“Damn.We were glad you stayed with Florence and Frank,” Blaze said.
Then they allretired for the night, and the next morning, Lacy got ready to go to work.Rory was already out doing ranch work, but before she left, he kissed her.“Are you sure you’re going to be all right on your own?”
“Yes, I feel great.No blizzard, no more brothers to harass me, no more need for protection.”
He hugged and kissed her.“All right.I’ll see you for dinner.”
“See you, honey.”She was ready to get back to a regular routine, even though she had just started working there.
She drove off, glad the roads were pretty clear.They were still packed with snow, but perfectly drivable.She called Florence on Bluetooth.“Hey, Grandma.”She thought she would try calling Florence her grandmother.
Florence laughed.“That sounds great.Are you coming in, or are the roads too bad?”
“I’m coming in.I’m about…”
Suddenly, a truck started to veer out of his lane and headed straight for her.A drunk driver?She didn’t have anywhere to go but into the snowbanks created by the snowplows.
She lay on the horn, but the truck was fully in her lane and getting close.
“What’s wrong?”Florence asked, sounding worried.Then she said, “Ava, call Dan.Lacy’s on the way here again, but she’s in trouble on the road.”
Lacy tried swerving into the truck’s lane to get out of his path, but he corrected his driving, targeting her.“Pickup coming from Yuma Town,” she hurriedly told Florence.“He’s aiming his truck right at me.”
He struck her car hard, she screamed, and drove into the snowbank.
Then she was stuck.She tried to back out, but her front wheels were too deep in the snow.His truck had a big bumper grill to protect it, but hers was badly smashed.
“He has got a gun.”
“Stay in the car.Ava’s calling Dan and Rory.Everyone’s headed your way.”
“It’s one of the quadruplet brothers.”
“Letting everyone know.”
“Get out of the car!”the brother yelled at her.
She didn’t respond.She was scared to pieces, and she wasn’t getting out of the car where he could take her somewhere else and kill her.
“You know what happened to them!Get.Out.Of.The.Car.Now.”
“What do you want?And which one are you?”She suspected it was Canton, that he would force the truth out of her.
“Canton, but I suspect you know that.Ren didn’t want any part of this, so he returned to Florida.Me?I’m going to learn the truth, and you’re going to tell me.”
“Ren didn’t believe what Timothy and Manning were doing was right.”
“I don’t give a damn about you.I just want to know where my brothers are.”
“I told you.I never saw them at the shop.You would have smelled them if they had been there.And the same with the ranch.But I’m sure they would have realized they couldn’t have hassled me there, not with all the ranch hands who work there.Then the blizzard came, and who knows what happened to them.”
“They would have shifted to stay warm.They didn’t stay in their cars.”
“Then look for them.I’m not leaving the car.”
“The sheriff’s office isn’t looking for them, are they?”
No, they’re looking for Canton though.
