Page 15 of Rangers Last Promise

I’ve walked into burning buildings. I’ve crawled through gunfire to reach wounded soldiers. I once performed a field amputation while an enemy force closed in from three sides.

None of that took as much courage as opening this truck door.

Wolf and Trigger are inside.

So is Grant’s sister.

Fifteen years ago, I walked away from all of them because staying meant facing what happened in that valley.

Tonight, I have no choice.

I take Grant’s journal box from my duffel and tuck my weapon beneath my jacket. Rain soaks my hair and runs down my neck as I cross the street.

Voices reach me before I open the tavern door.

One belongs to Wolf.

Another belongs to Trigger.

Then I hear a woman arguing with Sheriff Tate about roadblocks, search grids, and why she should be allowed to help hunt the man who shot at her.

Mara.

Despite everything, something inside me almost loosens.

Grant’s little sister is definitely not a little girl anymore.

I wrap my hand around the door handle.

The promise I made her brother has brought me back.

Keeping her alive may cost me every secret I have left.

I open the door.

Conversation dies.

Wolf stands behind the bar, staring at me as though one of the dead has walked into his tavern. Trigger rises slowly from a table near the fireplace.

Neither man speaks.

Then Mara steps between them.

A small bandage covers the cut above her eyebrow. Her dark hair hangs loose around her shoulders, and Grant’s field journal is clutched against her chest.

For fifteen years, she has existed in photographs, newspaper clippings, and the occasional piece of information I allowed myself to find.

None of it prepared me for seeing her standing ten feet away.

She looks at my face.

Then at the dog tags hanging outside my shirt.

Her gaze drops to the name stamped into the metal.

SHAW, COLIN.

Understanding flashes in her eyes.