Chapter 21
Bianca blinked back tears and tried to keep from sneezing from the dust all around. They had already helped Ewan down into the pit.
The excavation spread wide at the base of the cut, a rough bowl carved into the mountain where the earth had been torn away in layers.
Tall dirt walls ringed the space, bands of soil and broken stone stacked like a cross-section of the hillside.
Conveyor belts ran overhead, silent now, their rollers coated with powdered rock.
Piles of crushed stone rose in uneven mounds around the idle machines.
Everything stood still.
No engines.
No workers.
Only the wind slipping across the rim of the pit and Ewan’s ragged breathing.
Bianca sat holding him to her side, trying to keep her hand over the wound in his upper chest. “What were you thinking?” she whispered, a tear tracking down her cheek. He was so brave.
Ewan blinked, his eyes unfocused. “Tried… to help.”
“You did,” Maggie said softly. “Just stay with us.”
Boyd stood several yards away with the gun still pointed at them.
He had backed toward the base of the ramp that led up the side of the pit, placing himself where he could watch both the women and the slope above.
The position gave him a clear line of sight up the incline and across the open ground.
“Why the hell didn’t you just do what I asked? ” he spat, his eyes wild.
Bianca’s hands were slick with blood and her mind raced through useless thoughts about pressure, wounds, and the terrible truth that she had no idea how to save Ewan.
The silence in the pit pressed down on her. “You shut this all down?” she asked.
“I only needed a little more time,” Boyd said.
Maggie stared at him in disbelief. “Boyd, this is our land.”
“That’s why it worked.” Spittle flew from Boyd’s mouth. “I’ve been here for a year, and you had no clue. This isn’t hurting you at all.”
Wait a minute. Bianca coughed out dust. “That’s why you helped give them a loan? So they wouldn’t have crew members running all over the property?”
“Yes.” Dirt marred his face and clothing. “Even if they were just filming at the house, I’m sure somebody would’ve headed out here and explored. I’m shutting it down now, Maggie. I promise.”
Maggie just looked at him, shock in her eyes. “You stole gravel from us.”
Bianca felt another realization push through her thoughts, sharp and sudden. “You didn’t want anybody out here? Wait a minute. Did you shoot out my tire?”
“Yes, and you should just fucking thank me. I could’ve shot between your eyes.” Boyd looked frantically around as if wanting a way out.
She gulped. The man owned a freaking nursery. “You sent the flowers. To scare me off?” How did that make any sense?
“At first,” Boyd agreed. “Then when you were with Adam, I figured it’d make him go all protective and not let you out of his sight.”
“So she couldn’t come out here?” Maggie asked slowly, still sounding befuddled. “That’s fucked up, Boyd.”
Bianca coughed out a shocked laugh. Dust particles danced all around them.
Boyd pointed the gun at her. “I tried to keep you safe, Maggie. Even suggested you go be an extra at Adam’s place. I’m almost all wound down here. I’m so close.”
Ewan groaned, looking down at his bloody chest. “You can’t fill back in the material you stole, you idiot.” His face was an unnatural greenish white.
“Yeah, but nobody would’ve known it was me,” Boyd snapped. “They would’ve noticed the land had been mined, but I’m not leaving any evidence.”
“Except us,” Ewan grunted, more blood dripping from him.
Boyd stared at the rock walls. “In a couple more days, I could’ve shut everything down clean,” he said. “No trucks. No machines. No sign anything happened.”
Ewan groaned weakly on the ground.
Bianca dropped back beside him and pressed harder against the wound. “Stay with me,” she whispered. His breathing came rough and uneven.
Maggie knelt on the other side of him. “Boyd, please,” she said. “He needs help.”
Boyd didn’t move. “He rushed me.”
“He was protecting us,” Maggie snapped.
Boyd’s jaw set.
Bianca lifted her head and looked at him. “So what now?”
He stared at them for a long moment. Then he looked up toward the rim of the pit where the ramp cut a path through the dirt wall.
Maggie rose to her feet. “We won’t say anything.”
Boyd gave a hollow laugh. “That’s not how this works.”
Bianca felt the weight of those words settle over the pit.
Ewan made another weak sound.
She pressed harder on the wound, though she knew it wasn’t enough.
Adam. The thought came like a bolt. She had called him, and her phone was still on the floor of Maggie’s SUV.
Had the call connected? Had he heard anything?
Had he realized she was in trouble? A wave of regret washed through her.
She should have told him she loved him. Yeah, it was impossibly fast. But still.
She felt what she felt, and it was real.
The truth struck with brutal clarity. If Boyd killed them here, Adam would never hear those words.
Her throat tightened, but she forced herself to focus on Ewan. “Take small breaths.”
Maggie faced Boyd across the pit. “You’re not a killer.”
Boyd looked at her. “I already shot one man today.”
The wind drifted down the walls of the excavation, stirring loose dust. High above them the rim of the pit remained empty.
Boyd kept the gun raised, standing near the base of the ramp where he could see both the women and the slope above. “I’m sorry,” he said.
Bianca looked up at him, fury and fear burning through her.
And somewhere far beyond the pit, she prayed Adam had heard the call.
Adam stood at the fence line with a pair of pliers in his hand, twisting the wire tight while Hawk steadied the post. The afternoon wind rolled across the pasture, carrying the smell of damp soil and grass.
The mountains rose in the distance, quiet and steady, while the fence clinked softly under Adam’s work.
“Think that’ll hold?” Hawk asked.
Adam gave the wire one last pull. “Yeah. That’ll do it.
” His phone buzzed in his pocket. He almost ignored it.
Out there most messages meant someone asking about feed or a delivery running late, but the vibration kept going.
He wiped his hands on his jeans and pulled the phone out. The text was from Bianca.
Maggie’s property, Boyd mining illegally, has gun, shot Ewan. Help.
For a second the world stopped. Adam read the message again, every word slamming into him. His stomach dropped.
“Adam?” Hawk said.
Adam didn’t answer right away. His mind raced ahead, putting together pieces he hadn’t understood before—Bianca out on Maggie’s land, Boyd involved, a gun.
Jesus. He checked the time stamp. Only a few minutes old.
That meant she had just sent it. His pulse jumped hard, and he started to run to the truck.
“Adam,” Hawk said again, falling in step. “What’s wrong?”
“Move fast. Now. Trust me.”
Adam yanked the driver’s door open and climbed in while Hawk jumped into the passenger seat. The engine roared to life. Adam slammed the truck into gear and spun it toward the road, the tires tearing through loose rock as the vehicle shot forward.
Hawk grabbed his phone and read the text. “Shit. Call everyone.”
“I am.” Adam hit the hands-free button and started dialing everyone he trusted in the world.
The phone rang once.
“Quinn,” Adam said when the line connected. “Get whoever you trust and head to the Willoughby north property line. Boyd’s running an illegal mining pit out there and he’s armed.”
Quinn didn’t hesitate. “How bad?”
“Bad enough that Bianca texted that Ewan’s been shot.”
Silence filled the line for a moment. Then Quinn said, “We’re moving.”
Adam ended the call and dialed again. “Colton,” he said when the man answered. “Grab Jake and meet me near the Willoughby property by the mountain trail. Boyd’s armed and has already shot one person.”
“What the hell happened?” Colt snapped, the sound of him already on the move coming through the line.
“I’ll explain later. Just get moving.” Adam cut the call before the questions could start.
Now he had the Lodge and Freeze men coming, and they were as trained as Hawk and Adam.
Hawk glanced over at him. “You think Boyd’s still there?”
“He shot someone,” Adam said. “He’s not walking away from that.”
The truck bounced onto the main ranch road as Adam pushed the speed higher. Fence lines blurred past the windows and dust rolled behind them in a thick cloud.
His thoughts moved fast.
Bianca.
Images forced their way into his mind. Bianca smiling as she planted flowers. Bianca dancing in his kitchen as she cooked breakfast. Bianca alone somewhere on Willoughby land with a killer.
He gripped the steering wheel harder. The memory of the roses on his porch slammed into place—the threat, the shot tire, Boyd. It wasn’t lining up in his head yet, but the text had been clear enough. She had to be okay.
He turned the truck onto a narrower trail cutting toward Willoughby land. The tires slammed into ruts as the vehicle bounced hard across the uneven ground. Wind rushed through the open windows. “Hold on,” he said.
Hawk braced himself against the door.
Adam pushed the truck faster, his heart pounding with a rhythm that had nothing to do with speed.
He should have told her. The thought hit him out of nowhere and stuck hard.
He should have told Bianca he loved her.
He had known it for days, maybe longer, every time she smiled at him and every time she turned his quiet ranch into a brighter place just by being there.
He loved her, and he had been waiting—waiting for the right moment, waiting until the film wrapped, waiting until everything settled down. What had he been thinking?
Hawk pointed forward. “Trail splits up there.”
“I know.” Adam took the right fork without slowing. Dust exploded behind the truck.
“Quinn, Jake, and Colton are coming,” Hawk said. “We need a plan if Boyd is armed.”
Adam wasn’t waiting for anybody. He had to get to her.
He just prayed he wasn’t already too late.
Bianca pressed harder on Ewan’s wound. “He needs help, Boyd.” She looked up, trying to keep her voice calm. “You made a mistake, but you haven’t killed anybody yet. You don’t want to do this. Help him, please.”
Boyd’s shoulders slumped. “It’s too late. Just too late.”
Ewan made a weak sound on the ground.
Maggie cried softly. “Please, Boyd.”
Bianca kept pressure on the wound, fear pressing down hard.
Adam. The thought surfaced again, stubborn and desperate.
Had he seen the text? Had the message even gone through?
Her phone was still in Maggie’s SUV somewhere above the pit.
Maybe he hadn’t gotten it. Maybe he was still out fixing fences, completely unaware she was down here with a man holding a gun. Her throat clogged.
“Get up,” Boyd said suddenly.
Bianca looked at him. “What?”
“Both of you. Move away from him.”
Maggie stood slowly, her hands still red with Ewan’s blood. Bianca hesitated before easing Ewan back onto the ground.
“I said move.” Boyd’s gaze flicked up the ramp for a moment. “I’m really sorry about this, but I don’t have a choice.”
“No.” Panic burst through Bianca. She jumped in front of Ewan and yanked Maggie behind her. The woman had two kids to worry about. “Don’t kill us, Boyd. You can’t live with that on your conscience.”
The air changed. A faint crunch of dirt came from above.
Boyd stiffened. “What the—”
A shape moved at the rim of the pit, and before Boyd could fully turn, a body dropped down the slope with explosive speed. Adam hit the ground hard and drove straight into him, the impact knocking Boyd’s gun arm sideways as the shot fired wildly into the dirt.
Bianca screamed.
Adam slammed Boyd into the ground and punched him once, twice, the blows brutal and fast. Boyd tried to twist free but Adam drove a shoulder into his chest and ripped the gun from his hand.
“Don’t,” Adam growled.
Boyd swung again but Adam slammed his fist into Boyd’s jaw. Boyd’s head snapped back and he collapsed against the dirt, unmoving.
Silence rushed into the pit as dust floated through the air. Adam rose slowly, breathing hard, the gun still in his hand. “Adam,” Bianca whispered.
He turned.
The moment their eyes met, something inside her cracked wide open.
He crossed the space between them in three strides and dropped beside her. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“I thought—” His voice broke off.
She threw her arms around him.
He caught her immediately, pulling her close, feeling strong and sure. Hawk dropped down into the pit behind him and instantly lifted Ewan up to several men in cowboy hats.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
“You came,” she whispered against Adam’s shoulder.
“Of course I came.”
She pulled back just enough to see his face. Dirt streaked his jaw and his eyes burned with fear and relief all at once.
“I thought I was too late,” he said.
“You’re not.”
His hands came up to cradle her face. “I thought I lost you.”
Tears finally spilled from her eyes. “I texted you.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t know if it went through.”
“It did.”
She let out a shaky laugh.
For a second they just stared at each other, the world shrinking down to the space between them.
“Adam,” she said softly.
“I should’ve told you something,” he said at the same time.
They both stopped.
“You first,” she said.
He shook his head. “No. You.”
Her heart pounded. “I love you.” The words came out raw and breathless.
Adam froze.
“I thought I might die down here without ever saying it,” she whispered.
His expression shifted in a way that made her breath catch. “I love you too,” he said, the words rough and certain, like they’d been waiting too long to be spoken. “I should’ve told you days ago.”
She let out a shaky laugh. “This happened way too fast. You know that, right?”
He kissed her. “I know that we have all the time in the world to go slow. We’ll figure out our lives, our jobs, and everything else.”
“I know.” She looked up at him. “I’ll still travel for work. Just not as much. I have you to come home to now.”
He kissed her again. “Yeah. Home.”