Page 129 of Wild Card

“Yeah, your friend Emmett too. They’re down at the barn. Thanks for calling him. That’s made a huge difference for West. Seems like a good dude.”

I nod at that. “Just doing my part.”

Ford and I say our goodbyes, and I watch him drive away with a mouse in his Mercedes before I head up to the stables. Just listening to Ford mention Rosie has my brain circling back to Gwen and how we left things between us.

It’s uncomfortable and not ideal, but I know my focus is needed on the fire right now. Once that’s dealt with, I can pivot to Gwen and fixing everything that I fucked up yesterday.

Up at the barn, I find West and Emmett strategizing which horses to put into which rig, how much feed to take with each one, and a dozen other things I never thought about.

Emmett stands with his hip cocked and his arms crossed, wearing that signature blank expression on his face. Happy, sad, excited—it’s all the same look with this man. Unless, of course, he’s spotted a beautiful woman in the vicinity. Then, the mostdazzling TV-worthy smile appears on cue. Where I struggle with talking to women, Emmett does not. That much has become abundantly clear in the times we’ve been out together.

“I say take it all,” he carries on. “No point in leaving the hay to get burned if it does end up that way.”

West looks ghostly white, like the prospect of everything burning is gutting to him. Emmett faced this years back, when we first met. In fact, fires are a common occurrence in Emerald Lake. So I’m not surprised by the level of detachment he takes in talking about it. For West, though, this is not the norm.

“Okay, yeah,” West says, his voice edged with nervousness. “Let’s load it up.”

Emmett gives him a nod before springing into action, which is when they both catch sight of me.

“You fellas both making out okay?” I ask.

“Yep, got one load out,” West replies with a slight hitch in his voice.

Emmett swoops in with a reassuring “And now we’re gonna get the rest. It’s not even a question. Every last horse is getting out safe.”

West’s Adam’s apple bobs at that. Then he focuses on me. “How’s the fire?”

I shrug, not wanting to lie to him but not wanting to add any more pressure than he’s clearly already under. “You know, it’s not good. But I haven’t been up in the air, so I can’t say for sure. Once I know, I’ll touch base with you. Is there anything I can do? I need to head to the airstrip soon.”

Both guys shake their heads just as my phone rings.

When I see Clyde’s name, I answer immediately.

His typically creaky voice holds an edge of panic when he says “Bash?” before I’ve even said hello.

“Clyde, what’s wrong?” I don’t know why I ask it. All I know is that I can tell something is wrong.

“I can’t find Gwen.”

My brows furrow. “What do you mean you can’t find Gwen?”

“Well, you know, I couldn’t sleep, so I woke, figured I’d take a walk down the driveway and see if I could spot the fire over the back rise. That’s when I realized her truck was gone, which I found suspicious because we both went to bed at the same time last night. So then I came back in the house, calling for her, and made my way upstairs. Sorry, I looked in your room.”

Panic rises in his voice as he lists all the places he’s searched, and it’s an exact reflection of mine. “Checked her room. Checked the front deck. Checked down by the lake where she likes to put her feet in the sand. I checkedeverywhere. She’s not answering my phone calls, they’re going straight to voicemail, and I don’t think she’s here.”

My heart drops lower and lower with every sentence until it feels like it might seize up entirely at the prospect of Gwen being missing.

“But the thing I keep coming back to is that her truck’s not here. So she has to be out, right?”

I scoff, lifting one hand to the back of my neck as a knot of anxiety pulls tight in my chest. I tug at the short ends of my hair as I rack my brain for where she might have gone. “I don’t know, Clyde. I don’t know. Have you talked to Tabby or Rosie or Skylar?”

“No, I don’t have all their numbers. The thing is…” The way he trails off has my stomach falling down to the floor.

“What’s the thing, Clyde?”

“The thing is, last night when she came home, I was… Well, you know, I was feeling down about the possibilities of what could happen to my house. In a dark moment, I kind of said something about that all my stuff was there, everything from Maya. Just sort of having a moment about losing all those memories.”

My heart comes back to life but not in a good way. Now it’s thudding painfully in my chest, adrenaline coursing through my veins as I travel down the path he’s laid out for me.