Born To Be Wild Read Free Page B

man, he was an even more potent eyeful than he’d been that day she’d fallen in love with him at Suicide Hill. His shoulders strained his stonewashed denim work shirt and his muscular thighs filled the mud-splattered denim of his jeans. His dark hair straggled around his rugged features, making him look downright dangerous.
    Feeling hollow inside, as she had since their breakup, Isabel opened the door for Micah. She hated that he still made her chest squeeze tight every time she saw him. The reason she’d tried her best not to see him at all over the years. She would drop Lucy off at the ranch on his weekends when she was sure he’d still be out on the range. Or if he picked up Lucy here in Santa Fe for some reason, she got Mama to be here while she disappeared. Every time she saw him, she was reminded of what they could have had. Sometimes the memories were too much to bear.
    “Any word?” he asked.
    She shook her head. “No. Nothing yet. I feel like I should be doing something, but I don’t know what.”
    “We could drive around the neighborhood, see if anyone spotted her. Better than sitting around and waiting, right?”
    Just staring into Micah’s thick-lashed violet eyes, so at war with the rest of his face, made her angry and determined and sad and unfulfilled. Without him, she still felt lost after all these years. But no matter how much he still stirred her, she couldn’t ever let him know it, couldn’t ever trust him again. Not after what had happened between them.
    At least, she couldn’t trust him with herself.
    Lucy was a different matter. Their child loved her father unconditionally. And she knew Micah would do anything to protect their daughter.
    She nodded. “All right, but you drive. I’m too shaky.”
    They spent the next hour cruising the vicinity, stopping to ask any neighbors they spotted if they’d seen Lucy. The answer was always the same. Disappointing. Someone had to have seen something. If they didn’t get a break soon, Isabel thought she might lose her mind.
    Before heading back to the house, Micah pulled the truck onto a stretch of wooded area that bumped up behind her property. Private land, but not occupied. They got out to walk through the piñons and cedars and Chickasaw plums, looking for anything that might belong to Lucy, like her book bag or a hair clip. As her boots squished over the still-wet ground, Isabel refused to think of anything more sinister. She wanted to believe that Lucy had just gotten sidetracked and had forgotten to call. That she’d decided to walk home. She’d taken the long way. Maybe she’d gotten lost, but surely she would find her way home soon.
    Even as Isabel tried to rationalize, to make things better so she could deal with the situation, horrific images like the stills she sometimes took at disasters or crime scenes for the Santa Fe Courier flashed through her mind.
    Remembering that teenage girl they’d found facedown in the Acequia Madre that cut through the Historic Eastside, she lost her footing and stumbled.
    Micah grabbed her arm and steadied her. “You okay?”
    “No.”
    Seeing her panic mirrored in his eyes for a brief moment, she froze. They were in the same place for once in their lives. And what a horrible place to be.
    “What can I do?” he asked.
    You could take me in your arms, tell me everything is going to be all right…
    Not something she could say to him aloud.
    Still, she was grateful she wasn’t doing this alone. “Keep looking for any sign that she came this way.”
    Please let Lucy have come this way…please let her be home when we get there…
    They searched every inch of the land, peering beneath bushes, pushing away native grasses, avoiding prickly cacti.
    Nothing…nothing…nothing…
    “Has Lucy said anything odd about anyone lately?” Micah asked.
    “Odd?”
    “Anything to alarm you?” he clarified. “Any kids giving her a hard time? Any threats?”
    Isabel frowned. “Not that she’s said, and I