Page 106 of Promised to the Cowboy

I drag my heels. I throw my weight. I wrench one arm free long enough to drive my elbow into the man beside me. He curses and tightens his grip.

Falcon doesn’t touch my stomach. Neither of them does. Orders, apparently. My father wants his property returned undamaged.

Then I see him. Alexander descends the aircraft stairs and moves several paces away from the plane. He’s dressed for a board meeting. Dark coat. Polished shoes already gathering dust. Silver at his temples, precise enough to look intentional.

He watches them bring me across the field with the calm patience of a man waiting for luggage.

In twenty-six years, I’ve seen him fewer times than I can count. Always arriving. Always leaving. Never staying long enough for the silence after the occasion.

Now he’s carved a runway into another man’s land and crossed half the country to take me from the first home I’ve ever chosen.

The first thing he does is look me over from head to toe. “You’re all right.”

Nothello, Evangeline.A damage assessment.

He glances toward the plane. “We’ll get you aboard as soon as they’ve turned her around.”

It’s a small runway. Not enough room to simply taxi and go. They need time.

I file that away.

“I have a doctor on board who will examine you.”

I stare at him. “A doctor.”

“You’ve clearly been under considerable strain.”

“Your men dragged me out of a truck.”

His gaze shifts briefly to the man gripping my right arm. The man loosens his hold by half an inch.

Beyond him, the plane is still facing the wrong way. A crew member watches the wingtip as it swings slowly around, checking the clearance.

Not ready yet.

Alexander looks back at me. “No one needs to hurt you.”

“Then tell them to let go.”

He pauses. “This behavior is exactly why I came.”

My laugh comes out sharp and breathless. “Mybehavior.”

“You’re not thinking clearly.”

“I’m thinking more clearly than I ever have.”

“These people have isolated you. The Suttons have used your resentment toward me to draw you into a conflict you do not understand.”

“They didn’t even know who you were to me until I told them. They didn’t know I existed until I drove onto the ranch.”

Alexander’s expression does not change. He’s always been good at treating facts as temporary inconveniences.

“You arrived vulnerable,” he says. “Alone. Pregnant.”

My hand moves instinctively to my stomach.

The nose is pointing east now. The turn almost complete. They’re getting closer.