Page 45 of Her Boss, Her Rancher: Sunrise On The Ranch

Cade glanced at his watch and then at the cluster of twentysomethings trying to judge how long it would take for them to move the herd into the next field. “Probably less than two hours to get done here, get to the barn, put Ziggy away and make it to the house. That work?”

“Not really.”

Cade gripped the radio receiver hard enough the plastic creaked. “What’s happened? Everyone okay?”

“Yeah. We’re all good. I just hoped to talk to you before everyone was back.”

When translated, Cade knew his brother actually meant, “You’re going to rage out and I wanted to give your temper a chance to flare, and then cool down before there were witnesses.” Forcing himself to relax his grip on the receiver took the majority of his attention. Still, the mental Rolodex he kept of the wrongs done him flipped from one entry to the next, curiosity assessing each one for the urgency Eli deemed this worth. Then he struck The Card, and everything in him chilled before his marrow went molten and his vision narrowed. “Is this about Emma?”

Eli didn’t answer, instead letting the silence between them solidify until it was nearly a tangible, immovable wall between them. Cade’s curse rang out low and harsh. “I need to get my group reassigned to another wrangler before I can come in, but rest assured I’ll be at the house within the hour.”

He handed his group of guests off to his ranch manager, Ross, before pointing Ziggy toward the barn and settling him into a comfortable lope. They crossed fields gone dormant with the season’s change, the grass no longer gray-green but more a neutral beige hue that colored the entire landscape as the hardwoods lost their leaves.

Emma had wanted to experience the change of seasons. Just the whisper of her name through his mind started the myriad possibilities rolling—she’d become involved with some international playboy-billionaire-lives-on-a-yacht-in-St. Bart’s-prince, that she was engaged, that her firm had taken off, that her firm had tanked, that she’d been diagnosed with some deadly disease—that she was dead. By the time he reached that last possibility, he’d spurred Ziggy on, giving the horse his head.

He went straight to the house, looping the horse’s reins around the mirror of an SUV before fumbling with the radio, cuing the mic and advising anyone in earshot at main camp where to retrieve and take care of the animal after their mad dash home.

“What happened?” Cade shouted as he opened the front door. He was well into the living room, chest heaving, before he remembered to let go of the radio’s controls. “Eli!” he bellowed.

His brother came around the corner, face pale, hands fisted. “Have a seat.”

“Is she dead?” Cade managed to wheeze.

Eli’s brow furrowed. “Who?”

“Emma.” Her name almost burned Cade’s lips.

“Dead...” Eli’s brow furrowed. “Hell, no. Far as I know, she’s fine.”

The fight left Cade in a rush and he collapsed into the nearest chair. “You shaved a good three years off my life, and I’m going to owe Ziggy a six-pack of Coke for hauling ass home like I did.” Resting his head against the chair, he pulled off his hat and tossed it on the coffee table.

Reagan walked around the corner with a tray of iced tea.

Ty followed.

Prickly fingers of unease skipped up Cade’s spine, one vertebra at a time. The sensation came to rest at the base of his skull, initiating a pounding sequence that made him massage the small indention there. Anything to dissuade the ache that spread from his heart to his mind. Whatever had drawn his family together would be bad—really bad if they felt they needed to manage him as a united front. “Someone say something.”

Reagan silently handed him three ibuprofen and his glass. He offered a quiet thank-you before gulping the pain reducer down with a single swallow. He only wished the medication would do something about that persistent ache in his chest where his heart should be.

“You were right,” Eli started. “This is about Emma, about something that happened the last couple of days she was here.”

“Spill it, Eli,” Cade all but snarled.

Ty moved to the end of the sofa and sat on the edge, placing himself between his older brothers.

Reagan sank onto the sofa beside Eli, also placing herself between the two brothers. “Your brother loves you more than anything, but it doesn’t stop him from being a completely domineering dumbass at times.” She glanced at Eli and nodded slowly. “Tell him.”

“It’s about the letter you wrote her, the letter pleading with her to meet us here.” Eli took a shaky breath. “I’m pretty sure she never saw it before she left.”

Cade right eye twitched as he fought to remain calm. “Why?”

“Because I buried it in the paperwork near the back of the second folder.”

Before Eli finished his sentence, Cade was out of the chair and headed toward him. “You had no right!” he bellowed.

Eli came to his feet and the two collided, fists swinging. They plowed into the sofa and tipped it over, following it to the ground.

“She was using you!” Eli shouted right before taking a fist to the jaw.