CHAPTER ONE
CADE
The lavender's coming in strong this year.
I crouch between the raised beds, running my fingers through the purple stalks, releasing that sharp herbal scent into the afternoon air. September in these Nevada mountains means cooler mornings and perfect growing conditions for the late harvest. The calendula needs another week, maybe two, but the chamomile's ready for drying.
Bear lifts his massive head from where he's sprawled in a patch of sunlight, ears perked toward the tree line. His brother Moose keeps snoring, but Luna, my smallest rescue, trots over to press her nose against my palm.
"False alarm, girl." I scratch behind her ears. "Probably just a deer."
She doesn't look convinced, but she settles at my feet while I go back to work.
This is my life now. Herbs, dogs and silence. No screaming. No blood. No nineteen-year-old kids bleeding out while they call me Dad because I'm the last face they'll ever see.
I pull in a breath, hold it, let it go. My fingers find the soil. Cool. Solid. Real.
Better.
The greenhouse needs attention before the temperature drops tonight, but first I need to check the echinacea I've been propagating for the Whisper Vale clinic. Doc Morrison asked for a fresh batch, and I promised I'd have it ready by my volunteer shift next week.
My radio crackles from where it sits on the porch railing. "Cade, you copy?"
I dust off my hands and grab it. "Yeah, Mace. What's up?"
"Deck wants everyone at the lodge for dinner tonight. Seven sharp. Vivian's cooking."
"She know that yet?"
Mace's laugh comes through scratchy but warm. "She's five months pregnant and craving lasagna. Deck's not about to tell her no."
Fair enough. Vivian Cross has had our fearless leader wrapped around her finger for almost a year now. Watching Deck go from grumpy, isolated commander to a man who smiles when his wife walks into a room has been something else. First him, then Wolfe finding Sadie back in February. The team's been placing bets on who's next.
"I'll bring the cornbread."
"Knew I could count on you. See you at seven."
The radio goes quiet and I clip it back to my belt. Bear's still staring at the tree line, a low rumble building in his chest.
"Hey." I rise to my full height, scanning the direction he's focused on. "What've you got?"
Nothing moves. The pines stand tall and silent, afternoon light filtering through their branches in golden shafts. A hawk circles overhead. The usual mountain sounds fill the quiet: wind through needles, the distant rush of the creek that borders my property.
But Bear doesn't spook at nothing.
I whistle low. All three dogs fall in behind me as I head toward the trees, my hand finding the hunting knife at my hip more out of habit than real concern. Probably just an animal. A bear, maybe, though they don't usually come this close to the cabin. Could be a mountain lion if one's gotten bold.
Twenty feet into the trees, I find it.
Not an animal.
A woman.
She's on the ground, curled against the base of an old pine like she just stopped moving and couldn't start again. Light brown hair tangled with leaves and dirt. Clothes that were probably nice once, now torn and filthy. One shoe missing. And when my shadow falls across her, she flinches hard enough to slam her shoulder into the tree bark.
"Easy." I hold up both hands, showing her they're empty. "Easy. I'm not going to hurt you."
She looks up at me, and everything inside my chest seizes.
