“She’s with you.” Her eyes narrowed. “What is this about?”
“She’s not with me.” He explained about the fire. “She said she was coming straight here.” Had she stopped at the store? Perhaps found someone to visit with? “Go ahead. She must have gotten sidetracked. I’ll find her.”
Missy’s eyes widened with fear. She spoke but one word. “Vic?” She swallowed hard and couldn’t go on.
“He couldn’t have caught us,” Nate told her. But even as he said the words, he knew the man could have. They’d been delayed enough for him to have overtaken them. “I’ll bring her back.” No one—not Vic, not anyone else—would take her, or the baby, away from him.
Outside on the street he stopped in the store. No Louise. He headed for the doctor’s office. Perhaps she’d gone to consult with Mrs. Noble again.
“No, I haven’t seen her,” Mrs. Noble said. “Does she often wander off?”
“No.” Maybe he hadn’t seen much of Louise over the past few years, but he knew she wouldn’t simply walk away. His Louise would stay and fight. Which, he realized with a jolt of understanding, was why she’d stayed in Rocky Creek. She’d hoped she could change things by staying, just as he’d hoped to change things by leaving.
“Thanks.” He hurried up and down the broad, rutted street and ended up in front of the Mounties’ headquarters. Colonel Macleod exited as Nate was about to enter the building.
“Can I help you?”
“I don’t know.” He quickly explained Louise’s disappearance.
“Have you looked in all the buildings?”
Nate told him the places he’d been to.
“She’s just had a baby, you say? Could she have fainted somewhere?”
“Wouldn’t I have come upon her?” He scrubbed at his neck. Where had Louise and Chloe disappeared to?
“Come along.” Colonel Macleod signaled Nate to follow.
Nate struggled not to rush past the man and dash up and down the street calling Louise. His brain screamed her name. Louise, where are you and Chloe?
* * *
Vic led Louise behind the buildings, down a narrow passage and into another building. A storage shed of some sort. What did the man have in mind?
He looked about, then pushed her deeper into the dim interior.
She wondered if he had a plan or if he was making it up as he went. He seemed to be thinking hard. While he thought of what he meant to do, she tried to come up with her own plan.
If she called out, would help come before he could escape or harm either of them?
She wasn’t about to test the idea.
She had to find a way to escape without putting herself or Chloe at risk. She looked at the items in the storeroom and her eyes lit on an array of axes. Quickly she shifted her gaze, lest he notice her interest. But how was she to get at them and how could she swing one while holding Chloe?
“What do you plan to do with us?” Every word was a challenge.
“I’m going to take you someplace where no one will ever find you.”
“You’ll be a hunted man and you know what they say...the Mounties always get their man.”
“Not this time.” He grabbed her arm. “Come on. We’re going to my horse.”
He didn’t say the barn, which gave her cause to think he’d left his horse elsewhere.
“You planning to make us ride double?” She almost gagged at the thought.
He sneered. “One way to make sure you won’t get away.”
She considered her options quickly. “The baby is going to get in the way.” Much as her heart broke to say the words, she told him, “Let me leave the baby here.”
He leaned close and lifted the blanket covering Chloe. “Ugly little thing.”
Her fists curled, but she knew the only way she could hope to save Chloe’s life was to remain calm. She had to make Vic see the wisdom in leaving the infant behind. Chloe would cry when she wakened, which would be soon after Louise stopped rocking her. Someone would hear and save the baby’s life.
“Hadn’t you better get moving? Nate will be looking for me by now.”
Vic squeezed her arm so hard, tears came to her eyes. She blinked them away. She would not show any weakness in front of him.