Page 67

Jodie laughed softly. “That distinction didn’t make me any friends out of them. I don’t like that all the people we knew are gone. Not all at once like that.”

“All except North.”

“Yeah.” She rolled onto her side to face him. “Harold’s always been good to work with. If I email him about a horse, he knows which one I mean without making me dig up a tag number or description. He actually knows the herd.”

“That’s probably why everybody listened when he backed you up.”

“Probably.”

It had helped. More than she wanted to admit. “I’m not surprised he stayed. But the others…” She shook her head.

Mac brushed his thumb along her cheek. “You’ve got time before the gather. You don’t have to solve the whole thing tonight.”

Jodie sighed. “I know.”

“And tomorrow you finally get to see your horses.”

A smile spread across her face before she could stop it. “I do.”

Mac smiled back. “Come here, babe.”

Jodie snuggled closer and tucked herself against him. Mac was right; there was still time to petition for bait traps instead of helicopters.

And tomorrow, the horses she’d known for years through photographs, reports, and rows of data would finally be standing in front of her.

ELEVEN

The morning was cool, the scent of sagebrush sharp in the air along with the faint whiff of dry dust and smoke. Jodie and Mac had driven out to Hank’s ranch bordering Sand Wash with Willow and Sandra just before dawn, and Hank had met them at the gate and walked them out past the barn to the edge of his east pasture, while the sky was still pale blue and the clouds caught the first light of the sun before it lifted above the horizon. No one spoke. The morning felt somehow sacred, and they all seemed hesitant to break the spell.

Jodie felt an inexplicable pull toward a hill just off to the left.

Then she felt it. A steady, rhythmic vibration beneath her feet, so faint at first she wondered if she’d imagined it. The vibration increased, filled her body. A moment later came the sound of pounding hooves, soft and distant at first, but drawing closer quickly.

Jodie stared at the top of the hill. Just as the sun rose above the distant Rockies behind them, the first horses crested the rise, and the light turned them momentarily gold.

Jodie gasped.

They were beautiful, every single last one of them.

And she knew them. She knew their names. She had studied their photographs and watched videos of them. She knew their bands, their foals, which mares had been treated and which horses had disappeared from reports for weeks only to turn up again miles away.

But nothing could compare to the actual living, breathing, running horses. They were real.

The band raced down the slope toward them, white and red, palomino and paint, led by a great black stallion. Foals on long, spindly legs ran beside their mothers, stretching themselves out to keep up.

Freedom in motion. It was the only thing Jodie could think as she watched them.

When the horses finally noticed Jodie, Mac, Willow, and Sandra standing below, the band began to slow.

Jodie glanced at Sandra. For once, she wasn’t taking pictures. She stood with her camera forgotten in her hands, staring at the horses with tears in her eyes, just like Jodie’s. It was the first time she had ever seen Sandra miss a shot.

But she understood. Moments like these could never be captured on film. They had to be felt. Lived. Nothing could flatten this sort of beauty and frame it and hang it on a wall. Only its faintest echo.

Not this.

Mac put his arm around Jodie as they watched the horses graze and drink from the stock pond Hank had dug out in the draw last spring. One of the biggest challenges out here was providing the horses and grazing livestock with fresh water. Eventually, Sandra remembered the camera in her hands and began taking photos as they watched the horses jostle for room, while the stallion kept guard over them, warily watching the humans.

“That’s Jet,” Jodie told Mac. “Gorgeous, isn’t he? Those three foals are his.” She pointed to the foals one by one and named them. As she studied the band, she found two of their mothers but not the third.