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“On my way with Ben.” Mac ended the call.

She’s not gone, just overdue. Not the same thing.

Not yet.

“I’ll catch up with you boys,” Hank said. “Now get.”

Mac didn’t waste time arguing. Two minutes later, the Ram was headed back toward staging, and Mac had one thought dominating everything else.

Where are you, Ranch Girl?

The Ram hit staging hard enough that Mac felt the borrowed trailer shove once behind them before settling. He was out before Ben had finished unbuckling, scanning the yard for Willow’s truck, hoping she’d returned on their way there.

It wasn’t there and neither was Jodie. Goblin was gone, too.

The evacuation hadn’t stopped. Another stock trailer was backing toward the loading alley, Dana walking beside it with one arm raised while someone at the gate waited for her signal. Horses shifted behind the panels. Radios talked over each other. Kyle stood at Jodie’s table with one hand braced beside the board, a radio in his other hand.

Willow saw Mac and sprinted to him.

“I gave her my keys. She said she was going to check on Virgil. Everybody else was tied up, and I—” Willow stopped herself. Her face had gone pale beneath the dust and smoke.

“You had horses to move, Willow, and there was no reason not to let her go.”

She met his gaze for a second, then someone called her name from the direction of the pens.

“Go on. I’ve got this.”

She nodded and went toward the pens.

Mac made his way to Kyle, who stepped aside to show him the board. Jodie’s handwriting sat on the last line.

JODIE — WILLOW’S TRUCK — NORTH FENCE — CHECK VIRGIL

Then the time.

Mac checked his watch.

Gone forty-seven minutes.

He stared at his watch because apparently subtraction had become more complicated in the last ten seconds.

Too long.

Stop it.

Virgil’s property was huge, the radios were garbage once somebody dropped into the draws, and Jodie could turn a two-minute check into twenty if she found somebody else who needed help.

I don’t care. It’s still too damn long.

I want my Ranch Girl here safe with me. Now.

“Anybody hear from her after she left?” he asked Kyle.

Kyle shook his head. “Not clearly.”

Dana looked over from the alley. “Wait.”

Mac turned. She handed the gate off to one of the volunteers and came toward them, pulling her bandana down. “I heard her.”