Kidnapped in Kansas by Jennifer Brown

Author:Jennifer Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-05-18T12:21:49+00:00

* * *

Holly hated the way she felt. Powerless. Vulnerable. Defeated.

She was fuzzy, as if she were trying to see through a bedsheet. It was more than 1,500 miles from Los Angeles to Garnett. She’d broken it up as best she could, but even their last overnight in Liberal was nearly six hours away from their destination. It seemed like a lifetime ago that she’d driven it, but it was only that morning. She was exhausted.

Nothing was clear to her anymore. Her thoughts were drained, her eyes were strained, her brain was tired. She could easily walk right past Brody and not even realize it.

But not Georgia, she thought. I would never walk right past Georgia.

But could she drive past? Especially since she wasn’t even the one doing the driving?

They had to stop. She didn’t want to miss something in the dark. Get down to Huddig, only to realize that Brody had taken their daughter somewhere else. And then they’d be eight hours down the road, if not more. They would never catch her.

And then what? You’re not going to suddenly come up with five million.

You’ll lose her either way.

No, they had to stop. It felt wrong and counter to the search, but she knew it needed to be done.

“There’s a Snooze Inn.” She pointed up ahead. “That should work.”

Ryan nodded and flicked on his turn signal, aiming for the off-ramp to take them to the hotel.

It felt like surrender, leaving the highway. She wasn’t ready to surrender to Brody Shipley. She would never be ready to surrender.

But had she surrendered when it came to Ryan? She thought maybe she had. She watched him as he navigated the parking lot, his focus sharp and determined. He would go on for a thousand more hours, a million more miles, if that was what it took. She knew this without him saying a word. Because that was who Ryan was. Generous and fearless. Handsome and kind.

And still out of her reach.

Brody used to tell her, after beating her, that he deserved better than her. That he deserved someone with the guts to stand up for herself. It baffled her that he didn’t see she shouldn’t have to have guts to stand up for herself against the man who supposedly loved her. But that didn’t seem to matter. What mattered was that somewhere along the line, she started to believe him.

It had taken guts to forge ahead with the life of a single mom. She hadn’t taken that role by choice, but she lived it, embraced it, grew into it. She saw how wrong Brody was about her. She deserved better than him.

Every time she thought about that, images of Ryan’s smile popped unbidden into her mind. And every time, she swept them away.

It was too late for her and Ryan. If they never were together before all these complications, they sure weren’t going to be now.

Funny how in the middle of all her fatigued murkiness, this was the one thing that had become clear to her.

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