I don't lie to her. "You remember me sayin' there was somethin' else besides Todd?"
"Yeah."
"His name's Hartley. He's a man my old work sent to keep an eye on me. He moved closer this mornin'. He's within an hour of the ranch."
She is quiet for a long moment. She doesn't ask who Hartley is to me. She doesn't ask what my old work was. She knows I'll tell her when I can.
Her hand comes up and rests on my shoulder where my t-shirt meets my collarbone. She doesn't grip. She just rests it there. "Are we safe right now, or is this something I should be really concerned about?"
"Right now we're safe. Every gate has someone on it and Banshee's not leaving the front."
"For how long."
"Until I tell you otherwise."
She breathes out through her nose. Her hand stays on my shoulder. Her eyes are on the dot on the screen and I can see her face from the side. Her jaw is set the way Phantom's sets when he is making a decision and her eyes are steady.
This is a different woman than the one who walked into my cabin a few days ago with a voicemail in her hand. "Okay. What do you need me to do?"
My hand comes up off the desk and finds the back of hers where it rests on my shoulder. I cover her hand with mine. "Stay close to me. Stay close to Nash. Don't go to your cabin alone for anything. If you need somethin' from over there, you tell me and I get it or one of the brothers goes with you."
"Okay."
"You go to the bunkhouse to cook, you go with Bex if she's here or you wait till I can walk over."
"Okay."
"You and Nash sleep here every night this week."
"Okay."
She squeezes my shoulder once and lets go, walks back to the kitchen table. She sits down across from her son and asks to see what he's gotten through on the worksheet. Nash starts explaining to her that he doesn't understand carrying the one.
She doesn't look back at me. She doesn't have to.
My phone vibrates against the desk. Phantom's name on the screen. I step out onto the front porch and pull the door shut behind me. "Prez."
"Brother. How's my ranch?"
"Standing. Banshee's on the front gate, Blaze put bodies on the others. Spur's in the round pen with Thunder at his cabin."
"Why are bodies on the other gates? Somethin' goin' on?"
"Hartley moved closer this morning. He's within an hour."
Two seconds of silence on the line. "You handlin' it?"
"I'm handling it."
"You need backup, you call Holt. He'll roll out of Abilene with whoever he can spare. Don't be a hero."
"I won't be."
"And the woman?"
"At my cabin. Both of them at my cabin. Will be for the rest of the week."
A longer silence this time. "Good. That's good, brother."
