I had no intention of telling him any of the things we’d done with her. He certainly didn’t need to know she’d had no maidenhead, or at least it had been torn long before we filled her with our cocks. He didn’t know we’d put a plug in her ass, that she’d loved to suck my cock. And Gabe’s.
“We believe she overheard something upsetting,” I replied. It was the only possibility. Knowing how sensitive she was, hearing Masters speak so poorly of her would have really bothered her. Enough to ride off, though? Why didn’t she stay and let us comfort her? If she heard the man’s words, then she knew I’d beaten him up, had him tossed off the ranch.
James just stood there, hands on hips, waiting. Seething.
When Abigail didn’t come to the stable as we’d expected, we went to Emma’s house for lunch, thinking she’d been waylaid by the women. But when they said she’d left to meet us, after all, we had to assume she’d heard the confrontation and begun to worry. It took two hours to learn from Ann she’d taken her horse and ridden to the Carr ranch. And so we’d followed her, but she was obviously not here.
“Well?” he asked, impatient.
Gabe told him about the incident with Masters. James shook his head, knowing full well how much of an asshole he was. But when we mentioned how he’d spoken so poorly of Abigail, how he’d disrespected her, he did knock over the chair in his anger.
“I broke his nose, and Kane escorted him off the ranch,” I told him, but that didn’t seem to appease him.
“She’s dealt with that kind of talk all her life. That’s why I sent her to school, hopefully to avoid it all.”
“We think Abigail heard it and fled. Here,” I added.
He shook his head. “If she didn’t come here, then where the fuck is she?” James wondered, pacing.
Where would she go? “Does she have close friends in town?” Gabe asked.
“No,” James replied. “She’s been gone too long for close bonds.”
“She might have friends in Butte,” Gabe countered. He rubbed his fingers over his beard. “Wait.”
James turned.
“Why was she going to Butte?”
Yes, I’d forgotten her original destination had been Butte. We’d turned away from the town to take her to Bridgewater to marry and hadn’t thought of it since.
“To meet her beau,” James said.
“There was no beau. It was a lie,” I told him.
His eyebrows winged up just before he stalked down the hallway to his office. When we heard the tinkling of glass, we followed. He was pouring himself a drink from a decanter.
“No beau. You married her. She’s gone. What the fuck is going on?”
We told him of her reasoning for making up a suitor.
“So she was heading to Butte to meet someone who doesn’t actually exist?” he wondered, tossing back the amber liquid.
I glanced at Gabe. “She made up a suitor as a reason to have to return to Butte. She told us about the man, or lack thereof. She admitted to the lie, but she must have kept the real issue a secret.”
He rolled his shoulders back as he caught on to my line of thinking.
“She needed to go to Butte no matter what,” I surmised. “For some reason important enough to lie about it. Keep it a secret from you, and both of us. She was willing to go by herself, even with us—if we hadn’t married her. And now she’s gone on her own.”
“This isn’t good,” James said, putting the empty glass down with a thud. “It can’t be anything good for her to be so secretive. We’re going to Butte to find her.”
I wasn’t going to argue with the man. While it was our job to protect our wife, she was still his sister. We had no idea what Abigail was involved in. Having him along could only help. Unless he killed us first. He was strong enough to use a shovel now.
***
Abigail
The same henchman who’d escorted me to Mr. Grimsby last week opened the door to the house. Walking up the steps to the porch was one of the hardest things I’d had to do. I knew what I would be facing, unlike last time. I couldn’t even be sure Tennessee was still alive. I had no one to protect me. No one even knew where I was.