Jeremiah (Stud Ranch 5)

Not that there was anywhere for them to go—I was their ride back to the airport.

Maybe I could do something crazy for once and actually… enjoy the wedding I’d worked so hard to put together?

Especially since I saw Jeremiah walking in the direction of the house. If he was going to confront his brother about the pregnancy, well, I was full up on drama for today, thank you very much.

People were starting to flow out onto the dance floor as the band really got going. I’d just check one last time with the caterers that we weren’t running low on anything and then I’d go catch up with Olivia where I could see her seated across the tent at the open bar.

After the day I’d had, an open bar sounded juuuust about right.

But it turned out when I found the caterer, they were freaking out about a second van with the second course getting lost, and by the time we’d helped them navigate to the ranch, it was almost sunset. I was about to start looking for Olivia again when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I’d left it on vibrate ever since the service earlier but kept it close in case of any last-minute catering or supply emergencies.

I pulled it out and looked at the screen. An incoming call was coming from an unfamiliar number, but considering all the people I was wrangling today, that wasn’t surprising.

I clicked the green button and raised it to my ear, stepping a little into darkness and closing my other ear with my finger against the loud music in the background. “Hello? This is Ruth.”

“Ruth. Buck here. The Winstons wanted to go back to the airport and I couldn’t come up with a reason not to. So we’re halfway to Austin but I’m stopped at a rest stop off highway 12. Right before it hits 71. You can’t miss us. I overheard them saying something about a check they owe you? They’re trying to drive and dash, but I’ll stall ‘em if you hurry. Say the SUV’s overheated.”

“Shit,” I swore, dragging a hand through my hair. I was depending on that money. They’d signed a contract and them turning out to be unhappy with their daughter was no reason to stiff me for all the work I’d done. That wasn’t how contracts worked. Plus, yes, most of it was my commission, but three thousand of it was still what I owed on the bar tab, due at the end of the night! They couldn’t just—

Infuriated, I snapped into the phone, “Thanks, Buck. Don’t let them move a muscle. I’m on my way. Be there in fifteen.” My eyes fell on Olivia’s sporty little Honda. She wouldn’t mind me borrowing it for a good cause. “Or less,” I finished, then hung up and started texting Olivia as I jogged toward her car.

As expected, the keys were up in the sun visor. I hopped in and navigated around the makeshift parking lot that had been created out of our front field. I gunned it as soon as I was out of earshot of the wedding and didn’t take my foot off the pedal until I neared the 71 switchoff.

It was full dark by the time I got there, but I found the sign for the rest stop. Good God. If the Winstons were pissed earlier, they’d be doubly so essentially being held captive at the side of the road by a roughneck cowboy like Buck.

I was truly surprised at him coming through like this. Usually he was so standoffish, I was a bit shocked for him to have even gotten involved at all. We’d invited everyone who lived on the ranch to the wedding, of course, but everyone else had been part of the wedding party, and it only occurred to me now to wonder if Buck had felt left out. I hadn’t seen him anywhere near the wedding and just assumed it wasn’t his scene. I vowed to make a better attempt to know the man after him doing this solid for me.

I jumped down from Olivia’s truck just a few feet away from where Buck’s beat-up little Nissan SUV was parked. The man had shit taste in cars but I got it, sometimes you just had to take the car you could afford instead of your dream car.

I didn’t see any movement inside, but it was dark, so I leaned down and knocked on the back passenger window.

“Hello?”

Which was when I saw Mr. and Mrs. Winston sitting up ramrod straight in the backseat, duct tape not only over their mouths, but wrapped around their entire faces and heads.

I started to screech and jump backward. What the fuck??

“Don’t worry, I got you,” came Buck’s familiar voice, and I relaxed, but only for an instant, because the second I looked over my shoulder, I knew something was wrong. Which was confirmed when Buck finished his sentence. “I got you. I finally got you all to myself, little Ruthie. And no one’s going to show up to stop me this time.”