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The incredible quiet enveloped me as I stepped out of the car. It was cold enough to see my breath. For a minute I stood and looked back at the stars. Absolutely incredible. This was something you forgot existed when you were in the city and the lights flattened out the sky.

The city sky was still beautiful—nearly everything in Montana was—but out here the deep blue couldn’t be masked. The sky looked like velvet sparkling with diamonds. I must be more exhausted than I’d thought, thinking like that.

Nerves suddenly gripped my gut. Would they really be okay with me here?

If they weren’t, I would deal with it in the morning. Easier to ask forgiveness than permission, I rationalized. There was a single porch light on over the door, and I held my breath as I tried the handle... and released that breath when it opened.

Inside it was warm and still, with a fire burning behind a screen. “Hello?”

No one answered or stormed in asking why the hell I was here. I called out one more time, and then relaxed. It didn’t seem like anyone was here, but that was okay with me. Quickly, I locked the door behind me. Anyone supposed to be here would have a key, so I wasn’t risking locking anyone out.

The faint smell of coffee hung in the air, and there was still some in the pot. So someone had been here recently. And the fire looked like it was ready to go all night. This was so much better than a hotel room. My mind was already more at ease.

I shed my coat and went to the kitchen. It had been hours since I’d eaten, and even now my stomach didn’t love the idea of putting food in it. Tea though... tea sounded perfect.

I used a little electric kettle to heat the water, but even as I brewed the drink, I was fading. There were no shadows jumping out at me from the corners here. No violent men who could break in at any moment. If something happened here, at least there was a chance I would be heard.

I sank into the couch. There was a blanket over the back of it. I kicked off my boots and left them near the fire before stretching out and breathing in the comfortable silence. My tea sat on the coffee table, still hot.

The curls of the steam, limned with firelight, lulled me into long-needed sleep.

Chapter 7

Noah

I had a feeling.

One of those I couldn’t run away from. My instincts told me Kate needed help, and I was going to make sure she got it.

Quickly, I drove the truck back to my place, made sure the kittens were okay, and jogged back to the lodge. Grant was just finishing up his shift in the security office and shutting things down for the night. “Closing the gate?” I asked.

“Yeah, I was about to.”

I took a breath. “Leave it open.”

“Why?”

Ever since Evelyn’s stalker had gotten access to the ranch and terrorized her, we took no chances. The gate didn’t stay open unattended. Especially at night. “I’ll stay with it,” I promised. “Can’t sleep anyway.”

Grant stood, stretching. “That’s not an answer to the question.”

“I just have a hunch.”

“Wouldn’t have anything to do with that car that came and left again a little while ago, right?” He smirked.

I dropped my coat on the couch. “You know, being a nosy bastard doesn’t suit you.”

“Maybe not, but it does make for excellent entertainment.” He stretched again.

“Why didn’t you let her in?”

Grant shrugged. “She never knocked. Never even got out of the car until you drove up.

Well, that answered that question. I took his place at the station with all the monitors. “How are you feeling?”

A couple of months ago, Grant’d finally had surgery on an old injury—shrapnel that had compressed his spinal cord. It had become an emergency when he’d saved his fiancée Cori from a fire. But he’d still come out the other side smiling.

“I’m good,” he said. “Sometimes I still push too far too fast. But I’m finally almost at one hundred percent.”