Thad was only a short distance away, standing tense and ready to help along with the rest of the hands, staff, and Mason’s sisters. He jogged over.
“Where is this?” Colt pointed to the controller in Levi’s hands.
Thad frowned and then, to Levi, asked, “How far away is this?”
“About eleven miles.”
Thad nodded and pointed to the west. “That’s a rugged area of the property, where it meets up with the Medicine Bow Mountain Range. You won’t get very far in your trucks. You’ll need to go on horseback.”
“Shit.” Whoever took Mason had to have been on horseback to get that far already, and it was going to take their search party over an hour to catch up.
“Do you have extra horses for us?” Nick asked Mason’s sisters.
“Yes,” Trina said. “Katie and I will get them saddled up for you.”
“And we’ll saddle up Cuervo for Mason to ride back,” Katie added.
If he can. Colt squashed the thought with a mental boot stomp. Mason riding back on his own was the only thing he’d accept.
Colt nodded and then turned for the small barn. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Nick barked before he got more than a couple of feet away. “I need you guys to put on vests.”
“Are you kidding me?” Colt complained. “Did you not see how far away he is? We need to go. Right now.”
Nick shook his head. “You’re no good to Mason if you’re dead. Put on a damn vest.”
“We don’t have time.”
“Nick’s right,” Wes cut in. “We don’t know what we’re going to run into out there.”
“Goddammit,” Colt bit out. He charged over to Nick’s Interceptor, where Deputy Santiago was already holding a vest out for him. He grabbed it and kept walking toward the barn to saddle up Zephyr, cursing Nick and his brother the whole time. Every second they wasted was one less Mason had to stay alive.
“Happy?” he snarled over his shoulder at no one in particular.
Another painfully long twenty minutes later Colt, along with his brothers, Nick, and Deputies Santiago and Spearman, met up in the courtyard, ready to ride out. Katie led Cuervo to Colt and handed the reins up to him. She stepped back with a frown tilting her mouth and her eyes bright with worry.
“Ride like the wind,” she said.
Colt nodded and steered Zephyr westward. They rode at a jog like some sort of old west posse until they reached one of the interior roads. Levi pulled Merlin up to a stop and retrieved a compass from his pocket to sight their route.
“Follow me,” he called out as he replaced the compass.
Levi took the lead, and Colt fell in behind him, then Nick and Spearman, followed by Santiago and Wes bringing up the rear. They loped until the road veered away from their destination and then walked the horses through the dense forest, jogging where they could.
After about forty-five minutes of slow riding through increasingly thick underbrush, Colt’s cheeks stinging from being whipped by tree branches, Levi called them to a stop in a small clearing. From the front pocket of an over-the-shoulder pack he wore, he dug out his drone and a single-handed drone controller and sent the drone up and ahead of them.
Nobody spoke, but the tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. Sensing Colt’s stress, Zephyr and Cuervo both stamped their hooves on the soft ground, and Zeph tossed his head a few times. Colt tried to take a few deep breaths to calm himself, but the deeper they got into the wilderness, the higher his apprehension climbed.
“They’re all still there,” Levi said, but his gaze stayed on the small viewfinder. “Looks like the three people are huddled together.”
“Are all three signatures still strong?” Wes asked, because somehow, his brother knew there was no way Colt was going to, as much as he needed to know.
“Yep.” Levi called back the drone, tucked everything back into his pack, and clucked his tongue. Merlin swished his tail and started walking.
Colt wanted to shout out for Mason but only held back because of whoever had him. He didn’t want to announce their arrival too far ahead and have Mason’s abductors panic and kill him before they got to him.
Half an hour later, they stopped again so Levi could check ahead with the drone.
