Page 104 of Promised to the Cowboy

“And if it doesn’t?”

“I get the drone up and follow the tracks from the boundary.”

“Take what you need.”

Ethan closes the case, locks it, then lifts a rifle from the rack.

I catch Ethan by the arm as Daniel heads for the first truck. “One second.”

He looks at my hand, then at my face. Whatever he sees there makes him go still.

“If something happens to me?—”

“No.” The word comes fast and hard.

“Ethan.”

“We are not doing this.” He pulls his arm free. “Nothing is happening to you.”

“Promise me.”

His jaw tightens.

Around us, doors slam. Engines turn over. Men call equipment checks across the yard.

I hold my brother’s eyes. “If this goes wrong, you get Evie and our daughter home. You keep them safe.”

“Gabriel—”

“And when she’s old enough, you tell my girl her father wanted her.” My voice roughens, but I force the words out. “Every second. Before I knew her. Before I ever felt her move.”

Ethan looks away.

“You tell her I wasn’t the problem.”

His eyes snap back to mine.

The words are out now. The oldest wound I have, standing bare between us.

“You tell her I was the answer. Just once, Ethan. Let me be the answer.”

For a long moment, he says nothing. Then he takes off his glasses. He holds them in one hand and looks at me with his naked eyes—my middle brother, the bomb technician, the manwho understands better than anyone what a structural defect can do under pressure.

When he puts the glasses back on, the movement is slow and deliberate. “I promise.”

I clasp his shoulder. “Thank you.”

His fingers close hard around my wrist. “But you listen to me, Gabriel.” His voice drops. “I am not making that promise because I expect to keep it. I’m making it so you’ll stop wasting time saying goodbye.”

“I’m not saying goodbye.”

“Good.” He releases me. “Then get in the damn truck.”

We pile into the trucks. As I climb into Daniel’s passenger seat, I look once toward the old barn. Chance stands in the doorway of her stall, ears pricked toward the yard. The mare Falcon used to lure Evie away is safe. That’s the only mercy he left us.

Daniel starts the engine. We tear east across Stoneridge toward the place Caleb says someone has been cutting into his land.

Toward the missing truck.