Page 136 of First Chance

“I know, baby, but you don’t know the property well enough. If you get lost and I can’t find you, I’ll lose my fucking mind. I’m holding on by a thread already.”

I see the pain in his eyes. Emory missing is destroying him.

“Okay, I’ll be here in case she turns up.”

“Thank you,” he utters against my forehead before runningto the garage. Becky drives the side-by-side out of the garage with Lochlan hot on her heels on the four-wheeler.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Lochlan

I’ve ripped the throttle, speeding down the trails between the enclosures and shouting Emory’s name until my throat’s raw.

Every time I cross paths with someone, they shake their head no because they haven’t seen her. It doesn’t make sense.

How the hell could she just disappear?

She knows she isn’t allowed to be out here by herself, especially at night. But I guess she has that mentality in common with Jo, they don’t fucking listen.

I’d give my very last breath for my niece, but I’m holding onto the frustration I have over this situation because I cannot accept that anything worse happened to her than wandering off.

I have a spotlight attached to the handlebars of the four-wheeler, and I use it to scan inside the bear enclosures. My stomach twists at the prospect of her little body being in the same cage as the bears… She’s a little girl. She’s my baby.

If my life hadn’t been such a train wreck, I would have adopted her when she was left at my gates. But subjecting her to a lifetime of judgment because of my name would havebeen selfish, and I couldn’t do it to an innocent baby.

Becky knew where my heart was and didn’t hesitate to alter her life to add Emory to the family. I helped raise her.

Our legacy is her.

The bears haven’t attacked anyone at SCS in over ten years, but that’s because we give them their space, and we respect them. Their needs are met here, and they’re not usually human aggressive, but they’re apex predators. They’re wild animals, and intruding into their environment is dangerous.

I take a corner, driving down a new path that no one else has gotten to, and slam on the brakes.

My headlights shine directly on my mud-covered niece, struggling to pull the halter of a stubborn mule.

She’s okay.

Thank fucking God.

“He ran away, Lochy.” Her bottom lip quivers like she’s in trouble, and all of my earlier suffering evaporates as soon as I have my arms around her. My sweet baby niece is fine.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. Don’t worry about him. I’ll have the guys round him up.”

“Well, don’t have that one guy do it. It’s his fault.”

“What one guy?”

“I don’t know. He said he was a new guy. He slapped his butt and it made him take off once the fire started.”

As far as I know, everyone who works for me was inside the bunkhouse at Jo’s grad party…

“We need togo. Leave the mule.”

* * *

I can’t drive as fast back to the barns with Emory riding with me but I haul ass as safely as I can. I don’t stop until I have to, blocked by all the first responders tackling the blaze of the small barn and the guesthouse.

There are four fire trucks, at least nine cop cars, and what looks like 20 other vehicles scattered about that belong to my family, the sanctuary, and other first responders, if I had to guess.

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