Under Threat B.J. Daniels (best free novels txt) 📖

her head. She couldn’t think like that. She could only think about survival. Thinking about who or what was after her and why...

She had to push it away, just like the knowledge her house was gone, that her sister could be dead, that her family could be in danger. She had to push it all aside and focus on what she could do.

She walked out of the kitchen and headed for the table and the open computer. She put her hand on the touchpad, and the computer sprang to life. No password to enter. No apparent security practices in place. Just an open, easily accessible computer. She glanced back down the hallway with narrowed eyes.

There was no way he would leave his computer completely unattended. Even if nothing was on here. There was something to this. Some kind of setup. Or maybe he was simply trying to prove she was underhanded.

It was insulting. He thought she was this dumb. For some reason that made her want to do it all the more. To do everything he thought she would do. Because it didn’t seem to matter what she did, he was going to think she was hiding something. She might as well get something out of it.

It was possible her sister had been taken by The Stallion. But it was also possible her sister was taken by some other lunatic, and Natalie would never find her. But Natalie was never going to know if she didn’t take this chance—regardless of what Ranger Cooper thought.

So, she pulled up the web browser and tested the availability of the internet. She cursed when she couldn’t find anything. No wireless, and he didn’t appear to have any kind of hot spot. So what had he been reading so intently all through lunch?

She skimmed the names of the folders on his desktop. The one on the very top was named CASE FILES.

“Oh, you really think I am just such an idiot, don’t you?” she muttered, more and more insulted.

She opened the folder anyway. Maybe this was all information he didn’t mind her having, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t worth having. It would still be more than she knew. She would take this opportunity, no matter how he used it against her in the future.

When the folder opened, there were a variety of documents inside. They didn’t appear to be official police documents. They weren’t reports or labeled in the way she knew cases and information at the precinct was labeled. These had to be his personal notes.

Even better.

Each file name included the words “The Stallion” plus a number code of some sort. Either his own or one outside of police work.

She began to read them in order, getting lost in the twists and turns of all the possible cases they thought The Stallion might be involved in.

It was a lot of drugs. Things she didn’t know anything about. She couldn’t imagine her sister had been wrapped up in drugs. Surely Natalie would’ve noticed that. They had been too close for Natalie to have not known or suspected that.

When Natalie got to the suspected instances of human trafficking, her blood ran cold. A lot of it was mixed up with immigration issues, but the thing that hit her hard and left her reeling was a mention of the Corlico Plant.

Her father had worked there for twenty years. He’d only stopped when Gabby had disappeared from the parking lot, waiting for him to get off his shift.

He’d never been able to go back.

And here it was, in the cases tied to The Stallion. Natalie shivered, reading quicker through the notes.

Apparently the Rangers suspected the factory of being some sort of drop-off point, or transfer station based on one raid they’d conducted, but the two women who had been freed hadn’t been able to give any information that gave the Rangers further leads.

Between Herman saying he kept the girls, and this connection, Natalie was more and more convinced The Stallion was keeping Gabby. That he had her.

She was alive.

It was strange that the rush of tears overtook her, considering how often and how much she’d cried over Gabby. How many moments of hope she’d had that had been dashed time and time again over the course of eight years. Yet this new little tiny trickle of a lead felt like a revelation.

She’d always been certain Gabby was still alive. Her certainty had been something of a crutch, really. But there’d always been that little question in the back of her mind. What if Mom and Grandma were right? What if Gabby was dead, and Natalie had wasted her life chasing nothing?

But it wasn’t nothing. This was the biggest lead she’d ever had. It wasn’t proof, and maybe it was even grasping at straws, but it was something. Something had to mean everything right now. On the run, in this tiny cabin with a man she didn’t understand—and was afraid she was a little too interested in understanding—she finally had a sliver of hope.

She would hold on to that for all she was worth.

She kept scanning the documents, eager to find a connection between the Corlico Plant and The Stallion.

An eerie sound pierced the air. Natalie froze. She didn’t know how to describe the sound, and she had even less of a clue where it might have come from. She didn’t move a muscle and strained to hear something else. Something that might identify it as harmless.

What on earth would be harmless in the middle of nowhere? Again her heart pounded so loudly she could barely hear anything, and knowing she needed to hear made it even worse. She breathed slowly and evenly, trying desperately to listen carefully. She didn’t want to wake up Ranger Cooper for something stupid.

A noise in the middle of nowhere isn’t stupid. It was actually probably pretty damn important. Looking a little stupid was better than being dead.

Carefully, she stood. Her legs were shaky, but she tried to walk as quietly as possible,