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Hanging out with me isn’t the easiest gig in the world.”
    She grinned suddenly. “But it does have his advantages.”
    He smiled back, feeling the heat climb up his body and his cock swell and press hard against his fly. “That it does.”
    * * * * *
    “I’m sick of excuses,” Rance Braddock railed to the man standing in front of him.
    “How hard is it to find one damn girl, anyway?”
    Sheriff Brad Hollis shoved his hands in his pockets and glared back at him. “Rance, we’ve got everyone on this including the Texas Rangers and we’re ready to call in the damn FBI. I know how upset you are, but trust me. We’re all doing the best we can.”
    “The best?” He looked as if he’d swallowed something bad tasting. “If you had the best then my little girl would be back here safe and sound where she belongs.”
    “Rance?” T.J.’s voice was low next to him.
    “What?” he spat.
    “First of all, Erin’s not a little girl anymore. You need to remember that. Secondly, everyone’s working their asses off to find out what happened.”
    Rance narrowed his eyes. “Aren’t you just the littlest damn worried that your bride disappeared the night before your wedding? Or isn’t she all that important to you?
    Have I been misreading this whole thing?”
    T.J. sighed, glanced at the sheriff and back at Rance. “Of course I’m concerned.
    There’s nothing I want more than to have Erin back here and get this wedding back on track. But…”
    But what?”
    “Well what if she just got cold feet about the whole thing and decided to disappear on her own?”
    Rance could feel his blood pressure going through the roof. “Now why in the hell would she do that? Did you do or say something to piss her off?”
    “Of course not.” Anger washed across the man’s face. “I love her. But both of us have been so concerned about making sure she never had another experience like Cal that we may have just rushed her into things.”
    “And what if someone like Cal’s gotten hold of her again?” Rance wanted to know.
    “Rance?” the sheriff interrupted. “Is there something you’re not telling me?
    Something we should know? Because there’s been no ransom demand and thank god we haven’t found a body. Smoky says she walked out the back door but no one remembers anything after that.”
    Rance dropped into a big easy chair, forcing a calmness he didn’t feel before he gave himself a damn heart attack. He scrubbed his big hands over his face, wishing his brain would settle down.
    “T.J., you really think she might have just taken a powder?” Then the next minute he shook his head. “No, I don’t believe it. If she did it’s because someone like Cal Stadler saw dollar signs all over her and talked her into it.” He looked at both men in front of him. “She’s vulnerable right now. God only knows who she could fall prey to.”
    “I’ll ask you again,” Brad Hollis said. “Who’s Cal and what about him?”
    Rance just shook his head and looked up at T.J.
    “Brad, Cal’s someone Erin met in Houston at the hotel where she was assistant manager. Too rich, too arrogant, too powerful. But Rance, here,” he glanced at his erstwhile father-in-law, “kept such a tight rein on her after her mother died that she just decided to kick over the traces. It’s why she took a job with that luxury hotel chain rather than let Rance help her get a job with one of his friends. Or insist she come back here to the ranch. Sorry, Rance, but if you hadn’t squeezed so hard, demanded she stop seeing him and come back here it might not have happened.”
    When Rance didn’t say anything the sheriff asked, “So what did happen?”
    Rance closed his eyes as T.J. continued the tale. “It seems Cal had a few problems with alcohol and control. Not apparent at first. It wasn’t until Erin moved in with him that his temper and drinking really took over.”
    “He abused her,” Hollis guessed.
    T.J. nodded. “Badly. Psychologically as