Chapter Eighteen

Meadow stepped out of the shower into the steam-filled bathroom. She didn’t even get a chance to reach for the thick towel on the rack before Colton wrapped one around her.

She stood on the bathmat, letting him pat her skin dry and gently squeeze the water from her hair.

She felt like a zombie. After hours and hours spent in the hospital, waiting for news on her father, nothing about her life felt real anymore. She felt as if she were in a movie, just going through the script, repeating lines she memorized long ago.

Colton’s dark eyes loomed in front of hers. Concern pinched his dark brows together. The rugged lines of his features were drawn with worry too.

With all the tenderness in the world, he fastened the towel around her damp body and led her out of the bathroom to the bed.

A cold chill ran up and down her spine. Or it could be the reaction of a nervous system that had seen pain and grief twice before. Was she just clinging to hope when all was actually lost? Maybe she should start mourning her father now.

Colton helped her into bed and pulled the blankets up to her chin. When he perched on the edge of the mattress next to her, she realized he wasn’t joining her.

His eyes blazed as he stroked the hair off her forehead. Then he started to get up.

She grabbed his arm. “Aren’t you staying?”

“I’ve got chores. I need to check on things.”

Of course. Between the pain and haze of all that happened, it slipped her mind that the animals didn’t stop needing tended to even when things got tough.

He leaned over her, hand braced beside her body. “Try to sleep, love. I’ll come check on you.”

She crumpled the front of his shirt in her hand, clinging to him. “Before you go, I need to know how you feel about me, Colton. I need to know that someone in this world cares about me.”

Hovering closer, he searched the depths of her eyes. “I care about you, Meadow. I’m here for you…because I love you.”

Her eyes fluttered closed on his words. He planted a kiss on her lips and left before she opened them again.

Curled up in bed, her mind was far from tired. It raced with things to do—things that she should be doing.

Maybe she should get up and go work with the guys. Giving the barn a good scrubbing or pitching hay into a loft would tire her out fast and give her brain something else to dwell on besides whether or not her father would make it through the next crucial hours.

Suddenly, she sucked in a gasp, bolting upright in bed. Ivy. Her sister didn’t know what happened.

Making a grab for her phone, Meadow was already formulating what she’d say to her sister.

First, she shot off a text to her. The past few she sent had gone unanswered. Of course, Meadow didn’t have much of importance to tell her sister. She talked about her horse or how she saw an old friend of Ivy’s down at Badlands. What was there to say?

Thumbs hovering over the screen, she considered her words. Choosing them carefully was very important. She didn’t want to send her sister into hysterics, but this was urgent.

In the end, she just told her that their father had a heart attack and he had a bypass surgery.

Call me as soon as you get this. I love you.

When she lay back down, she set her phone on the pillow next to her and waited for the buzz of an incoming message. She didn’t even know what city her sister was currently visiting. Or what time zone she was in. She could be anywhere from Munich to Madrid.

Several minutes passed with no response.

In those minutes, Meadow envied her sister so much. She was out there in the world, enjoying herself, blessedly oblivious to more tragedy befalling their family.

They seemed to be falling one by one. Would she be next? When would this all end?

* * * * *

With soft steps, aware that cowboy boots were just as noisy on hard floors as steel-toe combat boots, Colton stole down the hall to Sean Gracey’s office.

The door was partly shut. The inside dim with shadows. When he pushed the door open, he scanned the space.

The blinds had been pulled shut against the bright summer day. And the place looked to have been tossed.

Desk drawers were open with the contents rifled through. In some cases, papers spilled out of them. The box that arrived containing Forest’s items and final letters to his family was upended on the desk and the box abandoned on the floor.

The cardboard was mashed, as though Gracey had stomped on it in a fit of rage.

Colton was no investigator, but he was smart enough to put two and two together. By his guess, Gracey had become distraught by something he discovered in that box—or in his own letter from Forest.

Quietly, Colton began searching the havoc on the desk. Touching items that had to do with his lost friend made him breathe hard and fast. If Gracey experienced the same, no wonder he fell victim to a heart attack.

After sifting through the few papers left in the box, he faltered at the sight of his friend’s handwriting on a few sheets of paper. He had to put them in order before he could read Forest’s letter to his father.

The familiar scrawl tore at his heart—but his words did far worse.

They wrecked him.

Words a son should never say to a father, accusing him of abandoning the family in the years following their mother’s death. Of ignoring Meadow to the point of abuse and criminal neglect. Ivy only got attention because she was young and demanded it. But Meadow was left on her own to deal with her grief and to cry it out on the neck of whatever horse she was training.

Fuck—just fuck. Colton could barely stand the images Forest painted of their life.

Then he read a line that turned his blood ice cold.

If you think I don’t know what you’ve done to run our family’s ranch—and good name—into the ground, you’re wrong, Father.

Colton needed to hide this letter from Meadow. In time, he would show it to her, but not today, or this week, or even this year, more than likely. She needed time to process all that happened. She was in a vulnerable state, and he was damn well going to shield her from more heartache.

He folded the letter and stuffed it in his back pocket. Then he went outside to start the ranch chores that he told Meadow must be done.

No sooner did he reach the front porch than all hell seemed to break loose. Men started running. A loud ATV engine started up and then zoomed out across the field in front of him.

Raising a hand, Colton shielded his eyes from the glaring sun blazing down on him. As he looked on, the ranch hands were running hell-bent for the back pasture. From here, he could see no reason for their alarm, but there must be something.

He took off in a sprint for the paddock. There, he grabbed the only horse there and swung onto its unsaddled back. He’d never ridden bareback before, and he struggled to hang on, but he had powerful thighs and determination of steel.

“Yah!” He spurred the horse toward the open gate. As it ran, he slipped on its soft coat, nearly toppling off the side before he wrenched himself upright again.

The drum of hooves deafened him until he neared the spot where some of the men were standing around a black hump on the ground. Then he could hear their shouts.

Was he the only one who noticed how the fence had been broken in one part, as if somebody drove a truck through it? Or how the pasture was empty, the cattle nowhere to be seen?

As he neared the group, he saw what they were clustered around. The black hump on the ground was a dead horse.

What was a horse doing all the way out here in the cow pasture?

Fuck!It wasn’t just any horse—it was the one Meadow had been working so long and hard to train. Jewel. The one worth a goddamn fortune for its bloodline that could be carried on once they found the perfect match for it to reproduce.

He slowed his mount enough to leap off. Landing hard on his feet, he bent his knees to absorb the shock of the drop. Slowly, he approached the animal. When he saw what someone did to it, his stomach twisted into a harsh knot. Bile rushed up his throat.

Dude jerked his head to the side, face pinched with horror. “Jesus Christ. Who would do this to one of the animals? What sick fucker would do this at all?”

Zach Webb looked up at Colton. In that moment, he realized they might be enemies…but they were united on this front, on this ranch. Right now, they were fighting on the same side.

But what the fuck were they fighting?