Ultimate Cowboy Read Free Page B

off the grid.
    No telling what had happened to him in that time.
    “I’m sorry, Brody, I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear,” Julie said. “But the good news is that, if this is Will, he’s alive.”
    Her words reverberated in his head. Within a few weeks after Will had gone missing, the police had given up. Since the family hadn’t receiveda ransom note, the authorities had deemed his brother dead.
    So they’d stopped looking.
    But he’d sworn on his mother’s grave that he would never give up.
    Julie was right—if this boy was Will, at least he was alive. That meant there was hope he might get him back. But what had happened to him in the meantime?
    Would Will even remember him?
    Julie shifted, and he jerked hisgaze to the photos, determined to ignore the pull of attraction he still felt for her. He was ashamed of the way he’d treated her back then and owed her an apology.
    But now wasn’t the time. First, he had to find out about his brother.
    “What do you think?” Julie asked, all business.
    He chewed the inside of his cheek. It was hard to see the teenager’s entire face because of that hoodie.A hoodie he’d worn to hide himself from the cameras, meaning he had planned the robbery.
    He envisioned his brother the way he was when he’d last seen him. Blondish-brown hair, freckles, crooked teeth, a cowlick that wouldn’t quit. He’d been a pest at times, always following Brody around on the ranch, wanting him to show him riding tricks, spying on him when he’d tried to be alone with Julie.
    That last day Brody had been annoyed with him. He’d driven Will to the rodeo, but he and Julie had wanted to slip away and make out, and he’d decided nothing was going to stop him. His old man had always shuffled Will off on him to watch while he boozed it up, and Brody had had enough.
    He’d found Will a seat in the stands, thinking he’d stay put until the show was over, then he and Juliehad rushed into one of the empty stalls and begun tearing at each other’s clothes.
    It was the best sex he’d ever had.
    And the worst day of his life.
    When they’d finally dressed and headed back to the stands, Will had been gone. At first he hadn’t panicked. He’d assumed his brother had gone for popcorn or to watch one of the rodeo riders saddle up.
    But an hour later total fearhad seized him.
    That terror had kept him in knots since.
    “Brody, what do you think?” Julie asked.
    He pushed the haunting memories away so he wouldn’t break down in front of Julie. “It looks like him,” he said. “But...I can’t imagine Will robbing a store. He was always a good kid.”
    A tense heartbeat passed between them. “We have no idea why Will would rob a store,” Julie said.“Or what he’s been through the last few years. Someone could have forced him to commit the robbery.”
    His gaze met hers. She was right.
    “There’s a gang pulling similar crimes across the state,” Julie continued. “It’s possible that he was picked up years ago and raised by a family. Maybe for some reason he’s gotten in with the wrong crowd and this was some kind of gang initiation.”
    She was making excuses for him, trying to put the best-case scenario on the situation. It was possible that some loving woman or couple, desperate for a child, had kidnapped Will and raised him as their own.
    But they both knew there were other possibilities. The horror stories of pedophiles and kidnappers who abducted children and used them for their own pleasure, who sold them or traded themto other sickos, filled the news. Sex, abuse...the crimes were horrific.
    And here in this photo, the teenager, Will, didn’t look as if he was being forced to rob the store. It appeared to be a premeditated act.
    “If this is him and he’s alive, why didn’t he try to contact me over the years?” Brody asked.
    Another awkward pause, then Julie raked the pictures back into a stack. “I don’tknow. It’s possible he’s suffering from Stockholm