Page 21 of She Autumn Be Mine

“Okay,” he said. “I’m going to tell you something, and it stays between us.”

“What is it?”

“After I got out of the Navy, I fell in love. Deep. Thought it was forever. But then she vanished. No trace of her.”

“Shit. Sorry to hear.” I forget my life before Autumn entered it half the time. But vanish now? I probably wouldn’t be able to function. Yet here he was, upright.

He nodded. “I’ve searched everywhere, still do. Take that file out now and then and relive every moment hoping I find a new lead to follow. Meanwhile, I got my license as a private investigator. Turns out the skill set transferred from the SEALS—reconnaissance, action. I’m good at it. And rich people pay real money to find other people. That’s most of the trade, Jake. Rich people, looking. Like your ranch owner, Chris Magnus. He hired me on behalf of one of his workers on the ranch back east—Ryder, who runs Magnus’s operation out there. Ryder’s wife has a long lost sister. Long enough that the trail’s stone cold and two other investigators already gave it back. They put me on it this spring, so I’m doing it the only way I know—starting at the beginning and walking every step she walked.”

“So you’re here undercover?” I squinted at him in a whole new light.

He turned the bottle in his hand. “Yeah. This town’s part of it, and your friendly local biker gang too, which is why I’ve been befriending and losing at pool to large bearded men in the bars every weekend.” He glanced up. “The ranch work’s real. Glad to be here with you, too. But that’s what I’m really doing. Finding lost souls.”

“Damn. That’s real hero shit. What can I do to help?”

“Nothing. Keep it to yourself. Just continue being the man Autumn and her baby need. As long as I’m here buddy, I’ll do whatever I can to help you if you need it.”

“You already helped enough the other night with Tess,” I chuckled.

He scratched at his beard, a mischievous smile under it. “Yeah. Like I said. Anything you need. Now come on. Let’s call it a day.”

We rode back to the bunkhouse in silence. I checked my phone at the sink. Autumn had texted earlier that she had the closing shift at the Sapphire, and Avery was watching Stetson.

So I checked with Avery instead. She confirmed the baby was doing well, obsessed with holding onto everything and making his way around the room. But the kid was still not walking on his own.

After a while, thinking over everything Cash said, I sent Autumn a text, asking if she’d like me to take her and Stetson to the opening of the pumpkin patch.

The message sat there, delivered, but unread all night.

So I hung around the bunkhouse and tried not to drive myself crazy over her. I got dealt into the poker match, with Cash and Pete and two of the seasonal hands. I never was much of a card player, and lost every hand. My eyes kept drifting to the phone sitting face-up by my stack, and Cash kept seeing me do it and saying nothing, which was its own conversation.

It was late, and I’d about retired my poker face, when the phone finally lit. My heart jumped, but the name on it wasn’t Autumn or Avery. Smitty from the Sapphire.

I was up and out the door before the second ring, into the cold to answer it. “What’s up?”

“Jake. Can you come get Autumn?” The bar noise behind him sounded thin for a Friday.

Everything in me sat on edge. “What happened?”

“Hell, I don’t know. She started the shift already upset about something and then it got worse. She dropped a whole tray of glasses, white as a sheet. Couldn’t hardly work after that. I finally told her to go home.”

“And?”

“That was two hours ago, Jake. She’s been sitting at my bar instead. Drinking. Keeps mumbling about a bad man who found her today.”

The hairs stood up on the back of my neck, every one, old radar spinning. A bad man found her today. Harper’s stranger? Her ex? Somebody worse?

Behind Smitty’s anxiety, a woman’s voice sailed up at a note, missing it and cracking.

“Smitty, who is that singing?”

“That’s Autumn.”

“When did you start karaoke?”

“I didn’t.” He sounded tired down to his socks. “A few minutes ago she got up and took over the mic all on her own. Now can you please come get her?”

“I’ll be right there.”