Chapter 23

Eli paced the stretch of concrete between Midnight’s and Cirrus’s stalls, though Cirrus was still at the Meadow Valley Ranch.

“You’re kidding, right?” Boone barked in his ear. “Because I can’t remember the last time you had such a batshit idea.”

“So Sam ratted me out already?” Eli had barely been home long enough to get Midnight situated back in her stall.

“Of course he did. He’d have followed you home if he wasn’t working the guest ranch tonight.” Boone sighed. “What the hell is going on, huh? You’re going all vigilante on a hunch when you’re supposed to be the rational one, the one who plays it safe and keeps everyone in check, including yourself.”

Eli ran a hand through his already wild hair. Three years…no…a decade at least of being rational and keeping everyone in check had finally reached its boiling point.

“Why?” he asked his younger brother. “Why does that job still fall on me after all these goddamn years? Dad got hurt, and the ranch became ours to run. Ash took off and never looked back. You and Casey…look, I know you had your shit, and that shop was your escape. But that left me and Tess with the clinic and the ranch, and we made it work. We never took on more than we could handle. We kept to ourselves and our quiet little lives while still keeping tabs on you and Ash, and we were happy. And where the hell did it get me?”

Even from the barn, he heard the sound of tires on gravel, the roar of an engine. Or was he hearing it in the phone?

He jogged out of the barn, not sure if he was moving toward whatever he heard or if the sound was simply moving toward Boone, wherever he was. Except outside, in front of the clinic, was Boone’s motorcycle…with Boone on it.

Eli looked at his phone, then at his brother, still confused as the distance between them grew smaller.

“You were riding the whole time?” Eli scratched the back of his neck. “I didn’t hear… I mean, what are you doing? I thought Casey had clients all afternoon and evening.”

Boone pulled off his helmet and stowed it on the back of his bike. “Her mom is watching Kara. Told her that my big brother needed some help, and she didn’t question me. But if you rat me out, I’m toast.” His hair stuck out at odd angles in multiple spots. “What are you looking at?” he added, nodding at Eli. “At least I was wearing a helmet. What’s your excuse?”

Eli huffed out a laugh. It might have been the first time he smiled in days.

“Thank you,” he told his brother, but his smile was short-lived. “So you came all the way here to, what? Lock me up while someone trespasses on my property and takes what belongs to me…again?”

Boone shrugged. “I guess it depended on how you reacted to me showing up. But hearing you refer to Midnight as yours changes things a bit, doesn’t it?”

Eli’s eyes widened. Had he really… Did he actually…

Shit. He did, didn’t he?

“I wasn’t going to keep her,” Eli told him, hearing the realization in his own tone. “I didn’t want her here in the first place.”

His brother nodded. “I know.”

“It’s not because of Beth,” Eli added.

The younger Murphy gave his brother a pointed look. Both men knew that was a lie.

“Fine,” Eli amended. “It’s not only because of her, and the because of her part doesn’t even matter anymore because despite knowing she was always going to leave, she probably, most likely, definitely never wants to speak to me again.”

Boone clapped his brother on the shoulder and let out a long breath.

“Let me guess. You told her to stay the hell away from the property while you try to be Dirty Harry? This isn’t the Wild West, big bro.”

Eli huffed out an incredulous laugh. “That’s exactly what she said. Are you two conspiring against me now?”

Boone shook his head ruefully. “Actually, this is what it looks like when people are on your side. They show you that they care. Did you even call the sheriff’s office?”

“Of course I did. But I’ve got nothing other than a broken chicken coop lock and a hunch. Pretty sure you need a lot more to warrant a stakeout.”

Boone lowered his hand and crossed his arms. His expression softened to something more like somber. “You’re right…about questioning your role in this family. When I was a messed-up kid, it was easy to let you take over for Dad because you had your shit together. You were brother, father, ranch manager, husband, doctor—all of it, and I never for a second questioned your ability to do it. But I also never questioned whether you wanted all that responsibility. And for that, big brother, the slightly less messed-up version of me is sorry.”

Eli glanced back and forth from the barn to the clinic, his chest aching even as a weight felt like it was lifting from his shoulders. He’d never had the time or the chance to consider what he actually wanted. He just dove right in all those years ago, barely an adult himself, and made it work.

“I want it,” he finally uttered, his throat tight. “I want this place to be what it was when we were kids. I want to keep the practice but maybe scale back to only three days a week in the clinic. And I want to catch the sons of bitches who made me believe for more than three years that I was happier and safer without a whole part of my life that made me me.”

Boone’s grin returned. “Well then, let’s catch us some horse poachers.” He threw an arm over his older brother’s shoulder, and together they strode toward the clinic and Eli’s home just beyond. “And what about the girl?” Boone asked as they dropped down at Eli’s kitchen table to formulate a plan.

Eli cleared his throat. “What about her?” he asked, a loaded question. He’d sabotaged the hell out of whatever he and Beth had become. Was it for her own safety? Of course it was. Could he have gone about the situation in a better way? Maybe, but hindsight didn’t change anything. What was done was done, and the most important thing was that Beth stayed safe, that she made it back to New York where she clearly belonged, and that when she came back someday to visit her sister, she might stop by for a ride with her favorite mare. Because of course Midnight was hers. And whether or not he was truly ready to be a ranch owner again, he’d do it for Midnight, for Beth, and for the chance she might forgive him someday.

Boone leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head. “You know, I seem to remember someone giving me some really good advice before I almost married a really great woman who just happened to be the wrong woman for me. It went a little something like this… Whoever you choose as your partner through all of it—especially if you’re a lucky enough son of a bitch for her to choose you right back—make sure it’s someone who not only loves you at your best but can also still find that hidden ray of light when you’re at your worst. That’s when you know, you know?”

Eli’s eyes grew wide. “Did you memorize that?”

His brother beamed. “Stuff gets a little jumbled in here sometimes…” Boone tapped his temple with his index finger. “But that really hit me, you know? It stuck like goddamn crazy glue. I hear it every time I look at Casey and still can’t believe we found our way back…or when I hold my daughter. Some of us are only lucky once, Eli. But you’ve got another shot, and I don’t want to see you piss it away.”

Eli glanced toward the open door of his bedroom, to the place where he knew the scent of Beth’s shampoo still lingered on her pillow. He knew now that his heart had the capacity for not one but two great loves of his life and that if Beth chose him like he’d already chosen her, he was the luckiest son of a bitch there was.

“I’ll tell her,” Eli promised. “I’ll tell her how I feel after we make it through tonight.” Because somehow he knew it would all be over by morning.

For the guy who’d always been Mr. Rational, he was betting everything on this hunch.

Boone slapped his palms on the table. “All right then! First order of business… You look like absolute shit. Get yourself in the shower and regroup. If anything is going to happen, it won’t be until after nightfall.”

Eli laughed. When had his little brother grown so wise? Or maybe it was that Eli had grown so weary. Maybe, finally, they were ready to tread on common ground.

“Noted,” Eli said, then nodded behind him. “The monitors are on the kitchen counter. Make sure the cameras both have night vision turned on and that they’re still pointed at the right angles.”

Except as he glanced toward the monitors, he caught sight of something stuck to the refrigerator door with a magnet, and even from the other side of the counter, he could read what it said.

Boone, none the wiser, offered his brother a two-fingered salute. “You got it, boss. Now go.” And he shooed Eli off toward the shower. And Eli decided to pretend it wasn’t there, plain as day, that before he’d even gone to Delaney and Sam’s that afternoon to make sure they kept Beth safe, she’d already had one foot out the door and on a plane to the other side of the country.

Eli checked his watch: 9:32 p.m. It felt like it had taken forever for the sun to set, but it was finally dark, and pitch-dark at that, save for the star-speckled sky which—while pretty to look at—did nothing to illuminate a property that had purposely left all artificial lighting off.

“This is good,” Boone told him as they settled onto the breakfast barstools of the guesthouse, their eyes adjusting to every light inside being turned off. “It’ll hopefully give our friends more confidence.”

Eli nodded. He’d insisted they wait out their confrontation in the guesthouse because it was closer to the barn. Whether or not Boone knew the truth—that Eli wanted to make sure Beth hadn’t somehow snuck back in while he’d been showering and regrouping—he didn’t question his older brother’s plans.

Each Murphy brother held a baby monitor in his hand, the cameras pointed at the stretch of ground Eli had been pacing before Boone had shown up, the screens dark unless triggered by motion in the barn.

“Reminds me of the time we camped in the clearing,” Boone said softly.

“When Ash insisted we bring walkie-talkies so Mom wouldn’t be so nervous about us being gone?” Eli asked.

He was pretty sure he detected a nod from Boone in the dark. “He was so scared.” He chuckled.

“In his defense,” Eli began, “he was only seven.”

A beat of silence stretched between them.

“He’d probably have gotten a kick out of this if he were here,” Boone finally added.

Eli sighed. He couldn’t remember the last time all three Murphy brothers were together. Hell, he was pretty sure neither of them had seen Ash in years.

“I miss him too,” Eli admitted. “But I’ve tried to reach out—”

“And you only get a response from his tour manager? Just because he’s a rich and famous country rock sensation doesn’t mean he wouldn’t enjoy a good old-fashioned stakeout with his brothers, right?” Boone let out a knowing laugh, but somehow Eli could tell he wasn’t quite smiling. “Maybe we need to try harder,” Boone added.

“Yeah,” Eli told him. “Maybe we do.”

Suddenly Boone’s face lit up, his monitor’s small screen flickering on. At the same time, Eli’s phone buzzed on the counter, a notification from Midnight’s stall door sensor.

“We got motion!” Boone whisper-shouted.

“Shit!” Eli hissed, realizing part of him was hoping the would-be thieves would simply give up and let him get back to his life. But where would that leave him? Always looking over his shoulder? Always wondering if there’d be any sort of justice—or, at the very least, closure—for what happened to Tess and Fury.

Both men sprang from their stools, Boone ready to block the barn door with his bike and Eli ready to sneak in from the rear. But just as quickly as the sensor alarm had gone off, it suddenly stopped.

He checked his phone. The alarm had been disabled.

“Dammit!” he growled. “Beth is in there!” How—after everything—could she be so reckless?

Boone swore as well, and the two men took off out the door of the guesthouse.

A clamoring of shouts sounded from the barn.

“She’s got the mare!”

“Rope her!”

“Yah! Midnight, go!”

The mare squealed, and before Eli and Boone could even think to block any entrance to the barn, Beth and Midnight burst into the arena, jumped the fence, and took off in the pitch-dark toward the woods. And whoever else was in the barn took off after them on a motorbike that would quickly outrun a scared horse trying to find her way in the dark.

“Give me your keys!” Eli demanded, and Boone stared at him, jaw agape.

“That wasn’t the plan!” Boone replied.

“Fuck the plan, Boone! I left Cirrus at the guest ranch, and those assholes are after Beth. I’m not letting history repeat itself.”

Boone must have realized there was no arguing with him because he stuck his hand in his pocket and produced the keys.

“Do you even know how to ride?” the younger Murphy asked as his brother snatched the keys.

“You showed me once,” Eli called over his shoulder.

“Jesus, Eli! That was, like, four years ago! And…and you need a license!”

Eli didn’t have time for technicalities. “I’m sure it’s just like…” He stopped in front of the vehicle and muttered the rest to himself. “Like riding a bike.”

He was about to turn back to his brother to tell him to call 911, but Eli already heard sirens way off down the road.

Beth. She’d not only gotten to Midnight in time, but she’d somehow managed to call the authorities before she gave chase.

Eli affixed his brother’s helmet, hopped on the bike, and slipped the key into the ignition. He surprisingly remembered how to shift into gear, and with a small but noticeable lurch forward, he was off.

Boone yelled something at him as he passed, not that Eli could hear him. He was sure it was something along the lines of Be careful! or Break my bike, and I break your face! But he guessed it was likely some happy medium between the two.

All that mattered to Eli was that Beth and Midnight made it home safe. So he rode, following the waning light of the motorbike ahead of him, his own headlight becoming increasingly dim in what seemed to be a growing fog.

It was like riding through a cloud, which would have been difficult enough in a truck with two headlights and four strong wheels balancing on the unsteady ground. But Eli wasn’t in his truck. And he sure as hell wasn’t practicing what he preached about not being reckless. Because the woman and the horse he loved were out there, and he was furious and terrified and determined to bring them home safely, no matter the cost to his own safety.

Such a hypocrite, a voice murmured in his head. But he couldn’t make out the voice.

“Tess?” he said aloud to himself. “Beth?” Or was it his own voice realizing what he should have known from the start…that there is no such thing as safe when it comes to the people you love.

The grass quickly grew thick beneath his tires, and if he could see past the fog in front of his visor and now starless sky, he’d probably notice white knuckles gripping the handlebars of his brother’s bike.

In the waning reach of his headlight, he swore he spotted a blurred figure ahead, one that looked like a woman on a horse. At least that was what Eli hoped he saw. But the vision was there and gone as the world around him plunged back into the foggy darkness.

The lights of the other bike bobbed ahead of him, but other than that, he could see nothing. Finally, he reached under his chin and yanked the helmet off, tossing it somewhere in the grass below.

It was still difficult to see but now only because it was dark and not because he was squinting through foggy glass.

He heard a male voice yell something indecipherable, and then he detected the unmistakable sound of a woman’s scream.

“Beth!” he called out, but the thick air seemed to swallow his voice. He twisted the throttle as far as it would go, then without a second of warning, the front wheel of the bike hit a divot in the grass, and Eli instinctively pulled on the brake—hard—which he realized too late was not the right move. The back wheel flew up behind him, and he was weightless.

Until he wasn’t.

His back smacked the damp earth a millisecond before his head. Every ounce of air escaped his lungs in a searing, painful rush.

Eli gasped. Or at least he tried to, but taking in even a mouthful of air felt like trying to swallow a knife. He thought it might kill him, yet he knew if he didn’t breathe, that would kill him. So he forced one sip of air and then another, all the while realizing that the longer he lay there, the more danger Beth was in.

Finally, he no longer felt like he was suffocating, until he tried to sit up. A growl tore from Eli’s throat, one that was coupled with the sharp, searing stab of pain in the right side of his chest and back.

Had he fallen on something? Was he bleeding?

Eli’s pained breaths came in short pants, and his vision was clouding again, which was weird because the fog wasn’t as bad down on the ground. But he felt oddly cold. And Beth and Midnight were still out there. And once again, he’d failed at protecting what was most important to him.

“Eli!” The woman’s voice sounded like she was shouting from underwater, but he swore it was Beth’s.

“Beth?” He tried to call out, but each utterance…each breath only made whatever was poking through his back and chest poke harder. He knew what it was now, but the knowing wasn’t going to make it any easier to breathe.

“Oh my god, Eli!” She dropped to her knees next to him. A second later, a bright light shone in his eyes. “Your lips are blue.” Her voice trembled as she spoke.

“I…messed up…again.” He sucked in shallow breaths between the words.

Beth lowered the small flashlight but left it on. He could see her now. She was okay. But Midnight? The men in the barn?

She shook her head, and he could see her cheeks were streaked with tears.

“This is my fault.” She hiccupped. “I should have told you I was coming, but I was so mad at you for not letting me help and for thinking I could possibly leave you and Midnight to do this alone. And now…”

A horse whinnied in the distance, and Eli saw flashes of red and blue in his peripheral vision.

“Midnight’s okay?” He groaned, coughed, then gritted his teeth against the ensuing pain.

She nodded. “The police are here, and there should be an ambulance on the way.” She swiped a fist under each of her eyes as she sniffled. “They got the bad guys,” she added, and it looked like she was trying to smile.

“How did you know?” he asked weakly.

She let out a tearful laugh. “Who else would Midnight let in her stall without making a sound? So I army-crawled under the door and waited with her until it was time to run.”

Despite every part of him screaming not to, Eli pushed himself onto his left elbow. His whole right side protested against the movement, which he made painfully clear with a hoarse but definitive “Fuck!”

“What are you doing?” she cried.

He tried to reach for her with his right arm, but he couldn’t lift it, not unless he had any plans to pass out soon after. Actually, he was pretty sure he was going to pass out even if he kept still.

“Tell the EMTs it’s a right pneumothorax. That means collapsed lung… Most likely from a cracked rib.” He coughed and winced. “Or ribs,” he amended.

“Oh my god!” She threw a hand over her mouth, but Eli shook his head.

“Not…your…fault.” He coughed again. “I was an asshole.”

Beth dropped down into the grass beside him. “Lie back down,” she ordered him, voice trembling.

Eli didn’t need to be told twice.

He swore as he tried to gingerly lower himself, his head falling in her lap. As much as it hurt to simply inhale, it still somehow felt so good to lie here like this, touching her, even if he was barely hanging on to consciousness.

“You were an asshole…” Beth choked on something that was part laugh, part sob. “But, Eli…”

He shook his head. Or maybe he didn’t move at all. It was getting to the point that he couldn’t tell. “I’m gonna be okay. It’s not as bad as it looks.” Except it felt as bad as it probably looked. Eli wanted to comfort her, but somehow the shallow breaths he took between words coupled with the fact that his only expression at the moment was a wince probably wasn’t doing the job. “But first I think I’m gonna black out for a few minutes, so remember…pneumothorax, ribs, not your fault…” Was he forgetting anything? “You…you did good tonight. You’re so strong, Beth. I should have given you more credit.”

“Eli…” His name sounded like a plea, or maybe it was a promise.

“Just stay until they come,” he added. “Is that okay?”

He could see bright lights in the distance moving closer.

Then he felt her hands in his hair, her trembling lips against his forehead.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered. “Even when they get here, I’m staying with you. Is that okay?”

He laughed, then pressed his left palm to his right side.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “I love you. So I think it’s okay if you stay.”

The blackness started at the edges of his vision, and before he could gauge her reaction to what he thought he might have just said, someone turned out the lights.