Page 80 of The Cowboy and the Stray

“Maybe. Could be worse.” I shook my head. “He’s after her, not the ranch. There’s nothing to say he knows what we are. But he won’t stop if he thinks we’re in the way.”

Ash made a low noise. “You want me to go back?”

“Exactly. Nobody goes anywhere alone. Reid and Sloane will have it covered but I need you more there than here.”

She swung her foot off the chair and let it thump on the floor.

I sat up and rubbed my hands together. “We’ll be back before noon tomorrow.”

Ash studied me for a long second, then nodded. “You want me to stay and keep watch here tonight? Or go on?”

“Go. I need you at the house.” I stood and fished my wallet out of my pocket, pulled out two fifties, and tossed them on the desk. “Gas and whatever you need for the drive. Take Midge’s.”

She made a face. “That’s a lot of jerky.”

“Or a lot of coffee. Your call.” I hesitated. “Thank you.”

“Don’t get soft on me, alpha. I got you.” She jammed her feet into a pair of boots and shoved the flask back in her pack.

She was out the door before I could say anything else. I watched her cross the lot, long stride and hunched shoulders, the way people moved who didn’t expect much from the world. Then the taillights of the little sedan lit up and went red at the exit.

Back in the room with Tess, I stood for a minute, watching the rise and fall of her blanket. She looked so damn small under all that cheap polyester, like a kid hiding from monsters. But she was safe for now, and I was going to keep it that way. I locked the door, kicked off my boots, and sat down in the chair by the window. It was going to be a long night, but I’d done longer.

Tess woke up before dawn. When I knelt to tie my boots, her eyes opened.

“I dreamed you left,” she said.

“I left for twenty minutes. That’s all.”

She sat up, covers tangled around her knees. “You should’ve left me here to get everyone else safe first.”

I waved her off. “They’re safe.”

I packed our stuff, which took all of seven seconds, and checked the window twice before we headed out. The parking lot was empty now, except for the ranch truck. I got Tess in the passenger side, buckled her in, and we rolled out.

We didn’t talk for the first few miles. Out here, you could drive for hours and not see a thing move but the turkey vultures, floating lazy as driftwood over the barbed wire. Tess tracked them with her eyes, maybe wishing she could soar up and get a look at the world from above.

We passed a flock of deer crowded around a stock tank, and Tess watched them vanish one by one into the brush.

“How are you going to keep everyone safe?” she asked quietly.

I’d known that question was coming. She wanted to know if I could actually protect a whole damn ranch. Family, workers, even the cows.

“I’ve got some things planned,” I said. “You’ll know soon. Right now the best thing we can do is get home.”

Tess was quiet, but her eyes kept moving. I wondered if she was replaying every minute with Lance Creed, counting the seconds it took him to do what he did, trying to measure me up against that.

An hour later, we hit the outskirts of a town with an open diner. The sign just said EAT in faded neon, but the windows were lit, and the parking lot was already filling with pickup trucks. I pulled in and parked between a feed truck and a battered Honda. Tess walked in ahead of me, chin up, looking for all the world like she owned the place. That was the part I liked best about her. She never let the world see the shiver.

Inside, the waitress poured us coffee before we sat, and her badge said Pearl in peeling block letters. The menu was one sheet, laminated, and sticky at the corners.

“You want eggs?” I asked Tess.

“Only if they’re real.”

Pearl nodded. “We got real eggs, hon. Real bacon too. You want grits?”

“I do,” I said.