Chapter 3
Archer
The scenery changed from pasture to mountainous foothills as I crested the last rise before the gates to Red Hart Ranch came up.
The tightness in my chest loosened as the familiar pair of antlers wrapped around a heart with RHR stamped in the center, all in red, flooded the landscape.
The effect of red-n-black over the original white background that I knew of the sign shimmered.
Eve had ramped it up as always, and done both herself and the ranch proud.
I rolled down the window and let the chill wind bite at my face. The sharp tang of pine sank into my lungs, but the icy mountain air was welcome. I grinned as I opened the double gate chained together. Being back on the range released the tension that had coiled so tight around my own heart.
I’m here, Eve.
So damn close I could taste the honey-cinnamon sweetness of her.
The mailbox held a wad of junk mail that some poor sod had delivered under duress, no doubt.
Who the hell came out this far was beyond me.
I began to extract the mass with a grin; it always amused me that despite how remote Eve’s ranch was, it still got a decent amount of crap delivered despite the NO JUNK MAIL sign pinned to the box.
All her bigger items were left for collection in White Cap, of course.
The grin became a frown as the wad grew larger, and a few official looking letters fell out.
Tugging the final stubborn envelope from the slot, I stuffed the armful of mail through my passenger window with the rest of her mail, and climbed back in, chaining the gate behind me.
On the other side of the entrance, weeds I hadn’t noticed before, too engrossed in soaking in being back at Red Hart, twinned around the thick fence posts that held up Eve’s RHR sign.
I pressed my lips into a thin line. Whoever she paid to do upkeep was only completing half the job.
Someone I’d have words with in short order on her behalf.
I swung up into my truck, already preparing to rip the first worker I came across a new asshole.
As I wound my way along the unpaved road through the lower portion of the property heading toward the house, I couldn’t enjoy the beauty of Red Hart that had dropped my jaw on my first time up the drive with Eve.
She’d smiled softly, had let me flirt with her as I soaked in the magnificence of the ranch house surrounded by two hundred thousand acres of prime grazing land that led into the forest foothills and the mountains beyond.
This time, all I saw were fence lines in desperate need of repair, derelict pump housing and a drive that badly needed grading.
I stopped looking at that point, but my brain added to a never ending list that refused to stop ticking over the closer I drove to the main house. Everything was at odds to the brand new signage that welcomed me onto the land.
Or maybe I just hadn’t been as invested in the place the last time I was here. That last was an outright lie. I’d spent weeks sorting fence lines with Eve, and locating the parts of her herd that had wandered off.
I should have come back to her earlier.
Another thought I couldn't prevent floating through my mind.
I pulled into the yard in front of the ranch house. Not another soul was in sight. The usually manic energy of the house yard lay silent, the dust settled and hard, as though no one had stepped foot outside the big house in weeks.
Maybe they haven’t.
I half expected a tumbleweed to roll its way across the unsettling vista to complete the image, and was grateful when the only movement was a long doe who rubbed her neck against the fence railing and looked to me for attention.
Where the fuck is everyone?
The only vehicle parked there was Eve’s white F250, tucked neatly away beside the barn.
Pitiful weeds wound their way through the mags, curling around the tires.
Even the rest of the stock appeared to have deserted the place.
The ranch house, at least, appeared to be unscathed.
The place should have been booming. Sure Christmas was the off season, everyone up here knew that.
But I also knew that Christmas was Eve’s favorite time of year.
She made this place special on any day of the week, but come Christmas?
There was no other place in the world to be right now.
On any other year, maybe.
So what in all the hells had happened to Red Hart that it looked both as stunning as it always had, but dilapidated behind its fences?
I parked beside the barn by habit, leaving room for anyone else’s vehicle before it occurred to me that there wasn’t anyone else.
Eve appeared to be entirely alone on the property.
My teeth creaked in my jaw before I relaxed the muscle or chipped anything.
Sure, her isolation would explain the state of the place, but why?
Suzy mentioned her twin was off living with his new wife, Rachel.
But that was one man. The ranch existed on the backs of dozens of ranch hands.
A foreman who had my greatest respect. Had.
Plenty of others. I poked my head inside the barn, calling out, but the only thing I scared off was a small flurry of chickens and a handful of spiders dangling from the crossbeam.
I tapped the door experimentally; the last time I had been at Red Hart, the whole thing had come down, injuring her brother.
Travis’s name was on my lips before I drew back the shout.
I raked my knuckles through my hair, considering.
The next name on my list was Jude, the foreman who had become a solid friend in my weeks on the land.
Hell, at this point I’d even take young Will Kirk, one of the regular farm hands who, even at Christmas, had congregated in the yard in the afternoons in the hope of being fed.
I sniffed the air, but all that hit my nose was the stale scent of animals. Even in the cold air the scent was all pervasive. The ground slushy underfoot, I strode across the yard, trying to ignore the painful clenching in my gut.
Bounding onto the veranda, I tried the door.
“Eve?” The handle gave easily, but then, she had never locked it, as far as I could tell. One of the advantages of living so far out—but also one of the deficits, especially when there was no one else around to see it all crumble.
I wondered at how much Suzy might have guessed.
I strode through the large, open plan living room, noting the significant lack of garlands and freshly cut Christmas Tree from the previous season that I remembered.
Not even a fairy light winked at me. Alongside gingerbread coffees that I had a love/hate relationship with, I knew they were Eve’s weakness.
“Evie?” I yelled up the stairs, the tightness growing in my chest with every step.
I should have checked here first.
Fuck, please let her be okay. Please, fucking God, please.
It’d been a long time since I prayed, and I doubted he had anything to say to me, but right now I’d take any help on offer.
The oven was cold under my hand. For any midafternoon just a week out from Christmas, I knew just how wrong that made the situation. The confirmation hit me as a sucker punch in the solar plexus as my steps quickened. I hadn’t taken off my boots, but I no longer cared about house rules.
“EVE!” I hollered again, my voice straining at the end of her name, knowing it was no use.
The enormous ranch house was empty.
I dialed her number anyway, cursing when her phone buzzed uselessly beside the coffee machine. Cute that it had charge, so at least she’d been about recently.
Clenching my teeth, I hit the front door at a fast pace, taking the stairs to the veranda at a run.
The only thing that stopped me from sprinting to my truck was a similar one to Eve’s pulling into the yard.
I wondered for a second if Travis had finally upgraded his beater of a vehicle to something newer, until I spotted the decals.
Wiseman & Co. branding was plastered down its glossy white side.
The truck looked as though it had never been off the black top, until now.
I halted at the bottom of the stairs, folding my arms across my chest. I didn’t recognize the name, but not having been around the ranch for so long, that didn’t really mean much.
A broad set of shoulders appeared in a blue, branded shirt from the driver’s side. My own tensed in response. A dark hat pressed to his head as he turned, but the face that I read beneath the dark brim was nothing like the one I expected.
“Jude!” I shouted, striding to the stocky foreman, relieved to find a familiar face at last.
And maybe some answers in the middle of this clusterfuck I’d walked into.
I pulled him into a hug, which was no small thing for the barrel chested introvert.
“Archer.” Jude’s weathered face split into a grin. “I wasn’t expecting to see you! Eve’s been whining on about when you were going to come up. You took your damn time.” His words were soft and packed with the emotion that fueled them.
“Has she?” I raised my eyebrows. Eve and I had been planning this trip down to the finest details—details which were swept away in the face of holiday traffic—for the better part of three months, and now I was here, I wondered how much of that planning had been one sided, or a facade.
“I just pulled in. The house is empty. Do you have any idea where she is?”
Jude’s gaze settled on my face while I tried to keep it smooth of the inner turmoil that consumed me. I pressed the heels of my boots into the slush beneath me, willing myself to remain still beneath his assessment.