Page 2 of Rancher’s Strength (Flying Diamond 5, #4)

Chapter One

LEXIE

M y mind wandered back to Saturday when I’d seen Ryder in the coffee shop in Weston Gap.

God, he looked good, and the spot on my hip where he’d touched still burned with the pressure of his hand.

Even with that brief encounter, he acted like he couldn’t get away from me fast enough.

That was nothing new, he acted that way around me every time we happened to bump into each other.

Maybe our sightings would become fewer with Mom and Dad moving to Everton… one could only hope.

Yelling between my client and her ex brought my attention back to the room I was sitting in.

“Okay, let’s think of this logically. You have the house, right, Mrs. Tremaine?

” The woman with the perfect blonde hair nodded and slowly batted her eyelashes.

They looked so heavy with the style of fake eyelashes she chose.

“Mr. Tremaine, you’re in an apartment currently, correct?” The man nodded, his face growing redder by the second. “Well, I highly doubt you have the space for a table that seats fourteen. So, what’s this really about?” I folded my hands on the table and waited.

A knock on the door startled me, and I turned my head from the mind-numbing meditation on why this couple still loved one another and shouldn’t rush the divorce. “Come in.” My tone was short. I hated being interrupted while I was on client time.

My receptionist Faith opened the door. She had been my right hand for the last five years. Although she made a few missteps when I first hired her, she learned her job quickly and eventually stopped overbooking my days. “Alexandra, there’s a call for you.”

“Take a message, please,” I huffed, turning my attention back to the papers in my hands.

“No, this isn’t something I can take a message for.” Her voice was stern, and I looked up at her. The look on her face was a mix of fear and determination. I had to give her credit for asserting herself.

Reaching for the phone in front of me, she shook her head. “Privately.” She turned and left the door open behind her.

“I’m so sorry about this. Please excuse me for a moment.

” I smiled at my client and walked out of the room.

What could possibly be so important that I needed to take the call right now?

My mind wandered to my family. My sister Lydia never called me at the office.

..ever. I talked to Mom last night, and well, Dad didn’t know who I was anymore, so it wouldn’t be him.

What if something happened to him? That’s the only reason I gave to pull me out of a meeting, and Faith knew that. My heart raced as I grew closer to my office. “What line?” I asked as I walked past her desk outside my door.

“Line three.” She glanced up at me, then nervously looked back down at the floor. I didn’t bother sitting, I wasn’t going to be here long. Reaching for the phone, my hand shook as I pressed the button for line three. “Hello?”

“Hello, is this Alexandra Saffort?” the voice on the other end of the line asked in an oddly official tone.

“This is she, may I ask who I’m speaking to?”

“This is Officer Timothy Unger.” A police officer? Why would a police officer be calling me? Oh, god. Had Mom or Lydia been in an accident? “I’m regretfully calling to inform you that Hank and Anita Forrest were killed in a car accident this morning.”

I used all my strength to pull out my desk chair, immediately collapsing into it as if my legs had turned to Jello. “Mrs. Saffort, are you there?” the voice on the other end of the line drew me out of my haze.

“Yes, um, I’m sorry, I’m here. What happened?

” It didn’t make any sense; the weather was perfect, and it was the end of summer.

I talked to Anita yesterday. She said she and Hank were more in love than ever, but she didn’t want to go to the cabin.

She wanted to stay home with the kids and veg on the couch.

“From the information we can gather, they’d been heading to a mountain cabin for their anniversary.

A freak storm hit, and a mud slide pushed their car off the cliff.

” Bile rose in my throat as the man kept talking, but I was no longer comprehending his words because the rush of my pulse was drowning him out.

“Ruby and Sawyer?” I asked, interrupting whatever he was telling me.

“They are staying at a friend’s house. They haven’t been told, but the adults there are aware.”

“Who are they with?”

“Um... let me see here.” I could hear papers being shuffled, and silence hung on the line.

“You’re telling me that you’ve got two kids out there whose parents have been killed in a horrible accident, and you don’t have a flying fuck where they’re staying? What the fuck else do you have to do in that podunk town? What could be more important than this case?” I yelled into the phone.

“Ma’am, I understand this is a trying situation, but please bear with us while we get you the information.”

“I suggest you quit patronizing me, or I’ll tie up your department for years over the inept police work. Where are the kids?”

“Right, you’re a lawyer.” His condescending tone was enough to make me want to climb through the phone receiver and the telephone lines just to wrap my hands around his throat. “They’re at Samantha Younger’s home.” My anger abated slightly, the kids would be taken care of at Sam’s house.

Anita, Sam, and I had gone to college together, and back then, we decided we’d start our own law practice.

That hadn’t happened. I met my ex-husband and stayed in Bozeman.

Sam and Anita had settled in Wyoming, in the same town.

They worked in the same office but specialized in different areas of law.

“You’re the guardian listed for the children, so they’ll be released into your care upon your arrival.” His voice softened, and I closed my eyes as I thought about the kids. “Will Mr. Saffort be accompanying you? I need to let Ms. Younger know.”

“No, Mr. Saffort won’t be with me. I’ll leave now and be there in a few hours.”

“I’ll place that call to your husband then if you like.”

“Sure, go ahead,” I half answered, my mind racing a million miles an hour.

“Once again, I’m sorry for your loss,” Office Unger stated.

“Thank you,” I mumbled and hung up the phone.

Why were Ryder and I still the kids’ guardians?

Surely Anita would’ve updated her will when Ryder and I divorced.

She wanted the kids raised in a home with two loving parents.

When we’d agreed to be the guardians, Ryder and I fit the bill.

We were madly in love, but I’d changed, and we’d divorced three years ago.

A soft knock on my door drew my attention, and I looked up to see Faith.

“What do I need to do?” She had a notebook in one hand and a pen in the other.

Moving without a word, she sat across from me and said, “I handed off the Tremaines to Rayla. She’s been looped in because they’re ridiculous, so she knows them. ”

Being a divorce attorney had never been boring, but the number of couples I saw who were still in love had reached an all-time high lately. The Tremaines were no different; they’d been dragging their feet with this divorce, so I finally sat them down in the same room today to hash it out.

“Okay, great. I guess I need to cancel everything?” It was more of a question than a statement as I sat staring at the phone, waiting for it to ring and for someone to tell me this was a sick joke.

But silence hung in the air like a swarm of mosquitoes hovering above the surface of the pond at home when there was no breeze, and the summer heat made everything stagnant and lazy.

“For how long?”

“I don’t know. A while, I would think. Anyone I have scheduled, find new representation for them.

” Marriage counseling wasn’t in my college courses, but maybe it should have been, because most of the couples I worked with needed that more than they needed to be in my office ending their marriage.

A nagging voice in the back of my mind reminded me that was all I needed, too.

“I have to go to Wyoming. I don’t know how long I’ll be there, and then I’m going to have to go to the Flying Diamond to talk to Ryder.

” Faith’s head shot up at the mention of my ex.

“You can reach me on my cell if you need me.” Standing, I smoothed down my skirt and packed up the things I would need to work remotely.

“You might as well forward everything to your house. There’s no point in you sitting here twiddling your thumbs while I figure this out.

I’ll keep paying you, as normal.” I was rambling…

I needed to leave. “Once you’re done organizing things, you can go.

I’ll call you when I know more.” Grabbing my laptop bag and purse, I headed for the door.

“I’m sorry about your friends, Lexie.”

“Thanks.” Rushing out of the office before I broke down in tears, I basically ran to my car, desperate not to have my breakdown in the middle of the parking lot.

Slamming the door behind me, I couldn’t fight the tears any longer and let my head fall against the steering wheel, allowing them to fall freely.

Wiping my eyes with the back of my hand, I glanced in the rearview mirror before backing out of the parking spot. It was two in the afternoon, and almost five hours remained until Reverence, Wyoming. If I wanted to get there before the kids were ready for bed, I needed to move.

Tears slipped down my cheeks in fits and starts, blurring the road as I wound through the mountains and crossed into Idaho. Grief sat like a stone on my chest—Anita and Hank gone, just like that. The loss hollowed out my insides, each mile echoing with memories of their laughter, their love.

I pressed harder on the gas, daring the speed limit, daring fate—almost hoping for sirens to break the silence, to remind me this wasn’t just a nightmare I could wake from.

But when the welcome sign for Wyoming appeared and the plates around me began to match my destination, a breath escaped my lungs.

Not relief, exactly. Just the knowledge that I was closer.

Closer to Ruby and Sawyer. Closer to the promise Imade… the promise I needed to keep.

A thought crossed my mind. I hadn’t called Sam to let her know I was on the way.

When I pulled up in front of her house, I saw the curtains move, and almost immediately the front door swung open.

My other best friend stood in the doorway, her red hair pulled back off her face in a messy bun.

She usually looked put together, but given the circumstances, I didn’t see a stitch of makeup, and she wore yoga pants and an oversized sweatshirt. She ran down the front steps toward me.

Reaching for the handle, I scrambled out of my car, where she waited right outside my door. We wrapped our arms around each other, holding on for dear life. “This can’t be happening.” I sobbed.

Once we composed ourselves, I looked back at the house. “Have you told them?”

Sam shook her head, “No, I couldn’t bring myself to do it until you were here.”

“Once we explain what happened, I’ll take them home, or to a hotel. Their home? Which is just a reminder of where their parents should be—with them. What the hell am I supposed to do?” I mumbled as we walked to the house, our arms around one another.

“Ask them what they want to do. If they might want to go home. It’s all they know.

” Sam gave me a weak smile, and I nodded.

“What about Ryder?” Over the last three years my friends knew not to even bring up his name.

I’d never told them I bumped into him occasionally, and I wasn’t going to open that can of worms.

“The police were going to call him,” I mumbled. Sam squeezed me tighter.