Page 359 of Rangers Last Promise

Saint smiled into his coffee.

I looked around the table.

“Does anyone control them?”

“No,” every Ranger answered.

“Good,” Agnes said. “You boys are finally learning.”

Max rested his head on Dylan’s knee.

The room filled with conversation again.

Rylie asked Nora about the library.

Aspen reminded Havoc that they needed to pick something up after breakfast.

Tessa stole half of Ace’s biscuit while he was distracted.

Laney handed Saint a napkin before he realized he needed one.

The men I remembered had been trained to sleep on dirt, eat from plastic bags, and disappear into places no one else wanted to go.

Now they discussed grocery lists, school schedules, leaky faucets, and whether the tavern needed a new freezer.

They had built lives while I kept driving past mine.

Wolf caught me watching.

He didn’t say anything.

He didn’t need to.

After breakfast, Wolf led me into the small office behind the bar.

A large map of Texas covered one wall. Schedules and security contracts had been pinned to a corkboard. Two locked filing cabinets stood beneath a row of photographs.

The Rangers in uniform.

The Last Stand Tavern before the renovations.

Wolf and Nora on their wedding day.

Trigger and Rylie laughing beside the river.

Havoc with Aspen and Dylan.

Saint holding a baby.

Ace and Tessa beneath the tavern sign.

Life measured in pictures.

There wasn’t a photograph of me.

I hadn’t been there.

Wolf sat behind the desk.