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All of Kade’s life needed to fit into a suitcase—a suitcase he had every intention of unpacking in Alaska in a couple of weeks at most.
First, he needed to figure out what he was going to do about becoming a father.
Bree pulledover to the side of the road onto the shoulder as another cramp caused her to double over. These Braxton-Hicks contractions were a beast. She could only imagine what the real thing would feel like. An involuntary shiver rocked her body.
Wouldn’t you know it, her old truck picked that moment for the engine to gurgle, shimmy, and then give up. She was midway on her way back to let Kade know that she and the baby would be just fine without him when the pain struck. The vehicle that had been on her tail since she’d left downtown parked behind her.
A bad sign? Or a guardian angel?
She reached for the tire iron underneath her seat. As safe as Saddle Junction had always been, hormones had her protective instincts on full alert. Plus, being a woman meant always playing it cautious.
It was dark outside. High beams from the vehicle behind her made it impossible to see who was walking toward her.
And then she saw something that made her crawl over the bench seat and make a play for the passenger door to escape—a crowbar.
A quick glance at the crowbar-wielding man caused her to realize she wasn’t going to make it in time. The cramp intensified, but she could only breathe through it. Despite her due date looming, the baby hadn’t given any signs of being ready to make an appearance in the world. At this moment, she couldn’t blame it. Not all of humanity was worth seeing.
At this point, all she could do was lock the doors and then put up a fight.
The next thing she heard was the crack of the crowbar against her back window. It fractured. Crowbar was on the driver’s side, so she jumped out the passenger door, ready to fight. There was no way she could outrun the attacker. The high beams made it impossible to take note of the make and model of Crowbar’s car. It was a sedan based on the height of the high beams.
Feet apart in an athletic stance, Bree readied herself for a fight.
The world stilled. The whoosh sound in her ears drowned out everything else. The attacker was suddenly behind her. A hand covered her nose and mouth. No, wait, a cloth with a distinct and awful smell.
“Think you can fight me?” Crowbar mumbled. Bree tried to place the voice but couldn’t.
The words,Let me go,died on her lips as she succumbed to the overpowering scent that caused her eyes to close and her mind to drift. The bastard’s arms kept her from slamming into the gravel as she summoned the strength to jerk away.
Then, darkness.
5
An hour before Chloe’s shift, Grayson popped a fever. Kade nursed a cup of coffee as Chloe called her boss, then asked him to hang out through dinner to keep her company. He agreed. Two hours ago, he’d texted Bree, asking if they could meet up and talk later that evening. He tried not to take her lack of response as an insult. Then again, she’d been the one holding onto a devastating secret for the past nine months, or however long it took to cook a kid and then drop the bomb on him.
Did she have a right to ghost him?
Not in his book.
Dinner came and went. Kade cleaned the dishes while Chloe gave Grayson a bath. Three-year-olds went to sleep early. By eight o’clock, the kid had his Spiderman pajamas on. Not a half hour later, he was tucked in and on his way to Dreamland. Good. Kade wanted to run a few things past his sister. Maybe even talk to her about what it was like to become a parent. Could he without giving himself away?
The minute Chloe returned to the kitchen, where he sat staring at a beer, not in the mood to finish it, her cell buzzed. She walked over to the counter and glanced at the screen. “It’s Hannah. I can call her back.”
“Go ahead and take it,” he said. “Dishes are already done.” A distraction would give him a few more minutes to consider his approach to the parenthood topic.
“Okay,” Chloe said before taking the call and putting it on speaker. “Hey, what’s up?”
Hannah started right in. “Have you heard from Bree? My dad said her truck was found on the side of the road and asked me to call around to see if anyone has heard from her.”
“What makes you think I would know anything about Bree?” Chloe asked. Concern caused her face to wrinkle. You never had to wonder what Chloe was thinking. Her face gave her away.
“Her truck was abandoned on the farm road headed toward the ranch, the back window was cracked, and the passenger door was left wide open,” Hannah said. “My dad called her cell to check on her, but Odin said she left in a huff, saying something about heading to the Sturgess ranch. She’s not responding to anyone’s texts, either.”
Hearing Bree’s name at the start of the conversation had caught him off guard, but the rest of the information was a sucker punch to the solar plexus. He tried not to give away his reaction. Instead, he studied Chloe’s face as she responded. His thoughts were all over the place, everything from the possibility of her being stranded and hurt to having jumped out of the vehicle after a teenager threw a rock.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Chloe said.
Kade set the beer down and gripped the side of the table. “Am I on speaker?” Hannah asked.
