I was getting ready to ask Webb how we were going to get her to the camp and to rescue when the familiar whir of an ATV broke through the trees and had him shifting Em to one side, so he could palm his weapon. He ordered me to get behind him, but I wasn’t the girl who hid behind anyone anymore. I stood right next to him and kept an eye on Emrys as the four-wheeler wove its way through the dense forest in front of us.

There were no words to describe how badly I wanted the rider to be Cy.

It wasn’t. It was Wyatt in the scary black grease paint looking undeniably similar to the man I was standing next to. “Good thing you didn’t blow all the machines, brother. This one came in handy when the big guy calmed down enough to tell us where he stashed the girl. He wasn’t a happy camper when our guys pulled him away from his brother.” That wild grin died on his face when he caught sight of Emrys’s wilted body in his younger brother’s arms and he switched to all business mode really quick. “Give me the girl. The chopper is about twenty minutes out and they won’t wait once they touch down. The guy with the bullet in his chest doesn’t have a single second to spare. They already have an emergency medical team waiting for him in Billings.”

He rubbed a hand over his face smearing the messy paint, making him look even fiercer. “The raid went off without a hitch. They rounded up most of the hired guns and a couple of them seemed like they were willing to talk. They cleared the tents and Grady actually had the guy they think is in charge of this particular spot pinned down. A sweep team will spend the next couple of days trying to locate any of the men who escaped the round up and they’ll stay behind to make sure the crop is destroyed. Other than the civilians injured, this was a pretty textbook takedown.”

Emrys perked up at that news that Sutton was still hanging in there and allowed herself to be transferred over to the care of the special agent. She kept muttering “I can’t believe he’s alive” over and over again like a mantra. Wyatt told her that he wouldn’t be if they didn’t get a move on it. I didn’t want to let her out of my sight, but I knew they were racing against the clock. Watching her ride away with the older Bryant brother was probably the hardest thing I had ever done in my life.

I looked at Webb and he looked down at me. We sighed in unison and I leaned into his side when he threw his arm around my shoulders. The camaraderie and bonds built in the middle of bloodshed and bullets were something else. I didn’t trust anyone . . . ever . . . but given everything that we had survived the last few days, I would give this man, this lying ex-con, the benefit of every doubt from here to the end of eternity.

The experiences I had under my belt now forced me to be the woman I was meant to be all along, and I knew there was no going back. Not that I wanted to. But, I was also scared to move forward because straight ahead was a life without Cy and with a broken best friend.

I knew that I was going to have to figure out a way to fix both of those things if I wanted any kind of shot at finally finding some kind of happy.

Not On My Watch

It took almost two full days to get back to collect all the horses and make our way back to the ranch. Once there, we barely had time to get our bearings and get cleaned up before Ten had us on a plane to Billings. The pretty ranger pushed both Webb and myself hard, barely stopping to keep Webb’s injured arm wrapped up and clean so it didn’t get infected. It was obvious she was as worried about the middle Warner brother, even though she didn’t say anything. I also knew she was worried what losing someone else he loved would do to Cyrus.

It was a silent flight into Montana as we all finally had a few restful moments to process everything we’d seen and been through over the last week. It was an adrenaline crash. I’d never experienced anything like it before and I wasn’t aware that silent tears were trekking down my cheeks as I stared out at the vast and wild landscape racing by underneath the wings of the tiny plane. I flinched when Webb reached across the minute space between us and swiped his thumb down the tracks of moisture.

“None of that. Everyone made it out alive and that’s the best possible outcome. No matter how deep the wound is, it can heal.” He settled back in his seat, oblivious to the wide eyed and curious look Ten was throwing his way.

I sniffled a little bit and used the back of my hand to wipe away the rest of the evidence that revealed that my chaotic emotions were no longer being held at bay. “Some wounds are fatal, Webb. You didn’t see the look on Em’s face when she said those men hurt her. She very well could bleed from those kind of wounds forever and I don’t know what I can do to stop it.”

He lifted an eyebrow at me, giving me a steady look full of the kind of knowledge that let me knew he firmly believed in what he was saying to me. “You apply pressure, Leo, and you don’t let up. You stem the flow for her until the bleeding stops. That’s all you can do.”

I didn’t have a reply to that, since I was already planning on permanently attaching myself to Emrys until the light was back in her eyes. She was vacant and absent, not that I could blame her for retreating. I wouldn’t let her disappear. She was my anchor and I had no problem realizing it was time for me to hoist her up and pull her from the depths.

When the plane landed, there was a car waiting to take us to the hospital in Billings. The vehicle moved smoothly through the sleepy streets that couldn’t even slightly compare to the hustle of San Francisco. It still held more humans than I had seen in days. The noise and commotion, even as mellow as it was, seemed overwhelming and I wondered how quickly it was going to take my senses to adjust to civilization once again. With a shiver I realized I longed for the quiet. I wanted to be able to hear what was being said and know that the words meant something. I didn’t want to go back to a place where life was so full of other things that it was easy to miss the ones that were important. I didn’t want the moments that mattered to get lost in the noise.