Chapter 1

Jaelyn

I was stumbling down the road in nothing but a pair of flimsy pajama shorts and a tank top. I had to get away. If Edward caught up to me again, he’d kill me for sure. Just get away from Skyview and Edward. Try to find Ace Wilder like my brother told me the last time I saw him, before he went missing and was presumed dead by the army.

I still remembered Bryson telling me, “Jaelyn, if you need help and can’t get ahold of me, contact Ace Wilder, my old team leader, and tell him Boomer said it was time to ‘cowboy up.’”

My new mantra became: Escape from Skyview, find Ace, and tell him to cowboy up. I kept repeating it as I plodded down the highway. “Ace Wilder, cowboy up!”

Relief flooded me when I saw the lights of the truck stop just off the interstate. I’d hitch a ride tonight. In the morning, I’d find out how to contact Ace Wilder and tell him Boomer said to ‘cowboy up.’

There, close to the road, I saw a fancy Dodge Ram and a single horse trailer. I didn’t know where it was going. Anywhere would be better than being found by Edward again.

I limped up to the trailer and saw it was empty. No horses, just a dirty horse blanket in the corner. I considered going inside the truck stop and finding the rancher and asking for a ride, but if I did, someone would remember and tell Edward about me. I decided to hide here in the trailer and try finding Ace once I escaped town. Just cover up and hitch a ride. I’d figure out what to do later. For now, I was exhausted and needed to rest a little.

The pain and dizziness overwhelmed me, and I passed out. I never realized when the truck’s owner came back and headed back onto the road. I only woke when the trailer bounced over some rough road. The pain of bouncing around caused every bump over the uneven road to feel like a thousand points of pain in my body. Then one massive bump caused me to strike my damaged arm on the floor of the trailer and the pain caused me to pass out again.

When next I became aware, the trailer was stopped. I crawled slowly to the end of the trailer and got the door opened. The only light was the almost full moon. I could see they parked the trailer next to a large barn.

It took all my energy, but I crawled inside and found an empty stall. I’d wait until daylight and try to get the farmer or rancher to help me find Ace Wilder. Again, the dizziness overwhelmed me and everything around me went black. My last thought was find Ace Wilder, tell him ‘cowboy up’.

*****

Ace

I sat atop my horse, looking down over the family ranch. This was where I always knew I’d end up. I never imagined it would be this soon. It wasn’t supposed to happen for ten years, after I put in twenty years to my military career and my dad was old and ready to retire. But thanks to his lifestyle and a massive heart attack, here I sat ten years sooner than I thought.

Still, I couldn’t complain. My dad had pulled through, but the doctor told him to slow down. He couldn’t run the ranch anymore. The decision hadn’t been a hard one for me. I resigned my commission, asking for a hardship discharge, leaving the Delta Force Alpha team for a different team, my family, and running Wilder Ranch. That had been a year ago, and we were doing fine. Dad and I had bumped heads the first few months, but we’d worked out the differences in our ways of running the ranch and I was proving to everyone that I could do what needed to be done.

Now, looking over the ranch my family had built, I felt at home. The stress and knowledge that the continued success and growth of the Rocking W Ranch sat fully on my wide shoulders. Thankfully, I wasn’t alone in running the day-to-day operations. I had help.

My sister Skylar divided her time between helping with the cattle and helping our baby sister Amber with running Amber’s dream of Wilder Stables and Training Center for her specially raised and trained horses.