Page 9 of Fall or Nothing

“For someone who claims they play like shit, you certainly cleared the table. Some of our regulars aren’t pleased. They think you were hustling us.” Red nodded, and the two men took hold of my arms, leading me out. “You're a hustler, aren’t you, Carter?”

“Wait. Wh-what’s happening?” I couldn’t move my limbs. The men dragged me along. They carried me out to a large, black SUV.

“Here’s the thing. Since you’re passing through, we’lllet it go this time. But I suggest you quickly forget all about this place, don’t even think about telling anyone about it, and go back to wherever you came from,” Red seethed.

Before tossing me inside, he plunged his fist into my stomach. My lungs practically collapsed. I bent over, heaving, but the thugs threw me in back and I blacked out.

I wokeup gasping for air. Almost total darkness enveloped me. Was I buried alive somewhere? I shifted onto my back, my eyes landing on the big sky of stars above.

“Thank fuck.” My teeth chattered though as I lifted my head and looked down at my body—I was only in boxers and boots on a chilly night in the middle of nowhere with not a single building or house or person in sight.

“Those assholes,” I croaked, pulling myself to sit upright. Oof, my ribs ached.

I patted the ground in the dark. No phone. No wallet. Nothing around me. They’d stripped me of everything. Ironic because wasn’t that what my father’s instructions were? Live with nothing for thirty days.

Thanks to that asshole Red Amos, I truly was living my worst nightmare.

“Oh, shit!” I shouted into the void. I got to my feet and moved out of necessity, or I’d freeze. On a moonless night, surrounded by mountains, I had no sense of direction at all. The only guide was the largest star above, which I hoped was the North Star.

Funny how walking in the dark had me regretting all my life choices—especially running from Sage, the one bright spot I’d found tonight.

As soon as I found civilization again, I’d gladly leave Montana behind me… or at least that’s what I kept telling myself.

Dad was probably laughing in his grave.“Knew you couldn’t do it,”he’d say. None of my brothers needed to hear about this either, or Chris. “Another fuck-up for Carter,”they’d roar.

That assumed I survived this and didn’t freeze to death first. What would be the odds someone would drive by to save me before that happened?

FOUR

Rescued

SAGE

As the barndance closed down, all I wanted was to curl up in my bed and forget this night had happened. Pretend I didn’t meet a dashing cowboy named Carter who knew a thing or two about plants. But Jake’s voice cut through everything, rushing toward me.

“Sage, there you are!” The ranch hand’s panicked tone caught me immediately, in all seriousness, with Ivy and Poppy already at his side. My stomach dropped.

“It’s Daisy and Knox,” Ivy cried.

I linked hands with her. “What happened?”

“Trevor Brewster happened. He was holding his own rally tonight for his election campaign across the county. But then he wasn’t.” Jake continued grimly, shaking his head. “He showed up here instead. He grabbed Daisy. Knox found them. There was a struggle. Knox took a gunshot to the shoulder.”

“What the—?” None of this made sense to me. Trevor? Gun? “But I just saw Daisy and Knox earlier. They were dancing, and finallytogether.”

Jake put his arm around my shoulders. “It all happened so fast. The sheriff’s men have him in custody now. But Daisy and Knox are on their way to the hospital in Lewistown in an ambulance. We need to go.”

He spurred us into action. A million questions surfaced. But none of them mattered, not the election, or anything I’d been thinking about all night. Definitely not a certain ghosting cowboy.

Only my sisters, and getting to Daisy as fast as we could.

Hours later,the lights of Lewiston’s hospital faded behind me as I headed home. My tired mind and body moved on instinct, steering and shifting, totally numb along the stretches of quiet highway and the occasional glow of a distant porch light.

Poppy dozed off in the passenger seat. It had been a long night.

I replayed everything in fragments, from seeing Daisy and Knox happy at the dance to hours later with her crying in the hospital waiting room. We had prayed there together while Knox underwent emergency surgery to repair his shoulder from the gunshot wound.

Daisy broke down in our arms, finally letting go of years of turmoil that had been eating her alive. I still couldn’t believe the horror of finding out the truth she had never admitted to us before—how Trevor Brewster had been stalking Daisy for years.