Chapter 21
As usual, Trace woke before the sun pierced the frost-laced windows, the bedroom still swallowed in darkness.
The sheets had twisted low around his hips during the night, and Kip lay curled tight against his chest, one of her legs thrown possessively over his thigh. Her breath warmed his collarbone.
When he pressed his lips to the crown of her head, she stirred with a soft sound.
He slipped out from under her without fully waking her.
The cold hardwood floor bit into his bare feet.
He dragged on yesterday’s jeans, a thermal base layer that still carried her scent, and thick wool socks that muffled his footsteps.
Downstairs, Ruby was already in the kitchen, preparing breakfast as she did every day. The smell of bacon sizzling and something sweet in the oven drew him in.
But coffee first. Always.
“Mornin’ Ruby,” he said, giving her a quick hug and peck on the cheek. “Anything I can do to help?”
She eyed him with what was almost a glare. “Do you remember what happened the last time you 'helped' me cook. It took me a month to get that skillet clean. You just have a seat and I’ll get to the coffee as quick as I can.”
“I may burn water, but thanks to Mr. Coffee, I can make the mornin’ joe.”
Ruby laughed and nodded. “That would be nice, dear.”
The coffee maker gurgled and hissed, filling the kitchen with dark, bitter promise. As he leaned against the counter, he folded his arms across his chest and stared out the window.
Four, maybe five inches of fresh powder coated the yard, the corrals, and the long gravel drive that faded into white. Enough snow to herd the bison near the hay sheds. Enough to buy him time if someone tried to come up that road uninvited.
Kenzie appeared in the doorway, engulfed in an oversized sweater that swallowed her hands. She skated across the wooden floor in thick wool socks, clearly too exhausted to lift her feet. “Morning,” she mumbled, heading straight for the coffee.
Trace lifted one brow. “You’re up early for someone who was giggling in the hallway at two a.m.”
She froze, carafe hovering halfway to her mug. “I was not giggling.”
He couldn’t hold back a snort. Kenzie had always been fun to tease. “Pretty sure I know what giggling sounds like, Kenz.”
Crimson flooded her face. She poured coffee with exaggerated focus, hunching her shoulders up to her ears. Trace let it go, for now, but one thing was certain. Trace intended to keep eyes on Sev every second he was within fifty feet of Kenzie.
By seven-thirty, Boone and Chance were back from early morning chores, and the Littles were all up and about.
Ruby directed everyone with military precision on where to set platters of scrambled eggs and elk sausage.
With the table set, the girls fixed cocoa, arguing over who had the most marshmallows.
After everyone had a seat, Tanner stumbled through the doorway, his eyes bloodshot from another late night playing poker at The Bridle. Trace made a note to have a word with his twin. Something was going on, and Trace wanted to know what it was.
Seven Midnight joined them a few minutes later, moving like a man used to slipping into rooms unnoticed.
But Trace noticed and tracked every step he took.
Sev was dressed in black from head to toe.
The only hint of color was a faint red mark on the side of his throat that disappeared beneath the collar.
Trace’s jaw locked hard. When Sev sat across from him at the table, Trace caught his eye and shot a pointed glare at his neck.
“We’ll be talking about that mark later. ”
Kip came down last, hair still damp from the shower, wearing one of Trace’s flannel shirts tucked into jeans that hugged her ass hard enough to make his mouth go dry. She walked straight to him, rose on her toes, and brushed her lips against the corner of his mouth.
“Morning, husband,” she whispered, the word meant only for him.
His hand settled on her hip, thumb slipping under the flannel to find warm skin. “Morning, wife.” God, he loved saying that.
Chance whistled low. “Get a room.”
“We all own the whole damn house,” Trace answered without taking his eyes from Kip. “So I can pick any room I want.”
Boone snorted into his coffee. Joy smacked Chance with a dish towel, then shrieked because Chance headed her way.
Ruby rang the triangle inside. “Time to use those mouths for eating.”
“You don’t have to tell us twice,” Chance said, leading Joy back to the table and pulling out the chair next to him for her. Sev pushed out the chair next to him for Kenzie. She sat down, but she glared at her plate as if it had insulted her.
Trace loaded a plate for himself and Kip and pulled her onto his lap. She blushed, but didn’t struggle as he fed her eggs, sausage, a biscuit drowning in huckleberry jam Tildi had canned last summer.
The conversation at the table remained light for a while. Tanner bragged about cleaning Hank out at five-card stud. Tildi asked if snowmen could have turnips for noses in a pinch. Just the usual morning chaos, the kind that usually settled Trace’s blood.
Then Boone leaned back and fixed Trace with a lazy grin. “So, when are you putting a ring on your wife’s finger, little brother? Or do we need to go pick one out for you?”
Chance jumped in without missing a beat. “I vote we leave him here, drive into Wilder, and pick one ourselves. We have much better taste.”
Tanner nodded solemnly. “I have great taste, and I know how he thinks. I’m thinking something obnoxiously big that screams back the hell off from three counties away.”
Trace forked some eggs and took his time chewing and swallowing. He wanted to argue, but his brothers had actually nailed it. He grinned at Tanner. “It’s almost like we’re twins.”
Kip’s cheeks flushed pink. Setting down his fork, he reached for her left hand beneath the table, lacing their fingers. Her ring finger was still bare. The emptiness pricked like a splinter under his skin.
He wasn’t sure whether he was talking to his brothers or Kip when he said, “I’m working on it.”
“You better work faster,” Chance warned. “Pretty girl like that? Someone’s gonna try something if you don’t let them know she’s off limits.”
Kip bit her lip to hide a smile. Little Minx. He squeezed her hand. “I dare them to try.”
Sev’s mouth curved up just as Kenzie’s gaze flicked up, colliding with Sev’s for half a heartbeat, and then dropped back to her lap. Her ears went scarlet.
Tildi, bless her, changed the subject. “And on that note…it’s time for the annual snowman parade!”
Boone smiled. “We’ve never had a snowman parade, Bluebell.”
“We will from now on,” she promised. The Littles suited up for the cold and headed out the back door, Ruby on their heels with sunscreen.
Once everyone had a second cup of coffee, Sev cleared his throat, and the men fell silent. They all knew there had to be a reason Sev had shown up the day before. Setting down his coffee, Trace took a deep breath and waited.
Sev didn’t make him wait long. “Reynaldo Rios is missing. I’m assuming he’s dead, but I can’t prove it. The Triad cut him out, I believe permanently, for going rogue with their money and men. With the Triad, the severance package is severe.”
Trace leaned back, trying to wrap his mind around what Sev was saying. If Rios was gone, did that mean Kip had nothing to worry about anymore? That would be the best Christmas gift he could give her. His relief was short-lived when Sev kept talking.
“The man who made Rios disappear calls himself Mr. Zeus. He has a team set up on the old nuclear missile site near Vindicator Ridge. Word is he already has someone feeding him information from inside Wilder, besides Wesley Zhou, who has also gone silent. My team hasn’t yet identified who the other informant is. But we will.
The temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees. Trace felt the words like a blade sliding between his ribs. Someone in Wilder was watching for the right moment to hurt his woman, but who? Did he know them? He’d have to. Strangers stood out in a small town like Wilder.
“There’s more,” Trace said, following his gut. “I want everything out on the table.”
Sev’s gaze flicked to the window where Kip was laughing and building snowmen with the other girls. It lingered a heartbeat too long, then returned to Trace.
“Zeus isn’t a street name,” Sev began. “It’s a title.
The Triad gives it to the one they send when they want a region broken and rebuilt in their image.
We haven’t been able to learn Mr. Zeus’s real name, but we know him.
He took over the Triad’s northern district six years ago, starting in Vancouver, Washington.
You can imagine I have a personal interest. I think they are the ones sheltering my father.
I’ve heard talk on the street he’s cut some kind of deal with them to regain the power I stripped from him when I took over the family business a year ago.
We’ve managed to stay out of each other’s way so far, but I know it’s a matter of time before that changes.
Word is they are expanding east. Cells in Idaho and Montana were already known, but I didn’t know he’d made it to Wyoming until Boone called. ”
Trace didn’t need to sit through a history lesson of the problems Sev had with the guy. He had more immediate things he needed to know. “Why the hell is he after Kip?”
Sev’s jaw worked. “I don’t know. It’s not his style.
Not the Triads.” Sev’s gaze drifted back to the window.
Kenzie was walking from snowman to snowman, critiquing each one if the pen and clipboard she was carrying were any indication.
Turning back to the conversation, he said, “I need to keep digging. But if Zeus is here, I want to be here to keep everyone safe.”
Rage boiled in Trace’s throat, hot and metallic, but he swallowed it. “He won’t get within a hundred miles of Foxy or any of the other girls.”
Sev nodded once. “He doesn’t have to. That’s why we need to find the spy.
It’s someone local who can give him information about anything and everything.
Things like ranch schedules, who comes and goes, where the cameras are, and when the hands rotate, you get the idea.
It’s someone who knows you, your family, and now her. ”
Boone spoke, his voice like gravel. “I’ll get Griff, and my men started on background checks. We’ll recheck every new hire in the last two years. If that doesn’t get us what we want, we’ll expand it to everyone from delivery drivers to meter readers.”
Sev nodded. “It could be anyone… a lady from church, the kid who bags your groceries, or loads your feed trucks. Zeus likes to recruit the girl next door and all-American boy types.”
Trace’s mind raced through names, faces, every interaction from the past six months. His free hand drifted to the pistol on his hip without conscious thought. His blood ran cold.
“We’ll change up our routines,” Chance said, “and keep the same safety protocols we’ve already put in place. No one rides alone. The women don’t leave the ranch without one of us as a bodyguard.”
Sev’s mouth twitched. “I figured that last part would be in there somewhere.”
Boone pushed off the table. “I’ll talk to Sam. Quietly. We’ll need the sheriff’s department in on this.”
Trace nodded. “Cameras on every gate. Motion sensors around the lodge and barns. Tanner should be finishing the new system today.”
“Already done,” Tanner said.
Sev straightened. “I brought six drones with thermal sensors with me. I’ll run night sweeps. If anyone is moving after midnight, we’ll catch them.”
Three light taps on the front door interrupted their conversation. Junie Morgan stood in the doorway with an apologetic smile. “Morning,” she said, eyes flicking to each of the men in the room, but paused on Tanner. “Just came for my pans from yesterday.”
Trace stepped aside and motioned her into the kitchen. He called to the girl as well, “Come in, girls. Time to warm up.”
Junie hesitated before crossing the threshold. Tanner moved across the room to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Hey there, Junebug,” Tanner said, voice unexpectedly too bright. “Your pans are in the kitchen. Have a seat. I’ll grab them and make you a cinnamon hot chocolate.”
Junie’s smile went shy. “Thanks, Tanner.”
Tanner returned with three Pyrex dishes, fingers brushing Junie’s when he handed her a steaming hug of cocoa. She blushed crimson. A few minutes later, Junie stood. “I have to get back to the bakery.”
“I’ll help you to your car,” Tanner said.
“I’m parked right out front.”
“I’ll walk you anyway.” On the porch, Tanner loaded her tote, brushed snow from her hair, kissed her, soft, quick, definite. Junie’s eyes went huge. Tanner looked like he’d been struck by lightning.
Trace’s gaze followed his brother out, and that’s when he saw her. Kip stood just inside the room, white as a sheet and trembling.
Well, shit.