Page 66 of Montana Justice

And he hadn’t taken it off except to shower since I’d given it to him.

My stomach churned, acid rising in my throat. What had he said while wearing it? What plans had Ray heard? What ambush might Lachlan be walking into right now because of me?

Caleb had picked up on my anxiety, fussing through the night until I’d finally given up on sleep altogether. He was asleep now, and I set his carrier over in the corner Lark had set up for him.

The horses nickered as I passed their stalls, expecting breakfast. I forced myself to focus on measurements, on routine. Two scoops for Maverick, one and a half for the ponies. Don’t think about where Lachlan might be. Don’t think about what operation he might be running. Don’t think about whether Ray had used the information from that watch to?—

“Piper!” Lark’s voice cut through my spiral. She practically bounced toward me down the barn aisle, her face lit up with excitement. “You’re here! I have the most amazing surprise!”

I set down the buckets, trying to match her energy. My cheeks ached from forcing a smile. “What’s going on?”

“Duchess! She went into labor last night.” She grabbed my arm, already pulling me toward the far end of the barn. “Everything went perfectly. She started labor around midnight, and by three this morning…”

My stomach clenched. “Is she okay? No complications?”

“Better than okay. Wait until you see.” Lark’s grip on my arm tightened with excitement as we reached Duchess’s stall. Her joy was infectious—or would have been if I could feel anything beyond the nauseating dread that had taken up permanent residence in my chest. “Are you ready for this?”

She slid open the stall door, and I stepped inside. Duchess stood in the corner. She turned to look at us, protective but calm, and that’s when I saw them.

Them.

Two foals. Not one.Two.

My knees locked. The stall suddenly felt too small, the walls pressing in. Two tiny bodies, still wobbly on their too-long legs. One bay like the mother, one black with a white star on its forehead. Side by side. Together. Safe.

The air in my lungs turned solid.

“Twins!” Lark whispered beside me, her voice reverent. “Can you believe it? The odds are something like one in ten thousand. And for both to survive, to be healthy… It’s almost unheard of.”

The hospital room had been too bright, fluorescent lights harsh against my exhausted eyes. Thirty-six hours of labor, but they were here. Both of them. Caleb had come first, screaming his arrival. Then Sadie, smaller but just as fierce, her cries joining her brother’s.

“Beautiful twins,” the nurse had said, placing them both on my chest. “You did so good, mama.”

The weight of them, one on each side of my chest. Caleb’s face scrunched and red, Sadie’s surprisingly peaceful. I’d sobbed then, hormones and exhaustion and pure joy overwhelming me. Two babies. Mine. Both of them mine.

I gripped the stall door, wood rough under my palms. Splinters bit into my skin, but I held tighter, needing the pain to anchor me. The foals were nursing now, both of them finding their way to their mother’s milk. Side by side. Together. The way nature intended.

“Piper?” Lark’s voice sounded distant, muffled like she was speaking through water. “Are you okay?”

Two months. I’d had two months of paradise. Two babies in the secondhand crib I’d bought, sleeping wrapped around each other like they had in the womb. Caleb’s dark hair already showing, Sadie still bald as an egg but perfect. So perfect.

I’d learned their different cries. Caleb’s demanding wail when he was hungry. Sadie’s softer whimper when she needed changing. The way they settled when I held them both, onein each arm, walking the cramped trailer at three a.m. and singing lullabies I barely remembered from my own childhood.

The trailer front door exploding inward, the cheap material of it splintering. The chain snapping like thread. Ray’s face twisted with rage. “You think you can hide from me after everything I’ve done for you? You think you can just run off and leave?”

The mare shifted, protective of her babies. I stared at her for a long moment, Ray’s voice echoing in my memory as I tried to push it away, knowing what came next.

Twins. Duchess got to keep both of hers. The unfairness of it stung like broken glass in my throat.

“You’ve been gone for a year. You know I depend on you, you ungrateful bitch. And here you are with two little bastards. You think you’re better than me? You think your little bastard shits are better than me?”

Ray couldn’t even be happy to meet his own grandchildren. I’d known that. That was why I hadn’t gone back. Had never gone back. “How did you find me?”

“I have people who know people. Even trailer trash keeps records of tenants.”

“Please,” I’d begged, trying to shield the kids with my body. But Ray was stronger, always stronger. The first blow had knocked me into the wall. My head cracked against the cheap plaster, vision sparking white. The second hit my ribs, driving all air from my lungs.

“A cop’s babies,” he’d snarled, standing over me. “You let a fucking cop knock you up?”

---