Page 9 of The Runaway and the Rugged (Dusty Meadows #1)

GARTH

“ G arth, do you copy? I repeat, do you copy? We have a serious fucking situation right now,” Greta’s distressed voice came through my walkie-talkie, hindering my movements.

Fuck. What now?

“Code red, Garth, code re?—”

Pressing the button, I quickly cut off her rambling. “Code red? What the hell does that mean? We don’t have a code red?”

Placing the bucket down beside my feet, I wiped the bead of sweat from my brow with my sleeve.

“The bride,” she responded sharply, blatant worry coating her words. “The goddamn bride is missing and the groom is seconds away from strangling someone.”

What?

I hoped to fuck she wasn’t referring to herself as that someone.

“I’ve been running around in circles trying to find her.” She paused, then a series of shuffles filled the air as if she were walking. “Garth, I don’t know what to do, I’ve looked everywhere but no one has seen her in over an hour…”

“Okay, first of all, slow down and take a deep breath,” I demanded before she spiraled any further. Then letting her have a moment to decompress, I began to make my way toward the stables. “Now start from the very beginning and tell me what the hell is going on.”

“I went to check on the bride, but she wasn’t in her room. I didn’t worry too much about it, thinking maybe she was with someone and lost track of time.” Her voice wobbled with the sounds of chatter lingering in the background. “But the longer I searched and asked around, the more worried I got.”

“And you’re sure you checked everywhere?” I swung open the stable doors and headed toward the back.

“Everywhere she might be, yes. Unless…”

“The groom? He doesn’t have any clue as to where she could be?” I caught the attention of a few horses as I passed by, and when I stopped in front of my girl Ella’s stall, she immediately turned her body around to greet me.

“No, he says he hasn’t spoken with her since yesterday.”

In a matter of only a few seconds, I grabbed a saddle off the rack and stepped inside Ella’s stall. She let out a few huffs and nudged my arm with her muzzle before letting me place the saddle onto her back.

“Garth, I’m really trying to remain calm right now, but with this rich prick breathing down my neck looking for his bride and the wedding guests wondering what the hell is going on… I don’t… I really need you…”

The mention of the rich asshole had me pausing. With one foot in the stirrup and my hand clenching tightly around the walkie-talkie, I moved it closer to my mouth.

“He near you right now?” I asked, hoping to hell he was within earshot.

“Um, kind of, but he can’t hear me.”

She knew what was about to happen. I may have been the most levelheaded Calhoun, but when it came to my family, I didn’t fuck around.

Especially when it came to Greta and my daughter.

I was protective of them both, and knowing that this asshole was hounding my sister over something that wasn’t her fault had my blood simmering.

All the time and energy she had put into this, not to mention all the bullshit we had endured because of this wedding, and still he wanted to act like a douche?

“Get closer to him and make sure he can hear me.” I used my foot on the stirrup to pull myself up.

I didn’t get a response back, but I knew she was following through with what I told her.

“Garth?” My name came out unsteady and shaky, and that was all I needed to fuel my fire.

“I’m here. I’m takin’ Ella out on the trails to go look for her and once I do find her, and believe me I will, I’m turnin’ this damn radio off,” I declared, emphasizing my words with a steely voice.

“And If I were the groom, I’d spend a little less time asking others where the bride is and start asking myself why the hell she’s missin’ in the first place. ”

Not wastin’ time to hear what kind of excuses he’d come up with, I cranked the volume down on the walkie-talkie and lunged up onto the saddle, just waiting for this damn day to be over with.

The sun was beginning to set just beyond the mountain peak, creating an orangish-yellow glow across the trail and wildflowers that straddled it.

It was the perfect late afternoon, but I knew better than anyone that in only a couple hours, when the sun was finally down, this breathtaking trail turned treacherous.

Snakes, scorpions, you fuckin’ name it.

It was named Dead Man’s Pass for a reason, but without a sign, it may have well been something innocent like Bluebonnet Bend.

And that’s why I chose to check this one first. It was the most inviting, the most alluring trail we had on the ranch, and thinkin’ like a soon-to-be bride who needed a breath of fresh air, this would be the way to go.

Because why wouldn’t a defenseless woman wearing a wedding gown and heels choose our most dangerous trail without knowing it to walk through?

We were about halfway as Ella stomped her way through a mixture of mud and rainwater before heading down a slight decline in the trail. As I steadied the reins, my gaze caught on to something in the distance.

Something that stood out.

Something white.

As my eyes began to adjust to what I was looking at, something had spooked Ella, causing her to lift a hoof off the ground in a jerky manner.

“Whoa, easy, girl.” I tightened my hold on the reins and once I knew I had a firm grip, I ran my palm along her shoulder. It only took a few moments to calm her down. A few rubs and praises, and she was good to go.

“Hello?” a frantic voice shouted as it echoed its way in my direction.

My eyes lifted, searching for whoever called out to me, and sure enough, my stare captured a blur of white.

The missing bride.

An enormous sense of relief washed over me, not only for Greta, but for this incredibly stupid woman who decided to get lost on her wedding day.

About two hundred feet in front of me I could see arms flailing in the air as if to capture my attention.

Back and forth, up and down, you’d have thought she was stranded on some island the way she was signaling for me.

Yeah, sweetheart, I fuckin’ see you.

A long, drawn-out sigh escaped from the confines of my chest, while a rush of irritation began to overlap with my relief. “Come on, Ella, we got a missing bride to save,” I muttered, then with a gentle tug on the reins we forged ahead.

Keeping my eyes trained forward, I slowly began to digest the severity of what this situation could have been.

There was somethin’ about a vulnerable woman wandering around this trail at dusk that didn’t sit right with me.

Whether it was her severe lack of judgement, or the fact her dipshit fiancé didn’t have a clue where she was; it was all enough to bury its way underneath my skin.

As we drew nearer, every feature, every graceful arc on her body became more noticeable. It nearly stopped me in my tracks with the unfamiliar way my chest tightened from just looking at this woman.

“Oh, thank God,” she muttered to herself as her head fell back with a smile.

A blinding one at that.

It became clear to me I was in the presence of sunshine incarnate.

From the prettiest shade of sunset hair that framed her face, down to the way she carried herself, she was the focal point.

The array of colorful wildflowers, the vibrant, warm hues of a Texas sunset, it was all truly breathtaking, otherworldly, but nothing compared to this. To what I was looking at now.

I’d seen thousands of sunsets, thousands of views that stole my breath away, but nothing was as impactful as looking at her.

Perched on a boulder with a pair of heels dangling from her fingers, her wide, jade eyes had not once strayed from mine. A mixture of shock and tangible relief glimmered back at me.

“You found me.” Her voice cracked on impact, yet still sounded like something out of a dream.

Ella came to halt just a few feet where she sat, both her and I perplexed by what we were looking at. It wasn’t every day you stumbled across a bride on the ranch, let alone a woman who rendered me speechless from just one look.

“You're lucky it wasn’t somethin’ else that found you,” I grumbled, taking her in from head to toe, gauging for any injuries she may have gotten.

Besides the dirt and dust on the bottom of her dress and arms, she otherwise looked unharmed.

“What the hell were you thinking wandering off like that? Do you have any idea what could have happened?” My eyes lifted while my tone was thick with irritation.

Visibly shaken, her glossy eyes widened.

“I didn’t… I wasn’t…” She stumbled over her words, clearly affected. Then dropping her stare from mine, she mustered up enough confidence to answer. “I just needed air, and I couldn’t find any in that room.”

Ella chuffed.

“You needed air?” I repeated.

She glanced at Ella. “I needed fresh air. I needed away.”

I needed away.

A nervous bride, that’s what I was dealing with here. One that had wandered off too far and missed her own ceremony.

“Then you should have gone over to the lake. You don’t go for a stroll down a trail you’ve never been on. Let alone on the day you’re getting fuckin’ married.”

Peering down at her yellow-painted toes, I made out the early stages of blisters forming on the sides of her feet. I didn’t know what pissed me off more, the fact she had been walking barefoot on the rugged terrain, or the fact she wore her heels until she could no longer withstand the pain.

It all pissed me off. This whole situation. And even more so at the fact I wanted to be her savior.

“I wasn’t thinking clearly. I just had so much on my mind, and I went outside to catch my breath.” I watched as a small tear formed in the corner of her eye, immediately sending my gaze elsewhere. “And the next thing I knew, I was lost.”

Christ.

My muscles coiled in response. She sounded defeated, and I knew if I took another look at her, I’d see it etched on that stunning face of hers too.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice clawing at my chest.