Roy, I couldn’t wait. I went after him myself. Don’t worry. I’m a good rider, and I’ll be back as soon as possible. Laney.
I went after him? Oh God! That meant at least one horse had been gone when he’d put Trigger away. His pregnant wife was out in the mountains in the middle of the night by herself. What if her horse tripped and went down? What if the animal spooked and threw her? What if she lost control? She hadn’t ridden since she’d come to the ranch. She didn’t know these horses.
“I think I know where she is,” he said to Rebecca. “I gotta go.”
“Wait! Should I come out there?”
“No, stay put. I’ll call you as soon as I find her,” he said and hung up.
He ran to the barn and checked the stalls. Two horses were gone.
So Roy was out there, too. Maybe he’d already found her.
THE CIRCLE OF CONNER’S FLASHLIGHT bounced as he urged his horse into a full gallop and headed for the south pass. The moon bathed the open range in mercurial silver, but the evergreen trees towering around him on this hilly section of the Running Y blocked all but the most meager natural light. Cicadas chirped a constant, rhythmic chorus, and small animals, alarmed by the beating of his horse’s hooves, scurried away in the underbrush. But Conner’s attention was on scanning the landscape on either side of him for his pregnant wife. Delaney was out in the dark alone. He had to find her before something happened.
Problem was, he couldn’t be sure he was even looking in the right places. Delaney didn’t know the ranch. Not like he did. She wouldn’t have known where to search for him, which meant he didn’t know where to search for her. With so many miles of raw land surrounding them, she could be anywhere.
And she could be hurt….
Conner felt sick at the thought. What if she lost the baby? Would she give up on him? Leave him?
Just last night when he made love to her, he should’ve told her how much she’d come to mean to him. He should have gambled it all when he had the chance. But he hadn’t. He’d kept the most private part of himself from her, and now it might be too late….
“I’ll have another chance,” he muttered, hoping the sound of his words would convince him. But he couldn’t help imagining the worst, couldn’t help wondering what he would do if he lost her for good. Suddenly, all his efforts to keep her at an emotional distance seemed foolish. He couldn’t stop himself from caring because he already did. He loved her. He loved her more than anything.
“Delaney?” he yelled, his words whipped away by the wind. He’d been riding for almost an hour and wasn’t far now from the south pass, where he’d been looking for those calves—but he didn’t know if she was aware of that. And he heard no response. “Delaney?”
He came to the campsites he and Roy had organized, and found a couple of men sleeping in a tent.
“Hey, wake up,” he called, not caring who they were or whether he dragged them out of the depths of sleep.
A tall unshaven man finally stumbled to the tent door, dragging a rifle and squinting at his light. “Who is it? What do you want?”
“It’s Conner Armstrong. I own this land, and I’m looking for a woman. Have you seen anyone tonight? Heard anything?”
“Haven’t seen a woman, but a fella came by ’bout half an hour ago, wanting to know the same thing.”
Roy. They were on the same track. Conner used his flashlight to scan the surrounding area, just in case. A creek ran alongside the campsite, gurgling over moss-covered rocks, but everything else remained silent and still.
“Thanks,” he said, and started following the creek upstream. But he wasn’t so sure he should be heading upstream. Maybe he should go downstream instead. Or to the north or east side of the ranch…
Delaney. He could search all night and never find her. Did she need him? Was she okay?
He rode for another two hours without seeing anything other than a few deer, so exhausted he could hardly remain in his saddle. He was about to head back to the house to see if Roy had found her and planned to gather a search party if not, when someone finally answered his call.
“Delaney?” he cried again, adrenaline chasing away his fatigue.
Nothing.
“Delaney?”
Finally he heard his name. Kicking his horse into a trot, he followed the sound. It led him farther up the mountain, where the forest grew denser and rocks, foliage, fallen limbs and rotting logs made progress difficult. He recognized the voice that answered him. But it wasn’t Delaney. It was Roy, and it wasn’t difficult to tell that something was terribly wrong.
CONNER’S CHEST constricted until he could scarcely breathe when he saw his wife lying on the ground. Roy was kneeling over her, but he got to his feet when he heard Conner’s horse burst through the trees.
“What’s wrong with her?” Conner demanded, his voice sounding oddly strangled to his own ears.
“She’s having cramps,” Roy told him. “Probably from all the riding. Or maybe she’s just too tired or cold or…I don’t know.” He shrugged helplessly.
“Dammit!” Conner cried. “What did she think she was doing coming all the way out here?” Pulling on Trigger’s reins, he jumped down before the horse had even stopped moving. “She could’ve died. She could’ve lost the baby.”
Conner knew she could still lose the baby, but he wasn’t willing to face that.
“Conner?” Delaney’s eyelids fluttered open when he bent and touched her cheek. “Conner, are you okay?”
God, she was worried about him? “I’m okay, babe,” he said gently. “Tell me what’s going on with these cramps.”
She rubbed the lower part of her abdomen. “It’s probably nothing. Anyway, they’re getting better,” she said, but her smile faltered when their eyes met, telling him she was being more optimistic than the situation warranted.
“We’ve got to get her out of here,” he told Roy. “Go get the wagon and bring it as far as you can. I’ll get her out of the trees and meet you by the road that leads to the campsites.”
His foreman quickly mounted his own horse and trotted off without a word.
“And hurry,” Conner called after him.
“I thought maybe you’d been hurt,” Delaney said when the beating of Roy’s horse’s hooves died out. “I couldn’t stand waiting—”