She put a hand on her hip. “Driving a worried daughter to Portland.”
I didn’t understand half of what she said, but the way she said it made it sound like a compliment, so I smiled. “Would you be willing to give me a ride?”
Katy bit her bottom lip. “Do you have a plan?”
I needed a plan? I wasn’t sure how long the drive to Portland took, but I figured I’d come up with something really snazzy on the ride there. Being put on the spot threw a damper on my excitement. “I figured I would go to the port and trade myself for my mother.”
Eventually, I’d figure out the details. It was a rough estimate of a plan at that point, but I hoped Katy saw the pure genius in the underlying facts.
From the scowl she wore, she didn’t. “That’s the worst plan I’ve ever heard and trust me, I know dangerous plans.”
Okay, so she wasn’t gonna go along with my genius idea, but at least I could get her to agree to not turn me in. “Are you going to tell?”
She shook her head. “No. A plan that bad needs backup. I’ll call Vonnie and tell her about the change of plans. How good are you at climbing down trees?”
Katy slipped her body out of the window and in the next moment, she was gone. I leaned my head out of the opening and saw her clutching the trunk of a big maple next to the bed-and-breakfast.
“Hurry,” Katy whispered from her position. “We’ll have to pick up Vonnie.”
The last time I climbed a tree I’d been ten going through a tomboy phase while visiting family in Kentucky, but I wasn’t about to let a few leaves keep me away for my mission.
CHAPTER 22
CYRUS
“You know Imogen will want to leave as soon as possible,” I said to Ridge as we made our way up the stairs to the second floor of the bed-and-breakfast. He’d given me the details of the plan even though I told him to wait until we were with Imogen.
I’d offered myself up as bait to lure Bernard out of hiding. They might have been looking for Corbin, but I wouldn’t let my brother risk his life to save my future mother-in-law. I wasn’t looking forward to becoming literal bait, but I wanted to be the one who jumped in and saved the day for my future family.
I peeked my head into the hotel room before swinging the door open to make sure Imogen was decent before she met Ridge. What the hell? She wasn’t there.
“Beautiful?” I called, but no one answered.
Ridge examined the room as well. “She left a note,” he said, pointing to the small notepad with the bed-and-breakfast logo on the top. She positioned it at the end of the bed, tilted a certain way so that we’d notice when we walked into the room.
“Maybe she skipped to the bakery for another cupcake,” I said, trying to be optimistic but failing. A note was never a good sign. Especially when the note writer’s mother had been kidnapped.
“Yeah, sure.” Ridge walked over to the pad, skimmed it, and then tossed it in my direction.
“No, she wouldn’t,” I said, scanning the message. My stomach twisted and turned with each letter.
Cyrus,
Went to save my mother. Don’t worry. Be back soon.
I tried to be mad. Betrayal clouded my emotions, but I had to admit that if it was up to me, I probably would’ve done the same thing. Nothing would keep me from saving Corbin if he was the one in trouble. The problem was that I just found Imogen and didn’t plan to let her go running off into the dark night alone.
“We have to get her back,” I said to Ridge, turning on a heel to face him.
He already had his phone pressed to his ear, and even though his face portrayed calmness, his words came quickly. “We’ll get her. We know where she’s headed, and she doesn’t have much of a lead.”
I checked my watch. There was no way to know if Imogen plotted to leave the entire time and darted out as soon as I left the room or if she took time before escaping. But at least thirty minutes had passed since I left her.
Rather than be upstairs with Imogen, I waited in the lobby for Ridge. Then he turned up with Corbin and we stood down there talking for longer than I should have allowed. It was my fault she left and my lack of ability to do anything quicker.
“I’m coming with you,” I said, following Ridge when he turned and left the room without warning.
How did I let this happen? I recognized the possibility that Bernard would still be interested in Imogen, but I naïvely thought her mother was safe. It was another miscalculation on my part and led to doom.
