Page 101 of Sudden Summer

Awhistle had my head whipping to the right. The herd was inching closer, keeping an eye on the work we were doing as we patched the fence near them. And honestly? It had just been one thing after another all damn day. I fucking hated leaving Birdie. She couldn’t seem to shake the pain of what had happened to her patient, and I knew so many awful thoughts were bouncing around too loud in her head. Every time I had to leave, she’d be biting down on her lip like her mind just couldn’t let her relax.

Thank god for Vi and Jessie, who were checking in on her every day, and my brothers who were keeping an eye out for anything weird. I fucking hated feeling like our home wasn’t safe, but I wasn’t about to take any chances with Birdie and Juniper. They were too precious to me.

Which is why I just wanted to get done with everything out here in the fucking blazing sun. There’s never a good time to have sickness run through the herd, but we were on a time crunch now for treatment since the second outbreak of pink eye, and I’d been neglecting my ranch duties too often lately.

“You been able to get a hold of Emmett at all?” I turned to Kip, who shrugged.

“Figure he’s still waiting up at the barn for the vet. Shoulda been back by now, I’m thinking. But maybe the vet got held up?”

“Guy’s been on edge all week.” Travis clipped the wire and stepped back from the fence. “Talking a lot more about the time he’s missing out on with his daughter. I think he’s getting ready to pack up, boss. You’re gonna have-ta put another ad out real fast to get him replaced before we run the cattle out to the south fields. Can’t be two cowboys down for that ride.”

“Two?” I asked, my skin prickling with something I couldn’t explain as I looked over my shoulder. It was a long ride back to the barn, but Kip was right. He could have just been held up, waiting on the vet.

“Yeah. Figure you ain’t riding with us this year. Got your girls to be home with. Why’d you want to be with us cranky bastards on an extra-long day when you can be at home with them?”

My girls. Fuck. That’s what was bothering me. It felt like something was wrong. The same sour feeling washed over me as when I’d pulled into Birdie’s driveway a few weeks ago and found her lying in her kitchen.

“What’s wrong?” Denver asked. “You look like you’re about to be sick.”

“I gotta go back. Something’s not right. You guys gonna be okay working the fence until Emmett gets back?”

“We’ll be fine.” Kip nodded. “Go figure out whatever the hell it is that’s bothering you.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. George clearly sensed the urgency in my tense body, because the second I was up in the saddle, he took off back towards the house with little more than the kick of my foot into his side.

I should have driven the truck out. George was fast, but a truck on these old dirt roads would still be faster. The sun beat down on my back, sweat dripped off the end of my nose, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t stopping to wipe my face or throw my hat on, which was currently tied to one of my saddle packs.

A vibration slammed into my chest. What the hell? Fuck. I knew it was the satellite phone. If someone was calling that, there was a real problem. Fuck, fuck, fuck!

“Hello?”

“What are you doing here in the barn?” Birdie’s voice came through quietly, like the phone wasn’t directly next to her mouth. I couldn’t hear a response. I didn’t know who she was talking to.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I was trying to protect her!”

God, I could hear the strain in her voice. Who the hell was making her uncomfortable?

“No. No, please. Just, please⁠—”

I pulled the satellite phone away from my ear, knowing damn well I was finally back in range for my normal phone to work. Another minute, and I’d be at the barn. And when I killed the bastard for scaring Birdie, I’d need my brothers there to have my back.

“Hey, thought you’d be out of range⁠—”

“Shut the fuck up and listen to me,” I tempered my volume on the call with Hayes so it wouldn’t carry across the line to Birdie. “Someone is in the barn with Birdie. I don’t know who, but she called and she sounds fucking scared. I’m almost there, but I’m gonna fucking kill whoever it is. Back me up.”

“Fuck. It’s gonna take me a minute, but I’m on my way.” The line clicked off as Hayes followed my instructions.

George slowed as the barn came into view. I had to think this through. I couldn’t just burst in there, as badly as I wanted to. If Birdie was in the barn, that meant Juniper was, too. I had to be smart.

I tied George off at a post not too far from the open door of the barn. Emmett was nowhere to be fucking seen. If he was the one in there with Birdie…Grabbing my gun from the holster, I tried to calm my racing heart with each step. I wasn’t about to put my girls in more danger by going in there fucking half-cocked and ready to blow the fucker’s brains out.

“Please. No one has to know. You got what you wanted. I-I’m leaving the hospital. I’m not going to work there anymore. You can just go. You have your daughter. Think of her.”

“Sure, my daughter is with my girlfriend right now, and we stopped her from being raised by a fucking weak woman,” a man responded. It wasn’t Emmett. I couldn’t place his voice. Birdie gasped, and I clicked the safety off my weapon, raising it in front of me as I entered the barn.

Fuck. I didn’t recognize the guy. Not at first glance, anyway. It was Birdie’s words, the context of talking about his daughter, that made me realize exactly who it was. The man from the Amber Alert Birdie had been so heartbroken over. He didn’t look as disheveled as he’d looked in the picture. His hair was slicked back, the long beard he’d had before barely a five o’clock shadow now. If I had seen him anywhere else, I probably would have never connected the dots. But he wasn’t the only reason my stomach had soured. The woman who’d stopped to give Birdie paperwork from the hospital was standing there, right next to him. And for some fucking reason, that bitch was pointing a gun right at the woman I loved.

“He was supposed to take care of you, first. At your house, to prove to me that he could handle things with Alexis. But he messed it all up. So I had to come up with a plan myself. Isolate you away from work. A few chats with your coworkers, and it was easy enough to find out where you were staying. I put the wheels in motion to ruin you professionally before we came for the final payback for how you treated my son. You made him miss the birth of his daughter, you fucking bitch! You and that whore took that from him, and that is something he can never get back!” she yelled.