“Go ahead.”
She settled beside him.“First, are you hungry?”
Food sounded good.Coffee sounded better.“Let’s head to the kitchen.”
He threw the covers off and started to get up.A wave of dizziness set him right back down.
“You stay here,” Ivy said, rising.“Tell me what you want, and I’ll get it.”
“Thanks, but no.I just need a minute, and I’ll be fine.”
“You lost a lot of blood, Beau.”
Ivy sat down beside him.
“The family doctor stopped by and said you should stay in bed a couple of days to get your rest,” she said.
“No way.We don’t have that kind of time.”He glanced around, looking for his phone.Realization dawned.He’d stashed it in the SUV.Had the bastards found it?“How long have I been out?”
“A day,” Ivy said.
“People don’t fill up the gas tank every day.Maybe there’s still time to…”
He stopped when he caught a glimpse of the way Ivy stared at him like he had two foreheads.
“I stashed my phone on the SUV so I could track it, and, hopefully, figure out where my mother and your father are being held against their will.”
Her eyebrows shot upward.“Oh-h-h-h-h-h.That’s great thinking right there.I noticed that you didn’t have your cell with you when we got here.I tried to find it in case you wanted it when you woke up.Leaving it on the SUV was a smart move.”
His chest puffed up with pride.The rest of his body craved more sleep.
With effort, he stood up.Ivy followed suit, letting him wrap his arm around her shoulders for support.
“If you insist on walking to the kitchen, at least let me help you get there safely,” she said, her voice resigned.
Being too stubborn to give in had kept him going as a kid when he’d needed his mother and she couldn’t be there for him, for herself, or anyone else, for that matter.Depression was hard on everyone.
In this case, he would relent.Easing Ivy’s concern was more important than proving to himself he could walk across a room without assistance.
“Take it easy,” she said when he winced.
“I need to make a pitstop in the bathroom.”The stagnant taste in his mouth had to go.Plus, he needed to use the facilities.
“Okay.”She walked him to the door and said she’d wait outside.
Time was the enemy.Beau took care of business and washed up, fully aware every second that ticked by could mean one or both of their loved ones could die.When he finished, he opened the door to find Ivy standing there, leaning against the wall with her arms folded across her chest.
“Let’s go find them,” he said to her.
6
It was probably wishful thinking fueling Ivy’s next thoughts.The ones that said answers to what was happening and why were just a few clicks of a keyboard away, and that she would somehow understand what was happening and why her sixty-two-year-old father had been abducted.He didn’t have any money to speak of, so it couldn’t be related to financial gain.
What else could it be?
Ivy helped Beau to the table.The clock read 4:12 in the morning.She’d managed to drive for hours fueled by adrenaline and caffeine.At every stop, she’d topped off her cup thanks to the cash she’d found in the glovebox.It had taken three gas stations for her to find someone who knew where the Sturgess family’s ranch was located.Being here, seeing it for herself, she couldn’t help but be impressed.She’d caught a glimpse of the main house, and the house they were currently in was more like a luxury lodge than a place she imagined was meant for a family.According to Beau, six of the seven Sturgess kids had grown up here.She’d always wondered what having a big family would be like.Holidays with dozens of cookies baking in the ovens and the smell of cinnamon wafting through the air, and smiling kids in matching pajamas sitting around a tree larger than a house with a roaring fire in the background.
Based on Beau’s description, this place had been nothing like the fantasy she’d conjured.Her parents had finally given her a brother.She wouldn’t have traded Eric for the world.He’d taught her how to live in the moment.His smile was the purest, most genuine thing she’d ever seen.
