Page 39 of Knot Her Cowboys (Big Sky Omegas #2)

“About five years ago,” Levi replied. “They set up a dairy and sell the milk. You don’t have to assist with anything, and you won’t want to either. There’ll be a lot of chaos with this many people working, so if Maisie is accessible, you can take that time to find her, but don’t go far.”

“Roger that.”

Over the length of the drive, we compared our notes on the Deckers. It sounded like the compound had doubled in size since I’d last lived around here, and they’d been buying up a lot of the surrounding farmland.

“Do you think they got new followers to warrant that much growth? Or do you think they bred them?” I asked.

“Both are shit options,” Cooper replied.

None of us knew much about the inner workings of the cult situation they had going on. It wasn’t often that I was grateful to Darlene for being so fucking unlikable that it had kept me from being part of it.

We all fell silent as we approached the gates, several armed guards stopping us to go through the vehicle.

“Who the fuck are all the rest?” One of them asked. “We only have the vet on the list.”

“I grabbed the ranch hands best able to help,” Levi told them. “The faster we work, the fewer animals you’ll lose.”

They discussed between them, each second that passed making me sweat a little more. Two searched through the truck bed, presumably making sure we had no weapons stashed away. When they waved us inside, they made us park and step out for a pat-down.

Before I could panic, a voice shouted from one of the barns. “Stop slowing down my fucking help! Jesus fucking Christ. Do you want these animals saved or not?”

The guards waved us along. Levi grabbed his kit out of the back, passing supplies to the others to carry, and a smaller bag to me so I wasn’t suspicious.

We crossed the stretch of land from the gate to where the spotlights were set up so people could work on the goats, and it was one of the most nerve-wracking walks of my life.

Levi met up with the vet handling everything and everyone plunged into action while I slipped into the dark. I tripped over someone hiding in the grass a second later, face-planting in the dirt with a groan.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. Are you hurt?” a soft voice asked.

“I’ll survive.” I turned to the small figure in the shadows, who was watching the chaos with a toddler on her lap. “What’re you doing hiding out here?”

“I heard all the commotion and came to check it out. Do you think the goats will make it?” she asked me. “I hate to think about them suffering.”

“They’re in the best hands around,” I replied awkwardly, unsure what else to say.

She stared at me for a moment, her long, straight blonde hair shining in the moonlight. “What are you doing over here? Shouldn’t you be helping?”

Shit. I didn’t know if she was brainwashed to the cult or desperate to get out. “I was looking for someone.”

“Don’t you know it’s dangerous to be in here? If they find out you’re a woman…”

Thank fuck. She wasn’t totally lost to this place at least. “Do you know Maisie Combs? Is she safe?”

“… Maisie ? What do you want with her?”

I bit my tongue, trying to decide how much to say. “Her sister is back in town.” I didn’t want to risk any more than that.

The woman’s mouth dropped open. “Oh my god. Riley ? That’s why you look so familiar. It’s me .”

I stared at her features, noting the bits that made up the girl I used to know juxtaposed against the foreign hair color and the dark shadows beneath her eyes. “Maisie?”

She burst into tears, throwing herself against my chest, mindful of the child. “You can’t be here. You got out. You have to leave.”

“I can’t leave until they’re done with the goats. I snuck in with Levi and came to see you.”

Maisie dragged me closer, ensuring I was hidden by her side in the waist-high grasses.

“Who’s this you’ve got here? Am I an auntie?”

Maisie adjusted the toddler onto her lap. “Her name is Nora. She’s my third.”

“ Third ?” Maisie was only twenty-six, and while I knew some people had kids young, three already seemed like a lot.

“Cody is my oldest—he just turned eight. And Paisley is five. She’s starting kindergarten soon. Nora turns two next month.”

I did the math backward. “Paul got you pregnant when you were eighteen?”

Maisie’s breath hitched. “A trap baby. He makes me have another every time he can sense I’m working up to leaving.”

Hot fury poured through me. “I’m going to kill him.”

“I can’t actually leave,” she said softly. “Not ever. Not really.”

“Why not?”

“They let us out of the compound sometimes to run errands, but never with all of our children. We have to leave at least one behind, and they check to make sure they’re where we say they are.”

“God, I’m so sorry. What can I do?”

“Nothing.” She chewed her bottom lip, running her fingertips over the toddler’s downy hair. “You have to stay out of here. Don’t let them get you too.”

“My pack wouldn’t let them keep me.”

Maisie’s eyes widened. “You have a pack?”

“It’s very new, but yes. You remember Morgan Harris, right?” At Maisie’s nod, I continued, “I dated her brother Cooper all through high school, and our best friend at the time, Cash, formed a pack with him, Dakota, and Levi. Levi is one of the vets helping out.”

“You love them?”

“Already crossed that bridge with Cooper and Cash, and well on my way over it with the others. They’re really good men, and I hope you’ll get to meet them.”

“I gave up hope of a pack. The alphas here are…”

“Fucking terrible?”

Maisie let out a tremulous laugh. “Yes. I couldn’t imagine having to deal with more than Paul. I don’t think I would survive it.”

“ Maisie .”

My sister and I both froze as Martha Combs, Maisie’s mother, stepped around the shed.

“I’ve told you to stop coming out here. What would Paul say if he heard you talking like that? You know better than to speak where you can be overheard.” She kneeled next to us, her voice somehow gentle and fierce at the same time. “I evaded two guards on my way here. You need to be more careful.”

Maisie wilted. “I’m sorry, Mama.”

Martha turned to me, eyes sharp. “And you? I thought you were smarter than your mother. I get her out of here to spare myself her existence and you a life growing up here, and then you come traipsing back in?”

“Wait, what? What do you mean to spare me ?”

Martha kneeled next to us, her voice quiet but firm.

“Keeping Darlene out was no easy task. The woman is miserable, and I would have fed her to the pigs if my husband had allowed her to stay.” Martha sighed, her gaze sweeping from me and into the distance where the men worked.

“Selfishly, I pushed her out for myself. I was already so miserable here that I couldn’t have dealt with her on top of everything else, but I came to realize it was good that I did.

I couldn’t save my own babies from this life, but I could save hers.

No matter how much I hated her, you didn’t deserve to pay for her choices. ”

My whole worldview around Maisie’s mom shattered. “You protected me?”

“Do you have cotton in your ears?”

“No, I just…I didn’t know.”

“What are you doing here, Riley? How could you be so reckless?”

“I wanted to see how Maisie was, if she was safe.”

“And now you’ve seen. Leave before Darrell catches wind of you being here.”

I leaned in to whisper in Maisie’s ear. “Rowdy Rock Ranch. Go there if you ever get out. We’ll help you.” I got to my feet, giving the two of them a sharp nod. “I’m sorry I made your life harder. Thank you, though. I wish I had known.”

“It would’ve changed nothing,” Martha insisted.

I spared a glance at my sister, still tucked in the grass, cradling her sleeping daughter. Tears slid down her cheeks.

What could I say? I’ll come back ? I’ll get you out ?

I wasn’t as na?ve as that. She wasn’t safe and she wasn’t okay. She never would be so long as she was here.

But…I’d gotten my chance of freedom, and Maisie deserved hers too.

Martha grabbed me by the arm and nudged me back toward the edge of the shadows. “Don’t undo my work. Maisie isn’t going anywhere, so abandon any grand plans you have about her. Her children need her here. You don’t get out of this place once you’re in.”

“Help her,” I whispered. “Help all of them. You don’t have to stay.”

“I—” Martha looked like I’d punched her in the gut. “I’ve tried. Leave, Riley. Protect yourself.”

I didn’t know how it could happen, but this didn’t have to be the end. The compound was a trap, and one day, enough would be enough.

This whole place needed to be burned to the ground.