Chapter 1
Archer
Red Hart Ranch wasn’t even in sight and yet my last trip across the country haunted me. Icy wind blasted my face despite the heating in my truck’s attempt to do its job and warm the inside of the cabin.
The mountainous regions of Montana came up fast after so long in the seat. My ass was numb, but every other part of me ached for the woman I hadn’t seen far in too long.
She traveled all the way to Texas for me in the meantime, for fuck’s sake, then drove all the way home—without me.
Because, work.
A problem I fixed when I handed the Texas Ranger’s office in Austin over into Andy Matthews’ more than capable hands. The younger Ranger might not have confidence in himself, but I had plenty, and now, so did his team.
Still, the thought that I should have been in Montana for the past months niggled at me over again. Where I knew I should have been since the day Simon Haldon left a mark on all our lives. Some, more than others.
The thought of the scars that Eve bore because I couldn’t pull my head out of my ass a second time to see the threat right in front of me still stung.
Damnit, I left this too late.
Chasing down the man who haunted us both, tying up loose ends.
That’s what I spent the last eighteen months doing, until the day he turned up on my doorstep.
That little venture didn’t work out so well for Haldon, but the man’s ghost still seemed to jinx us both.
From the meagre contact I’d had with Eve, she sounded spooked every time I spoke to her, right up until the minute I left.
And then karma—spelled with a ‘c’ not a ‘k’—hit me in full force as I realized what holiday traffic felt like all over again.
Once, I chased a murderer across state lines, following him from Texas to Montana, where I ended up at Red Hart Ranch the first time and met Eve.
This time, I sought absolution and the sort of happily ever after that didn’t seem realistic to a man with as many sins chalks in his column as the man I killed in the name of protecting the woman I loved.
Hence, the two day drive had become four in a solitary journey of utter silly season purgatory between never ending road works, Christmas traffic, and my own exhaustion.
Until I left Texas I hadn’t realized how thin I’d left myself on energy, and spent the hours stuck in traffic battling exhaustion.
Pulling in for the first night after just a few hundred miles had been more than frustrating, but it was pointless to continue pushing myself when I’d only end up as another blockage on the side of the highway.
Another statistic lost in the multitudes of holiday traffic hell. Especially when it seemed that half of the US appeared to be migrating north for Christmas.
Disappointing Eve had been the hardest part.
My phone vibrated in its holder beside the steering wheel. I flicked my gaze from the road to the screen, which lit up with my little hellion’s name.
My hellion, because she had been raising hell for the past three days while I tried to make it across the country to her.
I’d left to chase my own demons across the country, and gotten stuck in my job down south, ensuring the man who had damaged her would never be free, when her grief had hit her hardest.
When she needed me most.
At least, that's what I assumed at first. Now, I wasn’t so sure. The old cop in me refused to quit, but those were the sorts of questions that could wait until I knocked on Red Hart’s double doors, and had my girl in my arms for the first time in months.
She’d had to rely on others for comfort while I worried that the woman at the top end of the country had grown tired of waiting for me, or had decided she needed a man closer to home.
Shoving the doubts aside that festered on regardless, I read her message. Another flashed beneath it, and I let out a laugh.
EVE:Tell me you’re at least in the right state.
EVE:Don’t make me come down to Texas and haul your Ranger butt back here.
Shaking my head, I shot off a quick reply, knowing she likely would jump in that white F250 of hers and drag me back home to her. Damn cavewoman. Those doubts should have stayed with my packed up house back in Texas.
I typed with my eyes half on the road, trailing behind an infinite line of traffic that thinned the further north I drove. Thumb fumbling words and swearing at typos I used would have killed on sight, I sent back my location. A second later, my phone buzzed again.
“Eve?” I picked it up, the steering wheel jerking in my hands as I destroyed already totaled roadkill. “Dammit.” That was going to stink later on when it defrosted.
“Rhys Archer. Is that how you usually answer the phone?” Eve laughed at me, though a tiny tremor at the end of her words left my gut clenching.
Fighting back the urge to floor the gas pedal, I forced a grin and managed to avoid the next road bump that used to be an animal several vehicles back. “Nah, just trying not to run over the locals.”
“You’re messaging and driving?” Eve squawked through the line. Static filled the cab of my truck as she swore liberally on the other end. That’s my girl. “What sort of cop are you?”
I pressed my lips together, debating how to best answer her, but regardless of what I wanted to say, there was only one real answer. “The Texas Ranger sort, honey.”
Eve was silent for a long moment. I glanced away from the road, but the line was still connected.
“I’m glad you’re coming back, Archer. It’s… It’s been a while.”
“Eve, I’ve been trying to get back since the day I left Red Hart. Hell, even you made the trip down to me. I just wanted to get back to you.” I hadn’t even made it to her drive and I was on the verge of begging. “But the job was there, and I couldn't just walk away.”
Lies. All lies. Because I had, anyway. Walked away from her, chased a murderer across the country, then took a full year to fight my way back.
“Work.” Eve said the single word like it was both a prayer and a curse.
“Always. Do you ever stop?” I asked lightly. “How’s everything going in the lead up to Christmas?”
Red Hart was infamous in the local town some two and half southeast for their holiday hospitality. The memories we made last time we were together at the ranch left my heart aching for the warmth of the big house and the feel of her in my arms.
“Winding down, as always. I still miss Dad.” If there hadn’t been tears in her voice, there were now. I cursed myself for being so blasé.
So much happened during the year. I missed most of the fallout I caused in the wake of chasing Haldon south in my own vengeance path. Eve bore the brunt of that and survived. But…not everyone did.
“I know, honey. I’ll be there soon. Tomorrow morning, if the weather holds. I keep thinking it’s just hours on the road, but there’s so much damn traffic. I should have come earlier.”
“You should’ve,” Eve agreed in a thick voice, and I knew she was crying. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too, honey. It’s been so long that you’ll have to show me around again.” The joke meant to soothe her fell flat. Her end of the line stayed silent. “Eve?”
She coughed, or maybe choked. “Some things are different around the ranch, Archer. It’s not quite the same as before. Red Hart’s changed. I’ve changed.”
My stomach plummeted. Fucking hell. I should have trusted my gut.
I knew she wasn’t okay when she left my place the last time, and the weeks we promised each other turned into months as I recruited the three remaining officers left to complete the Ranger team in my wake.
An attempt to set up Andy for success, I’d promised myself.
Now I wasn’t sure it had been a last ditch effort at control, or worse yet, ego.
“Are you okay, Eve?” My voice strained through a shitty line that seemed intent on hampering my voice in a wave of static or dropping out all together. “I’ll push through, maybe get there around two, a bit after midday.”
Dammit all. I should've walked away earlier and hauled ass to my girl like I promised.
If she still was my girl.
“Don’t be silly.” The smile in Eve’s voice was contagious. Whether it was fake or not I’d find out when I arrived. Then there’d be hell to pay in one direction or the other. “Get here when you can. Don’t be an accident we hear about instead.”
I swallowed every misgiving and forced my own happiness through a sieve of holiday bullshit. The games we play. “Alright, honey. Do you need me to get anything in town on the way through?”
“If you’re coming through White Cap, can you stop at Beanies? The coffee shop. I’m not sure if you remember it,” she said hesitantly.
It was where I had met her. Nothing in this world could make me forget that. “I remember.”
“Oh, good. I’ll put an order in with Suzy, if you’ll pick it up for me? There might be mail. I—” She cleared her throat. “I haven’t been in for a while.”
I frowned, my mouth opening to ask why don’t you send one of the boys, but that was a tomorrow problem I’d face when I arrived. “Will do. I’ll stop and collect it for you tomorrow, Eve.”
I’ll get to you tomorrow.
“Okay.” She paused. “Archer, I’m— Just, be safe. Please?”
My heart lodged in my throat, I stared through the windscreen at the taillights of the car wavering in front of me. “Take care, Eve, until I'm there with you.”
“Bye, Archer.”
I blinked at the road, zoned out long after she hung up. There was so much that she hadn’t said. My mind flew through different options.