Page 45 of Forbidden Cowboy

“It’s Mom, there was this guy, and he came to her motel and trashed everything.”

“Are you okay?” I asked urgently, nudging the horse into a gallop.

It was a challenge to control the horse and not drop my phone, but I managed, needing to know if Anna was okay.

“Yeah, I think so, but Mom is crying and most of her stuff is gone.”

“Just, get what you can and meet me outside. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

I didn’t even take Melisandre back to the stables. Instead, I looped her bridle around one of the posts outside of the house, and sent a text to Sierra asking her to take her back. I was in my truck, still barefoot, only seconds after disconnecting from Anna.

I broke all the speed laws rushing into Gunnison, and when I pulled up to the place Eliana had been sleeping since her arrival, I saw her sitting outside with Anna, both of them hanging out on the wall with a sad looking suitcase between them. I saw Eliana’s bright red Jeep, and it had been hit with something heavy and probably a good amount of anger. The windows were completely shattered, and huge scratches covered the paintwork. It had even been hit hard enough to leave a huge dent in the driver’s side door.

I parked in front of my ex-wife and my daughter and got out.

Anna looked relieved to see me, and Eliana was just staring into space, seeing nothing through eyes smudged from running makeup.

I crouched down in front of her.

“Eliana,” I said in a voice much softer than I had used with her in years.

It must have triggered something in her, because she looked at me, and all I saw was stricken fear.

“He’ll kill me,” she said. “If he finds me, he’ll kill me.”

I looked over to Anna, who was deliberately pretending she wasn’t hearing anything.

“Let’s get you back to the ranch,” I said, and helped her up.

She walked on unsteady feet, but allowed me to help her into the truck, and buckle her in. Anna carried the weathered green suitcase, and I tucked it in next to her seat.

The three of us stayed silent the whole way back, not even the radio playing. When we got back to the house, I helped Eliana in, and showed her to one of the guest bathrooms, where she proceeded to take a very long shower. Then I sat on the couch in the main living room, with Anna curled up in a chair across from me, and tried to think.

“Dad,” Anna said, and I glanced up at her solemn face, “Mom is really scared.”

“Are you?”

“No,” she said with a shrug, and I believed her. “The man left Mom a note. I kind of think he just needed to hit something she owned.”

“Do you think he’ll come back?”

“No,” she said again. “But Mom might think that. He did say he was done, though, and that he never wanted to see her again. In his note.”

“Okay, well I’m just glad you two are safe, alright?”

I tried to look on the bright side—Anna and Eliana were safe, and Anna wasn’t afraid anything was going to happen to her. At only eight years old, she was a lot more mature than people gave her credit for.

“Where’s Sierra?” Anna asked, looking around.

I pulled my phone out, wondering exactly that, as I hadn’t seen her in a while. I was relieved to see I had a text from her, telling me she’d gone up to the stables to bring Melisandre back. Knowing her, she was going to take her time on the walk—she liked wandering through the countryside almost as much as I did.

“She’ll be back in a bit,” I said. “She’s just gone up to the stables.”

“Ooh! I’m gonna go see if I can catch her! We can go on a ride!”

Anna was out the door before I could say anything, and I was shaking my head with a smile on my face.

“She doesn’t seem affected at all,” Eliana said from the doorway with a look of wonder on her face.