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Cordell Westbrook dropped a lasso over the head of a skittish spring calf. It was branding time at the Two Harts, and Cord was now a cowboy. At last.

Grinning, he leapt off his horse, landing next to the bawling calf. He flipped it onto its side, hog-tied it, and held it still while Josh Hart, his boss and friend, made quick work of branding the little heifer.

The poor little heifer.

But Josh was fast, and Cord had gotten mighty skilled at this. He untied the critter’s feet as Josh freed the lasso from around her neck, letting it run off to its outraged mama to be nuzzled and fed and comforted.

“That’s the last one,” Josh said. He stood and watched the milling red-and-white Hereford cattle settle down. “We got ourselves a great calf crop this spring.”

Cord scanned the herd while he coiled his rope, appreciating all he’d learned since arriving at the ranch.

These days he knew what he was looking at.

Good, sturdy cows with calves that were shedding their shaggy winter coats, revealing the shiny coats beneath.

The cows had survived the winter well without any worrisome weight loss.

The weather in this Californian valley wasn’t all that harsh, and yet it got cold often enough.

Cord understood all this to mean, to his absolute delight, that sure enough, he was a cowboy. “This is so much better than being a banker,” he declared. “I can hardly believe I lasted so long in that office.”

Josh clapped him on the back. “You’re a solid hand, Cord. You’ve got a job here on the Two Harts for as long as you want.”

Nodding, Cord walked over to his ground-hitched horse. The well-trained animal stood patiently despite the noise and commotion and smoke all around him.

“I’ve always wanted my own place, Josh. I’d like to stay on longer at the Two Harts if I can, but the plan is still to buy my own land and settle down. Build something of my own. Even Grandpa Westbrook has accepted that now.”

He hoped.

The sound of steady, clopping hooves caused him and Josh to turn to the north just in time to see a chuck wagon pulled by two brown Morgan horses moving toward the branding site.

They were driven not by the bunkhouse cook as was usual but by Josh’s pretty sister, Annie Lane.

Cord wondered how such a beautiful widow had managed to stay single for so long.

As she drew closer, Cord saw Annie’s five-year-old daughter, Caroline, tucked up beside her ma.

They were a pair, those two. Dark hair, deep brown eyes, red roses in their cheeks.

Annie leaned toward being a solemn woman, and Cord knew she’d loved her husband.

She’d watched him die from a gunshot wound and still carried two bullets in her own flesh.

That seemed reason enough for her not to risk her heart again.

Annie pulled the chuck wagon to a halt, and Josh slapped Cord on the back, a little harder than he had before, jolting Cord back to awareness of his surroundings. He then glanced at Josh. It did near to a physical injury to have to take his eyes off Annie.

As if sensing Cord’s thoughts, Josh rolled his eyes and then headed for the wagon. But Annie was already off the bench seat and on the ground, helping Caroline alight before any man could reach her.

“Did Casey go to the south pasture?” Josh asked as he stepped to the back of the wagon and brought down the back gate to unload the food and other supplies.

Plenty of hungry cowhands stepped in to help.

They had a full crew today. The ranch boasted several pastures, and all of them held spring calves ready to be branded.

Josh and his brother, Zane, had hired a new bunkhouse cook just a few weeks ago to help their longtime cook, whose knee was giving him trouble again.

Annie tucked stray hair behind her ear and shook her head.

“Neb went south, so Casey got pulled into helping make lunch for the orphanage and school. And Tilda had an extra-long morning class because whatever she hit on teaching today kept the whole class enthralled. Your wife has a rare gift for teaching.”

“She does indeed.” Josh smiled at the mention of his wife.

“I like sitting in on her classes too, although I don’t get much chance to do so.

” He leaned down and kissed his sister on the cheek.

“Thanks for bringing our food out. We just got done with this pasture, so you timed it perfectly. We’re all starving! ”

Suddenly, a strangle rumble had all the men stepping away from the wagon, most with their food already in hand.

An earthquake. Which was normal enough in a place like California.

Nothing to worry about—that is, if it was a small one.

And with no roof overhead to collapse on them, they just had to wait it out.

Then the shaking turned rougher than any Cord had experienced before. Nevertheless, the men started eating, their feet spread wide for greater balance. Apparently, nothing would interrupt lunchtime.

Annie drew Caroline close and said, “I hope they got all the children outside back at the ranch.”

“I’m sure they did,” Josh reassured her.

“Zane stayed around today since Tilda’s pa is coming out.

I don’t like it when there’s no one to watch him, even if he’s turned into a man Tilda and I trust. Mostly.

” Josh hadn’t yet settled into having a father-in-law close at hand.

Especially a meddling father-in-law who Tilda, raised as an orphan, hadn’t known existed until just last fall.

The quaking worsened, and Annie pulled Caroline tight against her own body. The earth rolled in a way unlike anything Cord had seen, and he’d grown up in California. “Look at that! The ground’s moving like waves.”

Everyone turned to gape at an incoming ripple. Then a deeper rumble was felt by everyone, and a crack appeared in the ground.

“Step back!” Cord rushed to Annie’s side to pull her away from the oncoming rupture. But he wasn’t quick enough. A crevasse appeared right between Annie’s feet.

Annie screamed and jumped toward Cord, losing her tight grip on Caroline. Fortunately, Josh was there and so grabbed his niece, who shrieked in terror.

The ground collapsed under Cord just as he caught ahold of Annie, a narrow slit that kept widening. Cord clawed at the edge of the crack with one hand while holding on to Annie with the other as she plunged downward.

Mustering all his strength, Cord managed to push Annie up and out of the crack even as he slid down deeper. Then someone grabbed ahold of his hand. Before he knew it, a whole crew had him. They dragged him out of the collapsing ground and well away from where he’d been falling.

But the shaking and rumbling went on, causing the men who had him to fall as they scrambled backward.

With an awful creak, the chuck wagon sank into the widening crack.

Cord took one look at the vanishing wagon and hollered.

Josh sprang into action, passing Caroline to their foreman, Shad, before pulling his knife from its sheath.

He ran to the horses and slashed their reins, setting loose the Morgans before the earth could swallow them up.

Cord got to his feet, rushed over, and caught the terrified horses’ reins.

Then, as Cord was leading the animals away, the earthquake turned violent and tossed him to the ground again.

Somehow he held on to the horses as they dragged him along, Cord clinging to the reins more out of habit than anything else.

Finally the pair of Morgans halted. Everywhere, the men were sprawled on the ground.

The sound of thundering hoofbeats alerted Cord and the others to the cows and horses charging away from the crack that was swallowing the still-smoldering fire, along with a couple of the Two Harts branding irons.

At last the shaking stopped.

Shad brought Caroline to Annie, who remained sitting on the ground. She hugged her terrified, sobbing daughter, soothing her with quiet shushing sounds.

“We’ve got to get back to the ranch. There’ll be damage for certain.

” Josh looked around and began snapping off orders, rattling off four names.

“You four are lightest. Ride the Morgans double back to the ranch house, rounding up enough horses for the rest of us wherever you can find them. One of you bring them here to us. The others should stay and help at the ranch. There may be injuries. In the meantime, we’ll walk as fast as we can for home. ”

Cord thought of Brody MacKenzie, who’d traveled back east to partner with a doctor to whom he owed money.

It’d sure be nice to have a doctor around the place right now.

The doctor in the nearest town, Dorada Rio, would most likely be needed there after such a quake.

That left them with Zane’s wife, Michelle.

While she was a knowing woman, she had a baby to tend, and the simple truth was she was no doctor.

Cord could only hope and pray that there were no serious injuries at the ranch.

The four cowhands rode off for home. Before they’d gone far, the ground started trembling again, this time less violently. Even so, they all froze and swayed, looking in all directions for a dangerous new split in the ground.

The powerful aftershock stopped soon enough, and after it did, they quick hoisted their saddles and slung them over their shoulders. They grabbed up the remaining branding irons and bridles, whatever hadn’t been swallowed up by the earth.

Though they were miles from home, they set off on foot toward the ranch house regardless.

Cord sure hoped they wouldn’t have to walk the whole way.

Then again, considering what they’d just endured and the possible chaos they might find when they arrived home, he felt very grateful to be in one piece.

* * * *

Annie decided to make Caroline walk, although her instincts told her to carry her daughter. But they had a long way to go, and Caroline had gotten too heavy to lug any farther. At least the girl was finally calming down after the scare of the quake.

Of the eight of them left to walk, Caroline was probably the most tireless, judging by the little girl’s constant motion all day every day.

Occasional aftershocks, small tremors in the ground, kept them all on edge as they walked.

They hadn’t gone far when Bo, one of their cowhands, came riding back.

He was leading three horses. “I’ll bring back more if I can find them,” he said.

“We saw a couple ahead of us, both still running, no doubt headed for the barn. Shad and I both set our riders down so that I could get back to you fast. He’ll try to catch more horses. ”

“Annie,” Josh said, saddling the closest horse as Bo rode off, “those of us who can should ride ahead. There’s going to be lots of work to do back at the ranch.”

Annie nodded. There would be work for her as well, but if any of the buildings had collapsed, a lot of it would be heavy work, and the men needed to get on with it.

Josh jabbed a finger at five of the men. “You’re with me. We’ll all ride double. Cord, that leaves you out here with Annie and Caroline. More horses will be coming soon.”

Josh mounted up and galloped away with all the men except Cord.

They walked briskly along, Cord toting his saddle and bridle. “Do you think he picked me to stay behind because he knows I’m still the most useless of his cowhands?”

Annie surprised herself by laughing. Not much made her laugh since Todd had died. “And he left me behind for the same reason.”

Cord turned to her and smiled.

“I’d say you are doing a decent job,” she said. “Between Josh and Zane, when it comes to ranch work, neither of your bosses is real worried about anyone’s tender feelings. If you were poor at your job, you’d sure know it by the way they tore the hide off you.”

He nodded. “You’re right, Annie, because they’ve done that to me a few times before.

Your brothers are competent teachers, but they aren’t exactly tactful.

As for myself, I prefer straight talk. Anyway, I’m going to have my own place one of these days.

Nothing, I suspect, as impressive as the Two Harts, but I spent four of my growing-up years on my grandpa’s farm, and that way of life suits me rather well. ”

“Mayhew Westbrook owns a farm?” Annie knew Cord’s grandfather had gone back to his mansion in Sacramento for the winter. He’d cleared out when Michelle’s family—five of them—had turned up to see her new baby and filled the ranch house.

Not long after that, Brody and Ellie MacKenzie had taken Brody’s younger brothers with them all the way to Boston on the opposite side of the continent. Brody had a doctoring job waiting for him there with a partner by the name of Dr. Tibbles, the man Brody was indebted to.

Thayne and Lochlan—the scamps who’d run away from New York City in search of treasure—had lied their way onto the Two Harts Ranch and left mayhem wherever they went.

They’d only agreed to go with Brody to Boston on the condition that when it was determined Brody had fulfilled his promise to Dr. Tibbles, they’d then head back to California.

The men had already found some of the treasure they’d hoped to find, though Annie was convinced that a lot more treasure remained hidden out there, and it was just waiting to be discovered....