Ellie’s smile tightened. “He’s not here, sweetie. He and She-Who-Was-Never-Here left. She disappeared right before the paramedics showed up. Kyle took the snowmobile and followed the ambulance with you and me and my dad in it all the way to Longmont. He made sure you got through surgery and post-op, even convinced the nurses to sneak him in to see you the minute you got into post-op and the doc had left. Then while we were waiting for your transfer to your room, he got a text and said he had to leave.”
“Did he say when he was coming back?”
Ellie looked down. “He didn’t, sweetie.”
“Maybe he’s checking on Camo at the ranch.”
“Kyle asked George to look after Camo when he came after us. He was all ready to take him home and keep him until you got out, but thenshecame and got him before George left your place.” Ellie never looked up. “He said she took all Kyle’s stuff, too.”
No. Just…no. “I need my cell phone.”
Ellie took it from the rolling table and gave it to her. Arden checked her texts and calls. Nothing from Kyle.
“Arden?” Ellie’s voice was quiet and hesitant. “He gave me a letter to give you. He wrote it real quick after that text.” She reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope. Except for the hospital’s logo in the corner, it looked just like the one her brother’s friend gave her at the memorial…no, the funeral. She could call it that now.
Kyle’s gone. Just like that. He promised he’d stay until I was out of danger. I guess I’m out of danger now.
She took the envelope and set it aside. She intended to read her brother’s letter when she got home. She was ready now, thanks to Kyle. But she didn’t know if she’d ever be ready to open this one.
“Arden?” Now Ellie’s voice was really hesitant. “One more thing I have to tell you. It’s about the barn.”
“My barn?”
Ellie looked up and nodded then quickly looked down again. “It’s not there anymore. Rick burned it down. Dad would have burned up inside of it if it weren’t for Kyle saving him. He saved all the horses, too. And one of the alpacas. Sorry about the others.”
“My alpacas?” But Jesus, Kyle saved all the rest. Kyle saved Walter from a goddamned burning building.
Ellie looked up, optimism in her eyes. “The cats are fine. They saved themselves.”
“Of course they did.” Arden snickered, which was the last thing she actually felt like doing.
She had one more task and then she’d go back to sleep. She couldn’t face any more of this day. The screen blurred until she blinked the moisture back as she opened her contacts and searched for the number of a man who’d called her months ago with life-changing news.
Nineteen
Kyle did not need this bullshit. He did not ask for it, he did not want it. And yet it was being heaped upon him shovel by shovel by motherfucking shovel. Hour after hour after motherfucking hour.
Deep breaths. In, hold, and out.
The bullshit had been piled so high on him, in fact, that he was surprised it didn’t weigh down the small airplane he was currently on and pull it right out of the sky on their way back to LA.
He should have been at the hospital waiting for Arden to open her eyes once she was clear of the anesthesia so that he could look deep into them and tell her how much he loved her. There was no way she’d remember him doing that in post-op right after she woke up the first time, or at least that’s what the nurses had told him. They said she was still under the influence of “Milk of Amnesia.”
But Arden’s eyes had been wide open and she’d said it right back.I love you too, Kyle. You gave me back my brother.
God, that ripped him apart. Even now his eyes prickled thinking about it.
Because he’d failed her.
If he’d been just that much faster, he could have gotten to that window sooner and blown Rick away before he shot the woman Kyle had sworn to protect. Instead, Arden was lying in a hospital bed with a hole clean through her. She may never have full use of her arm again, never be able to do all her chores around the ranch like she was used to. Kyle would do everything he could to help her, but if she never wanted to see him again, he understood.
Not being there when she woke up did not help his case. But when the single word ‘heel’ came through on his phone he had no choice. That was Watchdog’s code for all hands on deck, we have an emergency. Once that word came through, there was no texting anyone, no phone calls, no IM, no email. You powered your phone down immediately and you went straight to the office—wherever you were in the world and whatever you were doing.
The call to heel was that serious. And this was the first time Lach had ever used it. Kyle hoped it was just a coincidence. But he doubted it.
So Kyle did the one thing he could when he got that command and grabbed some hospital stationery. He had about ten seconds to write his message to Arden before he needed to figure out how the hell he was supposed to get back to LA from Longmont, Colorado at six o’clock in the morning the day after a Christmas blizzard.
Kyle was no poet and considered himself a far cry from a romantic, hearts-and-flowers kind of guy. So he wrote the most honest and straightforward message he could and hoped it was enough. He sealed the envelope and gave it to Ellie for Arden. If she wanted him back after reading it, then he’d be on the first flight to Colorado after this shit was sorted.
