Page 99 of Promised to the Cowboy

And suddenly the shape resolves.

Not a road.

A runway.

Hidden on another man’s land. Close enough to Stoneridge to reach us. Far enough that nobody would see it from the house.

My father didn’t build this overnight. The machinery tracks, the cut fence, the packed earth. This has been waiting since before he visited the ranch. Maybe before I arrived in Montana, for whatever twisted purpose he needed it for.

I look at Falcon. “How long have you been working for him?”

His face closes. “Long enough.”

A sound reaches us from the east, low at first, then growing. Engines.

I follow Falcon’s gaze as he looks through the windshield. A white aircraft appears beyond the distant ridge, descending out of the gray morning sky.

My father didn’t send men to retrieve me.

He came to do it himself.

Chapter 24

Gabriel

I wake to an empty bed.

That isn’t unusual. Evie’s been getting up earlier lately, usually because our daughter has decided five in the morning is an acceptable time to start turning somersaults beneath her ribs. Sometimes she goes down to the kitchen for crackers. Sometimes I find her sitting on the porch with a blanket around her shoulders, staring out at the pasture like she’s still surprised she gets to wake up here.

I reach across the mattress anyway. The sheets on her side are cool. Thatisunusual.

I open my eyes. Gray morning light presses at the curtains. The clock says six forty-three. Her boots are gone from beside the dresser. So is the cardigan she wore last night.

I lie still for a second, listening. No water running in the bathroom. No footsteps in the hall. No soft murmur from downstairs. The house feels wrong. Not quiet. Stoneridge is often quiet in the morning. Empty in a place that should contain her.

I get up and pull on yesterday’s jeans.

The new phone I bought her is on the nightstand.

I stop.

Evie takes it everywhere. Not because she likes the thing. She doesn’t. But her mother might call. The clinic might call. And after everything with Voss, Ethan made her promise it stayed charged and within reach.

I pick it up. The screen is dark. No message. No note. Nothing.

A slow pressure starts beneath my sternum. Fear.

I’m out of the room before I’ve put on socks. The hallway is empty. So is the bathroom.

Downstairs, Maggie stands at the stove with a pan in one hand. She turns when she hears me.

“Where’s Evie?”

Maggie sets the pan down. “She went to the lower paddock. Falcon came in and said there was trouble with Chance.”

“What trouble?”

“Caught herself against the fence, he thought.” Maggie’s eyes sharpen as she looks at my face. “Evie was on the porch when Falcon came. Said the baby was keeping her awake.”