“Come on in. I have a little secret,” he whispered to his friend.
Alex n strolled into the kitchen with Gage leading the way. “Whoa. Are you Ms. Cummings?” He knew the answer, but the words came out of his mouth faster than his brain could process it.
“Hope. It’s okay. This is Alex Savage. He’s the one I told you about.”
“She’s the girl from yesterday?” Alex interrupted.
“Yes. We happened upon each other. They were onto her until she snuck into my backseat. They showed up here last night looking as well.”
“Yeah, I heard from Sheriff McCain. They asked around the entire town. That’s why I came here to see if you’d learned anything.”
“I’ve learned a lot. Cummings’s supposed to sell her to Alfonzo Navarro.”
“Are you serious? We can’t let that happen.”
“It won’t happen,” Gage snarled.
Alex furrowed his brows, mentally assessing Gage’s words. He smiled and muttered, “Another one bites the dust.”
“Gladly. Now. I’ve already made some calls to get my land secured. The old fences don’t have any locks and shit. I don’t want those fuckers on my property again.”
“Yes, that’s good and all, but you can’t keep Ms. Cummings trapped here forever. Someone is bound to notice, especially once your staff finds out she’s here.”
“Please call me Hope,” she asked the Ranger. “I want to erase all things related to him.”
Gage watched, grinding his teeth as she stared at Alex with pleading eyes. He craved her attention and wanted her needs to be met only by him.
“Hope, please call me Alex. I’m going to do everything I can to help keep you safe. As much as I’d like you to testify against your father, we need proof of the exchange. Human trafficking is a serious crime.”
“Well, would you like a cup of coffee?” Hope offers, waving an empty mug at him.
“Sure. Thanks.” Alex turned to Gage and asked, “What’s the plan for security?”
“As for the security systems, I have a company coming in a few hours to set up cameras on the perimeter of the ranch. I need new fencing around the main house, which I have coming next week.”
“Good. I’ll keep an eye on Cummings and Navarro. Unfortunately, I don’t know who Navarro might have in his pocket, so, for now, it’s only us on this. Of course, I can bring CJ into this.”
“We shouldn’t be bringing all these people in. This is my problem,” Hope said, placing the coffee in front of Alex.
“Hope. This is what CJ and I do for a living. We’re there to protect the innocent and bust the bad guys. This fuck used to prosecute them, but he’s gone soft.”
“I hate this, but I think my father killed my mother.”
“What?”
“That’s good. If that’s what you feel, maybe we can trace something back to him. Until then, maybe you need to take a vacation.”
“I could go for that.”
“But don’t you have a ranch to be handling and all that stuff.”
“Well, I have people working this week, but perhaps in a couple of weeks, they’ll be able to work without me. Hopefully, Navarro will have lost interest.”
Chapter Ten
Gage hopped in the cab of his pickup truck, looking at the window upstairs. An unsettling feeling crept into his gut. Leaving Hope in the house alone wouldn’t be the smartest, but he had to continue running his ranch as best as he could.
Three hours later, he raced back to the property to check on Hope. She didn’t have a cell phone, and she knew not to answer the house phone, so he couldn’t contact her.