All Loved Up

by Skylar Hill

  Rhett glanced at the clock, relieved that he had about thirty minutes before he was supposed to meet Nat, his dad, and Big Stan at the lodge for dinner. At least he had time for a shower. He was just about to head home when Kenny, one of the men who worked in the stables, came dashing into the clinic, red-faced and panting.

  “Rhett,” he said. “Nat went out for a ride on Goliath two hours ago. Goliath just came back, scratched all to hell from branches, smelling like mineral water, but Nat’s not anywhere. I think he might have thrown her up near the springs.”

  “Shit!” Rhett said, his heart seizing in his chest. Fear like he’d never known surged through him. Was she hurt somewhere in the forest? God, if anything really bad had happened to her…

  “Run up to the lodge,” he ordered Kenny. “Get my dad and Nat’s father, Big Stan. Tell them what happened and tell them to come out to the stables. Get as many riders as we can from up at the lodge. We need to get everybody out on horseback to look for her.”

  “On it,” Kenny said, dashing off.

  His throat tight, Rhett bolted out of the clinic, pelting down the road toward the stables, his mind on one thing: getting out there and finding Nat.

  I’m coming, he thought. I’m coming, love.

  He’d already saddled Remus by the time his father and Big Stan arrived.

  “Kenny’s rounding up more people,” Hank said, worry in his eyes. “I told him we’d take the north end. He’ll start parties in the three other directions.”

  “Great,” Rhett said shortly, not able to say anything else around the tight ball of fear in his throat.

  Big Stan was silent at first, his grim face expressing everything. He grabbed a saddle off the rack and growled, “We’ll find her.” Then he looked around impatiently. “Now give me a damn horse.”

  They rode out together, all three breaching the rapidly darkening forest. Rhett’s mind was racing, his senses on high alert as they searched the forest, calling her name every few feet, their lanterns and flashlights illuminating the path.

  “Do you think the horse threw her?” Hank asked.

  “I don’t know,” Rhett said as pine needles brushed against the top of his head and he searched the weak light ahead for any sign of her. “She’s got the best seat on a horse I’ve ever seen.”

  “She’s a goddamn prodigy on a horse,” Big Stan said, his voice still tense with the kind of worry and fear that only a father could have. Rhett wanted to say something to him, but he had no idea what could provide any comfort in this moment. Big Stan was a rancher—he understood the risks of riding, the consequences of an outdoor life.

  No, he told himself. She’s fine. Maybe she bumped her head or broke her arm or something, but she’ll be fine. She’s just waiting for me to find her.

  It began to rain, and soon the drops were pelting down on their heads as they called her name, trying to shout it over the noise. Rhett squinted through the downpour as they made their way closer to the property border. What was that white thing?

  He scrambled off Remus, crashing through the forest’s underbrush, his flashlight beam moving wildly with him as his fingers closed around Nat’s sweater, tossed aside on the ground. A muddy boot-print—of a man’s boot—was stamped across the back.

  His fingers clenched around the wool, the rain plastering his hair down his forehead. He looked out in front of him, realizing how close they were to Durbin’s property.

  Durbin.

  He had her. Rhett knew it. Without a word to either of the other men, he swung up into the saddle and charged forward, urging Remus into a full gallop as his father shouted his name behind him.

  But he ignored them. Durbin had Nat.

  And Rhett was going to tear the fucking world apart to get her back.

  Twenty-Eight

  Nat

  Okay, there are at least two of them beside Durbin, Nat thought. I just need to keep Durbin talking and distracted while I think of a plan to take them all out. Her glance slid to the fertilizer in the corner. Could she set it on fire or something?

  “So what’s the plan here?” she asked Durbin. He was still keeping his distance, but she knew that could change at any second. She needed out of here, and fast. Maybe if she got out of the shed, she could run into the forest and hide from Durbin and his men. It wasn’t the best of plans, but it was really all she had.

  “Are you going to kill me?” she asked. “Because that’s gonna be really messy for you. I’m not a junkie who everyone has given up on. I’m a businesswoman with friends and a lot of family and a husband who’s probably looking for me right now.”

  Please, Rhett, she thought, trying to tamp down the hysteria she felt, the bone-deep female fear that was coursing through her as she was helpless and trapped in a shed with a dangerous man. Please, please be looking for me.

  Had dinner come and gone yet? Even if Rhett was in surgery, her father would be worried by now, surely. He’d come looking for her and then he’d tell Rhett. Someone would find her… right?

  You might have to rescue yourself, Nat.

  She bit the inside of her cheek. Well, if she had to, she had to. She was a damn modern woman, and this wasn’t going to be the end of her.

  “Think this through,” she continued, staring hard at Durbin. “If I disappear, there will be cops crawling all over this mountain. Search and rescue. Dogs. Helicopters. They’ll see your little poppy patch. You’ll be a person of interest instantly. You think you can scrub all my DNA out of this shed? Out of the forest? You need to let me go, Durbin. And then you need to run. If you let me go, it’ll take me at least four hours on foot to get back to the lodge from here. That’s a nice long head-start for you. You could be in California before dawn and in Mexico before tomorrow night.”

  “Or I could just kill you and sink you so deep into Columbia River they’ll never find you,” Durbin said, with the kind of deadly accuracy that told her one thing: He’d done that before.

  A shiver went through her. Her palms were slick with sweat. She needed a weapon. He was going to come at her. Any second, he was going to want to stop talking and start doing.

  “Bad idea,” she said shakily, flinching as he stepped toward her. Four more steps, and he’d be close enough to touch her. Her legs began to tremble.

  He took another step.

  “Stay where you are,” she warned, trying to sound strong and afraid she was failing.

  Another step. Two more, and she was done.

  One. More. Step.

  She screamed. A horrible, desperate sound as she whirled, grabbing the grow light that was hanging off ropes from the ceiling. She yanked, the ropes snapped, and she whipped the heavy fixture across Durbin’s face with all her strength. The bulbs shattered, sparks falling everywhere.

  Durbin staggered backward, dazed, but still not down. The glass from the bulb had cut her hands and they began to bleed as she tried to keep her hold on the light—her only weapon.

  But then, oh God, then there was Rhett! The shed door burst open and he leapt through the opening, striding inside like something dark and protective and primal. He grabbed Durbin by the scruff of the neck, shook him like like a rag and dragged him out into the clearing.

  Nat stumbled out of the shed, following them.

  “Natalie!”

  “Dad!” Her father appeared out of the shadows and grabbed her, hugging her tight just as sirens began to blare in the distance and the headlights of the sheriff’s jeeps flickered as they drove up to the clearing.

  Held tight in her father’s arms, she looked over to Rhett, who was still pinning Durbin to the ground, his face a solid mask of protective rage, but when he turned to meet her eyes, they softened. Minutes later, as the deputies hustled up to take Durbin and his henchmen that Hank was guarding away, Rhett finally released his hold on him, and Nat didn’t even hesitate.

  She rushed into his arms, feeling truly safe as they wrapped around her, and finally, finally, she began to cry.

  Twenty-Nin
e

  Rhett

  Rhett didn’t know what to do with himself as things proceeded. Nat gave a statement to Crawford, who took Durbin and his henchmen away in cuffs shortly after. The ambulance came and checked her out, but she refused to go to the hospital, and the EMTs said she should be fine, that the bump on the back of her head wasn’t a concussion, and that she just needed rest and quiet.

  Unable to trust this opinion, once they got back to River Run, Rhett had his personal doctor come out to the house, where she was snug on his couch, her father never leaving her side. Dr. Thomas arrived and told them the same thing as the EMTs.

  “I’m fine,” Nat stressed as the doctor left. “And no, I don’t need another blanket.” She batted at his hands as he tried to put another over her legs as Big Stan chuckled.

  “I still can’t believe Durbin was, like, this drug kingpin,” Nat said, shaking her head and then wincing.

  “Does your head hurt?” Rhett asked, getting up instantly. “Do you need a heating pad? Maybe a cold compress?”

  “I need you to sit down and stop freaking out,” she said. “I’m okay. My head just kind of hurts. Now I have an exciting story to tell at the office. Technically, I busted a drug kingpin!”

  Of course that’s the attitude she would take. Rhett tried not to smile.

  “You did a good job, sweetie,” Big Stan said. Rhett’s father had gone back to the lodge to give them privacy once he was sure Nat would be okay. “Though I’ve gotta admit. Durbin’s plan was kind of kooky.”

  “I think the eventual goal was to strong-arm Rhett into giving up ownership of the tanks,” Nat said. “That way he could siphon into his poppy fields, and Rhett wouldn’t have reason to monitor the water going in and out of them. And he couldn’t revoke access.”

  “And to think we were suspicious it was about mineral rights,” Rhett said.

  “Maybe he wanted us to think that,” Nat said. “Who knows? Detective Crawford said that the drug dealers from the house they busted might be more willing to cut a deal now that their boss is in prison, so we might get more details.”

  Big Stan shook his head. “Whatever happened to a man doing an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay?” he said. “Criminal and thieves, even here in these beautiful forests. Breaks my heart.”

  “There’s lots of good in this community, too,” Nat said, making Rhett smile.

  “That’s my girl, looking on the bright side,” Big Stan said with a grin that turned into a yawn as he checked his watch.

  “You should go get some sleep, Dad,” she said. “Rhett, why don’t you go walk my Dad back?”

  “I’m not sure I should leave you alone—”he started.

  “Son, let’s do what she wants,” Big Stan interrupted him. “She probably wants to call her friends and brag about what a bad-ass she was.” He winked at her and she stuck her tongue out. “Night, sweetheart,” her father said, giving her a long hug. “Scare me like that again and I’ll rethink my policy on whooping asses.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “I’ll be back in a little bit,” Rhett said.

  He and Big Stan began their walk back to the lodge in the kind of quiet, companionable silence that came from experiencing a huge adrenaline rush and high-stakes situation in such a short time.

  “Today has been a very intense day,” Big Stan said. “I didn’t quite expect such upheaval.”

  “I promise, it’s usually not so dramatic,” Rhett said.

  “You’ve created quite the place here,” Big Stan commented as they rounded the final curve and the cozy lights of the lodge came into sight. “Seems like you’ve got a big heart.”

  “I try,” Rhett said carefully, coming to a stop with him.

  “You work hard,” Big Stan said, and it wasn’t a question, more like an observation. “My daughter… she works very hard, too.”

  “Nat is one of the hardest-working people I know,” Rhett said. “I’m sure she gets that from you and her mother.”

  “Natalie is… she’s always pushed herself,” Big Stan said, staring hard out at the dark shadows of the mountains that rose behind the lodge. “Any goal she had, she was always very dogged, like she had tunnel vision. She was the first girl to ride broncs in our county. The boys made fun of her, hazed her, and the coaches were indifferent, but nothing could stop her. She was a whirlwind on a horse, this cyclone of speed. I’ve been blessed with a lot of good memories in my life, but being in those stands, watching her on those broncs… they’re some of the best moments of my life.”

  “She was that good, huh?” Rhett asked.

  “My daughter excels at anything she does,” Big Stan said. “Which isn’t normally a problem.”

  Rhett’s chest tightened. “And now it is?” he asked.

  “I’m not stupid. I know my daughter has a social life, a dating life, but there’s clearly never been a man who has held her attention for long. And then you come along and you’re friends already and she’s done this enormous thing for you, married you, faced down a drug dealer for you, and that tells me some very important things.”

  Rhett took a deep breath, not wanting to hear more, because he had a feeling he knew where Big Stan was leading this conversation. But he needed to hear it. Maybe if he did, he’d be able to finally let go of this fantasy in his head.

  River Run was no longer being threatened. Durbin would be going to prison, and his farm would be sold to someone else—hell, after this ordeal, he felt like buying it himself just to be safe.

  Which all meant…

  He and Nat didn’t need to be married anymore.

  “What does it tell you?” he forced himself to ask Big Stan.

  “It tells me she’s already making sacrifices for you,” Big Stan said. “And my girl? She’s a good girl. A strong girl. But she doesn’t stop for anyone. She doesn’t let people hold her back.”

  “I would never hold Nat back,” Rhett said, horrified that he would think that.

  “Not purposefully,” Big Stan said. “But love… relationships… marriage… it all requires compromise and sacrifices. And giving up everything you’ve got on a silver platter, leaving something huge behind for love is a romantic thought, but when reality sets in and you’re living day to day, it’s a lot harder.”

  Rhett turned to face him, leaning against the face, quizzical. “Something tells me there’s a personal story behind that.”

  Big Stan smiled. “Nat’s mother Vivian gave up grad school for me and the life I was building on the ranch. She didn’t have to, I would’ve made it work long-distance, even back then when that was fairly unconventional, because God help me, I love that woman more than anything. But she chose to sacrifice for me and Nat the life we were building. Not just for us, but for me. She changed her dreams. And I’ve spent our life making it up to her, because it was a lot to give up. And what she ended up with is an incredible life, but it was different than what she pictured when we met.”

  “That is very noble of her,” Rhett said. “I’m glad it worked out for you two.”

  “My daughter is not like my wife,” Big Stan said, his dark eyes glittering with a fire that Rhett recognized. “If she gave up everything for you, she would not flourish. She’d wither. She’d become a shell of the incredible woman she’s grown up to be. And if she loves you? If she truly loves you? She will try to give up everything for you if she thinks that’s the solution.”

  “I wouldn’t let her,” Rhett croaked out.

  Big Stan laughed. “Have you met my girl? Because once she’s put her mind to something, she’s pretty much an unstoppable force.”

  “Then why tell me this?” Rhett asked. “If you don’t want us together…”

  “I never said that,” Big Stan said. “Son, I’m not trying to sabotage you. You’re a good guy by all accounts, and you and my daughter have obviously got some really deep feelings about each other to work out. I’m just giving you the tools to do that.”
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  “By telling me that by being with me, what makes Nat herself will wither away?”

  Big Stan sighed. “She’s not the only one who can change, Son,” he said. “Think about that.”

  He strolled away, disappearing into the lodge, leaving Rhett in the middle of the road, dumbfounded.

  She’s not the only one who can change.

  “Well, fuck,” Rhett said out loud.

  Looks like his life was about to be uprooted.

  When he got back to his house, Nat wasn’t in the living room anymore. He found her curled in his bed in a sea of blankets, her hair fanning out against the pillow.

  “Long day,” he murmured, crawling into bed with her.

  “I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” she said.

  He stroked her arm, a little surprised when she turned around, tilting her face up expectantly.

  He kissed her, keeping it gentle, but she was having none of that. Her fingers wound in his hair, her tongue slicked across his bottom lip, and then her teeth followed, scraping exquisitely against his skin, making his cock stir.

  He was at her mercy, helpless against the pull of her as she wiggled out of her panties and straddled him, her wetness grinding against his cock, making his eyes roll back in his head.

  When she sank down on him, he couldn’t stop the hitch of his hips, the groan in his throat, how his fingers dug into the flesh on her hips. He was lost in her, words falling out of his mouth before he could stop them, sweet little words of confession, skirting on the edge of love, tilting into bright desire and worship. Wanted you forever and Just this, just you and Gonna make you mine.

  She rose and fell on his cock, her head tilted back, her face a revelation of ecstasy as he gave her everything he had, as he drove her to new heights and she broke around him, trembling and crying out, her eyes wet and her fingers tight around his on her hip.