Colt was tense all the way to Jonas Whittier’s farm. He kept glancing at Rose, wondering if he should mention that he used to date Karen. She stared out the window, evidently absorbed in thought.

She was probably thinking about Jack, which was what Colt should be doing. Instead he was wondering if they were still too new, too fragile to reveal past dating partners.

They weren’t technically anything yet. Not more than a couple moonlit kisses. That didn’t merit anything, in Colt’s book.

But if it seemed like he was keeping that from Rose, and someone else mentioned it…

Better if he just told her and got it off his mind… right?

He cleared his throat, making her jump.

“Karen and I used to date. Before Jonas, I mean. Way back in high school,” he said.

Rose blinked at him. “What?”

“I just thought… you know, that you should know. Even though it’s ancient history.”

“I— okay?” she said, seeming uncertain.

He blew out a breath. That could’ve gone better.

His cell phone buzzed on the seat next to him, alerting him of a new text message. He checked it as they neared the farm, then cursed.

“Shit. My father’s already at the Whittier place.”

“Oh?” she said, curious.

“Yeah. He says he’s with Jared Chalke and some other guys,” He said, glancing at her face.

She paled. “Jared?”

“Yeah. Is that going to be a problem?”

He didn’t know the extent of Rose’s relationship with Jared. He wasn’t stupid enough to think that one didn’t exist, though.

“Um,” she said, clearly struggling. “No. Just… don’t leave me alone with him, okay?”

Colt’s brows rose. He wanted to ask why, but she turned back toward the window. It was apparent that she didn’t want him to ask any more questions.

But he had to know.

“What’s your relationship with Jared?” he asked.

She looked back at him, chin raised. Her eyes gleamed with the threat of tears, but she wouldn’t let them fall.

“I don’t— I don’t have one,” she said, measured.

She sounded fragile. He bit back the other questions that flooded to his mind as they pulled into the driveway.

“Okay. I’ll make sure you’re not alone, alright?” he asked.

He saw the relief on her face, as plain as day.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Come on,” he said, climbing out of the truck.

He led her to the front porch of a grand old plantation house, although from what he could see it had been through better times. A cluster of men stood out front, waiting for them.

The Colonel stood there, waiting with obvious impatience. Colonel Arlo Montgomery Roman was a silver-haired, older version of Colt. Colt could see Rose making the connection, trying to put together what she knew about him quickly.

“Colt,” the Colonel said, favoring his son with a scowl. “And who’s this?”

“Rose Elliott,” she said, offering him her hand. “I’m the new veterinarian.”

He begrudgingly shook it, but he didn’t look happy about it. “Hhmmph. Alright. Where’s Jonas?”

Jonas came outside, Jared in tow. Jonas looked half miserable, half fall down drunk. Colt looked back and forth between him and Jared, a sour taste forming in the back of his throat.

They are entirely too well-acquainted, he thought.

“Alright. Let’s break into teams of four,” the Colonel said.

Colt rolled his eyes. Though he wasn’t the oldest man here, the Colonel had assumed he was the de facto group leader. Figures.

“Michael, you’re with Jessup, Sam, and Calvin. You guys get that section… Mark, you are with Sean, Thomas, and Patrick. You guys go northwest. Colt, you’re with me and Jared. And your girl, I guess. We’ll search the grounds near the house, then branch out.”

Colt’s fists bunched. At least Rose seemed unaffected by his father’s blatant sexism.

The other two teams jumped in trucks, leaving their team standing together.

“Alright,” Colt said, eyeing Jared. “Let’s split up.”

“Colt, you and I can go together—” the Colonel started.

“No,” Colt said. “Rose and I are together.”

“Why are you wasting time?” his father said.

“Yeah. I think Rose and I should be together. Like old times,” said Jared, his smile slimy.

Rose visibly shrank back, making Jared’s smile even bigger. The Colonel frowned at them both, which made Colt’s next words clipped and short.

“She doesn’t want to be with you,” Colt said to Jared. To Rose, he said, “Let’s go.”

He grabbed Rose’s hand and stalked off toward the barn, leaving them to figure it out. Rose came along easily, eerily quiet.

Once they reached the barn, he let go of her hand. She bit her lip, looking around. He reached out and flicked on the light, illuminating a mess of machinery both on the floor and up above them in the hay loft.

“I’ll search up above if you’ll search down here,” he said, indicating the hay loft.

“Okay.” She went left, searching methodically, calling the missing boy’s name. “Jack! Jack?”

He went right, and climbed the rickety ladder up to the hay loft. It was crammed with machinery, but pretty small.

“Jack!” he called, picking up a loose tarp and checking underneath it. Nothing but more machinery; they must have thousands of dollars worth of junk in this barn.

Colt went back downstairs, meeting up with Rose.

“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “Let’s move on.”

She followed, still quiet. They searched four close buildings in the same way, calling his name.

“Jack!” she called as they left the last building close to the house. “Jack!”

Colt spotted his father and Jared, similarly empty handed.

“Hey!” he called. “We’re going to branch out toward Roman Ranch!”

Without waiting for his father’s approval, Colt moved back toward his truck. Rose got in, and they rode out to the road between the farm and the neighboring ranch.

“Hey,” said Rose, pointing. “What’s that?”

She pointed to a small plastic structure, the roof shaped like a semicircle. He looked through the barbed wire fencing that separated the pasture from the road.

“It’s for hay storage,” he said. “The horses have free range over different pastures during different parts of the year, so they’re all over our property.”

“We should search them,” she said. “Maybe starting with the closest one to town.”

“You think?” he said.

“If I was a little boy who knew how to get to my father’s house, and my mother had been keeping me from my father…” she said, thinking aloud. “I would see these and think… well, they’re safe, you know?”

“Alright,” he said. “The buildings are all in line, right down this road.”

He turned down the dusty road, pulling up to the closest one.

“Jack?” she called. “Jack, are you in there?”

No answer. She looked at Colt.

“The next one,” she instructed.

Colt pressed the gas, smothering a smile. His father wasn’t the only bossy one, it seemed.

They passed two more, slowing for Rose to shout out the window. On the third, Colt did sort of a drive-by, slowing down but not stopping.

As he started to accelerate again, Rose shouted, “Wait!”

He slammed on the brakes and looked in the rearview, just in time to see a small blonde head pop up.

“Holy shit,” he said, awed.

He threw the truck in reverse, backing up. The second he’d stopped again, Rose was out of the truck, leaving the door to the truck hanging open.

“Jack!” she said, rushing to the thin barbed wire fence between them.

“Rose?” he asked sleepily, getting to his feet and walking over to the fence.

“Oh, Jack,” she said, leaning over the low fence and picking him up. “Your family has been looking everywhere for you!”

“They have?” said Jack, turning to look at Colt in the truck.

“Let’s get you home,” Rose said, hugging him.

Rose carried him to the truck, where Colt had his phone out, texting Sawyer, Shelby, and Jonas. She climbed in, careful to buckle Jack in the backseat.

Colt finished his text and looked at her. Something shivered through the air between them, unspoken but definitely there.

Colt drove back to Whittier’s place, arriving at the same time as several carloads of people.

“Jack!” came a shout as Colt and Rose opened the doors. Jonas Whittier burst out of the crowd of people, practically falling into Rose’s arms in his attempt to get to his son.

Rose barely had Jack out of the truck. As Colt came around the truck, she sagged under Jonas’s weight, almost dropping Jack to the ground.

“Hey!” Colt said, quick to grab Jonas by his shirt and yank him off. “You need to cool down.”

“Daddy!” Jack said, reaching for his father.

“Don’t you tell me what to do,” Jonas slurred. “He’s my boy, asshole.”

Colt’s temper flared. “Yeah? Well, he’s alive and intact. You’re welcome.”

“Let me go!” Jonas said.

“Daddy!” Jack cried. “Daddy!”

Before that could be resolved, Shelby arrived with Karen. Karen jumped out of the car and ran to Jack, who had a tearful reunion with his mother. Rose gave him over to Karen, but stood close by.

“Mommy!”

Karen was hysterical, sobbing. “Oh, Jackie! Where were you? I looked everywhere!”

Colt didn’t miss the fact that Jack shot Rose a look. He felt for the kid, truly. Jack might have done something wrong, but here he was stuck between two crazy parents.

“It’s okay, Mommy…” Jack comforted her as she cried into her shirt.

It was a lot worse the next second, though, because Karen soon turned her pent-up anger on Jonas.

“If it wasn’t for you, this never would have happened!” she said, facing him down.

Jonas gaped at her. “Like hell! You’re the one who moved to town!”

“Because I had no choice, Jonas!” she argued, infuriated.

“Oh, you had no choice?” he screamed, lunging at her.

Luckily Colt and several other men stepped in and grabbed him in time. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Colonel and Jared walk up.

“All right,” the Colonel said, whistling. “All right! Everybody disperse back to where the came from!”

Jared Chalke came sidling up to Colt.

“Interesting that you found the boy,” he said, eyeing Colt. Colt knew he was up to no good, but he took the bait anyway.

“Interesting? Don’t you mean fortunate?” he asked, canting his head.

“Where’d you find him? Wouldn’t have been on your own land now, would it?”

Colt narrowed his eyes. He could sense that Jared was trying to lay a trap, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why.

“What does it matter where I found him?” he challenged.

Jared shrugged. “It doesn’t. I was just trying to figure out where you were. See, you were with someone whose well being I care about very deeply. I’m just making sure you weren’t taking advantage of her.”

He motioned to Rose with his eyes. A warning bell went off deep in Colt’s psyche, but he couldn’t stop himself. He grabbed Jared and slammed his back against the truck.

“What the fuck do you have to say about it? Huh?” Colt menaced, thumping Jared against the truck again.

“Whoa now,” Jared said, raising his hands. “I’m just inquiring after her well being. Making sure she’s undamaged, because I plan to have her again.”

“Fuck you,” Colt said, putting a forearm against Jared’s windpipe and leaning into his body.

Jared sputtered, but Colt’s father pulled him off.

“What’s going on?” the Colonel demanded to know.

“Your son seems to have some issue with me,” Jared said, touching his neck.

The Colonel gave them both a disgusted look. “I suggest you both go home.”

Jared smiled. “Of course. I’m not the one who attacked anybody.”

Colt stalked off to the driver’s side of his truck. He was more than glad to head back to town, away from Jared and his father.

When he headed to climb in his truck, though, it was Karen and Jack that got in the passenger seat.

“Take me home,” Karen said, zombie eyed.

“I brought Rose out here,” he said, uncertain of Karen’s motivations. “I need to make sure she gets home alright.”

He looked at her and sighed. He rolled down the window of his truck, calling to Rose.

“Can you ride with Shelby?” he asked. “I’ve got Karen and Jack.”

“Of course,” Rose said, although there might have been a flash of jealousy there. Maybe not…

“All right,” he said. “See you back in town.”

He pulled out onto the country roads, driving the way back silence. Jack was quiet in his mother’s arms, and she was slumped against the glass of the passenger’s side window.

When they got back to her house, Karen was slow to get out of the truck. He went around, reaching over Karen to get Jack.

He set the boy down, patting his back. “Go ahead inside, will you?”

Jack hugged his damaged leg, which made him feel strangely light. Jack ran off to the house, his blonde hair messy.

Colt turned to Karen, who was looking at him strangely.

“Karen… I think it’s time we talk about your situation,” he sighed.

“I like watching you with Jack.”

He rubbed the back of his neck. He was not about to lose his temper on her, but a part of him wanted to. She was partially to blame for this situation, and now she was being purposefully oblique.

“Karen, we can find you somewhere to stay, or at least some babysitters, while you figure this thing with Jonas out,” he said, clenching his jaw.

Karen slid down from his truck, closer than what he’d expected. “You’d make a good replacement daddy, you know that?”

He stepped back, opened his mouth to disagree, but Karen was on him like a fly on honey. She clamped her mouth over his, her arms going around him as if they were locked in a passionate embrace. It took Colt a minute to break free without hurting her.

“Get off!” he said. “Seriously, Karen. What the fuck?”

She pulled a face, flipped him off, and strutted back to her house.

“Good riddance,” he muttered.

He turned, and caught sight of Rose fleeing through her gate. It took him a second to put it together.

“Oh, shit,” he muttered, following her. “Rose? Rose?”

But when he got to her yard, she was shutting the door.

“Rose! I didn’t ask for that!” he tried, knocking on her door. “Rose?”

The dogs were going nuts inside, but no amount of knocking would bring Rose to the door. He went back to his classic pickup and got in.

Great, he thought. It’s all fucked up now, and I didn’t even do anything.

After a half a minute of beating his steering wheel with his fists, he pulled the truck out and headed to Sawyer’s.