I keep my focus on the strap I’m tightening. “They’re what I have left.”
The words slip out before I can catch them. When I glance up, Wyatt’s watching me, eyes soft behind the mesh.
“We’ll keep them safe,” he says simply.
The last hive goes on the truck. We ratchet the straps down tight, double-check the plugs and tape, then step back.
“All right,” I say, exhaling. “We’re good to go.”
“Can we wave goodbye?” Eliza asks from the fence.
“You can,” I say. “But only if you tell them thank you for working so hard.”
“Thank you, bees!” she calls, flapping both hands enthusiastically.
“Thank you!” Caleb echoes.
I smile under my veil. The panic in my chest loosens enough for me to breathe all the way down.
These hives are my livelihood.
My inheritance.
The last living thread tying me to my grandmother.
Losing them would break something in me I don’t think I could fix.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Jesse
Monday
The sun’s been gone for hours, and the pasture lights are the only thing cutting through the smoke-heavy dark. The thing about moving livestock during a wildfire is that everything feels ten times louder than it actually is.
Every hoofbeat.
Every snort.
Every clank of a gate.
It all echoes against this backdrop of distant fire roar, wind whistle, and the kind of silence that clings to your bones. The kind of silence that comes right before everything changes.
I hate that kind of silence.
But Marshall? He moves in it because he was built for it.
We’ve got about forty head between the pastures, horses, a couple rescued donkeys, three longhorns Clint talked Marshall into “babysitting” last year that somehow never left.
The donkeys are easy. The longhorns are obnoxious. The horses are nervous enough to be a problem.
Lightning storms last night had them on edge. Smoke drifting in has them worse.
But the thing about Marshall Jones is: horses listen to him.
Not because he’s loud. Not because he forces anything.
Because something in him whispers the language they understand—pain, fear, stubbornness, hope. He knows how to talk to hearts that spook easy.
