Then I hang up and call Luna.
The phone rings and rings, no answer.
Fuck.
I’m about to call Mercy back, before I lose the far signal, when my phone rings.
It’s my own name, but that means it’s Hope.
“Hey,” she says happily. “Your mom couldn’t answer her phone, because Bellamy has fallen asleep on her in the greenhouse. They’re having a cuddle in a camp chair. I’m just taking Froggie to the house because he fell in a bucket, and if he’s not clean for bedtime tonight, there will be a meltdown of epic proportions.”
Froggie.
The only thing they brought with them to the ranch that could have a tracker inside it.
Mother. Fucker.
“Hope, listen to me carefully. Derek is there. He’s up on the ridge. I think there’s a tracker inside the frog. Can you run, baby? Run behind the house, so he can’t see you, then drop it and double back.”
Silence is the only response.
I look at the screen. The call has dropped, and I’m out of signal.
Fuck.
Hand shaking, I shove my phone in my pocket.
I did this to her.
I got lost in her mouth and her sweetness and her innocence last night, and wasn’t thinking about all the possibilities. I wasted this morning thinking about fucking wedding bells.
And now I’ve put her life on the line.
Ridge is right behind me, both of us riding hard. It’s another twenty minutes before we come off the mountain and can gallop at full speed across the pastures.
My blood goes cold, then hot, then cold again, and my vision narrows to a tunnel. All I can see isthe future I've been building in my head, brick by careful brick, around this woman and her two children.
I dig my heels in. Shadow lunges forward and I give her her head, leaning low over her neck as we tear down the hillside.
The yard comes up fast. I pull my mare to a hard stop by the paddock fence, and I'm off her back and running before she's fully stopped.
Trusting Ridge to take the horses, I take off at a dead sprint. That truck from the ridge is now in the driveway, parked at a hard angle, the driver's door hanging open. The light’s still on, which means whoever arrived hasn't been here long.
And the front door to the house is open.
I force myself to stop at the octagonal greenhouse, letting myself in as silently as I can. Inside, my mom looks up with a start from where she’s rocking a sleeping Bellamy.
“Zane?”
I put my finger to my mouth.Shhh.
Then I mouth,stay here. Don’t come out no matter what.
Her eyes flare with fear, but she nods.
Ridge is behind me. He’ll protect you.
Now that I’ve had my own eyes on Bellamy, and know that she’s not inside for whatever is about to happen, I can go to the house.
