When her daughter's threatened…she fights back.
When police deputy Ronin Doyle happens upon stunning
Courtney Baker, he can't shake the feeling that something's not right. And as
the lawman's engulfed by an investigation that rocks their serene community,
more and more he's convinced that Courtney's boyfriend has swept her -- and her
beloved daughter -- into something sinister. If Ronin's hunch is right, he must
help Courtney before it's too late for them all…
Terrific conclusion to the series. This is the story of
Courtney Baker, Lauren Baker's sister-in-law, and the subject of a missing
person search in the first book of the series (Disappearance at Dakota Ridge). She
ran off with Trey Allerton, a man who claimed to be friends with her late
husband, and talked about building a ranch to help disadvantaged kids. Over the
first three books of the series, we saw increasingly suspicious activity from
Trey and worrisome events involving Courtney.
As this book starts, Courtney realizes that Trey is not
the man she thinks he is. She attempts an escape but is caught by Trey. He
threatens to harm her daughter Ashlyn if she tries to leave him again. Right
after he makes these threats, Deputy Ronin Doyle stops to check on her because
the situation looks suspicious. With Trey's threats fresh in her mind, Courtney
tells him everything is fine. Ronin doesn't buy it, but there's nothing he can
do right now.
I ached for Courtney, who came so close to breaking free
from Trey, only to find her life become even more difficult. But she now desires
to try again, and when Trey slaps Ashlyn, she has the motivation to do so. Her
desire to learn some of the things he's kept hidden from her leads her to
discover some gold bars he's hidden away, and she takes a few for later use. When
he finds the hidden bars and the papers she concealed, Trey drags them off and
locks them in an abandoned mine. She's terrified they'll die there until help
comes from an unexpected source.
I enjoyed the development of the relationship between Courtney
and Ronin. Ronin couldn't forget Courtney even though she was
"taken." His instinct that something was off also kept her on his
mind and caused him to stop by her trailer several times. Courtney was drawn by
his kindness and the compassion she saw in his eyes. She kicked herself after
each visit for not having the courage to ask for help, but her fear was too
great. I loved when Ronin took her the photography book and its effect on
her. Their feelings had a
greater chance to grow after the rescue at the mine allowed them to spend more
time together. I loved the realism at the end, where Courtney and Ronin make an
intelligent decision about their relationship.
The suspense of the story was complex, with several
layers. First was the situation with Courtney and the increasingly abusive
Trey. I was invested in seeing how she was going to escape. The second was the
ongoing question of the youth ranch and whether it was real or a scam. All
indications during the series said "scam," but there were a few
instances where it seemed legit. Then there was the addition of a detective
from a nearby town who is looking for youth-related drug activity. The elusive
Bart Smith remains a person of interest in that search. Detective Fletcher also
seems inordinately interested in Trey. The storylines come together in an
intense confrontation that had me glued to the pages until it was all over.
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