Sawyer

Maybe. But everything inside her was screaming for her to run and find her brother. Even if she knew it wasn’t the logical thing to do.

“Something obviously went wrong here,” Sawyer said as he led her away from the body. “But the kidnappers will contact you again. They’ll keep Bennie alive because they want to get that ransom.”

That made it through the panic and the haze in her head. Yes, the kidnappers wanted the money. She had to believe that, hold on to it. Because it was the only way to keep herself sane.

Sawyer and she approached Sheriff Grayson Ryland, and he handed Sawyer a set of keys. “Use my truck and get her to the hospital so she can be checked out. I already have an ambulance and CSI team on the way.”

“The woman’s dead,” Sawyer told him.

The sheriff looked as if he wanted to curse, and he made another call. This time to the medical examiner.

“Please let me know if the men come back with Bennie,” she said to the sheriff.

He nodded, continued his call, and Sawyer got her moving toward a silver pickup parked just up the road. Not a slow pace, either. They were practically jogging, and he kept watch, his gaze firing all around.

Cassidy doubted the kidnappers would kill her. But she rethought that. She’d broken their rules by not returning with the photo in time.

Was that the reason they’d killed the woman?

The emotion was already high, boiling through her, and that caused her to gasp. “Did the kidnappers kill her to punish me?” she managed to ask.

Sawyer didn’t answer because he obviously didn’t know. He stuffed her into the truck, got behind the wheel and drove out of there fast.

“I don’t need to go to the hospital,” she told him. “I’m okay. Or at least I will be when we find Bennie.”

“It’s standard practice to be checked out. After all, you were kidnapped.”

Yes, and she was rattled, but there wasn’t a scratch on her. She knew after seeing that video that Bennie wouldn’t be able to say the same thing. Those men had clearly hurt him.

“Don’t try to make sense of this,” Sawyer warned her after glancing at her face. “Let’s just get an ID on the body and go from there.”

It didn’t seem nearly enough, not with Bennie’s life at stake. Still, she knew Sawyer was right. They couldn’t go blindly running in the woods looking for him.

“But what does that woman have to do with the kidnapping and my brother?” she asked.

“Maybe she was one of the kidnappers.”

Cassidy was about to disagree, but the truth was, she had no idea if anyone else was involved. “I only saw the two men with cartoon masks.”

He spared her another glance before his eyes went back to the road. “And you’re sure they were both men?”

Was she? Well, she had been until Sawyer had asked that question. “Only one of them spoke, and it was definitely a man. But even if the other one was a woman, why would he have killed her?”

“Maybe because he didn’t want to split the ransom money with her. It happens all the time. Despite the cliché, there’s not much honor among thieves.”

He was right, and the kidnapper could now be a killer. A killer who had her brother.

Even though it wasn’t cold, she was soaking wet, and Cassidy began to shiver. Sawyer noticed, turned on the heat, and he sped up the wipers, too. It didn’t help much. The rain was coming down even harder now, and the wipers couldn’t keep up with the downpour.

“This is destroying the crime scene, isn’t it?” Cassidy asked.

He lifted his shoulder, kept his gaze pinned to the road. “Grayson’s a good sheriff. If there’s anything to find, he’ll find it.”

She thought about that a moment, trying to piece together this puzzle. “They held Bennie and me in your grandfather’s bar. Why? Why would they believe you and I have a connection?”

Another lift of his shoulder, but that wasn’t a casual response she saw in his eyes. No way. He was troubled by all of this—especially about the baby that she’d photographed in his arms.

Why would the kidnappers have wanted that?

She was about to ask him, but his phone buzzed, and she saw Grayson’s name on the screen. Cassidy held her breath, waiting and praying again that this wasn’t bad news about her brother.

“The dead woman had a wallet in her pants pocket,” she heard Grayson say. Since the call wasn’t on speaker, she scooted closer to Sawyer so she could listen to every word. “According to her driver’s license, her name is April Warrick.”

Cassidy repeated it, hoping it would spark some kind of recognition. It didn’t.

“I’m having someone run a background on her now,” the sheriff added.

“Good, we’re almost at the hospital. After Cassidy sees the doctor, I can help get all of this sorted out. What about the baby?” Sawyer asked. “Any calls about her? Is she okay?”

“She’s still with Mason at the E.R.—where you told him to take her. He says the baby’s fine, that he’s just waiting on the paperwork.”

That was something at least. Cassidy hated the thought of an innocent baby being put in the middle of this mess.

“I told Mason to have the doctors do blood and DNA tests on the baby,” Sawyer added.

Grayson stayed quiet a moment. “You want the DNA compared to yours?”

“Yeah.” Sawyer paused, too. “And if I’m not a match, then I’ll run it through the system to see if we can find out who is.”

She wasn’t sure what to hope for. At least if the child were Sawyer’s, then she would have him to protect her.

“Any sign of Bennie?” Cassidy asked. She moved even closer to Sawyer, until they were shoulder to shoulder. He noticed, glanced down at the contact between them and scowled. But Cassidy stayed put.

“Nothing yet,” Grayson answered, and with that, Sawyer did hang up. Another glance at her had Cassidy moving back to her side of the seat.

“You still haven’t forgiven me,” she mumbled. No surprise there. Sawyer wasn’t ever likely to forgive her.

“What do you think?” he mumbled back.

His voice was a growl, and it should have unnerved her. Along with that steely glare he was giving her. But sadly, even now, her reaction to Sawyer was a different kind of unnerving.

The images of them naked in bed flashed through her mind. Memorable images. But with bad timing. Then and now. She had been his one-night stand.

His decision, not hers.

She’d known him for months before that one-nighter. Months of lusting after him. And when Cassidy had finally run into him at a party, they’d left together to go back to his place for that one glorious night.

“I was attracted to you,” she reminded him. Still was. “That’s why I slept with you, not so I could get information about the investigation you were conducting on my brother.”