A Billionaire's Redemption - By Cindy Dees Page 0,70
it, already. Call me back when you get a location on her.” He was still about a half hour out of Vengeance. His foot pressed down on the gas even harder. “I’ll be in Vengeance in twenty minutes.”
“We should have her signal isolated by then,” the security man said briskly.
He bloody well hoped so. He was going to start hurting people if they didn’t find Willa, and soon. He pulled up in front of his house in eighteen minutes. By what miracle he’d managed to avoid any speed traps or the vigilant Vengeance police force, he couldn’t say.
He charged into his house, shouting, “Willa? Are you here?”
Only the echo of his worried voice answered him. He swore freely and dialed the security company again. “Where is she?” he asked without bothering to identify himself.
“We lost her signal west of Vengeance.”
“What do you mean, lost it?”
“The signal stopped. She must have turned off her phone.”
He sat down heavily on his sofa. Why would Willa run away like this? It was totally unlike her. Not only was she not a rebel by nature, but she had nowhere to go. To his knowledge, she didn’t know anyone in the next county over. Her whole life centered around Vengeance, Texas.
Where was she headed? It was possible she’d headed for the Vacarro oil field, which was about seventy miles west of Vengeance, but surely she knew better than to go to an oil drilling operation by herself. They were dangerous places if a person didn’t know their way around an oil rig.
There wasn’t anything else west of Vengeance but farms and grazing land for hundreds of miles. Was she just driving around randomly? Working things out in her head? He’d been known to do that from time to time. Although it didn’t particularly seem to be her style. Worried, he paced his living room and did his best to ignore the fat lady bellowing a veritable opera of alarm in his gut.
C’mon, Willa. Come home to me. At least call me.
Although, why should she? Despite her effort to put a happy spin on it, fact was, he’d abandoned her last night. He’d been the worst sort of cad and walked out on her after making love to her. She deserved so much better than that. Than him. Was that why she had run? Was this his fault? He swore at himself. How could it not be his fault?
If she was out there somewhere, alone and upset, he owed it to her to find her and make it better. He grabbed his car keys and headed out to his truck. Texas was a big place, but he’d find her somehow. And when he did, he owed her an epic apology.
He headed west toward the hilly area where the security firm had last pinged her cell phone. A series of deep valleys and high bluffs ran north-south through the western part of the county. His geologist’s trained eye identified it as ancient river erosion. Cell-phone coverage in the area was terrible. If she’d gone there, she might not have turned her phone off at all. She could’ve simply lost a cellular signal. The rift ran for nearly fifty miles north and south of Vengeance. She could be anywhere in it. Determination to find her anyway steeled his jaw as he pointed his truck at the area.
The sun had dipped below the west rim of the first valley already, and deep shadows striped the road. Tall deciduous trees, protected down in the valley from Texas’s vicious winds, crowded the asphalt and created a mysterious emerald ambience all around him. He could see Willa coming to a place like this to find comfort.
The security man had mentioned she and her mother had had a fight. Gabe sincerely hoped it hadn’t been over him. Yet another cross for him to bear if he’d come between Willa and her mother.
He’d just topped the rim and was starting down into the next gully when his cell phone rang. He was impressed that he still had coverage out here and snatched it up hopefully. “Willa?”
“No, sir. This is Agent Delaney of the FBI. We have news regarding your wife.”
He really wished they’d quit calling Melinda that. “What news?” he asked quickly.
“We’ve found Dr. Grayson. An operation earlier this evening to liberate her from her captor was successful.”
A week ago, that news would have made him the happiest man alive. But now, he could barely spare attention for the news in the midst of