Page 102 of Promised to the Cowboy

“Toward the boundary.”

Daniel and Ethan exchange a look.

I see it. “What?”

“That access track doesn’t go anywhere except the old fence line,” Daniel answers.

“Then that’s where we go.” I start toward the door.

Daniel catches my arm. “Not yet.”

I turn on him and snarl, “Yes, now!”

His grip tightens. “We do not run blind after a man who knows this ranch well enough to take her without raising an alarm.”

“He has Evie, dammit!”

Daniel’s eyes flash with raw emotion. Then it is gone. “Every second I waste arguing with you is another second before we find her. So listen once.”

The Ranger is in his voice now. Not my older brother, but the man who came home from places none of us asked him to describe.

“He chose Chance because he knew Evie would move without thinking,” Daniel says. “He chose the hour because the house was quiet and the ranch was changing shifts. He had a truck waiting.”

His eyes drop to the phone still in my hand. The phone that Ethan could already be using to track her.

“It was on the bedside table,” I say. “She was on the porch, for God’s sake.”

Twenty yards from the kitchen. Thirty from the barn. Close enough that she should have been safe. Daniel releases me. “We assume he has support. We assume the route is prepared. We find out where he’s taking her, then we go.”

I throw up my hands in frustration. “I already know who has her.”

Nobody says the name. We don’t need to.Alexander Voss.

“I trusted Falcon,” Maggie says, her words small.

Ethan looks toward the yard where the veterans are moving now, checking vehicles, gates, radios. “We all did.”

Viper returns from the cabins at a run. “Falcon’s gone. Duffel too. Locker’s empty except for work clothes.”

“Phone?” Ethan asks.

“Found it smashed behind the cabin.”

Daniel’s jaw clenches. “Anything else?”

Viper shakes his head. “Bed was made. Doesn’t look slept in.”

“He left last night,” I say.

“Or never intended to sleep,” Ethan replies.

“I was on the west perimeter until four,” Wire says, appearing behind Ethan. “Falcon took east.”

The betrayal deepens. Falcon didn’t merely wait for an opportunity. He arranged the ranch around one.

“He knew the east line would be clear,” Daniel says.

A truck engine roars outside.