Chapter 3
THREE
Mason
I saddled my horse, Storm. The gray gelding tossed his head as he danced on the spot. “I know, buddy, it’s been too long since we’ve gone for a ride. I promise to make it up to you.”
“Beautiful horse.” Brooke’s voice reached me before her scent did, catching me by surprise.
I tightened the girth on Storm, buying myself time to respond. Soon there was nothing left to do, forcing me to face her. “I thought Austin and Luke were teaching the guests to ride right now.”
“They are.” Brooke walked closer, her voice low and soft as she approached Storm and held out her hand for him to sniff. “I’ve ridden before, though, so I took a pass.”
“Pretty sure they won’t take you on the trail rides without checking out your riding form first.”
“I’m not planning to go with them.” She smiled at Storm as he butted his head against her hand, urging her to pet him. “I’m sticking with you.”
My heart leaped, but I held back a smile. The longer I was around her, the harder it would be when she inevitably left, and the harder it would be to fight my instinct to claim her. “I still have nothing to say about Aaron.”
“I don’t know if he told you, but I can be stubborn.
When I have a goal, I never quit.” She lifted her head, tilting it slightly, and met my gaze squarely.
The determined look in her green eyes was achingly familiar, and Aaron flashed through my head.
They were incredibly similar, with the same hair color, the same eyes and basic facial structure.
She was the female version of her brother.
“And you think hounding me will achieve your goal?” I forced bite into my tone, trying to drive her away. My resolve was already softening to her pleas. I reminded myself I couldn’t bear to watch the truth crush her spirit.
“Yep.” She gave me a grim smile. “I’m going to be your shadow while I’m here. So, which horse should I saddle?”
“You realize I can just mount my horse and ride away.”
“But you won’t.” She sounded confident, though I wasn’t sure why.
The wisest course of action for me was to do exactly what I’d said. She was only here for a week. I just needed to find ways of avoiding her until she left. “What makes you so sure of that?”
“Aaron meant something to you.” She spoke slowly, each word heavy with meaning. “You won’t turn away his sister. He wouldn’t want that.”
My throat caught. She was right. Aaron would want me to talk to her. The two had always been close. They lost their parents soon after they turned eighteen, and if he hadn’t already joined the military, he would have stayed home with her. They were all the other one had.
Heat pricked the back of my eyes. I hadn’t allowed myself to consider that she was completely alone in the world.
How lonely she must be. Sharing stories about Aaron would be difficult for me, but I at least owed her that.
She wouldn’t get the answers she desperately wanted, but it might be enough to provide her solace.
“I’ll saddle Ginger for you.”
She tried to hide her triumphant smile but failed. “Thank you.”
Soon we were mounted and making our way across the pasture. I kept an eye on her form until I was confident in her riding, then turned my attention to the path ahead. “Ready to go a little faster?”
“So, I passed the test?” she teased, her low laugh causing my bear’s ears to prick forward and sending shivers through me.
For a second, I let myself imagine this was my future. But only for a second. “When did you learn to ride? Aaron said he’d never been on the back of a horse.”
She maneuvered Ginger next to me. “With my parents gone and Aaron away on deployments, I had nowhere to go during college breaks. A friend invited me to stay with her family on their farm, and they had a few horses.”
“I’m sorry about your parents. It must have been hard when Aaron left after their accident.”
“It was.” She was quiet for a moment. “I went from the perfect family to all alone, except for his emails. Then when he died, I… well, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through.”
“I was lucky to have all my brothers by my side when we lost our parents. I can’t imagine going through a loss like that alone.” I cleared my throat, blocking the words that threatened to pour out of me, telling her she’d never be alone again. That she was my mate, and I’d always be here for her.
We rode in silence for a few minutes. The sun was hot overhead, but a cool breeze blew across the pasture.
The rolling hills and the sounds of the surrounding ranch—the distant lowing of a cow, wind rustling the grass—calmed me, the tension in my muscles melting away. I hadn’t realized how tight I’d been.
“I need to ride more often. I’d forgotten how much I love it out here.”
“It’s beautiful. And something about the solitude is soothing.” She slid her gaze toward me. “I hate to break that. But I’d like to hear more about Aaron, if you’d be willing.”
I swung off Storm to open the fence between the pastures, using the time to steel myself against the guilt that rose when I thought about Aaron.
If I gave her nothing else, at least I could give her this.
“Your brother was the bravest man I ever met. I always knew he’d have my back and trusted him with my life. ”
After passing through the gate and closing it, I mounted my horse and aimed toward the west side of the pasture.
“He was also funny and had the entire unit laughing during downtimes. We could always count on him to lighten the mood after a tough mission. But he had a serious side too. He and I had a lot of deep conversations late into the night.”
I cut my gaze to her. “He talked about you all the time. He carried a picture of you with him always. That thing was almost ripped down the center, he opened it so many times.”
“You knew who I was when I got here.” She stated it as a fact, not a question.
“Yes.” I swallowed thickly. “It’s hard to talk about him. We bonded, and I saw him as more than just a friend. He was like a brother to me.”
Brooke
Grief filled his voice, telling me this was the most honest he’d been with me. It had my own grief welling up, threatening to overwhelm. I had the urge to both comfort him and to find comfort with him. Maybe we could both find healing during my stay here.
Before I found the words to express what was running through me, he brought his horse to a stop next to a water trough. He swung down and dropped the reins. “You can dismount if you’d like. I’m not sure how long this will take.”
I got down, my legs protesting slightly. It had been a while since I’d ridden, and my muscles were warning me they weren’t happy. “Don’t you need to tie the horses to something?”
Mason shot me a grin. “No. They won’t go anywhere.”
I shrugged and let the reins drop. “I certainly hope not. It would be a long walk back if they did.”
He bent over the piece of equipment. I walked to his side, immediately noticing the trough was empty. “Shouldn’t there be water in there?”
“There should. Austin noticed it when he was riding by. He didn’t have time to check it out, so told me it needed fixing.” He frowned as he examined it. His expression darkened, and he let out a long, low growl.
“What’s wrong?” I peered over his shoulder, and the source of his anger was obvious. A small box was clipped over the rim with a hose running to it. Only the box was smashed to pieces, as if someone had taken their rage out on it. “Your saboteur has struck again.”
“I need to go check the cameras. Ever since one of our watering troughs was poisoned, I’ve been monitoring them.” He pointed to a short stand nearby with a trail camera.
I studied it, noting it was top-of-the-line equipment. Almost military grade. “You know who’s responsible, though, right? Vince?”
His lips thinned. “Yes, but he’s been paying people to mess with us. If he hired someone else, I want to know who.”
“Why is he doing this? What turned him against you?” I didn’t expect an answer, but I needed to ask.
He grabbed his horse’s reins, and his shoulders rose and fell. “He has his reasons. And if it were just me he was targeting, I might give him a pass. But he crossed the line by messing with my family.”
Mason swung up into the saddle. The set of his jaw told me he would say no more. I mounted Ginger, and we quickly moved to a jog, not taking time to appreciate the beauty surrounding us like we had on the ride here.
When we reached the barn, he called out to his brother, Ethan. “Can you take care of the horses? Someone tampered with the trough in the west pasture. I need to check the cameras.”
Ethan’s welcoming smile disappeared at Mason’s words. “Of course. Tell me what you find.”
“I’ll update the group chat as soon as I see something.
” Mason’s long legs ate up the ground between the barn and his workshop, forcing me to jog to keep up with him.
Once inside, he headed straight for the back wall, where a desk full of monitors sat.
The screens rotated through different views of the ranch.
“What the… you’ve got the entire place under surveillance.”
“Not quite.” He powered up the computer monitor on the desk and pulled up a specific camera feed. “The ranch is too big to fully cover, unfortunately.”
“Isn’t this overkill?”
“No, Vince still gets past them. I keep hoping someone he hires will get caught on video, but he tells them where the cameras are pointed. They deliberately keep their faces turned away.” His frustration overflowed, and he kept talking.
“This plays right into his specialty in the military. I try to circulate the feeds, but he always seems to know when they move.”
“Could he have gotten into your system?” I bit my lip, fingers itching to hop on the keyboard and check. I may not have finished my degree, but I still kept up with the field.
“It’s possible. I have top-of-the-line security software, but he’s an expert.” He cursed when he forwarded the video, pausing when it went dark. He backed the feed up, advancing frame by frame as something was dropped over the lens. A few minutes later, the obstruction was removed.
“You need cameras that spin.” I tapped my toe, holding myself back from shoving him out of the way so I could check his system.
“None of the trail cameras I can get my hands on are capable of that.” His voice was grim.
“Can I—” I cut myself off, not wanting to overstep. But if we figured out how Vince learned the camera positions, it would only help them. “Let me check your system. Maybe I can see if he’s breached your security software.”
He huffed. “Right. You got your degree in computer science. Aaron always bragged about how you were a whiz with computers.”
“Never finished my degree.” I nudged him out of the chair and slid onto the warm seat, almost gasping at our first contact of skin on skin.
It was just a nudge, a light push to get him to move, but it still sent my pulse racing.
I licked my dry lips, forcing myself to focus on the screen in front of me.
This was neither the time nor the person to be experiencing attraction with.
My fingers flew over the keyboard as I checked the various systems. At first, I didn’t notice anything. The system was clean. Almost too clean…
Finally, I found it. An admin login from outside the ranch in the early hours of the morning, followed by the deletion of security logs. “You ever access the system off-site?”
“Never.”
“Someone’s been in at least once. Scanning for more missing logs…
yep. There it is.” I pointed to the screen, showing him several stretches with no security logs.
“Your system runs constant checks—curious where you got the software; this definitely isn’t commercial—but there are gaps every night shortly after you log out.
He may have installed something to alert him when you’re offline. That will take longer to find.”
“That’s enough for now. I don’t want him to know we know. Might be able to use it against him.” Mason crossed his arms, eyes narrowed at the screen.
“Let me install a bug. Something to track where he’s logging in from.” I started typing again. “He’s routed himself through a series of VPNs, but give my program enough time, and it will find him.”
“Why didn’t you finish?”
“Huh?” I was only half-listening as I entered code.
“Your degree. Aaron said it was your dream.” He frowned at me.
“Oh. After Aaron died, I needed answers, and the only information I had was your name and Vince’s in an email. So, I got a job working for a private investigator and had him train me. It’s taken me this long to finally track you two down.”
“You gave up your dream.”
“It’s worth it if I can get answers.” I gave him a half-smile. “I considered trying to hack into the army’s computer system to find out the truth but wasn’t willing to risk jail time if caught.”
His expression was troubled as his gaze locked onto me. He didn’t speak, but the silence was heavy. Like a thundercloud ready to release a torrent of rain.
A chill ran down my spine, some instinct telling me I might not like what he was holding back. But I was so close I refused to give up. Even if the truth broke me.