Texas Ranger Takes a Bride. Patricia Thayer

and coloring. He was nearly as tall.

      Chase thought he could handle their meeting after all these years, but seeing Mallory again drove all logic from his head. If anything, she was even more beautiful at almost thirty than at twenty-one. Her midnight-black hair was still long and silky as the wavy strands lay against her shoulders. Her wide green eyes were no longer bright, but frightened, bringing him back to the reason he was here. It didn’t stop the strong urge to pull her into his arms. He resisted it.

      “Mallory, this is Sergeant Raines, Jesse. Jesse, Mallory…Hagan.”

      She took his outstretched hand. “It’s nice to meet you, sergeant.”

      He nodded. “Wish it was under better circumstances.”

      She bit down on her trembling lip. “Just bring my son back to me.”

      “We’re going to try really hard to accomplish that, ma’am.” Jesse looked at Chase. “I’ll head down to the command post.”

      “I’ll be there soon.” Chase had given Jesse a brief summery about his past relationship with Mallory on the trip here. He knew Raines would keep the news private.

      They both watched him walk out the door, then Mallory turned to Chase. “You should go, too.”

      “I will, but first I need to talk with you. How is your father doing?” he asked as he directed her to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair for her to sit down.

      “He’s going to recover,” she said. “He’ll be home tomorrow.”

      “Good. Now, maybe you can answer a few questions.”

      She looked up at him with those trusting green eyes. He quickly glanced away as he pulled a paper out of his pocket. It was a map of the ranch.

      “Joe told us your father made camp here at this group of rocks.” He circled the area with his finger. “Right before dawn, two men appeared, one with a gun, catching Buck, Joe and Mick by surprise still in their sleeping bags. Then the convicts took some extra clothes, and the horses. When they went to take your son…Ryan, Buck tried to fight them. He got shot, and Joe and Mick were beaten.”

      She nodded. “Dad said Ryan wasn’t hurt when they took him. Joe’s horse wandered back to camp—that’s how he was able to come for help.” She blinked at tears. “Please, you’ve got to get my son back before they do anything bad to him.”

      Chase wanted to promise her he could, but there weren’t any guarantees when it came to finding prisoners who had nothing to lose. “We’re going to do everything we can to find them, Mallory. They took your father’s cell phone, so we’re hoping to be able to make contact with them.”

      “Do you think they’re heading to the border?”

      “It’s a possibility,” he told her. “The convicts didn’t plan this escape. From the second they’d carjacked the vehicle on the interstate until now being on horseback, I’m thinking that they’re just making it up as they go along.”

      She shivered. “That’s what scares me. They’re desperate men, Chase. They could just decide there’s no need for Ryan any more.”

      He reached for her hand, a natural reflex. It was cold and shaking as he cupped it in his. “No, Mallory, they do need the boy now. He’s their bartering tool. So you have to stay positive.” He worked up a smile. “I have a feeling Buck taught his grandson how to survive out there.”

      She nodded, and surprisingly returned with a hint of smile.

      It immediately took his breath. Finding his voice, he asked, “Tell me what Ryan knows, Mal.”

      She released a long breath. “He’s a good rider.” Her brow wrinkled in concentration. “And can read animal tracks. Dad taught him to how find a direction by the sun and the stars.”

      “That’s good…the boy knows how to handle himself.” Chase didn’t want to think about the other dangers out there…mostly human ones.

      “So you think that could help him?”

      He nodded. A strange feeling came over him as he studied Mallory. The woman he’d once cared about…she’d always wanted a husband and family. He couldn’t give her that all those years ago. Hopefully he could at least bring her son home.

      “He sounds like a great kid.”

      “He is, but he’s still my baby.”

      He watched a tear fall and he reached out and brushed it away. He couldn’t imagine how she felt, but he did feel for her. It was something that hadn’t changed. “Mallory, I promise to do everything I can to bring him back.”

      Chase stood. He needed to put some space between him and her. “I’ll be heading out to the camp. If the search dogs picked up their scent we’ll follow.” He looked around to see the room empty. “You shouldn’t be alone. Is there someone to stay with you?”

      She shook her head. “No. I sent Rosalie to bed.”

      “What about your…husband?” Why wasn’t the man there with his wife?

      She looked at him a long time, then said, “Alan died two years ago. It’s just Ryan and me.”

      CHAPTER TWO

      AS THE SUN ROSE in the sky from the east, Chase knew that the twenty-four-hour mark had come and gone, and they hadn’t found them.

      He swung his leg over the back of the horse and climbed down, as the other rangers did the same. The bloodhounds were taking a break, too, from their long trek across the dry plains, crossing Interstate 10 into Reeves County. Their trainers had them drinking water beside one of the prison vehicles.

      Chase concentrated on his job and knelt to examine the tracks in the sandy soil. There were two sets of hooves and they were headed south. Mexico.

      It didn’t take a rocket scientist to come up with that equation. Once they crossed the border the two men could get lost for a long time, especially when Jacobs and Reyes had been sent to prison under the “three strikes you’re out” law. They had nothing to lose.

      And that was what worried Chase the most.

      The two weren’t taking the easiest route. They were heading toward the Barrilla Mountains. There were fewer towns and traveled roads, but mostly because the rocky terrain provided better cover from the search helicopters.

      Still, the escapees had to get across the Rio Grande. That was his job. To make sure they didn’t make it to the border, or they might never find them…or the boy.

      How could he go back and face Mallory with that kind of news? He recalled the devastated look on her face. It had affected him more than it should have, especially when he needed to keep this case on a professional level.

      Hell, how was he supposed to do that when he knew if he’d hung around years ago, so many things might have turned out differently.

      Chase took the small picture of the boy, Ryan, out of his pocket and studied it again. His chest tightened as the cute kid with his curly dark hair and big eyes grinned back at him. Envy and regret surged through him as if he were on a runaway horse.

      He shook it away as Raines came up beside him. “Same tracks?”

      “Looks like we’re headed for the border.” He slipped the photo back in his pocket, then reached for his cell phone and called headquarters.

      Bob Robertson came on the line. “Tell me you located them, Landon.”

      “Sorry, not yet, Captain. We’ve picked up their tracks again.” He gave their location. “And as we thought, they’re headed for the mountains.”

      “Damn, I wish I wasn’t right on that one. Maybe they aren’t as dumb as we thought. Do you need more manpower?”

      “No, we have enough to handle it.” Chase hesitated,