Kidnapped in Texas


 
 
 
 “I’m so scared. Please help me.”
 “Tell me where you are, honey, and I’ll come get you. What do you see?”
 “I don’t know. They’re keeping me locked in a room. I managed to sneak out and find a phone but I’m scared. I don’t know where I am, Abby.”
 Abby looked to Luke, feeling helpless to do anything for her. “Try to find a window. Look out and tell me what you see.”
 “I don’t know. I can’t—”
 Kenzie’s scream pierced the air as sounds of a struggle ensued.
 “Kenzie!” She reached out for Luke and he wrapped his arm around her. Heavy breathing filled the line. “Who is this? Why did you take her?”
 Instead of answering, the person hung up.
 Luke pulled Abby into his embrace. As he did, she felt his heart pounding as well. “This is good,” he assured her. “At least we know she’s still alive.”
 Abby nodded. He was right. She had to focus on that.
 Kenzie was alive...at least for now.
 
 
 Virginia Vaughan is a born-and-raised Mississippi girl. She is blessed to come from a large Southern family, and her fondest memories include listening to stories recounted around the dinner table. She was a lover of books from a young age, devouring tales of romance, danger and love. She soon started writing them herself. You can connect with Virginia through her website, virginiavaughanonline.com, or through the publisher. 
 Books by Virginia Vaughan
 Love Inspired Suspense
 Cowboy Protectors
 Kidnapped in Texas
 Cowboy Lawmen
 Texas Twin Abduction
 Texas Holiday Hideout
 Texas Target Standoff
 Texas Baby Cover-Up
 Texas Killer Connection
 Texas Buried Secrets
 Covert Operatives
 Cold Case Cover-Up
 Deadly Christmas Duty
 Risky Return
 Killer Insight
 Visit the Author Profile page at LoveInspired.com.
 
 
 Kidnapped in Texas
 Virginia Vaughan
 
 
 
 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
 —Ephesians 6:11 
 
 
 To Izzy, my sweet grandbaby. You light up my life.
 
 
 Contents
 Chapter One
 Chapter Two
 Chapter Three
 Chapter Four
 Chapter Five
 Chapter Six
 Chapter Seven
 Chapter Eight
 Chapter Nine
 Chapter Ten
 Epilogue
 Dear Readers
 Excerpt from Mistaken Twin Target by Jenna Night
 
 
 ONE
 Abby Mitchell crossed the street to drop a letter into the mailbox. It had been a long day and she was looking forward to spending the evening with her niece and nephew and maybe watching a movie or vegging out on the sofa.
 Kenzie was waiting for her now across the street at the café. Abby had promised the fourteen-year-old a cookie crumble Frappuccino before they headed home.
 A scream pierced the air.
 Abby spun around and her heart failed. A man had Kenzie, his arms wrapped around her, trying to shove her into the back seat of his car.
 “No!” Abby darted across the street and attacked the abductor, punching at his arms, kicking and screaming, anything to get him to release her niece.
 The man spun around and elbowed her in the face, sending her tumbling backward to the street. Her elbows scraped the concrete and stung, but that pain was nothing compared to the feeling of watching him shove Kenzie into the back of his car. He slammed the door, jumped into the driver’s seat, then sped away before she could even scramble to her feet.
 “Kenzie!” She reached out her hand in a fruitless gesture as the car sped away. Kenzie stared at her through the back window, her young face frightened and begging for help.
 A man rushed to where Abby still lay on the ground. “Ma’am, are you okay? Do you need help?”
 She shook her head, eyes still glued to the car speeding away. “He took her. He took Kenzie.”
 “I’m going after him. Call 9-1-1,” the man said before heading toward an SUV.
 Abby scrambled to her feet. She couldn’t let this man get in his car and leave without her. She needed to be there if—when—he tracked down Kenzie. Her niece would need her, not some stranger. She rushed to the SUV and pulled open the passenger’s door. She didn’t even realize who her rescuer was until she climbed into the passenger seat.
 Her breath caught in her chest.
 Luke Harmon. Her old boyfriend. “You,” she said.
 He started the engine of the car and glanced her way as he nodded. “Me.”
 Okay, then. Him. So be it. Abby slammed the door shut and pulled on her seat belt as Luke shoved the vehicle into Drive and took off after the silver sedan.
 She clutched her shoulder, only now realizing how hard she’d slammed it against the pavement when the abductor shoved her. It hurt almost as much as her cheek where he’d elbowed her, but neither of those injuries was anything compared to the pain of seeing Kenzie staring at her through the back of the window, her eyes wide and full of fear.
 “Call Caleb,” Luke said, and the phone on the dash lit up at his voice recognition. “My cousin is now the chief of police,” he explained. She knew who Caleb was. She lived here in their hometown of Jessup, Texas, while Luke had moved away years earlier and, she’d heard, joined the FBI.
 A moment later, a man’s voice answered. “Luke, I can’t talk now. I just got word of an abduction downtown.”
 “I know. That’s why I’m calling. I saw it all. He got away with a teenage girl and we’re in pursuit. Her mother’s here with me.”
 “I’m sending backup to you right now. Where are you?”
 “Heading east on Delaware, just passing Lexington.”
 Luke pressed the accelerator and sped up, closing the gap between them and the silver sedan. Abby’s heart jumped in her chest. They were going to catch up to them!
 “That’s them,” she cried.
 Suddenly, another vehicle shot through the intersection and cut them off, horn blaring. Luke jerked the SUV to the right to