Chapter 2

2

Genny couldn’t sit still. She’d just kept pacing around the living room of the house she’d shared with her brothers for the last two years.

She hadn’t intended to live with those dorks long-term, but the house she’d been renting with a roommate in Barrattville had been leveled in the tornado that had destroyed far too much of the area. She’d moved in with her brothers—temporarily—and had somehow gotten stuck there.

Even though she’d not admitted it to anyone but Chantal and Aubrey—she liked it. After the storm, her roommate had moved in with her new boyfriend. She and Genny decided not to get another place together, for obvious reasons. Genny had been lonely after that. She also liked being able to walk along the back fence between her brothers’ place and Chantal’s parents’ place to get to her best friend each and every day.

And she liked being there to drive her sweet little nephew to preschool on her way to work in Value, at the hospital there. Or take him to soccer practice or T-ball, or… just be there when he needed her.

She liked being with her family. Fear for her brother was just as strong as for Chantal. No one knew what had happened out there. Just the vague letter delivered to Charlie’s office. Saying… a sister for a sister. And Chantal’s phone, with a photo of her bound as the screen saver.

Her best friend might already be dead. Why would whoever took her keep her alive?

And Gene … Gene was out there somewhere. They had teams searching the ranch—for her older brother’s body.

Everyone knew… Chantal had been the target. Gene had just been out there working the fences. Probably in the way. If nothing had happened to him—then where was he?

His horse had come back to the barn without him… hours ago.

Genesis fought tears. Tears didn’t help anyone. She had to do what she had to do.

That meant being there for Chantal’s mom and dad, and her own. And for Gene’s little boy, Calvin. Because if Gene didn’t come home, Genny would most likely be raising that little boy from now on.

Chantal would want that more than anything. Their parents to be taken care of. And Gene would want Calvin to be okay. So that was what Genny was going to do. Take care of their parents, take care of Calvin, no matter what.

She was closest to Charlie when his phone rang. Genny waited, holding her breath, while he spoke.

When he said, “We’ll be right there,” she knew.

Something had happened.

He disconnected. His big blue eyes closed and he muttered something. When he looked at the people surrounding him, his eyes were wet. “They are at the Barratt County hospital. She’s getting treated now. Gene’s there with her. Let’s roll.”

Just like that. But what it meant… treated meant alive. And Gene was with her. “Are they going to be okay?”

“That was the head of Barratt County Gen personally,” Charlie looked at his daughter for a moment. Genny had avoided looking at the other woman—she looked a bit too much like Chantal right now. “He said she’s… starting… to come around now. She’s most likely going to be fine. And Gene… he’s okay, Genesis. Or he will be. We have them both back.”

Genny just stood there like an idiot, and burst into tears. Arms went around her, but she didn’t really pay much attention to who they belonged to. It quite possibly could have been Chad—he had been sticking close to her since he’d captured her in the bathroom earlier.

All she knew was that the arms holding her were strong. And everything was going to be okay.

Then they were in the trucks and SUVs and headed back to the hospital where she spent every working moment each week. Her brother and her best friend were safe. Genny could breathe again now.

Everything was going to be okay now.