KADE
19
As stealthily as I can manage, I cross the creaky boards of the porch and let myself into the house through the door nearest the kitchen. I expected to find the place quiet like a ghost town, but instead, there’s a low-pitched melody coming from the family room. Listening closely, I recognize the twangy sound of acoustic chord progressions. It’s gotta be Rhett.
He’s the most likely to be awake in the middle of the night. Animals don’t wait until it’s convenient to make their issues known. In fact, based on how my brother’s initial few months of vet training have gone, it’s proven far more likely that emergency calls come in while the stars are still twinkling across the vast Idaho sky.
I hang my hat on the hook near the door and shuffle quietly through the kitchen so I can poke my head in to say good night. Or good morning. Fuck . With a backward glance toward the window over the sink, I note that it’s definitely closer to dawn than not. Sun’ll be up soon, and another strenuous day of work on the ranch will begin. I grit my teeth, exhaustion settling into my bones.
But fuck it. Watching over my wildflower is quickly becoming an all-encompassing need rather than a mere want. I huff out a quiet laugh. Back at the bar, I’d told her we’re friends because I needed to be sure she’d allow me to follow her to Lilac Meadows, needed her to at least trust me with that much. And making sure she arrived home safe is about as important to me as breathing. I couldn’t fucking handle it if something happened to her. But the truth is, I kinda lied. Sage and I were never destined to be just friends. Little by little, I’ll earn her trust until I become the one person she can’t do without. I’ve always been hers. But then… then she’ll be mine, too.
I pause before making Rhett aware of my presence because my head has skipped right back to that dusty parking lot and the lusty sounds Sage makes when she’s turned-on. Hot currents of desire shoot just beneath my skin. Being with Sage does that to me. Exhaling hard, I readjust myself before ducking my head through the doorway. “Hey,” I rasp, my voice hoarse, my head still half in a Sage-induced haze.
Rhett juts his chin toward me. He’s perched on his favorite chair, his acoustic Gibson slung over his knee, and a bottle of beer within reach .
“The night sucked that hard, huh?” My lips twist, and I lift a brow as I study the tired lines etched onto his features. If Rhett is plucking chords, that means his mind is elsewhere. Sometimes, I worry about how much he takes on. I’ve told him time and time again that we’re in this together, but no matter what I say, the majority of the responsibility will always fall to him by virtue of his status as firstborn son. All I can do is try not to make things harder for him.
In all honesty, I’m unsurprised that he buries himself in work. I think he’d have done it whether our parents were still alive or not. He’s never been the same since his high school sweetheart, Noah, left him behind for a chance at country music stardom, and that old guitar on his knee was a gift from her. I only see it come out when she’s firmly on his mind.
I blow out a breath, waiting as he sits forward in the chair and lifts the bottle to his lips.
“Yeah. Decompressing now,” he mumbles, taking a deep, thirsty swallow. When he finally comes up for air, he shakes his head wearily. “One of the cows ate some fucking baling twine.”
I wince, not needing to ask for more details than what he’s already given—the remorse on his face tells the story. My guess would be that try as he might, he couldn’t save the cow. Knowing Rhett as I do, he would have done everything in his power to help the animal, but I get that it upsets him all the same. He’ll be beating himself up over the loss of life for days—maybe weeks—to come.
I clear my throat, gesturing to him with an upturned hand. “Well, you know what Dad always used to say. ‘Where you have livestock, you have deadstock.’” My lips twitch. It’s only the truth, but I doubt Rhett will take kindly to the reminder. My brother is simply softer where animals are concerned than I am. He knows better than to let things like this get to him, but the poor bastard can’t even help himself. Death is a fact of life on the ranch. He knows this.
He lets out a sigh, and I don’t miss that he purposely doesn’t acknowledge my comment. Who knows whether it has more to do with the reminder of our father’s absence… or that the two of them had a very different relationship than he and I did.
My brother cocks his head to the side, peering steadily at me. “Where’ve you been?”
Before I can sidestep his question, his phone vibrates on the arm of the chair. Anyone from the neighboring ranches knows Rhett will pick up anytime, day or night. I suck in some air through my teeth, shaking my head. I catch his eye, then point at the ceiling to let him know I’m heading to bed.
As I’m leaving the room, his rough voice stops me dead in my tracks. “It’s Sage.”
I really like my brother, it would be a damn shame to have to kill him for poaching what’s mine. My brows pinch together as I whirl back around, murmuring low, “Why the fuck is she calling you at three in the morning?”
“Down, lover boy.” Rhett shoots me an exasperated look and hurriedly shakes his head as he whispers, “I don’t have a fucking clue.” His thumb jabs at the screen to answer, and he puts it to his ear. “Sage?” Listening intently for a second with widening eyes, he sucks in a breath, then blurts, “One second, honey. I can’t understand you.”
We’re gonna circle back to that term of endearment later, but right now, he needs to give me that fuckin’ phone. I hold out my hand, my meaning clear. Lurching to his feet, he puts her on speaker before slapping the phone into my waiting palm.
I know we said no more John Cena moments, but something is telling me I’m about to kill someone for making my girl cry. With blood pounding a frightening beat inside my skull, we wait, as it’s clear she’s struggling from the sniffling on the other end of the phone. Her wet-sounding sob has my lungs ready to cave in.
“R-Rhett? Is K-Kade there?” I claw my hand through my hair, fingers digging into my scalp as a horrific keening wail leaves her lips.
“I’m right here. What’s wrong, Wildflower?” My mind races at the possibilities, each one darker than the last.
She doesn’t immediately answer, and my eyes lock on Rhett’s. Questions shoot silently between us, but we don’t have an answer to a goddamn one. Despite the fact that I didn’t respond when he asked where I was earlier, there’s no doubt in my mind he’s aware I was with her. I shake my head, mouthing, “I was just there. Twenty-five minutes ago, tops.”
Another muffled cry reaches us as she lets loose a heart-wrenching gasp so sad it practically tears me in two. “K-Kade, I n-need you. He’s d-dead.”
Shock reverberates through me as her words register, and I feel the blood drain from my face. “Sage, who’s dead?” I try my damnedest to keep my voice level and calm, but on the inside, I’m about as far from composed as I can get. Warning alarms sound in my head with all the subtlety of an atomic bomb. I don’t know what’s happening at the neighboring ranch, but there are only two things that really matter to me. Someone over there is fucking dead. And Sage is crying.
Before I’m aware of my intention, I’m already on the move. I snatch up my keys and wallet from where I’d left them on the table mere minutes ago. Through the phone speaker, Sage heaves out a choked sob. And she keeps right on crying after that, annihilating every piece of my heart.
I bolt for the door as Rhett grits out from behind me, “Wait a sec, would you?”
Not even Satan himself could stop me, nothing could keep me from getting to Sage. “Baby, I’m coming for you. Stay on the line.” With a lump in my throat, I turn back to Rhett, only to have him practically run into me. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“John fucking Cena. I’m going with you,” he grinds out.
“Fine. But remember, you’re the one who called JC.” I don’t have time to fucking argue with him, so I don’t. Instead, huffing out an impatient breath, I toss the cell into his hands. “You’re in charge of the phone. Let’s get the fuck over there.” We climb into my truck, and I start the ignition. As soon as the engine roars to life, I mash my foot on the gas and whip the wheel around, sending us down the lane.
Every second seems like it’s taking too motherfucking long. I need to get to Sage. Now . Sick, awful thoughts have begun to formulate at the edges of my mind. Reasons why my wildflower might shove a chair under her doorknob, why she’d climb out the window in the middle of the night, and why she’d sleep up in the hayloft. The conclusion I’m coming to is like a vise tightening down on my goddamn heart.
Red coats my vision. I should have made her talk to me. I should have asked her why she behaves like she does. I should have— Frustrated, I pound my hand on the steering wheel.
Rhett eyes me warily but says nothing about my outburst. He roughly runs a hand over his face, shaking his head as he taps the phone screen. “I muted us for a second. Is she talking about Ridge, do you think?”
I glance at my brother’s tense jaw out of the corner of my eye. “Don’t fucking know,” I growl. “Who the fuck else would it be?” Why is there no fucking air in the cab of this truck? “Maybe he finally drank himself to death.” Reaching into the cupholder in the door at my side, I locate one of Dad’s medallions and fold my fist around it. I swear to Christ it doesn’t seem like the tires touch the gravel as fast as we’re hauling ass toward Lilac Meadows.
“Maybe he fell? Oh my god,” he hisses out, “what if she was the one to find him?” Rhett works a hard swallow and unmutes the phone. The heart-wrenching sound of Sage’s grief continues to fill the cab of the truck.
I take the turn onto the long drive up to the Everett family home at breakneck speed, but even that’s not fast enough for my liking—especially when the call suddenly disconnects. Pushing the truck’s pedal to the floor, I grind my teeth together, fervently hoping Sage is okay yet scared as fuck over what we’re going to find.
As we approach the house, I slam on the brakes, shift into park, and cut the engine all in about two seconds flat. My heart pounds hard as I race for the rickety porch steps. Reaching the door, I look around wildly for something to break the tall pane of glass. “Fuck,” I growl, seeing nothing of use. Clenching my fist, my father’s sobriety chip practically bites into my palm. I’m fully prepared to do myself damage, I don’t fucking care about me or the window, so long as I can get to Sage.
“Wait!” Rhett heaves out as he dangles a ring with a couple keys on it in front of my face. Hurriedly, he explains, “Ridge gave me a set when I started helping him out more frequently.”
I snatch the keys from him, jamming one after another into the lock until one fits. Thank fuck . Throwing the door open, I roar, “Sage! Where are you, angel?” But I know. Deep in my heavily thudding heart, I know. She’ll be in her room. I wish with everything in me that she’d decided to sleep in the goddamn barn tonight like she has so many others.
I left her here to face god knows what, alone. Soul-deep regret plunges into my gut. I shake my head, throwing a desperate look over my shoulder at Rhett before bounding up the stairs. One single glance toward the end of the hallway reveals the opening to Ridge’s bedroom.
Sage’s door is also slightly ajar.
Fuck . Cold sweat pops out on my back, and I take a quick breath, then slowly push inside. “Sage?”
I can hardly process the scene before me, it’s so dark, but I see her huddled on her knees on the floor at the far side of the bed. Ridge’s body is as still as the hardwood planks. Her grief is palpable, thickening the air with every choked sob.
I’m aware of Rhett reaching out, I assume to flip the switch, but he curses a second later. “Is the power out?” he whispers.
“Try the one in the hall,” I grunt through clenched teeth. Taking measured, slow steps, I edge into the room. “Sage, I’m here.”
A moment later, the light flicks on, bathing everything in a dim glow. My breath gets caught in my throat. Her space is in wild disarray. As I step closer, my jaw goes rigid. The scenario I didn’t want to believe could be true is materializing before my eyes.
The bedding is rumpled at best, sheets twisted up, pillows scattered. There isn’t a single item remaining on the top of the bookshelf on the far side of the bed. It’s all on the floor—the broken lamp, a frame with the glass smashed out, and an array of books. I swallow hard, horror at what must have happened among these four walls hitting me full force. My mind bends. Fury flows freely through me, the need to make him pay for what he’s done in a grim battle with the part of me that wants to pick Sage up and take her out of here. I would go anywhere with her. Do anything to make sure no one could ever touch her again.
In the middle of the chaos, Sage rocks back and forth on her knees, head bowed with something clutched in one of her hands. Long blonde tresses hang in her face but do nothing to conceal her misery.
I blink hard, creeping closer to my crying Wildflower. As I crouch down next to her, she flinches at my nearness. The agony in her movements reminds me of the girl I found in the alley the night Toby beat her. I hold my hands up, palms out. In a gruff but soothing voice, I murmur, “I’d never hurt you, Wildflower.”
She finally peeks up at me, then down at her hands and what looks like a trophy she doesn’t seem to want to let go of. Oh, Jesus . There’s blood smeared all over her, coating her hands and splattered across her arms and sleep shirt. There are even some flecks of it on her pale face. My eyes shift from her to the puddle of wetness surrounding Ridge’s head. I hadn’t noticed it in the dark. But now…
“Oh fuck,” Rhett grits out beside me.
I exhale unsteadily, eyes roaming over her, my heart clenching and twisting violently with each detail I take in. Tears drip down her cheeks, mixing with the blood. Her shirt is ripped and hangs sadly from her frame. And her panties… they’re partway down her thighs. This motherfucker is lucky he’s already dead. I wouldn’t have been so gracious as to end him with a lethal blow. I’d have dragged it out, strung him up on a rafter and watched as the lifeblood drained from his body, drip by fucking drip.
My stomach turns, bile surging to the back of my throat. I should have protected her more. Anguish rises in me until I choke on it. Fuckin’ breathe, Kade. You’re no good to her like this.
Rhett catches my attention as he takes a couple of deep, audible breaths. He’s bent at the waist, his fingers probing Ridge’s neck for a pulse. It shouldn’t surprise me that he’d do that, but I want to shout at him to leave the fucker to die if he’s not gone already, but I won’t because I don’t want to scare my wilting wildflower. Rage pulses inside my head. Because how dare he want to help Ridge? Can’t he see what is so obvious to me now? Does he not fucking understand?
Fuck it . Maybe if he does save him I’ll get the opportunity to make him fucking beg for mercy. I wouldn’t give it to him, but I’d like a chance to torture Ridge for what he’s done to his daughter.
Sage’s hands shake as her lips tremble. Her gaze locks on mine. “I-I forgot to barricade the door.”
Rhett’s muttered string of curses are simply background noise as all I can do is focus on Sage, but it’s apparent her words have slapped him hard with the horrific reality of the situation.
“Wildflower? Why don’t you give me that?”
She blinks back tears, trembling. “I c-couldn’t let him—” A ragged sob bursts from her lips. She stares at me through a watery gaze, and my heart cracks right in two at the pain radiating from her. “I was trying t-to get away. I didn’t mean—” There’s a plea etched into her features that should never have been there in the first place. No daughter should ever have to fucking worry about her father—even if he’s some piece of shit—putting his hands on her.
I shake my head, gently whispering to her, “Let’s get you up off the floor.” Her grip relaxes on what I see now is a barrel-racing trophy, and I seize the opportunity to take it from her, setting it next to Ridge’s unmoving body.
“What am I gonna do? I d-don’t w-want anyone to know,” she whispers. The agony of the words catch in her throat.
With a hard swallow, Rhett’s eyes meet mine. His jaw twitches, but he nods, understanding perfectly without me having to say anything.
I gather Sage in my arms, standing up with her cradled against my chest. Pressing my lips to her forehead, Ridge’s blood taints my lips. Ignoring it, I rasp, “We’re gonna help you. We’re gonna fix things. Don’t worry.” I jerk my head toward the bathroom. Rhett knows as well as I do what we’ll need to do to make this right. Because there’s no way in fuck anyone is ever going to question a goddamn thing she had to do tonight. Ridge? He’s never gonna be fucking found. “John Cena.”
“John fuckin’ Cena,” he agrees.
Nudging the bathroom door open with my foot, I take a trembling Sage in there, then carefully set her on the counter beside the sink and hit the light switch. She cringes under the harsh fluorescents, her shoulders caving in.
Trying to be matter-of-fact about it, I murmur, “Gonna get you cleaned up.” I bend at the waist, cupping her cheeks with both hands. She stares blankly at me but nods as I step away to turn on the shower. I crank the temperature to hot, waiting for a moment with my hand under the water until I’m satisfied, then return to Sage. “Need to take off these clothes,” I choke out.
She makes no move to do it herself, but she allows me to bring the T-shirt over her head. As I guide her to her feet, her panties fall the rest of the way down her legs. Dear fucking Christ . I clench my jaw to hold the potent wrath inside me. I refuse to let her see that. It’s not what she needs right now.
After helping her into the shower, I attempt to draw the curtain closed, but her arm shoots out, grasping my hand. “Don’t leave me.” The spray of the shower has begun to remove the stain from her skin, and it kills me to see her gaze is pinned on the blood as it runs down her body and swirls toward the drain.
The pain in her eyes makes me ache in a way I didn’t know I could. “Never, Sage.” I thread my fingers through the hair at the side of her head, gently pushing it away from her face. “I mean that.” I gesture in the direction of the partially open door. “I’m gonna be right there. Just need to talk to Rhett for a second, okay?” Her chest rises and falls with an exaggerated breath, but she nods. I wet my lips, scanning her face, and tuck my knuckle under her chin, touching my lips to hers, feeling the tremble in them. “Hang in there. Gonna get you out of here.” It’s the worst kind of misery when I step away from her.
Poking my head out the bathroom door, my gaze lands on Rhett. He stands beside Ridge’s body, surveying the massacre. I jut my chin at him. “Hey. Let’s get her home, and after that, we’ll come up with a plan.”
Rhett closes his eyes on a long blink, then opens them again, focusing. “Yeah, okay.” He rubs a hand over his jaw. “This is going to take a while. We’re gonna have to be really thorough.”
“I know. But”—I glance back over my shoulder—“he needs to disappear. I refuse to put her through anything else. Understood?”
“ Fuck. I knew he wasn’t the best role model, but I never anticipated he would do something like this to his own daughter.”
I drag in a ragged breath, feeling the full weight of everything Sage must have gone through tonight as it descends on my shoulders. My throat thick, I lock eyes with Rhett and grit out, “How the fuck do I fix this? She’s completely broken.”
He grimaces. “I don’t know, brother.”
The need to make sure she feels safe slams into me like a ton of bricks. And hot on the heels of that, something darker follows, clawing and ripping at my insides. Deep in my gut, the need to take out my fury on her father becomes something that I know will quickly spiral out of control.
But first things first. Gotta get Sage the fuck out of this nightmare.