Page 36 of Bernadette
“They are,” Chuck said.
“Why are you going to the ranch house?” Dolly asked.
“To get the satellite phone.”
“Okay, keep us posted if you can.” April nodded, then hugged Dillon, gave him a kiss, then hugged each of the boys. “Please, be careful.”
“We will,” they echoed after they each hugged her and Dolly, then followed the others out. It took about ten minutes to organize who was riding with whom, and what direction they would be going in. It turned out that Bernie climbed on the back of Chuck’s ATV and together they rode beside Dillon as they left the compound and headed down the road in the opposite direction of the ranch. Several miles away, Dillon led them into the pasture, and it was DJ and Lucas who climbed off their ATV to open the gate and allow the others through before they closed it again. Before they took off, Dillon looked at his watch, then the sky and nodded. They only paused long enough when Wilson called that he would get the Satellite phone and meet up with them.
“What are you thinking?” Bernie asked.
“It’ll be a good three hours before we can reach that cabin.”
“Lead the way.” Bernie nodded, not telling anyone that her mind just started screaming for them to hurry. She had to curb it, because there was no reason to go off half-cocked without the details of what they would be going into. She wasn’t a particular fan of going into any mission blind.
CHAPTER14
Wyatt walked up behind Morgan,wrapped his arms around her, and bent down to kiss her neck. “We don’t have to leave just yet, you know.”
Morgan smiled as she turned in his arms, and wrapped hers around his neck, burying her hands in his hair. She stood on tiptoe and kissed him long and hard. When they broke apart, they were both breathing hard, and she looked him in the eye, as she asked, “How long is the ride back to the ranch?”
“Six hours tops, seven if we go slow.” He grinned at her, then frowned at her expression. “Morgan? Is there anything wrong?”
“I don’t think so, but I did something.”
“Oh,” he dropped his arms from her, and stepped back. “What?”
“It’s nothing bad,” Morgan rushed to reassure him with her hand on his chest. “On the day of the wedding, I told Lucas that I didn’t know where we were going on our honeymoon, but I gave him the location on that piece of paper you wrote it on.”
“Okay, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“This next part might be.” She winced as she looked at him, winding her fingers together.
“What did you do?” Wyatt smirked at her.
“I only did it because I wanted assurances.”
“For?”
“I told Lucas we would be home no later than six o’clock tonight. I told him not to send in the cavalry to come get us until one minute after six.”
Wyatt grinned. “That was smart on your part, because I could see him blowing off school or chores to come ‘find’ us.” He laughed as he used air quotes around the word. “Okay, I can see why you did it, so if we’re to meet the deadline, we best finish getting saddled up and ride on out of here.” He started doing that with his horse. After they were done, they both took one last walk around the cabin they’ve been in since Saturday night and shut it up after them. In the weeks leading up to the wedding, Wyatt had come up in his spare time to stock the shack, and it had turned out well for them. They decided to leave the extra supplies, but at the last minute, Morgan went back inside and grabbed several items to stuff in her saddlebags. She had no clue as to why she grabbed some first aid supplies, but her gut told her to.
“Ready?” Wyatt asked from his side of the horse with one hand on the horn of the saddle, and one foot in the stirrup. At her nod, he hopped up and swung his leg over the back of the horse as he settled into the seat, then settled his Stetson on his head. He smiled when Morgan mounted her horse just as smoothly as he had done, and nodded. “You’re getting pretty good at that.”
“Thank you.” Morgan grinned at him as she remembered the first time, she’d ever done it, and instead of stopping to settle her ass in the saddle, she’d overcompensated and landed on her ass on the other side of the horse. The animal at the time had looked back at her with an expression of why was she on the ground and not on top of her. Morgan looked at Wyatt and saw he remembered the same thing, and leaned in to kiss him. Once they broke apart, they gathered their reins and turned their horses toward home.
“I’m going to miss it here.”
“We can come back anytime.”
“I know, but once we get back, I’m going to be busy trying to comb through all of our Intel to take down the fuckers. It’s been months and it’s time to shut them down. I don’t know whether you realized it or not, but I backed away a little when Mom and Dad were here.”
“Yeah, I did notice. I understand why you did, but they should be gone by the time we get home, so you can go at it with both barrels, so to speak. What do you think about this Bernie person showing up unexpectedly at the wedding?”
“My first reaction was holy shit, we’re saved, the cavalry has arrived. My second thought, and that was after I got a look at that knee brace, she was sporting was, ‘Holy shit, we’re doomed.’”
“Really? Do you really think you’re doomed?”
