Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
HOLDEN
I can hear the thunder off in the distance, and so far, there’s been no sign of Millie. With a scowl, I open my phone and try to call her, but it goes straight to voice mail.
“Fuck,” I mutter. “She’s in a dead zone.”
“Boss!” Vance comes running out of the office, and the panic on his face has me scowling and dread filling my stomach. “Boss, you have to see this.”
I run behind him, into the office. “Talk.”
“Right here,” he says, switching to a different camera angle. “That’s Betty, and she doesn’t have a rider.”
No.
My lungs seize, and my brain feels like it’s going to explode, and then I launch into go mode.
“Get the others and saddle up. Now. I’m calling the Wilds.”
Vance runs out of the office, calling for the others as he goes, and I immediately dial Remington’s number.
“Hello.”
“I need every man you can spare.”
He’s quiet for a heartbeat, and then, “What’s wrong?”
I explain about Millie going for a ride three fucking hours ago and seeing Betty on the monitor.
“I can’t reach her by phone. Wherever she is, she doesn’t have a signal.”
“Brady said he saw her out by the old gold mine,” Rem says, his voice hard. “He and Bruiser went out to check on her, but that was two hours ago.”
I curse a blue streak as another wave of terror moves through me.
“We’ll find her. Let’s call in Beckett and any of the men he can spare, too, since they’re not too far away. You search your side, we’ve got this side, and the Blackwells can do both.”
“On it. Jesus Christ, Rem?—”
“We’ll find her,” he repeats, his voice harder this time. “She’s fine. Might be hurt, but she’s fine.”
“I’m taking the walkies,” I inform him. “Channel nine. The service is too spotty for phones.”
“We’ll do the same. Let’s do this.”
He hangs up, and knowing that Millie’s brothers and their men are headed out to look, I immediately call Beckett.
“We’ll all come help, and bring our walkies, too,” he says, five minutes later. “I even have Blake out here today. On our way.”
He hangs up, and I hurry out to find my guys, with four saddled horses, waiting for me.
“We spread out,” I begin, talking through the lump in my throat as we each clip a walkie-talkie to our belts. My voice wants to crack, but I swallow hard. “I want one of you to find Betty and bring her back here right away. We don’t know how far that horse has wandered away from Millie, but maybe not far. I’ve got the Wilds and the Blackwells helping, too.”
I outline the rest of the plan, and my guys all nod in agreement. They’re sober, a little scared, and if I’m not mistaken, pissed.
We all want my girl found, in one piece, immediately.
“We got this, boss,” Levi says with a nod. “I’ll go get Betty and bring her back here, then head north.”
“I’ll head south,” Vance adds.
“Tim.” I look at the older man who’s been here for many years, going back to when I was a kid. “I want you to stay close by here, in case she comes sauntering out of those woods with the story of the year. Watch the cameras, and call us if you see anything we can use.”
“Got it, boss,” Tim says, immediately walking to the office.
Lightning and thunder boom around us, and the sky opens up, pouring rain in huge drops.
“Shit,” I mutter.
She’s out there, maybe hurt, getting soaked.
I grab an extra blanket, rolled into a waterproof cover, and toss it on the back of my horse, then lift myself into the saddle. “I’m headed east. Right into the dead zone. If she’s not answering me, that’s where she is.”
That has to be where she is because the alternative is that she can’t answer, and that possibility—I can’t even think about it.
I can hear the Blackwells pulling in with their huge trailer full of horses.
Bridger is the first one out of the truck and comes running my way. “Any idea where she might be?”
“None.” My voice is hard, and no one misses the fear in it. My heart is somewhere out there, in trouble, and I don’t know where she is. “We fan out. The Wilds are doing the same on their side.”
“We dropped Blake and Brooks at their barn on our way over here,” Beckett informs me. “Two of us there, two here, and Billie’s at the farm with Birdie.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank us later, after we get her back. Let’s go,” Bridger says, and we all set off, headed in different directions from the barn.
The rain is incessant, and I feel better about the lightning when we’re all in the cover of the trees. I don’t need anyone getting struck by lightning.
I head straight for the east border. I don’t think she would have spent much time there, since we were clear that it wasn’t safe, but she might have just been passing through, not thinking anything of it. Or maybe she got lost.
Jesus, I never should have let her go alone. She doesn’t know this property well enough for her to be off on her own.
I’m a goddamn idiot. I should have gone with her, shown her everything there is to see, so she’d at least know where she was going.
Over the next hour, the rain dies down, and the lightning stops, but thunder continues to boom from far away.
I get check-ins from guys all over the two properties, all saying that they don’t see her.
“This is Levi,” a voice says through my speaker. “I have Betty and am taking her to the barn, then I’ll head south. She’s not hurt. Over.”
“Copy that,” I say into my radio. I’m relieved that the horse is fine, but what in the fucking hell is going on?
I’m riding along the east border and notice that there’s a spot in the fence that needs mending. She might have come through here. It’s not far from the creek, and it would make a good passageway from the Wild ranch onto mine.
Suddenly, something has the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, and I stop the horse, cocking my ear, listening.
The sound of the creek might have drowned it out, but then I hear… singing.
I’m off my horse in a flash. “Millie? MILLIE ?”
“Holden!”
Relief like I’ve never felt washes through me, almost bringing me to my knees, but then she shouts something that sends a chill through me.
“BE CAREFUL! DON’T FALL!”
I stop moving, my hands out wide as I frantically search the ground.
“Fall where?”
“In this huge hole I’m in!”
With my heart in my throat, I turn in a circle, and then I see it. Over by an old fence, a big hole in the ground, and I sprint over to it and lie on my stomach, staring down, relieved to see my wife staring up at me with wide, wild eyes.
“Oh, thank God.” She starts to cry, and I’ve never felt so helpless in my life.
“Millie.” My voice is firm, and I don’t know how I’m keeping it together, except that I need her to focus so I can get her out of there. “Listen to me. Listen to me, baby girl.”
She gulps and swallows, her eyes never leaving my face.
“It’s getting dark,” she cries.
“I know, but I’m here now, and we’re going to get you out of there. Are you hurt?”
“My ankle.” She stands and winces. “I sprained my ankle. Otherwise, I’m just freaked out. Get me the hell out of this pit, husband.”
I unclip the radio from my belt and bring it to my mouth.
“Holden here. I have her, but she’s fallen into a hole, and I don’t think I can pull her out myself. It’s deep and muddy.”
The soft ground beneath me starts to shift, and I’m terrified that it’ll collapse onto her, so I scramble back.
“Don’t you dare leave me!”
“I’m right here,” I tell her. “I’m not leaving.”
I swallow hard and keep talking into the walkie.
“We’re just over the property line, about ten yards in, roughly a mile north of the old gold mine. Over.”
“Brady here,” the response comes. “Roger that. We saw her there earlier and know where you are. We’ll all meet you there. Over.”
“I need Blake for a sprained ankle. Over.”
“Blake here, I’m on my way. Over.”
“Everyone on the Lexington side is headed your way, too. Over.” That is Levi’s voice, and I’m relieved to know that the cavalry is coming our way.
I approach the hole from a different angle and look down.
“If I reach down, can you grab my hand?”
“I can’t jump,” she says, starting to look panicked. “Holden, I need you to get me out of here.”
“If you can’t jump, I can’t pull you out.” Jesus, she’s starting to shake even harder, and her face crumples. I need to get to her, to comfort her.
So, I do the only thing I can think of and jump down with her.
“Holy fuck.” She wraps herself around me, desperately shaking, unable to catch her breath. “I didn’t know you had booby traps set on this property, h-husband.”
“Neither did I.” Grimly, I take her dirty face in my hands and plant my lips on hers. I can’t stop touching her, running my hands over her to make sure she’s really okay. “Baby, listen to me.”
“Oh, my God.” She’s moving right into a panic attack, so I lean my forehead to hers.
“Millie. Look at me. I’m here, my love. I’m right here, and you’re okay. We’re gonna get out of here. Take a deep breath.”
With her eyes on mine, she pulls air into her lungs. Tears continue to fall down her cheeks, leaving trails in the dirt on her skin, and it’s enough to break my damn heart.
“But now we’re both stranded down here.”
“No, everyone’s coming. They’ll help me get you out of here. I just couldn’t stay up there while you had a meltdown. It’s better if we have a meltdown together.”
“Were you scared, too?”
“I’ve never been that terrified in my fucking life.” Wrapping my arms around her, I hold on tight. “I’ll never let you go again. Jesus, Millie.”
We’re ankle-deep in mud from the rain, and I don’t like the way the side leans in, as if it wants to give way at any moment.
If that happens, we’re fucked.
“How did you find me?” Her face is pressed to my chest, and she’s holding on to me desperately, as if I might disappear, leaving her down here to fend for herself.
“We spotted Betty wandering around.” I fill her in on the last two terrifying hours of my life, and when I’ve finished, she’s clinging to me even harder. “Betty’s safe in the barn. Jesus Christ, I’m so sorry, my love. I never should have let you go by yourself.”
“ Let me ?” She laughs softly and cups my cheek in her hand. “Oh, husband. Are you under the impression that you can boss me around?”
“Hell yes, and you’ll fucking listen, or I’ll spank your ass.”
“Kinky.” She kisses me, and then her face crumples, and she starts to cry again, and I simply pull her against me, holding her tight. “I want to go home.”
“I know, baby. The others are on their way over here. I want Blake to look at you before I put you on a horse.”
“Blake?” She frowns at me, the surprise pausing her tears. “Who’s been out here searching?”
“Your whole family, my guys, and the Blackwells. And if I didn’t find you by dark, I’d have called in all of Bitterroot Valley. Make no mistake, little rose, I will find you anywhere.”
“Holden!”
“Over here,” I call out in reply. “Be careful! Don’t fall into this fucking hole and kill us!”
Suddenly, about eight heads lean over the top of the hole, staring down at us.
“What the fuck is this ?” Ryan demands, glaring down into the hole.
“I don’t fucking know,” I growl back at him. “But I’ll find out. Now, get us out of here.”
“Holden, can you bend down and get Millie on your shoulders, and then we can grab her hands and lift her out?”
Without an answer, I do exactly that, ignoring the spray of mud from her shoes as I stand with her on my shoulders.
“Reach up, Mill,” Chase says, his voice hard as he reaches down for her. “Grab me with one hand and Bridger with the other.”
“My hands are wet and slippery,” she says, tears in her voice.
“It’s okay, we’ve got gloves,” Bridger replies. “We’ve got you, baby. Come on.”
Suddenly, she’s lifted off of me, and I look up to see her disappear over the side of the hole.
Levi has a rope in his hands and peers down at me with Ryan and Remington. “I’m going to lower this, and my horse is going to help you climb out, okay, boss?”
“Excellent.”
He tosses the rope down, and I grab it. I’m able to easily climb the wall with the help of the horse pulling me.
Immediately, I drop next to Millie where she sits on the ground, and Blake is already sitting beside her, his first aid kit open at his side.
“Hey, Mill.” Blake is the doctor in the Blackwell family, and he’s smiling at my girl. “I hear you got hurt.”
“My ankle,” she says, lifting her right foot that’s caked in mud. “I think it’s just twisted. Hurts like a bitch.”
I hear Remington and his brothers talking, but I ignore them and concentrate on Blake’s hands on Millie.
If he wasn’t a doctor and a friend of mine, he’d be losing those hands.
“It’s swollen,” he murmurs as he peels off her sock and shoe, revealing white skin under all that wet dirt. “Pretty bruised up already. Definitely looks sprained to me.”
He moves it around, making her wince, but he seems satisfied.
“No break here. Keep it elevated with ice and ibuprofen for a couple of days. Try to stay off of it so it can heal up.” He quickly checks her over, looking for any other injuries. “You didn’t hit your head?”
“Not hard.”
I growl down at her, and she shakes her head.
“The second time I fell?—”
“There was a second time ?” I demand.
“I tried to hang on to the roots to climb out, but they gave way, and I fell back. Not far. Hit the dirt, but didn’t see stars or anything. I’m fine . ”
“I’m not,” I growl and tighten my hold on her.
“Any other places that hurt, Millie?” Blake asks, ignoring me.
“My throat hurts from screaming and singing. I have a bruised ass, and I’ll probably have a little PTSD for a while, but I’m okay. Mostly, I just got cold from the rain.”
“Singing?” Chase asks with a smirk. “Were you trying to scare away the wildlife?”
“You’re a riot in a crisis. I bet your coworkers love working with you. I knew that I had to make noise if anyone was going to hear me.” She clears her throat. “And screaming is really exhausting.”
“Baby girl,” I whisper, kissing her head.
“Take her home, get her cleaned up, and let her rest for a few days,” Blake says to me, his shrewd eyes all business. “If you want a list of therapists, I can get that to you.”
Out of all the shit I’ve been through in my life, this might be the thing that sends me to a therapist.
“Are there more of these holes along the property line?” Brady demands as I help Millie to her feet.
“I didn’t know this one existed,” I remind him. “I’ve been all over this ranch a million times, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“Us either,” Levi says, shaking his head.
“We know this land by heart,” Vance speaks up. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“It’s not a wildlife trap,” Rem murmurs, staring down.
“Yeah, well, it could be one because there were bones down there.” Millie shivers as I stand and then simply lift her into my arms, as if I’m about to carry her over the threshold. “And it’s fucking creepy as hell.”
“I’m so sorry, little rose.” I kiss her temple and then her cheek.
Then my eyes move up, and sitting on a horse on the other side of the property line fence is John Wild.
“Millie,” I murmur, getting her attention, and then gesture with my chin to her father as she tightens her hold around my shoulders.
“Daddy, why are you over there?”
“I won’t set foot on that land.” His voice is hard, but it looks like he has tears in his eyes.
“Dad, for fuck’s sake,” Ryan begins, shaking his head, but John just glares at his son and then turns his gaze back to us.
“You’ve done nothing but hurt her,” he says, his eyes on mine. “And that’s all you’re going to do until she’s dead and gone.”
“ DAD! ” Millie’s voice is hard and loud as she shouts at her father. “Stop it. Stop it right now. This was an accident.”
“That hole didn’t magically appear there by accident,” John says, narrowing his eyes. “I’ll bet everything I have that his fucker of a father dug that hole, hoping something like this would happen. Looks like he got that wish.”
I swallow because I can’t dispute what he says. My first thought was the same thing.
And Tim and I are going to have a long conversation, because the old man would know if this is something my old man did.
“If you think,” I begin, cutting off whatever Brady was about to say so I can address their father, “that I let Millie ride her horse out here, alone, hoping that she’d fall in here and break her neck, you’re fucked up in the head, Mr. Wild. Respectfully, of course.”
John’s lip curls up in a sneer, and I keep talking.
“She needed some time alone with Betty because she was beating herself up over her conversation with you. So, you go ahead and tell me exactly who’s hurting your daughter.”
I narrow my eyes, but he doesn’t respond to me.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Jesus Christ,” Chase says. “We’ll get some men out to scout for other holes.”
“I’ll do that,” I reply more calmly. “I have the men for it, and it’ll be handled first thing tomorrow.”
“If you need help,” Remington says, ignoring the scathing look from his father, “let us know. We have the men, too.”
“Appreciate it.”
“Please stop, Daddy,” Millie says, her voice soft and pleading. “This wasn’t the fault of anyone here. He’s long gone.”
“Yeah, and he’s still fucking with my family.”
With a shake of his head, John turns his horse and rides off in the other direction.
“I think it’s going to take a while for your dad to like me,” I murmur against Millie’s hair, making her choke out a laugh. “It’s okay, I’ll win him over.”
“That’s the spirit,” Blake says with a laugh as he climbs onto his horse.
“We’ll see you at the barn, boss.” My guys head out.
“Want help getting her up there?” Ryan asks.
“Yeah. I don’t want to hurt her.”
It takes three of us to get Millie up on the horse, ensuring that we don’t hurt her ankle. I pull the blanket out of the waterproof sheath and then wrap it tightly around her to warm her up. I jump up behind her and take the reins before looking at all my friends and Millie’s family.
“I don’t really have the words?—”
“This is what family does,” Remington says with a shrug, then tips his hat and rides away.
Just like that, I feel like the wind has been knocked out of me again as the others nod and also ride away.
“Did he?—?”
“Yeah,” Millie says, wiggling back to rest against me, pushing her perfect little ass against my crotch. “My dad’s an ass, which is something I never thought I’d say about my dad, by the way. Everyone else seems to be just fine, babe.”
“I’m sorry.” I kiss her head as I carefully maneuver the horse in the direction of my barn. The adrenaline is wearing off, and I feel the exhaustion wanting to settle in as darkness begins to seep in around us. She must be fucking decimated. “I don’t know this babe person.”
“Holden.”
“Nope.”
“Honey.” I can hear the smile in her voice.
“Who?”
She chuckles softly. “Husband.”
“There she is.” I kiss the top of her head. “Sleep if you want, wife. I have you. I might not ever let go of you again, let alone let you out of my sight.”
“I was so scared.” Her voice is so small it breaks my heart. “The only time I’ve been that terrified is w-when I thought you were in that building?—”
“Shh.” I wrap an arm around her shoulders, pressing my forearm across her chest, and hug her close against me. I can feel her heart hammering, and it fucking tears me apart. “I’m right here, baby girl. I’m going to get you home, and you’re going to stay there for a few days, resting.”
“I have the shop.”
“We’ll either have your people handle it or close the shop for the week.”
“What did I say about you being the boss of me?”
“Do you have any idea how fucking out of my mind I’ve been today?” My voice is a growl against her ear as all the emotions of the day swamp me again. “How terrified? I saw Betty on that camera, and I swear my soul left my body. So, if you think that I’m not about to come unhinged and keep you in bed for at least a week, you don’t know me very well, Rosie.”
“I think you’re obsessed with me.” There’s humor in her voice, as if she’s trying to lighten the mood. But she has no idea just how obsessed I am with her.
“Are you just now figuring that out? And here I thought you were the smart one in this marriage.”
She snorts out a laugh and then leans her head back on my shoulder.
“Fine . Be obsessed. I guess I kind of like you, too.”
I smirk and kiss her hair, and then the barn comes into view as we exit through the trees.
The Blackwells have already gone home, but I see the lights on in the barn, telling me my guys are still inside, waiting for us.
“I’m going to set you in my truck, and then I have to talk to the guys really quick, okay?”
“I need a shower, Hol—husband.”
I grin at the almost slip of the tongue. “I know. I just need two minutes, and then we’ll go home and get cleaned up.”
I lead the horse to the truck and slide down, then I lower Millie into my arms and get her settled in the front seat.
Levi and Vance are immediately at my side, the reins already in Levi’s hand.
“Is she okay?” Vance asks with a scowl.
“Yeah, she’s going to be fine. I need Tim.”
“He’s still in the office.” Levi licks his lips. “What do you need us to do, boss?”
“If you could get the horse cleaned up and put in its stall, that’d be a huge help. There will be a lot of work starting tomorrow.”
As we walk to the barn, I outline the search I expect them to do to see if there are other holes.
“He was a sick fuck,” Vance says, shaking his head. “But I didn’t think he’d do something like that.”
“Don’t just look for holes. Look for any kind of booby trap, and be careful, in case he set fucking bear traps. I wouldn’t put anything past that son of a bitch. Keep me posted. I’ll be home with her for the week while she recovers.”
When I walk into the office, I find Tim sitting at the desk, his head in his hands, and when he looks up at me, he looks…haunted.
“I didn’t remember it,” he says immediately. “Your daddy had us dig those holes thirty years ago. Most of them collapsed in on themselves from rain and snow.”
“But you knew they were out there.”
“ Thirty years ago ,” he repeats.
“By the Wild property line.”
“He hated that family and was convinced that they came onto this land. For what, who knows? He wanted to catch them.”
“He wanted to kill them . ”
“That was never a secret,” Tim says with a sigh.
“So, let me get this straight. My wife went out for a ride by herself today and fell into a thirty-fucking-year-old hole that my dad dug so he could trap and kill her family.” The fury has a life of its own as it courses through me. “I’m lucky that it didn’t cave in on her!”
“Jesus, Holden. Jesus, I’m sorry. Like I said, none of them held up longer than a year. I didn’t know it was still there.”
“What other booby traps did he set?”
Tim shakes his head. “None that I know of, but he was sneaky, and he didn’t trust anyone, so he might have done other things that we didn’t know about.”
“The three of you are going to ride every fucking square inch of this ranch and find anything that might so much as give her a hangnail . ” I lean in, glaring at the older man. “Understood?”
“Got it, boss.”
“Good.” I storm out of the barn and climb into my truck. Millie’s sleeping peacefully, not even stirring when I close the door.
Maybe her dad is right. Maybe being with me is still a threat to her, even with the fucker dead. She wouldn’t have gotten hurt today if it wasn’t for me.
I shouldn’t hold her to the terms of the marriage.
But I’ll be fucking damned if I can let her go.