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he’d left her to wait for Grayson, she would have no doubt been another set of those fast-moving footsteps trudging around in the rainy woods.
    The seconds crawled by while he waited and tried to figure out what the heck was going on. He certainly couldn’t just start shooting with Bennie out there.
    Behind him, he heard more footsteps. Not a runner this time, but the slow, cautious steps of a lawman. Sawyer glanced over his shoulder and spotted Grayson.
    He motioned to the clearing so that Grayson would know what he was about to do.
    “Stay here,” he warned Cassidy, and Grayson moved closer to her.
    Good. If bullets started flying, Grayson would be able to pull her to the ground.
    Sawyer tightened his grip on his gun and stepped out, making a beeline toward the cedars where he’d heard the moaning. No moans now, which might mean the kidnappers had moved their injured hostage.
    When he reached the cedars, Sawyer used his elbow to push aside some of the branches. The first thing he saw was more blood.
    And lots of it.
    It had mixed with rainwater, making it impossible to tell just how much, but the bleeder had left a trail for him to follow.
    No more footsteps. Just the sound of his own heartbeat crashing in his ears.
    Sawyer pushed back another cedar branch, and he cursed when he saw the lifeless body on the ground in front of him.

Chapter Four
    “No!” Cassidy blurted out. Nothing could have stopped her from running to Sawyer.
    And toward the person lying on the ground.
    Sawyer stooped down, touched his fingers to the person’s neck and shook his head. “Dead.”
    Her heart was practically beating out of her chest by the time she made it there, and she tried to brace herself for the worst. Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure she could handle the worst.
    Sawyer took hold of her to stop her from going closer, but she still got a good look at the person lying on the ground.
    Not Bennie.
    The victim was a woman with jaggedly chopped hair, black with streaks of blue. Cassidy had no idea who she was, but she had no trouble seeing the bullet wound on the side of her head.
    Despite the gruesome scene, the relief was instant and overwhelming. It robbed her of what little breath she had left. But the relief was also short lived. It wasn’t Bennie. But where was he?
    “Bennie?” she yelled.
    No answer. Nothing.
    Cassidy would have bolted again to go look for him, but Sawyer stopped her. “Who is she?” He tipped his head to the woman on the ground.
    “I don’t know.” Again, she tried to leave, and Sawyer stopped her.
    “You’re not going anywhere,” he insisted. “The kidnappers have already killed one woman. You want to make it two?”
    “I want to find my brother,” she insisted right back.
    “We’ll do that. Come on. This is a crime scene now, and it needs to be processed. That’s our best bet at finding Bennie.”
    Maybe. But everything inside her was screaming for her to run and find her brother. Even if she knew it wasn’t the logical thing to do.
    “Something obviously went wrong here,” Sawyer said as he led her away from the body. “But the kidnappers will contact you again. They’ll keep Bennie alive because they want to get that ransom.”
    That made it through the panic and the haze in her head. Yes, the kidnappers wanted the money. She had to believe that, hold on to it. Because it was the only way to keep herself sane.
    Sawyer and she approached Sheriff Grayson Ryland, and he handed Sawyer a set of keys. “Use my truck and get her to the hospital so she can be checked out. I already have an ambulance and CSI team on the way.”
    “The woman’s dead,” Sawyer told him.
    The sheriff looked as if he wanted to curse, and he made another call. This time to the medical examiner.
    “Please let me know if the men come back with Bennie,” she said to the sheriff.
    He nodded, continued his call, and Sawyer got her moving toward a silver pickup parked just up the road. Not a slow pace, either.