Chapter 4
Megan wokethe next morning to whispers coming from down thehall.
She dragged herself out of bed, glancing at the clock on the way. Six-thirty.
Between checking on Kelsey and repairing Dan's stitches, she’d gotten the kids home to her little bungalow in Taylor Hills an hour later than the kids' normalbedtime.
So why were they up at the crack of dawn? She usually had to wake them up for churchservices.
She padded down the hall in bare feet, squinting against the early-morning light streaming in from the living room windows. It still felt like all that rodeo dust was soaked in herpores.
Sleep had been evasive. Her brain had decided to replay those frightening moments when she hadn't been able to find Brady. And then when she'd finally been able to fall asleep, she'd dreamed of Brady riding into a rodeo arena, Julianne on horseback behind him, racing around with wild warwhoops.
She'd woken from the nightmare just as they'd fallen from the horses and broken theirnecks.
And then she'd locked herself in the tiny hall bathroom with her phone, knowing it was crazy, and looked up videos of all the varieties of riding accidents kids couldhave.
Ads had started popping up on the videos. For learning to ride. She'd finally clicked on one, and the narrator's voice overlay had spoken of the fact that giving the kids the right training could prevent ridingaccidents.
She'd gone back to bed with that thought on hermind.
Now, she shuffled down the hall. Brady's door was cracked, and she peeked inside. Both kids were huddled on the bed with a sheaf of papers betweenthem.
"Hey, guys." She moved into the room, trying to ignore the way Brady shuffled the papers so whatever they'd been looking at was now on the bottom. Maybe they needed a rule about keepingsecrets.
She crawled onto the bed with them, tickling Julianne until the little girl squirmed and giggled. She ruffled Brady's hair and lounged back against thepillows.
"You guys are up early. Want to get donuts beforechurch?"
Julianne clapped her hands together. Bradyshrugged.
And her stomach pinched again. She and Brady had had a special relationship as aunt and nephew. Now, he wouldn't even look at her, his focus still on hiding whatever was buried beneath the scratch papers on hisbed.
She wasn't one to mince words or pull punches. She reached beneath the pile of papers and drew out the bottom one. "What'sthis?"
Brady made a grab for it, but she tugged it just out of his reach. Stared down atit.
It was a map, a crudely drawn one, from their house to what appeared to be the Triple H ranch. And an arrow goingbeyond.
Brady's expression was both angry anddefensive.
Megan looked from him back to the map. Had the two of them been planning to runaway?
"Miles told us his ranch is right around the corner from where we were last night," Julianneblurted.
Brady's jaw waslocked.
Megan stared at him. "Brady?"
He didn't answer, just stared out the window where dawn was brightening theedges.
Everything she'd seen last night flew through her brain at highspeed.
"Look, I know things are tough right now. You miss your mom and dad. I do,too."
Julianne leaned into her shoulder, and Megan curled her arm around the girl. "We're a team now,right?"
Julianne bobbed a nod, but Brady stared at the bedspread, tracing a pattern with hisforefinger.
