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Duke keeps a watchful eye on them as well, but I can tell he’s getting nervous with the fire. The heat has intensified the closer it gets, and I start to sweat through the layers of clothes. It’s now that I’m standing in between my animals and the fire that I realize I might not have made the best decision. In the moment, all I could think about was saving the cattle. If there was any chance that I could ensure all the animals get through this, I had to take it. While I don’t regret saving them, I am very aware this means that I also might not make it out alive.
Pulling out my phone, I see the unopened text from Dakota. The preview shows me that she made it to the shelter, which makes me sigh in relief.
She’s safe.
I swipe past the list of unanswered calls, mostly from Dakota. Two from my mom, no doubt hearing about the fire and checking in on me. A few from the neighbouring ranches. I was so consumed in my plan that I ignored the buzzing of my phone all night. I needed to push aside anyone or anything that might have been a distraction, or offering an alternate plan if I was honest.
But I need to hear her voice one more time. I hope it’s not the last time.
Tapping the call button, I’m surprised I have enough service in the back acres for the call to go through. It immediately goes to voicemail, and I smile at the professional tone of her recording. After the beep, I pull down the bandana from my face and forget all the bullshit that let me push her away. I push aside my pride and whatever else made me an asshole to everyone else and finally say everything that I should have said to her before.
“Dakota, I’m sorry that I’ve been such an asshole to you. You deserve better. Hell, you deserve better than me, but for whatever fucked up reason, you choose me anyway.” I suck in a breath, immediately feeling the burn of the smoke as it pours into my lungs. I let out a cough. “When I told you I loved you before, I meant it. I love you, Dakota Myers. I don’t know what’s going to happen after tonight, but I need to let you know that. We may have started because some asshole wanted to be a prick to you in a bar, but I’m glad it happened. I’m glad that Laughlin was a douchebag that never figured out how to get his head out of his ass because it meant that it brought you to me. I know that sounds fucked up, but everything about this situation right now is fucked up.”
I go silent for a moment, staring at the flames in front of me. I lose track of time and the recording cuts off. I redial quickly, hoping I keep cell service while I have it. I listen one more time to her sweet voice before I’m prompted by another beep.
“Listen, I hope to God that I get to tell you all of these things in person, but if I don’t…I just want you to know that I love you. Wyatt will look after you, so just do what he says. I know that’s going to piss you off to no end, but just do it for me. Please?” I chuckle, knowing how hard she worked to get me to learn to say that word, which only makes me cough again. My words are now broken up with coughs as the smoke gets hotter and thicker, ash falling down all around me. “I have to go, but know that I love you, and I’m sorry.”
I have just enough time to grab Duke’s reins before all hell breaks loose.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Dakota
“What do you mean he stayed?”
Krissy puts a hand on my arm, because I’m sure she can feel how much I want to punch her brother right now.
“He said he needed to stay behind and save the rest of the cattle. I tried to talk him out of it…”
“You didn’t try hard enough! Fuck, Wyatt, I can’t believe you just left him there!”
“I didn’t have a choice, Dakota! You know how he is once he gets his stubborn-ass head on something!”
We’re drawing a crowd in the middle of the shelter, but I don’t care. Anger like I’ve never felt before is burning through my body. Partly because Wyatt had the audacity to just leave him at the ranch. Most of it is because I did too.
“I need to go.” I fight the urge to run through the crowd and mow down anyone that might be in my way. Every cell in my body screams that I need to get to Chance. I just found him; I’m not going to lose him.
Krissy holds on to my arm tighter, standing in my way. “Hold on there. You’re not going alone, Dakota.”
“I can’t stay here!”
“No one’s asking you to,” Brett, Krissy’s fiancé, says from my side. “We just need a plan before we run into the fire.”
Guilt burns in my chest as I look around the room. I should have gone to the ranch to make sure that he left. To make sure that he was okay. But instead, I was too focused on myself and Addie that I just trusted that he said he was going to meet us here or alluded to it. Mostly just told me what I wanted to hear, but I believed him.
Dammit, I shouldn’t have believed him.
“What was holding him back? Why didn’t you load all the cattle into the trailers that you had?” I ask; trying to will myself to calm down. Just like in the courtroom, I know that getting upset isn’t going to help anything or get me where I want to be.
“They wouldn’t all fit. We only have enough trailers to work the auctions and transport small amounts at a time. There’s never another situation like this where we would need to move all of them. Chance made the decision to put the most valuable stock we have in the trailer and bring them to the Triple Acres Ranch,” Wyatt answers.
“That’s good; Beau will take good care of them.” I start pacing the area in front of me, steepling my hands in front of my lips. “Where do you think he is now?”
“The back corner of his property. He said he was going to take them the farthest away from the flames that he could. There’s a clearing there without any trees along the property line; I’m pretty sure that’s the spot he would have gone.”
“Were the flames really that close?” Brett asks.
We all hold our breath and watch as Wyatt nods his head.
