Page 120 of Promised to the Cowboy

“No.” I hold his gaze. “You called him son, and you brought him back.”

Jacob looks into the ambulance at Gabriel. His mouth works once before any sound comes. “Tell him I’m coming.”

“I will.”

“And tell him—” He stops. Thirty years of silence crowd into the space between us.

“I’ll tell him you love him,” I say softly. “And when you get to the hospital, you can tell him yourself.”

Jacob’s eyes close. When they open again, they’re wet. “Yeah.”

I climb inside. The doors close on the runway, the plane, and Alexander Voss in handcuffs.

Gabriel lies strapped to the stretcher beneath harsh white light. Wires cross his bare chest. Oxygen fogs faintly inside the mask with each breath.

Alive.

I take the seat beside him and wrap both hands around his.

His eyes open as the ambulance begins to move. “Dad?”

“He’s coming.”

Gabriel searches my face. “He stayed?”

I press his hand against my cheek. “He ran toward you.”

His expression eases. Then his fingers move, weak but deliberate, until they rest against the curve of my stomach. “Our girl?”

“She’s right here.”

The siren rises. The pasture disappears behind us.

Gabriel’s eyes close, but his hand remains over our daughter.

This time, I can feel his pulse against my palm. Fragile and uneven, but still fighting.

Chapter 28

Gabriel

I wake to the sound of people arguing in whispers.

“You cannot intimidate the nurses.”

“I’m not intimidating anyone.”

“You asked one of them whether she understood the consequences of letting him wake up alone.”

“That was a reasonable question.”

“It was a threat, Dad.”

“It was not.”

“It sounded like a threat.”

“Only because you spend too much time with criminals.”