RESCUE AT CARDWELL RANCH Read Online Free PDF

one of my employees today.” She swallowed, her sore throat again reminding her of the man’s arm around her neck. Had it been Gus Thompson? The thought made her blood run cold. “I’m sure everyone is upset.”
    “You can’t worry about them right now. You need to think about yourself. Just go home and rest. I can stop by your office—”
    “No, this is something I need to do myself.” She saw her sister’s disappointment. Shawna lived to serve. “But thank you so much for bringing me a change of clothes.”
    “What do you want me to do with the clothes you were wearing?” she asked, picking up the bag. Her pretty new suit was blood-splattered from the now bandaged head wound. So was the blouse she’d been wearing.
    “Throw them away. I don’t want them.”
    She felt her older sister’s gaze on her. “There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the suit or the blouse. Once I get them clean... It seems a shame—”
    “Then drop them off at Goodwill.”
    Her sister nodded. “Are the police giving you protection?”
    “They really can’t do that. Anyway, there’s no need. If it was someone I know, then they don’t believe he’ll try anything again with them involved. And if it was random...then the man could be miles from here by now.”
    Shawna didn’t look any more convinced than McKenzie felt. “I guess they know best.”
    “I’m going to stay in Big Sky tonight. I have a client I need to see up there this afternoon so I’ll spend the night and come back tomorrow.”
    “Do you want me to go home with you to your condo and wait while you pack?”
    She thought of her empty condo. “No. That’s not necessary.” But even as she said it, she was already dreading facing it alone. “I know you need to get back to your job.” She stepped to her sister and hugged her. Shawna had never married. But she kept busy with three jobs as if needing to fill every hour of her day doing for others.
    “You’ve done enough,” McKenzie said. Her big sister had always been there for her from as far back as she could remember. It made her feel guilty because she felt her sister had been robbed of her childhood. Shawna had been too busy raising their mother’s babies.
    “If you need anything...”
    “I know.” Sometimes she felt as if Shawna had made a life in Montana so she could watch over her. All the other siblings had left, stretching far and wide around the world. Only she and Shawna had stayed in the Gallatin Valley after their parents had passed.
    But her big sister couldn’t always protect her. Before last night, McKenzie would have said she could protect herself. Last night had proved how wrong she was about that.
    * * *
    G US T HOMPSON WOULD never forget the humiliation he’d been put through at the police department. “Don’t you know who I am?” he’d finally demanded.
    They had looked at him blankly.
    “My photo is all over town on real-estate signs. I am number one in this valley. I sell more property than any of the hundreds of agents out there. I’m somebody and I don’t have to put up with this ridiculous questioning.”
    “You still haven’t told us where you were last night.” The woman cop was starting to really tick him off.
    He looked to his attorney, who leaned toward him and whispered that he should just tell them since it would be better than their finding out later. “I went for a drive. I do that sometimes to relax.”
    “Did you happen to drive by the River Street Market?”
    “I don’t remember. I was just driving.”
    “We searched your car... Actually, the car that is still registered to your mother, and we found a gas receipt.” The woman cop again. “You were within a quarter mile of the grocery last night only forty-two minutes before the incident involving Ms. Sheldon.”
    “So what?” he snapped. “Aren’t you required to tell me what I’m being accused of? Someone steal McKenzie’s groceries?”
    “Someone attacked and attempted to abduct Ms.