Rode Hard

I nodded as my hand tightened on the steering wheel. I hated hearing Luke refer to it as ‘your’ station instead of ours.

“How do you intend to make it happen?”

“I have quite a bit of money saved up, I’ve been frugal over the years. My plan was to buy a small property one day, but now…I’m not sure. I want to live with you, be with you when we’re not working. If I had my own place, I’d have to spend my time there running the place. I don’t want us to be apart. You’re my everything, Kyle. The dream isn’t important. You’re all I need.”

I felt tears prick my eyes.

“You’re willing to give up on your dream for me?”

“I’m living my most important dream with you, sweetheart.”

A tear slid down my cheek. “I love you so much, babe.” And, it was because of my incredibly deep love for Luke, I began formulating a plan.

“I love you too, Kyle.”

***

I pulled up to the house to find everything unusually quiet, but nothing seemed obviously out of order. In fact, everything appeared perfect.

“Looks like Wendy kept the place ticking over,” I commented as I slid from the cab.

Luke climbed out, I joined him at the front of the truck, clasped his hand, and headed toward the door. “We need to speak with her Kyle. I can’t ignore the fact there’s a missing person bulletin on her for much longer.”

“I know and I’m curious to find out about her….”

“But?”

“I don’t want to cause her to become upset, she might bolt. Even though it seems I don’t know her as well as I thought I did, I do know if she’s hiding it’s for a good reason. It’s finding out that reason which scares the shit out of me.”

“I know. I wish I’d never seen that damn report.”

“But, you did and I understand you can’t ignore it.”

We entered the house and were greeted with an unnerving silence. It was almost dark outside, chores would be done, and Wendy should have been at the kitchen table rehashing what had taken place during the day. An ominous feeling prickled my skin. My gut insisted something wasn’t right. I tried to convince myself she was probably down in her suite and I was becoming panicked over nothing. I wasn’t succeeding.

Luke must have sensed my apprehension, and tension. Instinctively knowing I suspected something was wrong, he pulled me to a stop, his body protectively shielding mine. The cop in him immediately jumped to alert. Before he could open his mouth to ask me what I thought was wrong, the front door crashed open behind us. Luke spun me around until his back was pushed to my front as we faced the intruder. I felt him relax when John exploded into the room. He was flushed, hat in hand. I stepped from behind Luke.

“John, what the hell is going on and where’s Wendy?” If she had been in the house, I had no doubt she would have come running on hearing the commotion.

“Boss, I’m glad you’re back. We’ve been searching for Wendy all afternoon. I’ve reported her missing to the cops.” John gave Luke a sheepish look. “Sorry, Luke—police. Laddie trotted in around lunch time without her on him. We headed out straight away but there’s been no trace of her.”

“Nothing?”

“No. I’ve had half the town helping out for almost four hours. When we didn’t find anything during our search, we got real worried. I drove in and asked for extra help. I figured she was injured but how did she just up and disappear?”

I dragged fingernails over my scalp and attempted to keep my worry under control.

“Where is everyone now?”

“Gone home. It’s too dangerous to keep searching in the dark. The police said they’ll start the search again at first light.”

Luke switched into police mode and began asking questions. “Where was she this morning? Did you see any strange cars on the property?”

“Down in the south paddock. Wendy said she’d check the cattle were okay and nothing had penetrated the fence. Come to think of it, there was something odd.”

“What?” The look on Luke’s face showed he was eager to know.

“Tyre tracks. I remember thinking at the time it was an strange place to find them since no one had been out in the trucks.”

“How far from the house, could we walk there?”

I glanced at Luke, wondering what he was thinking. We drove trucks everywhere on the property so I didn’t think it was too unusual for tyre tracks to be found.

“You could walk down, I guess. It’s a good hike though,” John answered.

“We can’t do anything tonight. We’ll head down at first light in the morning and take a look around. In the meantime, Kyle, I have a couple of things I can look into back in town.”