Page 93 of All We Carry Home

“Who’s patrolling the east gate?” I asked, motioning to the rising sun.

Eddie set the bale down and clapped his hands together. “Junior, I believe.”

My heart froze. “Junior was just walking past the house on his way to the west gate.”

Eddie looked at his wristwatch and then checked for Acorn. “She’s not back yet?”

“I’m taking the truck,” I said, dropping the grain bucket and racing to the driveway.

“I’m coming with you.” Eddie kept pace with me.

There was a thick enough dirt road now, given our patrols and monitoring across the one thousand acres, for me to reach the bluff in less time than if I saddled and rode Autumn.

“Lucky!” Eddie called out. “Take point, we’re going east.”

“Roger,” Lucky yelled.

“Dad?” Annie ran up from the chicken coop. “What’s going on?”

“It’s probably nothing, sweetie, but stay in the house, lock the door.”

Annie looked around, mouth agape and eyes wide.

We’d talked these drills through dozens of times. Everyone knew what they were supposed to do, but Annie hadn’t ever experienced this for real. Regardless, I needed to focus on Eva right now.

I pointed to Lucky and then to Annie. “Make sure she gets inside.”

A gunshot rang out over the valley, and everyone on the ranch jumped into action.

I drove down the road to the bluff, careful not to drive fast and spook Acorn if she was on her way back. The road wove toward the east gate that we’d reinforced. It was wide open.

Fear drove me forward, and I pushed the accelerator down. We parked at the base of the hill, and I took off running toward the platform. Eddie followed, pulling his pistol out of his boot and covering every angle.

I reached the top, but Eva was nowhere in sight. There were fresh hoofprints—she’d been there this morning. Why hadn’t we seen her along the road?

The sound of horse hooves on the hard-packed dirt echoed, and I turned to see Acorn running at us, riderless. The horse circled us, and I took off running in the direction she’d come from. She bolted back toward the barns.

EP and Bennett came up in a truck behind us, rifles in hand, and Eddie told them to go to the gate to stand watch.

My mouth was dry, my heart racing. My vision focused in on the path before me, and everything else blurred. I had to find her.

In the tracks below, I could see distinct horse hooves change into longer sweeps of a body—arms and legs crawling away.

She’d fallen off.

Where was she?

Then I saw her, leaning against a thick pine tree ahead.

“Eva!” I ran to her.

She stood upright, though hunched and covered in dirt and patches of blood. “I’m glad it’s you.” She winced. “Thought that stupid horse was going to lead them straight to me.”

“Them?”

“Victor’s men. They fired into the air while I was mounting Acorn. They must’ve wanted to spook the horse and make it look like an accident.” She shook her head. “I jumped down the hill and tried to hide.”

“Eddie’s searching the area.” I scanned her for injury. There was a cut above her eyebrow that bled down her face, and she was covering her side with both hands. “Where are you hurt?”