Free Forgotten Secrets by Robin Perini Page B

attention. Thayne cut an impressive figure in his Navy dress whites, strong, disciplined, but with a glint of mischief in his eye and a slight smile tugging at his mouth. Riley’s heart flipped once in her chest. She could imagine the hint of laughter beneath the timbre of his voice. She’d heard it enough.
    Cheyenne had captured Thayne’s personality in that one shot. She knew her brother well. Riley paused at a picture of Sheriff Carson Blackwood taken about a decade ago in his uniform, hugging a woman Riley assumed was Thayne’s mother.
    The room might not be purely professional, but Cheyenne didn’t care.
    She loved her family. She wasn’t afraid to show how much.
    A large floor-to-ceiling corkboard took up half the wall, littered with drawings from young patients. A few were colored blue with tears, but many more contained rainbow bright colors that jumped off the page.
    With each minute, each small detail, the connection to Cheyenne became more and more real. Riley could just hear Tom now.
    “You’re getting too emotional again. Don’t get involved.”
    Shut up, Tom.
    She couldn’t stop herself. She was already involved, notwithstanding her relationship with Thayne. Getting personal was how she accomplished her profiles; she had to build a tether between her mind, her emotions, and the victim.
    No matter the price.
    Riley slid a sidelong glance to Thayne. Cheyenne was very much loved. He would fight for his sister. With each second that passed, the line of his mouth tightened, but he stood silent, allowing Riley the time she needed. He didn’t press. Most men of action like Thayne would be on her, asking questions, pushing hard. Somehow, he’d harnessed the discipline to wait. He really was something special.
    “I can tell I’ll like your sister,” she said finally.
    “I like her, too. And I want her back alive.”
    “I know, Thayne. Let me look at the . . .” Riley paused as an out-of-place photo called out to her. She tilted her head. The only image with no people. Just a few aspens and pines, a looming peak in the background, a pool of water. And a shadow. Odd.
    “What is it?” Thayne asked.
    “Where was this picture taken? Can you tell?”
    “Oh yeah. The border between our ranch and the Riverton property. We used to play Mountain Men of the West and battle it out with the Riverton brothers. A feud with a family tradition.”
    “Singing River’s own Hatfields and McCoys? That’s a story you never told me.”
    He shrugged. “I haven’t thought about it in years. Our families don’t get along. Bad blood going way back and family loyalty make for a fierce rivalry.”
    “Cheyenne was in the middle of it? Was she the damsel in distress? The one who got kidnapped.”
    “Hell no. She’s the one who drew up the attack plans.”
    Riley chuckled at the image of Cheyenne organizing Thayne and her other brothers, but his description didn’t explain the photo. She’d have to let the disconnect simmer. “I’m done here.”
    After one last look around Cheyenne’s private office, Riley walked down the hall. Would she see something, anything to help find Cheyenne?
    Her heart wrapped in an oppressive darkness, a panic.
    Please let us find her.
    She opened one exam room. Untouched. Then a second, and finally the storage room containing supplies and medications.
    Strange. In a high-risk robbery, she would have expected complete chaos, and yet, most items remained untouched, with only a few areas on the shelves empty.
    She glanced down at the floor. “The kidnappers came after the supplies first,” she mused, the reenactment playing like an out-of-focus movie in her head. “They used a garbage bag—”
    “How can you know that?” Thayne interrupted.
    “Because when they removed the bag from the box, several others tumbled out on the floor. The rest of this place is pristine. Your sister keeps her supplies orderly and well labeled. She would’ve folded the garbage bags and returned them to