The ranch Grayson was staring at looked nothing like what Kara had described. The pristine white house was off-white from years of neglect and was missing its front window. Shrubs and weeds had taken over the front porch. Grayson felt angry about what had been done to Kara’s ranch.

An old rusty-brown F150 was parked in front of the once-red barn. Grayson could faintly hear voices coming from the barn. He signaled the other men to cover him. Before he saw Hank’s response, Grayson was heading toward the barn at full speed. He faintly heard Hank cuss behind him.

Grayson looked through the broken barn window and saw his worst nightmare. A woman Grayson recognized as the foreman’s daughter from the images Noah sent to his phone had a gun pressed to Kara’s head. Kara’s face was pale, and tears were streaming down her cheeks.

He wanted to rush in and gather her in his arms, but he knew he couldn’t do that. Grayson raised his gun, trying to get a good angle. He couldn’t hear the words being spoken inside the barn, but he had a good idea of what was going on. A man in church robes, holding a Bible, was speaking.

He couldn’t let the farce of a wedding happen. The only man Kara was going to marry was him. He was done playing down his feelings because he hadn’t known her long. He wasn’t going to propose next week, but he knew she would be his someday.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the right angle. Grayson needed to find another way to take out the foreman’s daughter. He left the window in search of another view into the barn. Two steps from the window, he heard a gunshot ring through the barn, and he took off running toward the entrance.

Grayson passed Hank while he was running toward the front of the barn. He dodged Hank’s outstretched arm and heard the curse under Hank’s breath. Noah had sent them a layout of the farm on the way to Montana Gold. There was another entrance on the back side of the barn. Grayson prayed Hank and his men would come in at the back.

His only concern was Kara. He grabbed the door hanging off the hinge and ripped it open. The door broke under his hands. Grayson’s eyes sought out Kara. She was awake and not shot. He let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. The foreman’s daughter swung her gun away from Kara toward him.

Grayson had his Glock pointed back at her. “Let Kara go,” Grayson demanded.

The foreman was pacing back and forth, and the pastor had passed out after being shot. Grayson couldn’t tell if he was still alive. The foreman, whom Grayson remembered was called Josiah, pulled a gun from behind his back and aimed it at Grayson as well.

He heard Kara scream, “No!”

Needing to reassure Kara, he glanced in her direction and gave her a nod, letting her know he had everything under control.

Josiah shouted, “She’s mine! I’ve given this family everything. They owe me.”

The daughter, whose name was Sarah, pointed her gun back at Kara. “Put your gun down, or I’ll kill her!” she yelled at him. She looked close to losing her mind.

“Fine,” Grayson grumbled. He leaned down and set the gun on the ground. But he had come prepared. He still had one more gun and a knife on him. More than likely, Josiah and his daughter didn’t know his background, and he could use that to his advantage.

Grayson also knew that Hank and his men would have his back.

“Kick it away,” Sarah demanded. Grayson kicked the gun to the side, and it landed next to a pile of bodies. A flash of sadness came over him. Regardless of how bad Kara’s dad was, Grayson had hoped he was still alive, for her sake. But from the look of the body Grayson thought was his, he had been dead for a while.

“Is this about the money?” Grayson raised his hands and started inching toward Kara, hoping that, if he talked, it would distract Josiah and his daughter enough that they wouldn’t realize what he was doing. “We can get you guys as much as you want.”

With each word, he took another step closer to Kara. She was no more than five feet from him. He could almost reach out and touch her. The smell of the decomposing bodies was nauseating. He was breathing through his mouth to keep from puking. Grayson didn’t recognize the other corpse lying on the ground next to Kara’s father.

“Stop!” Josiah screamed. “I don’t just want the money. I want the gold.”

Grayson stopped walking. The research Noah had done said the gold mine was depleted. The only “gold” left was in her hefty bank account.

“There is no more gold.”

Josiah reached up and ran his hand through his hair. It looked like he hadn’t showered in days. “I found the gold. It’s here. And when I marry her”—he pointed at Kara—“I will have her money and the gold.”

“We can work this out. Let’s put the guns away. I bet Kara would give you the gold.”

“Yes, anything,” Kara said. “Please, let us go.”

“You don’t understand. I need someone to take the fall for the dead bodies.” He waved his hand in the direction of Kara’s father. “I’ll make it look like Kara and her father were fighting, and she killed him. Then you came along, wanting her fortune, and she killed you too. She couldn’t live with what she did, so she killed herself.”

With every word Josiah spoke, Grayson knew the man was losing his mind. His daughter was scratching at the needle marks running up and down her arms. She needed the money for her next fix.

“That won’t work. I called the sheriff, and he’s on his way. He won’t believe the story.”

Grayson could see Hank in the back of the barn. He was getting into position but raised his gun a second too late. Sarah squeezed the trigger of the revolver she had pointed at Grayson. He had time to decide he was okay with getting shot as long as Kara made it out alive. He knew Hank would do everything in his power to save her.

What Grayson didn’t expect was for Kara to try to save his life. His heart squeezed when he saw her launch her body toward Sarah, but she was too late. Sarah had already pulled the trigger. The sound of the gunshot rang through the air. Kara slammed into Sarah, causing the bullet to go in the same direction in which he had leaped to dodge the bullet. The sting of it hitting his chest was enough to knock him out for a second.

Lying on the floor, Grayson reached for his gun to take Sarah out, but his hand wasn’t cooperating with his brain. Fuck, being shot hurt. He knew he was bad off, but Kara was still in danger. A second gunshot rang through the barn, and Sarah dropped to the floor. Hank or one of his men had taken a perfect head shot.

Kara came running toward Grayson, but before she had time to get to him, Josiah’s arm pulled her back, and he held his gun to her head.

“Let me go! I need to save him.” Her plea was heartbreaking.

Grayson was trying hard to keep from passing out. He had placed one of his hands on the bullet wound, trying to stop the bleeding. In the background, he could hear the ambulance and sheriff coming to their aid. He thought he might close his eyes for just a couple of minutes.

She couldn’t lose him, not before she told him how she felt. Kara had taken self-defense classes over the years. Using her right leg, she swung it back with enough force to hit Josiah in the nether regions. He was taken by surprise and lowered the gun for a second.

Then she threw her elbow back as hard as she could and felt the cracking of his nose. Josiah cried out in pain, dropped the gun, and released his hold on Kara. She heard loud footsteps coming from behind her. She knew that they were from Grayson’s friends.

She ran to Grayson and knelt by him. Tears were streaming down her face, making it hard to assess his injury. She ripped his shirt open and applied pressure to his wound to stop the bleeding. “Come on, Grayson!” she shouted, trying to get him to open his eyes.

“Kara, you need to move,” a deep voice said from behind her. When the person put his hand on her shoulder, she jerked her arm away.

“I’m not leaving him.”

“You need to. The paramedics need to look at his wound.”

Kara finally took a second to look around the barn. She hadn’t heard the paramedics enter the barn nor the sheriff and his deputy show up. Kara moved to the side, so they could do their job. She kept her hand on him, needing to touch him.

Hank squeezed her shoulder. “He’s going to be fine.” But his voice didn’t match his words. It was filled with worry.

“He’s lost too much blood.”

The paramedics stopped the bleeding by the time Grayson was put in the ambulance. But before the ambulance doors closed, Kara heard the paramedic yell for the paddles.

She dropped to the ground and sobbed.