Page 118 of Reins

Rosalyn’s excited squeal makes my nuts tingle. I want to give her that joy someday.

“He’s so adorable!” Rosalyn cups her fingers under her chin.

Elena comes in with a level of ease I didn’t expect. “Do you want to hold him?” She holds her little bundle out to Rosalyn who absolutely beams.

“Can I?” Her hands fidget against her chest in excitement. “Let’s sit. I’d love to catch up.”

When the girls move to the far end of the couch, Pete runs his hand down his face. “The damn capital is having a fit over this explosion.” He shifts his gaze from Wade to me. “Since you caught Eli red-handed, there’s no more doubt who’s behind this bullshit. We need to find them now.”

“I agree a thousand percent. We’ve gone through every property holding that they’ve ever even looked at. The old Simmons place that got torched was a staging area for the dairy attacks, but it’s clean.” I glance to Wade for help.

“We’ve gone through the judge’s records too. We can’t find anything. County permits aren’t showing any unauthorized structures. Hell, I have someone checking sat imagery for anything that could be a tent.” He pulls off his hat to run his hand through this thick coppery hair. “Not a damn thing.”

His focus shifts to Rosalyn and Elena. “Rosalyn, can you remember if that person who tried to take you mentioned a name? Where she was from? Any kind of detail?”

Rosalyn pauses, her lips thinning, then shakes her head. “She called herself the next ‘Mrs. John Bailey’. Her hat hid her hair. I, um, I don’t remember what color eyes she has.” She frowns, looking to me. “She seemed to know the bride and groom?” Her squint is pained. “She had a gun,” she adds in a hushed tone, then her shoulders droop.

“Anything else? What color shirt? How tall was she?” Wade’s voice slips into interrogation mode.

I can see her starting to shrink.

“Wade, I can work on that part.” I hand him a glass with two fingers of bourbon. “Tell me more about Sophia and her husband.”

His brows furrow but he takes the drink. “She’s up and moving. He’s in ICU. They think he’ll be in an induced coma for a while. They had him in surgery but I think there’s a few more.”

Fuck. I was in a similar state after the accident. I think I had six? Maybe seven? They all run together.

“Anyone else stepping forward saying they saw something?” I take a sip of my own cup and grimace through the burn.

Wade shakes his head. “Just of you. Cade, I really think you need to reach out to Mason—”

“No. Not now. I need something concrete or he’ll fucking gut me the second he sees me.” I’m not naive to how protective my brother is.

Sophia is his little girl.

Having to carry the blame for him losing his wife and now almost his daughter is becoming unbearable.

“Then we only have one choice, we find the assholes no matter what,” he grunts.

“Here, here.” Pete raises his glass.

Chapter 57 - Rosalyn

The days start to blend together. I’m getting to be a pretty good shot with my little pistol. After the scare at the rodeo grounds, it’s invigorated me to be diligent with my lessons. Cade spends every waking moment pouring through deeds, permits, and any connection he can find to my family.

I help as much as I can but a lot of that information has been lost after my parents died.

Ironically, he even pulled up the photos from their accident and discovered that their brake lines had been cut in the exact same way that his had been.

It leaves little doubt that Eli was behind their deaths as well.

He’s a monster on the loose and we’re all waiting for something, anything to break open.

The only good part about being stuck in Montana is I’ve been able to rekindle a friendship with Elena.

Who knew we’d hit it off as adults like we did when we were kids?

“I think we should get out of this place for a little while.” Cade stands and stretches, showing the slip of skin above his belt.