Caden's Vow

“There’s more.”

“Of course there is.” Caden sighed. “What?”

“It’s more the nature of what Bella talked to her about what goes on between you that has Tucker convinced she followed you.”

“What did Bella tell her?” With Bella there was no telling.

“Bella told her to follow her heart, and we’re all pretty sure she’s infatuated with you.”

She was, and it was a measure of what a selfish bastard he was that he’d never discouraged that infatuation. Being loved by Maddie was...incredibly sweet. Hot and tender at the same time, and when she looked at him as if he was wrapped in icing... Fuck! He wasn’t a total bastard. He’d never encouraged her but...his cock throbbed. He’d thought about it once or twice.

Shit. Caden walked over to the grassy patch where Jester was tethered. “You say she left the night I did?”

Ace stood. “Yeah.”

He grabbed his gear. “And you think she got lost and ran into trouble.”

“Pretty much.”

Which made it his fault. He tossed the saddle and blanket onto Jester’s back, giving it a tug back to settle it. He’d promised to say goodbye and he hadn’t. Maddie was fragile. He should have had more care. Something like that would have thrown her. “How long has the dog been back?”

“About a week and a half.”

Which meant she’d run into trouble immediately.

Ace took Caden’s saddlebag and started stuffing essentials into the pockets. “You going after her?”

Caden looked up. “Hell, yeah.”

Ace nodded and kicked dirt over the fire to put it out.

“What are you doing?” Caden asked.

“Keeping you company.” He slung the saddlebags over his shoulder. His hand dropped to the butt of his revolver. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Caden. I have since the minute we discovered she was gone.”

“What kind of bad feeling?”

Caden didn’t want to hear Ace thought she was dead.

“I don’t know.” He handed Caden the saddlebags and bedroll. “But it’s not good.”

“Well, it’s not going to be more than we can handle.” Caden tied the bedroll and bags to the saddle, grabbed his rifle and slid it into the scabbard tied to the left side. “Maddie’s been hurt enough.”

“Agreed.”

Caden swung up onto Jester. “So let’s go get her back.”

He refused to believe she was dead.

“And if we find she’s been hurt?” Ace asked.

“We bring her home.” Caden smiled as rage poured through his gut in an icy torrent at the thought of anyone touching his Maddie. Thunder rumbled in the distance. “And then we bury the bastards who hurt her.”

Ace tipped his hat and backed his horse around in a tight circle. “I’m good with that.”

* * *

BECAUSE THEY LEFT late in the morning, it took them a day and a half to get to the spot where Maddie had met up with someone. There were still remnants of hoofprints on the hard-packed earth thanks to the ground being soft when the confrontation had occurred. It had dried up since then, leaving plenty of signs there’d been others, but no path that led anywhere because of the rocky nature of the surrounding area.

“Nothing.” Caden squatted beside the footprints, tracing them with his finger, looking for any identifying mark, anything that would give him a clue.

“That’s what Tucker said,” Ace drawled from farther out, where he circled looking for signs.

There was no better tracker than Tucker. No better scent hound than Boone. Caden knew Tucker had searched the area thoroughly, and if Tucker couldn’t track from here then Caden couldn’t, either. But he had to look. He had to try. Maddie was gone. He couldn’t grasp the thought. Couldn’t stand the possibility that it was real.

“Fucking hell.” Nothing. Grabbing a handful of dirt, he threw it and stood. Why hadn’t Maddie stayed where she was safe? “Which way did Tucker say they went?”

Ace pointed down.

“Into the wilderness?” That didn’t make sense. There was nothing that way except emptiness and hostiles.

Ace shrugged. “He said Boone lost the trail about a mile down that way.”

It didn’t make sense, unless they were just pulling off to rape her. The icy knot in Caden’s stomach swelled, choking off his voice as he imagined Maddie being held down and abused. Maddie, who was kindness and hope. Who’d already endured so much. He swung back up on his horse. Ace followed, the way he always did, a silent, deadly companion. It was hard to get to know Ace. He kept so much of himself inside, but if there was a battle, he was there, and if there was trouble—like now—he was ready.

The path was rough. Rough enough even Rage, Ace’s horse, protested. Negotiating the terrain would have been hard for Maddie’s little horse, Flower, who had never traveled along anything more difficult than a meadow.

As if reading his mind, Ace asked, “Would that mare of hers be able to make this?”

“She might not have had a choice.”

“True enough.”

* * *

FEAR TANGLED WITH RAGE as Caden broke through a copse of trees and emerged in a clearing. The clearing was a small oasis in the middle of the darker woods. Cool and inviting and, most important, hidden. It would be simple to rape a woman here in peace. Gritting his teeth against the images in his head, Caden swung down.

Hold on, Maddie.

It was easier to see the disturbance in the soil here caused by many hooves. Harder to sort them out as one smeared into another.

“Is this where Tucker lost them?”

Ace looked around. “Looks like what he described.”

Caden crisscrossed the clearing, step by step. Tucker had already decoded what was in the dirt, but what he needed was a clue, something to give him an idea of who had Maddie.

He was on his third pass over the small clearing when Ace called his name.