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  “We only buy the first beer.” Brandy scoped out the crowd, never really looking at her. “After that, we have the beers bought for us.”

  Megan nodded, not wanting her to know she hadn’t planned on drinking more than one. One mountain at a time, she thought. She concentrated her attention on the woman behind the bar so she didn’t have to see what was going on around her. Just when she started to relax, the woman left and was replaced by a tall, lean man wearing a tight, vintage Metallica t-shirt that showed off his biceps. His hair was thick and black and looked as though he’d used his fingers as a brush. It fit his gorgeous face and bad-boy persona perfectly. The stubble from missing a shave did nothing but make him more attractive.

  Shit.

  She exhaled slowly and tried to smile as he asked them what they were going to have.

  “I…uh…” she said.

  Shoot me now!

  “Two Michelob Ultras,” Brandy answered, slapping the bar. “I need a lime slice in mine, too, please.”

  “Coming right up,” Bad Boy Bartender said with a knowing grin.

  Megan watched in awe as he took two bottles from the cooler and popped them open with a bottle opener made into his belt buckle. The muscles in his stomach flexed noticeably through his clothes, causing her mouth to hang open. She stared at his crotch region a bit longer than she should have and he noticed.

  “Anything else you want?” the bartender asked, putting both big hands on top of the bar, staring straight at her with a raised eyebrow and wicked grin. Her skin prickled at the thought of exactly what he would give her if she had the nerve to ask. Brandy’s laughter brought her out of a trance.

  “Well, do you?” Brandy asked, still laughing.

  Megan’s head jerked back. “I… uh… No, thank you, though. This will be all.” She slapped a ten dollar bill on the counter and turned her back to him.

  Feeling his warm breath close to her ear, her eyes went wide. “If you change your mind, let me know.”

  Megan turned to see him wink before he moved on to the next customer. She had a gut feeling he was the kind of man who would whisper all kinds of great lies while he made love to her, but he would be good enough to make her believe every last word right up until he left with the moonlight.

  Brandy grabbed her hand and walked through the crowd to a table against the wall, but still visible to all areas of the room. “So, what do ya think?”

  “About what?”

  “About the bartender. He’s a hottie,” Brandy said, nodding toward the bar.

  “Yeah, he’s a good looking guy.” But no Drew Calloway, she thought, looking back to the bar and seeing the bartender glancing at her between customers. He gave a sexy half-grin, making her toes want to curl. She bet he had a tongue ring. He probably knew how to use it, too. She looked away, pretending she didn’t see anything at all, but her cheeks had to be beet red.

  Thank goodness for low lighting.

  “You do know you could have him in a split second, right?” Brandy obviously saw the exchange.

  “Look at him. He’s gorgeous.”

  “And?” Her arms crossed just below her chest, making her cleavage spill out of her top.

  “And he’s way out of my league.” She took a sip of beer and tried not to make a sour face. She had never been much of a drinker and when she did, beer wouldn’t have been her first choice.

  “You have got to be kidding me!” Brandy downed half of her beer and not so gently planted it on the table. “I think I know what your problem is. You don’t know how pretty you are.”

  In answer, Megan self-consciously pulled at her jacket.

  “Girl, you are a knock-out! You’re tall, thin, and have great red hair. Not everyone can pull off red hair. Not to mention, I would kill to have your cheek bones.”

  When Megan stayed silent, she kept going. “You don’t see it because you’re so busy trying to duck and run when a man’s around that you don’t notice most eyes are on you!”

  “They are not.” Brandy was being ridiculous. Megan didn’t think she was anything special with her long, straight, red hair, blue eyes, and a smattering of freckles across her nose. She was thin, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. She needed more shape. Like Brandy.

  “Look around,” Brandy said with a wave of her hand.

  Slowly, Megan turned to the crowd and looked about the room. Every direction her eyes went, a man was watching her. Not in a creepy, stalker way, more like subtle glances. She pushed her hair over her shoulder and cleared her throat. The urge to retreat engulfed her, but she wrapped her ankles around the legs of the seat to keep her from leaving. “They’re looking at you.”

  “Yep, some are,” Brandy smirked knowingly, “but most aren’t.”

  A waitress came to the table and set down two Michelob Ultras. “These are from the guys at the end of the bar.”

  “Thank you,” Megan said before looking in the direction the waitress pointed.

  Brandy gave a quick wave to the men while nudging her leg under the table. “Want to go thank them in person? They’re cute,” Brandy asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

  Did she dare push the limits? She was here after all and getting over this annoying shyness was the reason. Why not try and see how it went? If she knew Brandy, she would be doing all the talking anyway.

  “Sure, why not.”

  Brandy’s mouth was opened, ready to argue, when she closed it and got up from her seat. “Okay then, just stand closest to the one you want and I’ll take the other.”

  Megan nodded, not entirely sure what she meant. Almost immediately, she regretted going to thank them. Plastering a smile on her face, she stood next to Brandy when they reached the men. Her nerves got the best of her when the two good-looking men and Brandy started talking. Suddenly, the walls came down around her. This happened when she got distracted or overly embarrassed. She couldn’t control her power one-hundred percent of the time.

  Pretending to be looking at the man sitting in front of her, Megan nodded when it seemed appropriate, but looked over his shoulder and through the house next door. At first, she didn’t pay much attention to what was going on in the house until she noticed two men, dressed in all black, standing outside the window near the back door.

  She scanned the house until she found a young woman by herself putting away dishes from the dishwasher. The woman closed the cabinet, pulled a trash bag out of the can, and tied it. She was about to go outside where they were waiting on her. What could she do? She could yell, but the woman wouldn’t hear her. Even if she did yell for help, how would she explain she knew what was going on?

  Shit, what am I supposed to do? Megan asked herself over and over in her head.

  “You okay?” Brandy leaned into her and asked, but she refused to turn from her line of sight. Brandy tugged on the sleeve of her jacket. “Hey, you’re freaking me out. Are you okay?”

  “I gotta go,” Megan said, turning around and running through the club. If she hurried, she could make it to the back of the house before they got to the woman. Not realizing she was still in super mode, she ran smack into the closed front doors, falling hard on her rear end. That hurt. Bad.

  Men tried to help her up, and she wasn’t the least bit concerned they were hot and touching her. No, her only concern was for the woman in the house. Finally, she managed to get up and out the door. The cold night’s air hit her like a ton of bricks after being in a steamy bar, causing her to halt momentarily to catch her breath.

  She took off around the building, but it was too late. Two men were putting the kicking woman in the trunk of their car and quickly moving to get in for their getaway.

  Megan ran as fast as she could, yelling for them to stop. The driver looked back to her, cursed loudly, slammed the door, and squealed the tires as they sped away. The only thing she was able to notice was the car was an older model Oldsmobile and it was either dark blue or black. She doubled over in the middle of the street, placed her hands on her knees, and to
ok deep, ragged breaths. It had been forever since she had to full-out run and those times were never while wearing heels.

  Megan hustled to the parking lot of the bar and found a payphone. Yes, Hope, Oklahoma still had payphones. They talked about taking them out at one time, but the seniors quickly put a stop to that. Looking around to make sure no one could see her, she dialed nine-one-one and told the operator there had been an abduction on the street behind Roosters. The operator asked for her name, but she hung up the phone before giving her any additional information. She could not let anyone know she was the one who had called. They would ask questions.

  Questions she couldn’t explain or answer.

  No one would believe her even if she told the truth, and she would either be put in a psychiatric ward, a lab, or a prison cell. None were an option.

  Her heels dug into the gravel parking lot as she made her way to her car. Brandy’s voice was right behind her. “What happened? Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Really. I just need to go home. If you need any help tomorrow let me know. See you later,” Megan said in a rush.

  Jumping in the car, she sped away, leaving Brandy staring at the taillights. Her hands shook on the steering wheel and her heart beat ninety to nothing. She couldn’t go home. Not yet. She decided to drive around town to see if she could happen upon the men vehicle who took the lady. There wasn’t a good chance she would, but going home and doing nothing was impossible. Taking the side streets, she looked for the vehicle, and then she looked through the houses to see if there was anything unusual going on. After a long hour, she started to panic thinking about what those men could be doing to that poor girl.

  She needed to make sure the police took her call seriously and see if anyone was at that house. Maybe they already found the lady and there wasn’t anything to freak out about. That balloon of hope deflated when she turned onto the street of the abduction and police cars covered the road. The street was blocked off, but it was too late for her to turn around, giving her no choice but to drive through. She pulled to a stop next to an aging officer and rolled down the window when he shined his light at the driver’s side window.

  Look surprised. Look surprised, she chanted in her head.

  “What happened?” Megan asked with what she hoped was surprised ignorance instead of lying witness.

  “Ma’am, do you live down this way?” the officer asked as he looked through the window into her backseat.

  “No, Sir. I was just driving around.” Her hands gripped the steering wheel. “You know small towns. Nothing better to do around here.”

  “You been driving around for a while now?”

  Megan nodded and swallowed. “A few hours. What’s going on?”

  “Laura Calloway was kidnapped tonight.” The officer shook his head in disgust. “You best be getting on home and lock your doors.”

  Drew’s sister?

  She watched Drew’s sister get put in the trunk of a car? Oh, shit! This was not good.

  “Yes, Sir. I will.”

  He waved her forward and she eased off the brake, slowly driving around the police cars while tearing down the walls of Laura’s house with her eyes. Drew was sitting on the edge of a bed, staring down at an item held in his hands. Maybe a photo? Probably of his little sister. Her heart sank in dread as she drove away with tears forming in her eyes for what she let happen.

  Chapter Two

  By the time she opened the door of her house, Megan had made a decision. She could’ve and should have done more to help Laura, but didn’t for fear of what would happen to her. She was determined to find her and set this straight. If was going to bring her home to her brother, she needed a plan.

  And it was going to have to be a good one.

  Flinging off her shoes and jacket, Megan set her laptop on the dining room table and retrieved the essentials—pen, paper, cookies, and milk. It was going to be a long night and she hadn’t had one of those in, well, she couldn’t remember how long. She sat down, put all her supplies in place, and booted up the laptop. Tapping the pen on the table, she tried to figure out where she needed to start.

  “No place like the beginning, I guess.”

  Closing her eyes, she tried to replay the night’s events in her head. Two men, dressed in all black, no masks. One had facial hair. One was bald. They both seemed average weight and height which wouldn’t help her in the quest.

  The dress!

  Laura had been wearing the dress Drew had bought for her from the store. It was sleeveless with vertical stripes on the top and it turned into a floral print at the waist with a wide skirt.

  Megan loved that dress.

  A noise came from outside, causing her to jump and grab the table for support. Instantly, she looked around the outside of the house without having to leave the chair. Could they have seen who she was while she was running and yelling for them to stop and decided to come back and shut her up? She couldn’t remember any lights behind the bar and they did get in the car in a hurry, but… the driver did look straight at her. She doubted he could recognize her, but there was a chance.

  To be on the safe side, she scanned three more times and decided to leave her visual guard down. That way all she would have to do is look up to see if anything was going bump in her night.

  Pulling her attention back to the task at hand, she went through the events over and over again, only making them more confusing. Luckily, she did remember they had turned right at the end of the street which led away from the main street in town. She looked up a map online and printed out the town of Hope. With a highlighter, she marked all of the possible side streets they could have taken. Problem was, all the roads eventually led back to the main street and out of town.

  There were too many possibilities.

  How am I ever going to find her?

  A yawn took over and no matter how badly Megan wanted to stay awake, she couldn’t. She went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth and set the alarm for five o’clock before crawling into bed. Lying there, the covers high on her chest, she prayed everything would be clearer by morning and closed her eyes.

  By five-thirty the next morning, Megan had already taken a shower, dried her hair, and was pumped to get going. She wore a pair of comfortable skinny jeans and a fitted, green t-shirt. More than likely, she would be doing a lot of walking and riding in the car so she decided on comfort rather than style. On a usual Saturday morning, she would lie around until at least noon watching Netflix then force herself to do sit-ups and yoga.

  Life tended to be pretty mundane at the McAlister residence.

  Megan would have loved to be comfortable enough with people to have cookouts or parties. She did have a few friends, but none she was particularly close to. Brandy was great, but there was still a distance there. Everyone else were more acquaintances than friends. Having grown up in foster home after foster home, she got used to being alone.

  She had lived with different families all over Logan County and when she graduated college, Megan knew she wanted to come back to Hope because it was the only place she had ever felt comfortable. The family she lived with as a child were long since gone and no one remembered her before moving back five years ago, and she liked it that way.

  Last thing she wanted was a pity party.

  The one thing she wanted was friends.

  On the way out the door, she double-checked her oversized purse to make sure she grabbed everything she could possibly need for the day. Once outside, Megan noticed it was cool enough for a light jacket, so she reached behind the door and pulled a pink zip-up jacket off the hook and closed the door. Hopping into her black Altima, she let the engine warm before backing out of the drive.

  It was a shock autumn had shown up so fast and furious after such a scorching summer. Autumn was by far Megan’s favorite season. That meant the fall festival would be just around the corner.

  Using one hand to drive, she used the other to dig tape out of her purse and adhere the map she
had printed to the dashboard. The starting point would be going back to the bar.

  It didn’t take long to get back to town. Megan pulled into the empty parking lot, only hearing the crunch of gravel under the tires. Getting out of the car, she locked it before walking around to the back of the building like she had the night before. Facing the back of Laura’s house, she closed her eyes and tried to remember where she saw the two men at first. One was by the front window and the other was standing near the back door.

  There wasn’t a choice but to go investigate. Megan tugged the hem of her hoodie and walked to the foot of the back steps to Laura’s door. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for the police tape crisscrossing the back entrance. Not that she had any real idea of what would be a clue, but nothing jumped out at her.

  She walked to the side of house where the second man had been standing. Scanning the neighborhood, she made sure no one was watching her. That’s all she would need.

  Glancing down, Megan noticed three smashed cigarette butts on the ground. She bent to inspect them when she heard footsteps walking up the front steps of the house around the corner. She squatted where she couldn’t be seen and used her sight to check out who was there.

  Detective Drew Calloway.

  Shitballs!

  There he was in all his hunk glory, walking up the porch steps, looking from side to side with his hands resting lightly on his hips. As great as the view was from her vantage point, she had to get the heck out of dodge. She picked up the stinky butts and started to crawl away as fast as her hands and knees would take her. Twigs bit into the palms of her hands and tiny rocks stabbed her knees as she moved.

  This was not how she spent her Saturdays.

  This sucked.

  “Megan,” a deep voice which could be none other than Drew’s said from behind her. Her limbs froze in terror.

  There she was, on her hands and knees, close to the backyard. She closed her eyes and prayed she could find a rational explanation as to why she was crawling around in the yard of his kidnapped sister and when she did, she would be able to actually speak coherently.