Free Hard to Hold by Karen Foley

out of the tank. “Well, that ought to do it, son. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m goin’ back to bed. Good luck with your manhunt. If you do see Maddie Howe again, you be sure and tell her old Zeke says hello. But don’t forget to add that if she’s thinkin’ I’ll post bail for her, she can damned well think again.” He gave a hoot of hoarse laughter and shuffled inside the gas station to turn off the pumps and the lights.
    Colton nodded after the man’s retreating back. “Yeah. I’ll do that. Thanks for your help, Zeke.”
    He waited until the old man was safely back in his trailer before he climbed into the truck and headed in what he hoped was the direction Madeleine—Maddie, he mentally corrected—had taken. He would find her.
    There had never been any question about that.

5
    F OURTEEN HOURS LATER , Colton was beginning to think his instincts might have been wrong. He’d been so certain he was on the right track, that he was minutes away from locating Madeleine. He blew out his breath in frustration and turned away from the check-in desk of the seedy motel he’d tracked her to on the outskirts of Reno. It was nearly four in the afternoon and he reluctantly admitted he had no idea where she was.
    After he’d stopped for gas at Zeke’s place the night before, he’d followed the mountain track down to where it joined the main road, and then concealed his truck in a thick growth of brush and waited. There was a good chance he’d passed Maddie coming down the mountain. She would have seen the headlights of the truck and ducked into the underbrush to hide. But when two hours passed and she didn’t appear, he acknowledged that she must have made it to the highway ahead of him. There was no doubt in his mind that she’d hitched a ride.
    He’d pulled into the nearest truck stop during a busy breakfast shift and had passed her photo around to the weary truckers tanking up on coffee. He’d let them know the girl was in serious trouble, and if he didn’t find her before the local police did, she could end up dead. He’d gotten no response.
    It had been the same with the next half-dozen truck stops he’d visited. He was running out of options. He hated to think of Maddie hitching a ride from a stranger in a privately owned vehicle. Truckers at least had a code of honor on the road. Maddie would be safer with any of them than she would be with some nameless creep who just happened to be driving by.
    Colton had been sitting in the parking lot of the last truck stop, trying to figure out what to do next when a brute of a man had tapped on his window. It was one of the truckers. He told Colton how one of his buddies had picked up a girl outside of Winnemucca the night before. She’d been headed to Reno. She’d asked the driver to recommend a cheap motel, and he’d given her a name. That was all he knew.
    It had been a lucky break. Colton had made it there in under two hours, only to have the promising lead deteriorate into a complete dead end. The Last Chance Motel was cheap, but if Maddie really had been there, it seemed she’d been repulsed by the seediness of the establishment and had moved on. However, just to be certain, he made the manager open every room so he could check for himself that she wasn’t there. There had been several female occupants, but none of them had honey-colored hair and eyes. The Last Chance Motel had been his last chance, all right.
    He stood near the window in the small lobby and glanced speculatively up and down the street. This stretch of road was comprised almost exclusively of cheap motels, pawn shops, liquor stores and bond bailments. Colton didn’t know what personal demons Maddie needed to settle in Reno, but he did know she was desperate for money. If she was looking for a place to crash, she’d need to find a place that didn’t strap her financially. He blew out his breath in frustration. If he had to search every motel on the strip, he’d do it. The dump across