Lone Star Payback by Delores Fossen

Author:Delores Fossen [Fossen, Delores]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lone Star Books
Published: 2024-04-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

───── ✩ ────

Rayna could hear the terror in Janine’s voice. Could hear the words, Alane’s missing pulse through her head.

The panic tore through Rayna, robbing her of her breath and nearly bringing her to her knees. It was a déjà vu all over again. Janine’s other frantic call nearly two years ago to beg Rayna for help in getting Alane out of Peaceful Path.

“What happened?” Rayna managed to ask while she fought the urge to run, to try to get to Alane as fast as she could. But she couldn’t even start that until she had some basic facts.

“I’m not sure,” Janine blurted, her voice a tense tangle of nerves and adrenaline before she broke into a full sobbing cry. “Oh, God,” she muttered, and she just kept repeating it.

“All right, back up, Janine,” Rayna instructed. “Take a deep breath. A couple of them, and tell me why you think Alane is missing. Where is she supposed to be right now?”

Rayna hoped by asking questions, she could tamp down the woman’s emotions enough to give her an answer. She hoped, too, that the answers would help with her own nerves.

She looked at Marco, their gazes colliding and then holding, and she saw exactly what she’d known she would see. He was ready to do whatever it took to fix this.

But what was this exactly?

Rayna heard Janine do as instructed and take those deep breaths. Several snail-crawling seconds later, the woman finally spoke again.

“Alane’s been living in an apartment near the campus. The place has good security and you need a code just to get through the gate. I dropped by to see her because we had a lunch date. She isn’t here, and she should have been here, Rayna. Then I found this note.”

That revved up Rayna’s panic again. “Read it to me,” she insisted.

Janine took more of those breaths. “Tell Marco that I have Rayna’s girl, and if she wants her back alive, then he’ll do as I say.” She stopped for a couple of seconds. “Who’s Marco?”

“My partner,” Rayna settled for saying with her gaze still fixed on him.

So, this was likely a taunt to draw Marco out. But why use her daughter to do that? Unfortunately, Rayna didn’t have to think long about that. This was a two-for-one. Yes, Marco was seemingly the target, but the killer had to know that Rayna would come after Alane, too.

But who would know that Alane was her girl?

Again, she didn’t have to think hard on that. Anyone who could do some deep digging into her past would know, and that included any of their suspects. The adoption had been private, but plenty of people knew she’d been pregnant and gave up her child. All it would have taken to learn that was to speak to someone who’d attended high school with her.

“Did the note say anything about who wrote it or how Marco is supposed to know to do what the person says?” Rayna pressed.

“No. Nothing,” Janine insisted. “There’s

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.