White Dove's Promise Read Online Free PDF Page A

down. And I’m not coming up until I have Peggy with me. Even if it means I have to dig her out by hand!”
    By now Newt had removed the steel auger from the newly drilled hole. Jared hurried toward the open cavity. Bram followed to snatch a hold on Jared’s shoulder before he could lower himself into the newly bored hole.
    â€œJared, you’re exhausted,” he pointed out. “You’vealready worked for hours. Let someone else go down. Let me. Or Gray.”
    Shaking his head at his older brother’s plea, Jared said, “You’re the sheriff. You need to be out here where you can make sure everyone is safe and doing what they’re supposed to be doing. This town would be in chaos if it lost you.”
    Jared’s offhand compliment put a twisted smile on Bram’s face. “This town survived a long time before I became sheriff and it’ll go on surviving once I’m no longer in office. But that’s not the issue. You’re about to fall over and Gray—”
    â€œDoesn’t like to get his hands dirty,” Jared joked and winked. Then before Bram could try to dissuade him any further, he lowered himself into the ground.
    Â 
    Kerry was trying her best not to keep glancing at the small watch on her wrist, but each minute seemed to be crawling by as she and the rest of the hundred or more people around the excavation site waited for Jared to reappear and prayed that Peggy would be in his arms.
    â€œKerry, is there anything I can get for you? A sandwich? Or cold drink?”
    Kerry looked around to see Christa, a co-worker at Liberty Bank, who’d also become a good friend. The tall, curvaceous blonde was two years younger than Kerry and had already gone through a traumatic divorce. Over the past months Kerry had been trying to help her young friend get through the trying ordeal. Now the tables were turned and Christa was here to lend Kerry what support she could.
    Trying to smile, Kerry passed trembling fingersacross her forehead. “No thanks, Christa. I tried to eat earlier, but everything just stuck in my throat.”
    With a worried frown, Christa grabbed a folding portable stool that one of the local churches had distributed for the crowd. Once she was sitting next to her friend, she said, “Clarence told me that you worked through lunch. It’s nearly eight o’clock now. You have to be starving.”
    Kerry placed a reassuring hand over Christa’s. “I’m fine. Or at least I will be once they get Peggy out of there.” Closing her eyes, she swallowed at the knot of fear that had lodged in her throat and refused to go away.
    â€œI noticed the sheriff was talking to you a few minutes ago,” Christa remarked. “What was he saying? Does he know anything yet?”
    â€œHe said that the phone Jared had taken with him had apparently quit working. They haven’t been able to make any contact with him in the past twenty minutes.”
    Christa shook her head. “Well, that doesn’t necessarily mean that something has gone wrong. The battery could have gone dead on the phone or the signal may not be getting out.”
    Opening her eyes, Kerry focused a desperate look on her friend. “I hope you’re right, Christa. I can’t—I have to think that things are going to be okay. Otherwise—” She couldn’t go on as tears trickled onto her cheeks. Moments later, she felt Christa’s hand gently patting her back. Sniffing, she wiped at her tears and tried again, “Oh Christa—I don’t know what I’d do if I lost my daughter.”
    â€œYou’re not going to lose her,” Christa said with firm resolution. “The Coltons will see to that. They’rea smart, diligent family. And they care about people. If Jared can’t get her out, he and his brother will call in some expert who can.”
    Kerry glanced around her to make sure her mother wasn’t within