Once, I chased a murderer across state lines, following him from Texas to Montana, where I ended up at Red Hart Ranch the first time and met Eve. This time, I sought absolution and the sort of happily ever after that didn’t seem realistic to a man with as many sins chalks in his column as the man I killed in the name of protecting the woman I loved.
Hence, the two day drive had become four in a solitary journey of utter silly season purgatory between never ending road works, Christmas traffic, and my own exhaustion.
Until I left Texas I hadn’t realized how thin I’d left myself on energy, and spent the hours stuck in traffic battling exhaustion. Pulling in for the first night after just a few hundred miles had been more than frustrating, but it was pointless to continue pushing myself when I’d only end up as another blockage on the side of the highway.
Another statistic lost in the multitudes of holiday traffic hell. Especially when it seemed that half of the US appeared to be migrating north for Christmas.
Disappointing Eve had been the hardest part.
My phone vibrated in its holder beside the steering wheel. I flicked my gaze from the road to the screen, which lit up with my little hellion’s name.
My hellion, because she had been raising hell for the past three days while I tried to make it across the country to her.
I’d left to chase my own demons across the country, and gotten stuck in my job down south, ensuring the man who had damaged her would never be free, when her grief had hit her hardest.
When she needed me most.
At least, that's what I assumed at first. Now, I wasn’t so sure. The old cop in me refused to quit, but those were the sorts of questions that could wait until I knocked on Red Hart’s double doors, and had my girl in my arms for the first time in months.
She’d had to rely on others for comfort while I worried that the woman at the top end of the country had grown tired of waiting for me, or had decided she needed a man closer to home.
Shoving the doubts aside that festered on regardless, I read her message. Another flashed beneath it, and I let out a laugh.
EVE:Tell me you’re at least in the right state.
EVE:Don’t make me come down to Texas and haul your Ranger butt back here.
Shaking my head, I shot off a quick reply, knowing she likely would jump in that white F250 of hers and drag me back home to her. Damn cavewoman. Those doubts should have stayed with my packed up house back in Texas.
I typed with my eyes half on the road, trailing behind an infinite line of traffic that thinned the further north I drove. Thumb fumbling words and swearing at typos I used would have killed on sight, I sent back my location. A second later, my phone buzzed again.
“Eve?” I picked it up, the steering wheel jerking in my hands as I destroyed already totaled roadkill. “Dammit.” That was going to stink later on when it defrosted.
“Rhys Archer. Is that how you usually answer the phone?” Eve laughed at me, though a tiny tremor at the end of her words left my gut clenching.
Fighting back the urge to floor the gas pedal, I forced a grin and managed to avoid the next road bump that used to be an animal several vehicles back. “Nah, just trying not to run over the locals.”
“You’re messaginganddriving?” Eve squawked through the line. Static filled the cab of my truck as she swore liberally on the other end.That’s my girl. “What sort of cop are you?”
I pressed my lips together, debating how to best answer her, but regardless of what I wanted to say, there was only one real answer. “The Texas Ranger sort, honey.”
Eve was silent for a long moment. I glanced away from the road, but the line was still connected.
“I’m glad you’re coming back, Archer. It’s… It’s been a while.”
“Eve, I’ve been trying to get back since the day I left Red Hart. Hell, even you made the trip down to me. I just wanted to get back to you.” I hadn’t even made it to her drive and I was on the verge of begging. “But the job was there, and I couldn't just walk away.”
Lies. All lies. Because I had, anyway. Walked away from her, chased a murderer across the country, then took a full year to fight my way back.
“Work.” Eve said the single word like it was both a prayer and a curse.
“Always. Do you ever stop?” I asked lightly. “How’s everything going in the lead up to Christmas?”
Red Hart was infamous in the local town some two and half southeast for their holiday hospitality. The memories we madelast time we were together at the ranch left my heart aching for the warmth of the big house and the feel of her in my arms.
“Winding down, as always. I still miss Dad.” If there hadn’t been tears in her voice, there were now. I cursed myself for being so blasé.
So much happened during the year. I missed most of the fallout I caused in the wake of chasing Haldon south in my own vengeance path. Eve bore the brunt of that and survived. But…not everyone did.
