jennifer.”

  “Hold on one moment, sir!”

  Instead of elevator music, he heard the show while he was on hold. While he waited, the perky cohost said, “What do you know, Joanie! It seems we have a message from a very special person today.”

  “Is it Jen?” Joanie guessed, her voice sounding so hopeful that Tanner felt guilty.

  “No,” Ms. Perky said. “This might be even better. It’s Jen’s friend Tanner!”

  There was silence while Jen gasped.

  “Would you like to speak to her friend? Is he her boyfriend?” the perky lady cooed.

  Joanie was no fool, however, and she sounded suspicious when she said, “Jen didn’t have a boyfriend the last time I spoke to her. What’s the message?”

  “Go ahead, caller!” Ms. Perky said.

  Oh crap. He was on live.

  “Uh, hi, Ms. Greene. My name’s Tanner Beauchamp, and I’m a friend of Jen—Jennifer’s.”

  Chapter 29

  Jen wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. This whole ridiculous mess was getting nuttier by the moment. Now Tanner was chatting with Jen’s mother on a shopping channel show.

  “Who the fuck is that?” Brock threw his liquor bottle. It didn’t break, but spilled some.

  “Shh. Listen,” Jen admonished him.

  Joanie said, “I don’t know you. How do you know Jennifer?”

  Tanner, sweet Tanner, replied, “I, ah…I live a few miles down the road and I’ve been helping her out on her homestead.”

  “Oh! Are you one of those veterans from that dog place?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Wonderful! Jennifer told me about your place and what you’re doing for other veterans. I thank you for your service both now and while you served our country.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Tanner said.

  “You know, Jennifer told me all about her sweet little Trixie. I have to thank you for helping her out. I worry about her out there all alone.”

  There was a slight pause, and Jen could imagine Tanner wanting to tell her mom that she was right to worry. That Brock had shown up and taken her hostage.

  Instead, he said, “She’s a fine woman, Ms. Greene, and she’s doing an amazing job out there, putting together a homestead anyone would be proud to live on.”

  Jen’s heart clenched. Did he really think that?

  “Aww, dats so sweet,” Brock mocked. “What’s he trying to do? Get in your mom’s pants too? He got a mother-daughter fantasy?”

  “Shut up, Brock,” Jen snapped. She’d really had just about as much as she could take of him, gun and all.

  Meanwhile, the shopping network host was having a terrible time regaining control of her show.

  “Well, isn’t that just lovely?” the woman said. “You’ll have to get Jennifer to come to our show and tell us all about her exploits, won’t you?”

  Tanner and Joanie ignored her.

  “What moved you to call today?” Joanie asked.

  “Well, Ms. Greene, I have a problem, and I need your help.”

  “Oh my goodness, look at those phone lines lighting up!” the host said. “We’ve got a lot of people waiting to talk to you about these lovely candles you’ve brought today.”

  “How can I help you, Tanner?” Joanie asked.

  “I’m having a little trouble finding Jen today. See, Trixie wandered into the ranch this afternoon, and when I tried to take her home, Jen wasn’t there.”

  Trixie was okay. Jen hadn’t allowed herself to think about the dog, fearing the worst, but if Trixie really did show up at the ranch, that must mean she was fine. And Tanner knew Jen was missing. He’d have seen her car sitting next to the barn, and even if he didn’t know where she was, he knew she wasn’t where she should be.

  “What’s your point, young man?” asked an exasperated host. “We’re going to have to move on here.”

  “I need you to give Jen a message,” Tanner said.

  “Oh, that’s so sweet!” Joanie exclaimed. “You are her boyfriend, aren’t you?”

  “I… Not exactly.”

  Jen’s heart sank, although why it did was anyone’s guess. Yeah, she’d wanted him to be her boyfriend, even though she didn’t have time for a boyfriend, certainly didn’t need one.

  “But you care for her, right?”

  “I’m…”

  Jen held her breath, waiting for him to finish with “Just a friend.”

  Tanner’s voice was a little froggy and she had to strain to hear him say: “I’m in love with her.”

  Jen’s heart beat so loudly, she almost missed the rest of it.

  “She’s like a cool stream flowing next to a couple of big ugly rocks.”

  He was in love with her? What…?

  She ran the rest of his words through her head. He knew where she was. Holy macaroni. He knew. He was going to save her.

  “Well, that’s certainly an interesting analogy,” the host said. “But for the last time, what’s your message?”

  “Tell her I said: Duck!”

  Jen didn’t exactly duck, she kind of leaned away and looked around, but as she did, Brock cursed and yanked on the rope harness, pulling her over onto her side, knocking the breath from her body. Something hit Jen’s shoulder, and Brock wasn’t just cursing, he was screaming bloody murder because the thing that hit her shoulder was an elbow or a knee belonging to a very angry man who’d also landed on Brock. Jen got to her feet and pulled the rope wrapped around Brock’s flailing arm, tugging to free herself and keeping him from using both hands to fight back as Tanner grappled with him. The rope loosened, and she scrambled out of the way, nudging the gun out of grabbing distance. Brock thrashed and howled as Tanner fought to subdue him, finally flipping him over and sitting on the backs of his legs while he wrenched Brock’s arms behind him and secured them with zip ties he pulled from somewhere.

  As soon as Brock was secure, whimpering facedown into the dust, Tanner rose and picked up the gun. He pulled and pushed some things until a bullet popped out of the top and the thingy that held all of the other bullets was in his other hand, then he put it all in his jean pocket.

  Finally, he looked at Jen.

  “Hi,” she said, while he ran a hand through his hair and brushed some of the dust from his jeans.

  “Hey,” he said back. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded, but said, “Probably not. I mean, I think I’m okay right now, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a meltdown later.”

  “Adrenaline. That’s normal. Make sure you drink lots of water and eat something so you don’t go into shock.”

  “What about me? What about my shock?” Brock spat out.

  “We’ll let the sheriff deal with you,” Tanner said.

  Brock began muttering about lawsuits and civil rights, but neither Jen nor Tanner paid him any attention.

  “And we’ll be back in just a few moments while we tell you about what’s coming up next!” came from Brock’s phone, which was still streaming.

  “My mom’s got to be freaking out,” Jen said as her own phone buzzed in her pocket. She dug it out and put it to her ear. Tanner walked a few feet away and pulled out his own phone and pushed some buttons. “Hi, Mom?”

  “What on earth is going on there?” her mom asked. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  “Oh geez. So much. But I’m okay.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Brock was holding me hostage out in the middle of the woods, and Tanner came from nowhere to jump down on Brock and now he’s tied up and I guess the police are coming.”