“I called the sheriff, but it turns out Benson already contacted him. He’s on his way from town to look for her. I imagine he’ll stop when he sees your truck.”
“Maybe we should shift and search for her,” Liam said. “From the way the rear of her car is dented, someone ran her off the road.”
“Are you thinking she got out of the car and ran to avoid this person?”
“Tawny is part werewolf. She could survive a crash better than a human. So yes. She might have run.” Liam stood taller. “Sirens. Her father’s here.”
It wasn’t long before the sheriff and his deputy managed to climb down the ravine. Adam Granger probably wished he had shifted into his wolf form. He would have been able to move better. Because of the steepness of the slope, Tawny might have realized she couldn’t make it up the hill, so she ran into the woods. But why not take her phone? Liam didn’t want to think of the reasons why she hadn’t.
“Holy shit. Someone ran my daughter off the road,” the sheriff said. “Where is she?”
“We don’t know, sir,” Liam said. “There’s blood on the steering wheel but no Tawny.”
“Have you checked in the trunk?”
Fuck me.“Not yet. We didn’t want to touch anything.” In reality, Liam hadn’t thought to look there. If she were in the trunk, someone put her there.
Tawny’s dad and his deputy donned latex gloves. After they moved the debris from around the car, Noah opened the squeaky driver’s side door and then popped the trunk. To Liam’s immense relief, it was empty.
“Alex and I were about to shift and check out the woods. She might have wanted to get away from whoever hit her from behind.”
“Good idea. We’ll check for fingerprints on the door handles,” the sheriff said.
Not wanting to waste any more time, he and Alex jogged deep into the woods until neither could see the car. They then shifted.
“You head diagonally right, and I’ll go diagonally left. Keep in touch,”Liam telepathed.
They both shifted and took off. Even though the trees were mostly bare, there wasn’t as much snow on the ground as on the roadway above. However, there was no path. It would be hard for Tawny to find her way deep into the forest. Liam sniffed, but didn’t detect anyone having passed through this area recently. Nor did he see any broken branches to imply she was running away.
“See anything?”he telepathed to Alex, hoping his friend wasn’t too far away to understand him.
“No, nothing.”
“I want to look a little more. If I don’t even see a broken twig in the next few minutes, I’ll head back.”
“Me, too,”Alex said.
Liam frantically searched, looking up in the trees and trying to find even one footprint, but he spotted nothing.“I’m going back.”
When he could make out Tawny’s car in the ravine, he shifted and headed out of the forest on foot.
“Anything?” Her father sounded in control, but from the way his chest was heaving, he was anything but okay.
“No, I’m sorry.”
The sheriff tugged on his hat. “What happened to her?”
“She could have reached the road and flagged someone down.”
The sheriff shook his head. “I doubt it. I called every clinic and hospital. She’s not there. Since someone ran her off the road, they were either trying to send a message or wanted her dead.”
Liam almost lost it. He couldn’t lose his mate. He loved her. How that had happened in such a short time, he didn’t know, but it was the truth.
Alex emerged from the woods, looking as if his heart was breaking too. “Anything?”
“Not yet,” the sheriff said. “I’ve called several of our family members to see if they can ask around. Someone might have heard or seen something.”
“She could be anywhere. Zach is back at the house. If she shows up there, he’ll call us.” Liam dragged a hand down his jaw. “Hell, maybe she was taken by these vigilantes—assuming she was abducted.” Liam’s cell rang. “Excuse me. It’s Trevor. He went to the center to speak to one of her workers.” Liam swiped the on button. “Yes, Trevor.”