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They went over it all. The old information the police had gathered when their parents had disappeared, what his siblings had gathered in the past few days. Nothing new, nothing groundbreaking, but it was good to talk it through.

Jack was trying to convince himself it was good. He knew it wasn’t true, but he felt like the only one struggling with the weight of what they were discussing. Not just anyone’s skeletal remains—his parents.

Not positively IDed yet, he reminded himself. Or tried to.

Though they’d all done some of their own investigating over the years, there wasn’t anything really new so far. Anna and Palmer had both been looking into any connection Mark Brink might have had to their parents. Mary had been looking through old ranch records to see if something jumped out connecting anything Hudson to the Brink Ranch. Cash had been working with Zeke and Zeke’s connections to see if he could get more information on the crime scene as it was right now.

“So, we did all this and we’re still in the same exact spot?” Anna groused.

“It’s not the same exact spot,” Mary said, clearly trying to sound optimistic. “Just like any cold case. We don’t know which corner might lead us to a new thread. So we keep going. I still have old ranch records to look through, and we don’t know what the forensic anthropologist might have to say. It’s a step.”

“It’s a foolish step,” Anna muttered.

“I think that’s a sign someone is tired,” Hawk said, earning a scowl from his wife. “Mary’s right. We’ve got next steps. Let’s call this a night. Caroline’s conked out anyway,” he said, gesturing to the sleeping baby in Anna’s arms.

She sighed and got to her feet, and everyone else began to disperse, couple by couple.

Chloe stood. “I better go check on Ry. Make sure Carlyle hasn’t scarred him for life.” She tried to smile. It faltered.

“Did you want to go get that scrapbook?” Jack asked.

She waved it off, already heading out of the room. “Tomorrow morning is soon enough,” she muttered. Then she disappeared. Jack wanted to follow her, but Mary started tidying up, so both he and Grant stepped in to stop her.

“Go to bed, Mary. We can clean up.”

She frowned at them both, hands on her hips, but Walker urged her out of the room so that it was just Jack and Grant collecting debris. Jack figured they’d work in quiet. Grant usually did.

“So, how long has your thing with Chloe been going on?”

If it had been anyone else standing there asking him that question, Jack would have had a quick answer. An easy lie. He expected things like that from just about everyone.

But never Grant.

Grant, who most people would never guess was married to his wife, because he and Dahlia were so private they almost never engaged in even hand holding in front of people. Grant, who’d taken eons to propose to Dahlia, if compared to Mary, Anna and Palmer’s quick jumps into commitment. Who’d had a wedding so small, it had only been immediate family because they hadn’t wanted an audience.

“What?” was all Jack managed.

But Grant didn’t relent. Grant . The man who’d returned from war and kept every last effect of that to himself. No matter how obvious they’d been.

“I can repeat myself if you really need me to, but I think you know what I asked.” He calmly stacked papers together.

“Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?” Grant, who was closest in age to Jack, who’d been his kind of right-hand man in keeping everything together that first year. Because he’d been the only one old enough to also drive. He’d helped with school runs and sports practices. If it hadn’t been for Grant, who’d been sixteen , Jack would have fumbled the whole thing.

Grant’s mouth curved ever so slightly. “It’s a simple question, Jack. I know a lot about all the things a person tells themself that doesn’t serve them. We’d hate to think you have to keep yourself some isolated paragon for the rest of us.”

Jack wanted to be touched that Grant was concerned about him, but... “‘We’?”

Grant’s expression went almost sheepish. “It’s been a topic of conversation.”

“With who ?”

“Well, I think it started with Carlyle, then it kind of spread from there. Not everyone believed it at first. Dahlia was an early believer though, and it’s hard to argue with her. She observes things. Cash and Walker weren’t so easily swayed, but recently...” Grant shrugged. “I think the lone holdout on that score is Palmer. He’s convinced you’d never cross a line at work.”

Jack wasn’t sure what was worse: all the people who thought it was true or the fact Palmer was wrong about him.

“So you guys have been sitting around debating whether or not I have a relationship with Chloe?”

“You do know your family, right? And Carlyle? She brings it up every chance she gets. She’s determined to be right. She is, isn’t she?”

“Are you going to take my answer back to the collective?” Jack returned, a little bitterly even to his own ears.

“I don’t have to. I can keep a secret.” He shrugged as if it was that simple. And Jack wasn’t sure if it was just who Grant was or because they were the closest that Grant was probably the only one he’d believe that from.

“I just didn’t want you laboring under the assumption you weren’t allowed to have a life too. Taking care of everyone has been your life for so long. I’m sure it’s hard to realize we’re all grown up and let that go. But we are. And we’re all here. We’re all good.”

“It isn’t that,” Jack managed, though it wasn’t so fully off the mark, he realized. “Maybe it was a little in the beginning, but... Working together complicates things. For Chloe.”

“Life is complicated. You can’t protect everyone, Jack.”

He was a little tired of that getting thrown in his face at every turn, but... “I can try.”

Grant shook his head, but he didn’t argue. “Look, asking you about Chloe isn’t the only thing I wanted to talk to you alone about.”

“You want to probe deeper into my sex life for the past decade?”

Grant pulled a face, as Jack had hoped. He hadn’t learned nothing from being Anna’s older brother.

“No,” Grant said stoutly. “We’re not really telling everyone yet, but I figured you should be the first to know.”

“Know what?” Maybe he should have seen it coming. Grant wasn’t the first, but Jack was really taken off guard by Grant’s next words.

“Dahlia’s pregnant.”

It shouldn’t be a shock. Kids were going to follow marriage more often than not, but maybe Jack thought Grant would feel a little like he did. Like he’d already raised a family.

But Grant’s mouth was curved, as wide as Grant ever smiled. Happy. Grant Hudson, war hero, married and starting a family.

Jack really didn’t know how to absorb it, but what he tried to do in these kinds of moments was think back to their father. What would he have done?

But in this case, Jack didn’t know. Because his father had never had the chance to parent adults . The idea of being a grandfather had probably never been one he’d entertained for too long, too busy getting his six kids grown first.

So Jack just had to rely on himself. He reached out, gave Grant’s shoulder a squeeze. “You’ll make a hell of a father, Grant. You’ve had some hands-on practice.”

He shrugged. “Had some good role models to follow too.” He patted Jack on the shoulder, like he was one of them. “You don’t have to pretend with Chloe around us. No one’s going to cause a problem here. Seems to me you guys should have somewhere you don’t have to pretend.”

“I’ll, uh, talk to Chloe about it. Not sure how comfortable she’d be.”

“Sure. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“Even to Dahlia?”

“Well, maybe not that shut. But she won’t tell anyone. You have my word.”

And Grant’s word was good as gold. Always had been.

Jack didn’t think he’d had much to do with that, but maybe...maybe some. A tiny, little bit. And it made him feel pretty damn good that he had.

C HLOE FOUND R Y laughing with the dogs. Carlyle was watching them with an eagle eye, but from a distance. Giving Ry the illusion of being in charge.

It made her heart twist that it looked like he was handling it just fine. Why hadn’t she been able to keep him out of trouble?

Well, didn’t do to think about now. She walked over to Carlyle first. “Hey. How’s it going?”

“As long as the animals are around? He’s fine. Not irritating at all. Might have wanted to pound him on the walk over while he was whining about his tough lot in life—please, buddy, I win. Still, I think we’ll be able to keep him busy and out of trouble without a pounding.”

“I can’t tell you how much I—”

Carlyle held up a hand. “Don’t thank me. It’s rude.”

“How is thanking you rude?”

“Because it is,” Carlyle replied. Then she gave Chloe a kind of sideways look. “So, is this whole protect-you-on-the-Hudson-Ranch thing Jack Hudson’s version of trying to get in your pants?”

Chloe choked on a sharp inhale. “What? No!”

“Is that because he’s already in your pants?”

“Carlyle!”

“So that’s a yes.” Carlyle looked back at Ry, who was getting the dogs into the barn one by one. “I knew it.”

Chloe knew if there was anyone she’d slipped up around when it came to maybe hinting she had a thing for Jack, it was Carlyle and only Carlyle. But... “You did not.”

“I totally knew it. I just couldn’t figure out why all the secrecy about it.”

Chloe could hedge, lie, make up a story, but she was tired and emotionally wrung out, and hell, Carlyle was her friend. “He didn’t want to tell anyone because he didn’t want to see me get needled at work over it.”

“Aw. That’s actually sweet. You know, at first I thought he was kind of a cold fish, but he’s grown on me. He’s just like all uptight goody-two-shoes because he’s always trying to make everything right. It’s annoying as all get out, but it’s kind of sweet when it doesn’t tick me off.”

Chloe shrugged jerkily. Sure, it was. That’s why it was so damn unnerving. “Well, anyway. We still work together, so—”

“Weren’t you applying for that K-9 job at Bent County?”

Chloe pulled a face. She hadn’t told anyone about that...except Carlyle after a few too many at the Lariat one night.

“I’m not going to apply for some job just to... Whatever.”

“No, you were going to apply for it because you love dogs and were getting tired of the same old same old in Sunrise.”

Chloe hadn’t hit Submit on the application because as much as she wanted to try her hand at the K-9 unit in Bent County, she hadn’t wanted Jack or anyone else to read into her switching jobs. One way or another. Because she’d needed to prove to herself she was strong enough not to go switch jobs in the hopes she’d have a future with some guy .

“No one will think that I’m moving jobs because I want a different job when my relationship with Jack gets out. They’ll think I’m weak and lovesick,” she muttered.

Carlyle looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “What does it matter what anyone else thinks? You do want a different job. And you’re about as weak as a boulder.”

Yes, but that’s not what this was about. It was... It was...something. Carlyle just didn’t... “You don’t understand what it’s like to grow up in a small town.”

“No, but I do understand what it’s like to be a grown up, Chloe. What other people think only matters if you let it.”

It frustrated her because she didn’t know how to argue with it. And with everything else going on, she wasn’t handling that as well as she should. “Well, thanks for that after-school special, Car, but I’ve still got to drive over to Bent County and pick some of my confiscated belongings up.” She didn’t want to wait until morning now. She wanted to get out and away. From everyone. “I’ll deliver Ry back to his room.”

Carlyle shook her head. “Leave him. Cash is going to have him pick out a dog to keep him company inside once he’s got Izzy to bed. We’ll handle it.”

“You don’t need—”

“Chloe.”

“What?”

“Scram.”

“Carlyle, he’s my brother and my—”

“Burden? Cool. We’ll handle it for a while. And if you keep arguing with me, I’m literally going to fight you.”

Chloe glared at Carlyle, but also wouldn’t put it past the woman. And she was feeling so...so...twisted up, she couldn’t find any words to get through to Carlyle. So she left. Left her brother as someone else’s responsibility.

The Hudsons and their extended little network wanted to take over her life? Fine. They wanted to take care of her lying, unpredictable brother? Great. They wanted to watch her every move because of some nonsense threat that Jack perceived there to be? Let them.

She didn’t know why it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Like there was a pressure in her chest, so heavy that she couldn’t even fill up her lungs. It was all too much like impending doom.

Because they couldn’t handle everything for her. Something was going to crash and burn, and then it’d be all up to her again—and then what?

She was going to leave. Right now. Just get in her car and go. Get the scrapbook and then head home. Her home. She didn’t want to be protected. She didn’t want to be helped. She wanted...

She started to change her route. Walk for the front, where her car was parked, instead of the side door that would lead her back into the house. To Jack.

Jack. Who loved her for some reason. Who’d asked her to let him take care of her. Because he needed that.

She swore and stopped walking, right there in the middle of the yard, starlight sparkling all around her. She couldn’t be that woman who just took off. Oh, she wanted to be. God , she wanted to be. But it would hurt him if she went off by herself, and even if she didn’t think she was in any danger, all it would take is for one little thing to go off course for her to feel like she’d been wrong.

She turned back toward the house, and then there he was. Stepping out of the side door, the porch light shining a little halo around his head.

She loved him so much, it made her want to run away. Because what he didn’t understand was that for all the ways she presented herself, for all the ways she thought therapy had helped her deal with her childhood trauma, deep down she saw—clearly, for the first time—how scared she was that it all just made her as unlovable as she’d always been treated.

But she had gone to therapy. She had faced a garbage fest of a childhood and worked on healing from those wounds. Maybe she wasn’t all the way there, but it was about progress. Not perfection.

She walked over to him, not sure what to say or even who to be. It was like Ry unearthing all those bodies hadn’t just caused a major issue. It was like it had turned her life inside out and nothing made sense anymore.

Least of all the man on the porch. No, least of all herself .

“Were you going somewhere?” he asked. Not with accusation. Not with anger. He likely felt a little bit of those things, but he didn’t use them on her. That wasn’t him.

So she told him the truth. No lie would form. “Thought about taking off.”

“What changed your mind?”

She took the stairs, got close enough to him that she could see the way he watched her. Maybe there was a little flare of irritation lurking in his dark eyes, but mostly the only thing on his face was worry.

She leaned forward against him, wrapped her arms around him. “You.”

He ran a hand over her hair. A sweet, protective gesture as he pressed a kiss to her temple. “Good.”

That simple response almost made her laugh. But this whole day also revealed a truth that she was going to have to accept.

Everything was going to feel off-kilter and wrong until they got to the bottom of this mystery that connected to both their pasts. “Let’s go get that scrapbook. I think I need to not have it hanging over my head.”

He nodded. “Keys in my pocket. Let’s head out.”

He drove out to Bent County. They didn’t really talk, just listened to the low strains of the old-fashioned country music he preferred. It suited the mood. Sad, mournful, a little weird.

When he parked and turned off the engine, he got out with her. It wasn’t a surprise, exactly, but she had to fight the knee-jerk desire to tell him to stay in his truck.

They walked in together, smiled at the administrative assistant behind the desk. Sunrise worked with Bent County enough for Chloe to know everyone here by name.

“Hey, Linda. I’m here to pick up the relinquished property Hart left for me.”

Linda tilted her head. “I’m sorry, Deputy Brink. Hart hasn’t told me about any relinquished property. I don’t think he’s here, but Laurel is. Let me call her down.” She lifted a phone to her ear.

Something didn’t set right with that. Chloe looked up at Jack. He was frowning. But they didn’t say anything, just waited for Detective Delaney-Carson.

A few minutes later, she strode into the lobby area. She stopped short and looked at both of them like she was surprised to see them there. “What are you two doing here?”

“Picking up the scrapbook Hart called me about this afternoon.”

The detective’s eyebrows drew together. “He told me he was going to drive it out to you before he went home.”

Chloe exchanged a look with Jack. “That’s not what he told us. He said I could pick it up whenever.”

She nodded. “That was our original plan, but when you didn’t show up, he was going to drop it by the ranch.”

“Maybe take a pass at questioning Ry if he got the opportunity?” Jack offered, sounding casual.

Laurel studied Jack as if deciding what to say. Then she gave a little nod. “Yeah. Did he?”

“He never came by. Scrapbook or no.”

Laurel’s expression went from a puzzled kind of professionalism to flat-out worry. “I’ll call him.”

She took the phone Linda handed her, dialed the number and then waited. Her expression went from worry to cool, cop professionalism. But Chloe knew that meant something was wrong .

“He’s not answering.”