Hideaway At Hawk's Landing

Brayden shook off the thought, climbed from the SUV, smiling at the sound of the horses galloping on the hill. Since the girls had moved in, they’d added more livestock, and he’d hired his friend Beau Fortner as foreman of the ranch operation.

His mother swept him into a hug as he entered the foyer. “So glad you made it to dinner, Brayden.”

“I wouldn’t miss it, Mom.” The weekly family get-togethers had meant a lot to his mother during the lean years.

Truth be told, it had meant a lot to him, too. He’d harbored guilt over his sister’s disappearance and had needed his family around him.

Charlotte and Honey and the girls were laying out a spread of food that would feed half of Texas while Lucas, Harrison and brother number three, Dexter, stood by the sideboard sipping scotch. Dexter handed him a highball glass, and Brayden inhaled the rich aroma before taking a sip.

“Thanks, I needed this.”

“Bad day in court?” Lucas asked.

Brayden shrugged. He would have rather been in court than on that damn date. Thank God it had only been lunch.

His mother called them to the table, and they gathered for the blessing, then the meal. Excited talk of the nursery Honey was putting together for baby Hawk floated between the women while Dexter filled them in on the new horses he’d bought.

Lucas’s phone buzzed with a text, earning a chiding look from his mother. She respected all their jobs but insisted they leave their phones and business at the door.

“Sorry, Mom,” Lucas murmured. “It’s about the Shetland operation.”

The room grew quiet. Strained.

Lucas stood and walked to the foyer away from the table. Harrison followed. Tension stretched into a pained silence as they waited to find out if the Shetland ring had struck again.

* * *

MILA SWALLOWED BACK the terror clawing at her as she approached the head nurse in the clinic.

“Rhoda, will you please tell everyone to leave? I have to get home to Izzy. She’s sick.”

Rhoda gave her a worried look. “Is she okay?”

Mila fought a sob, then nodded. “She will be, but she needs her mommy. Just send the patients home and we’ll reschedule.” She squeezed Rhoda’s arm. “You go home, too. I’ll close up.”

Rhoda was a single mother with a ten-year-old son at home, so she didn’t mind an opportunity to take off early.

Mila felt the gunman’s eyes piercing her as she watched Rhoda quickly clear the waiting room, then shut down the computer at the nurses’ desk.

“Anything else I can do?” Rhoda called from the front.

“No, thanks for handling that. Have a good night with Trey.”

Rhoda yelled good-night, then left through the front door.

The gunman motioned for her to lock up, and Mila rushed forward, locked the doors and closed all the blinds. Noises sounded from the back, and she walked toward the exam rooms on shaky legs.

“Why me? Why here?” Mila asked.

The gunman jabbed the gun into her back. “We know you helped some of our girls escape.”

A cold chill washed over Mila. Some of their girls?

She had referred a few lost teens at the clinic to the women’s shelter. And then there was Izzy’s mother...

The back door burst open, and four more armed men strode in, their big bodies shielding another man in a suit who she assumed was the boss.

The guards scanned the interior, their posture braced to shoot. As they parted to search the clinic to make sure they were alone, she got her first real look at the man they called their leader.

Thick black hair framed an angular face that might be handsome if not for the scar running down the side of his cheek and the evil in his black eyes.

Eyes that looked familiar.

Pure panic robbed her breath.

She knew who he was. Arman DiSanti—the man who’d bought and used Izzy’s mother as a sex slave.

Did he know that her daughter, Izzy, the little girl they’d taken hostage, was his birth child?

* * *

BRAYDEN TRIED TO keep everyone calm as they waited on Lucas to answer the phone call. When Lucas returned, he looked antsy.

“We have a lead on the ringleader of the Shetland operation. We think he’s undergoing cosmetic surgery to change his identity.” He pulled his keys from his pocket. “I have to go.”

Harrison leaned over to give Honey a kiss. “I’m going with him.”

As sheriff of Tumbleweed, Harrison had no jurisdiction outside their small town, but he’d caught the case when Charlotte had been shot during the abductions of four students from her art studio. Lucas had been called in then. At this point, the entire family and the girls were all invested in making sure the trafficking ring was shut down for good.

“Need backup?” Dexter asked.

Dex’s PI skills had come in handy when they’d been tracking down the missing girls.

Lucas shook his head no. “This is an FBI operation, but thanks.”

Charlotte stood and touched her husband’s arm. “Where are you going?”

“A clinic outside Austin. Some plastic surgeon named Dr. Manchester is giving the bastard a new face.”

Charlotte’s eyes widened. “Dr. Manchester?”

Lucas nodded. “Mila Manchester. For all we know, she’s on Shetland’s payroll. Her volunteer work could be a cover to give her opportunities to do jobs like this.”

Charlotte shook her head. “No, Lucas. Mila can’t be involved.”

Lucas narrowed his eyes at his wife. “You know Dr. Manchester?”

She nodded. “Her mother is the doctor who removed my port-wine birthmark when I was younger. I met Mila when I was at the clinic. And I’ve read about her volunteer work. She’s a good person.”