“Easy man. If you get into a fight, Sam’s really gonna be upset.” Ryder crossed the front yard, grabbed the handles on Matt’s wheelchair and forcibly rolled himback.
Matt’s entire face flushed red and dark blue veins popped on his temples. “Get your fucking hands off my wheelchair. This guy’s a stranger. Why are you taking hisside?”
Ryder let go and lifted his hands in a nonthreatening gesture. “Sam and Cord have known each other since high school. He’s goodpeople.”
Instead of calming Matt down, this only seemed to make him angrier. Growing impatient, Cord glanced in the direction of Samantha’s dust trail. He could barely make out the speck of her vehicle on the horizon. “You got another one ofthose?”
Ryder shook his head. “Nope, but you can take the farm truck. We keep it stocked and it’s equipped for off-roading. Keys should be in the ignition.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder, gesturing to the dirty single cabpickup.
“Thanks man. I owe you one.” Done with this conversation, Cord strode to the truck, his mind already focused on finding and apologizing toSam.
Matt’s strangled voice filled the air behind him. “Come back here! She doesn’t wantyou!”
Cord kept on walking, grabbed the pickup’s handle and climbed inside. He flipped the keys in the switch, careful not to sling gravel on the two men in the front yard, and chased after Sam. She might not want him after the hateful things he’d said, and he couldn’t blame her one bit, but he had to try to make her see hisside.
He hadn’t reconnected with the one woman who’d ever understood him only to lose her to anothermisunderstanding.
* * *
Sam grabbedthe steering wheel hard and slammed her foot onto the gas pedal of the muddy side-by-side, desperate to put as much distance between herself and Cord as possible. Her hands shook with anger even as tears flowed down her cheeks. His attack had seemed to come straight out of leftfield.
But his hateful words had confirmed the terrible voice inside her mind, the one that told her she wasn’t good enough, that no man would ever love her or value her. They’d fed themonster.
The soft spot she’d always held for Cord had come back to bite her. She should’ve known better than to let herself fall for him so fast and hard. Where had her caution been? She’d lost all sense of reason the moment he walked into her barn. All those promises she’d made herself after falling so fast and hard for Brad had completely vanished in the presence of CordCarter.
Sam leaned into the steering wheel, urging the small ATV faster. The wide-open pasture afforded her the ability to speed without worrying about hitting a ditch or an animal—she could see for miles. Maybe she’d drive to the edge of the horizon. There she could safely lick her wounds, patch herself up and prepare to face him again. She knew she was only temporarily running from her problems, that she had to go back, and shewould.
Later.
Suddenly, the side-by-side hit something and turned right, bouncing up on two wheels. Without time to think, Sam jerked the steering wheel back to the left and held on for dear life. The ATV hit the ground with a thunk, only to immediately swerve. Adrenaline fueled her muscles, giving her the strength to yank the wheel back into place. She slammed on the brakes, the impact throwing her body against the seat arms. The side-by-side slid to a stop, throwing up a thick cloud of dust so that she couldn’t see a foot in front of herface.
Sam sat like that until the dust cleared. Her body locked down so tight her hands went numb. Her heart thundered like a pack of wild horses in her chest. She needed to check to see what she’dhit.
A fairly large and fairly obvious boulder jutted up from the ground about ten feet behind her. The shock from her near miss ratcheted up her shaking hands, intensifying into a full-on body tremble. She shook so hard tears spilled over the corners of her eyes. Her breath caught in her chest. She had been driving like a maniac. Recklessly speeding when she usually didn’t go over a slowcrawl.
And all because she’d given Cord the same power over her emotions she’d gift wrapped for him when she was seventeen. Furious with herself, Sam dashed the heel of her hand roughly over her eyes, determined to dry her foolish tears. One day. The man had walked back into her life for one day and she’d already lost control of her body and hermind.
Neveragain.
She wouldn’t allow him to affect her like that anymore. Forcing herself to think logically, she stepped out of the side-by-side and did a quick inspection of the front right tire. It had a scuff mark from jabbing into the rock, but other than that it looked fine. Climbing back into the vehicle, she cautiously eased on the gas. Right now, she needed some hard, cool advice from someone she could trust. A man who’d never bothered pulling punches with her, even if he knew it would hurt herfeelings.
Sam checked her location, adjusted course to the right. She’d learned the twists and turns of this land the same way she’d learned her way around her college campus. For her first couple of weeks on the ranch, she’d spent every waking hour outhere.
After a few minutes of riding without incident, Sam picked up her speed from the 10 mph crawl to about 25, knowing she needed to speed up a bit if she hoped to get back to the ranch beforesunset.
Keeping a careful eye out for any out of place rocks or logs, Sam forced her mind from the man she was running from and focused on thejourney.
Over the next twenty minutes, she began to calm down, the smooth roar of the motor soothing her frazzled nerves. And while she couldn’t fully process Cord’s attack, she was able to take a small step back and put on her counselor glasses. Cord had always been calm, kind and respectful. She really didn’t think he’d changed that much from the boy she’d known at school. Which meant his hateful words had come from a deep well of pain. Sam racked her brain, trying to analyze their every interaction before the fight to figure out what might have set himoff.
Like a masochist, her mind went first to Cord’s parting words. Just like before, a hard cramp took hold of her chest. Only this time, she expected it and rolled with it, breathing through the pain. After a few seconds she was able to think beyond hurt. Right before that, Cord had accused her of running an “abnormal” rangeranch.
Which didn’t make sense if Clint Fury had filled him in on the details. And she couldn’t think of a single reason why Fury wouldn’t have told Cord this was a therapeutic range forveterans.
And even if he hadn’t, had Cord somehow missed the physical state of all themen?
Something wasn’t right. She was missing a piece of the puzzle. She needed to call Fury and have him fill her in on the details. She had a feeling he was the key to figuring out this wholesituation.
Sam leaned back and reached into her pocket only to realize she’d left her phone in the barn. She’d rushed out of there so quickly she hadn’t even thought to grabit.
Dammit. She needed to talk to Cord now. Heavy with determination, she picked up speed. Cord wasn’t going to get off this easy. They were going to talk, right after she talked to ClintFury.
All of a sudden, she spotted her white work truck eating up the distance between them and knew instinctively Cord was behind the wheel. Before she had time to process that, a loud pop ripped through the air. The side-by-side slammed to the right, and this time Sam couldn’t straighten her out. There was a loud boom, the rock-laden dirt flew up to meet her face and then there wasnothing.
