“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “But it’s safer to err on the side of caution.”
“All right.” She looked so small and fragile standing there across from him.
He shoved the note into his pocket and crossed the space between them. “If I’d been here . . .”
“I’m glad you weren’t.” She lifted her chin, catching his gaze. “I fear something terrible might have happened.”
“It may have, and I wouldn’t have regretted it.” Looking into her eyes, a fierce desire to protect Hazel, to keep her safe from everything and everyone, flooded him from head to toe. He took one more step forward, and as if she knew precisely what he was thinking, she fell against him.
He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. “I refuse to let anything hurt you.”
She didn’t reply, but her body shuddered, and he held her tighter.
Wade didn’t know how long they stood that way, Hazel tucked protectively in his arms, but finally, she stepped back just slightly. Her face was flushed and her hair had come loose from the pins that held it up.
And he knew then that if any harm came to her, he would never forgive himself.
He drew in a deep, hard breath. There wasn’t time to think about that right now. “I need to speak with Kristiansen, set up a better watch rotation.”
Hazel nodded. “I ought to get back to supper.”
Wade left first, propelled by the need to get outside, to pull in the fresh air and clear his mind.
He would do everything in his power to keep Hazel safe.Everything.
Because losing her of his own choosing would hurt, but losing her to death would break him completely.
Chapter Sixteen
The column of smokeclimbed higher and higher until it became part of the clouds hovering in the sky on an overcast Tuesday.
Mr. Stewart saw it first. He and another man had been assigned to keep watch around the house, barn, and other buildings while the rest of the men were scattered across the ranch, trying to accomplish a day’s work while still casting a wary eye about for anything amiss.
Hazel came running out of the house at his shouts, the pistol she never kept far from her now clasped in one hand with a mixing spoon in the other. It didn’t take long to find the source of his concern.
The bunkhouse was on fire.
