Page 86 of Saddles

Chapter 27

Ford

“April?” I can’t hear anything.

Every ounce of fear and rage pushes into my roar. “April! Answer me!” Wind howls over my words, spooking a flock of magpies from the nearby trees.

Their rush of wings flurry around us, pinning Pepper’s ears, sending her bucking beneath me.

Clinging to the phone, I fight her with one hand to try and rip the reins to the side and force her head to turn.

With a massive whip of her neck, she jerks the leather straps from my cold fingers and dips her nose, throwing her ass into the air.

And me.

I’m weightless until I’m not, landing in a heavy bank of snow softens the blow.

“Fuck, Pepper. Of all the times you could be a pain in the ass…”

Shit.

Where’s the cell?

I don’t even care about my horse who’s still kicking up her hooves and dancing away from me. I know she’ll wear herself out and come back.

But Ineedthat damn phone.

Frantically, I start running my freezing hands through the turned up powder, desperate to find it.

“No, no, no.” Did I look there already?

In an expanding circle, my arms are so numb I don’t even know if I’d feel it if Ididfind it.

Roscoe joins me, but it entails randomly pawing at the crusted ice chunks and then running in a frenzied loop around us.

My stomach is in knots.

April is in danger, and I was too chicken shit to go back with her.

I should be there protecting her.

Instead I’m wallowing on the ground like a fucking pig looking for an acorn.

My heart races as the crushing truth begins to surface.

I’ve lost her.

They probably have her already.

And they’ll never let her leave alive.

Rocking back on my heels, I let loose another agonizing cry that echoes off the hills and makes Roscoe stop to bark with me.

Why her?

She doesn’t deserve it.

Nobody does, but especially her.

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