Chapter 2

Ace

I arrived at the stables, leaped from the saddle before Cap had stopped. At a flat run, I ripped open the door to have mom halt my progress. “What’s wrong? Is it Dad?”

She shook her head. “What?? No, your father is still in bed.”

“What is the life-or-death situation? Why the double time call?”

She pointed toward a stall where my sisters, Amber and Skylar, stood. “Go slow Ace. There’s a situation that needs you, but you need to go slow and quiet.”

“What are you talking about, mom?”

“You’ll see.”

Just then, I heard an ambulance coming our way. Mom stood by the door. “That will be Craig and Gerri. I called them right after I radioed you.”

Frowning, I walked over to where my sisters were standing in front of a stall. They moved aside and I could see someone lying on the ground shaking.

“What the Fu ... dge?” I finished changing the curse into something clean because of the women present. On the ground was a woman shaking, muttering something too quiet to understand. It was obvious she was a woman because the little bit of clothes she had on hardly hid anything. I couldn’t tell anything beyond the fact that she had long hair somewhere between blonde and brown. She had been so beaten; nothing was recognizable as human.

“How the hell did she get in there?”

“That’s not the question you should be asking.” Skylar said. I looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you hear what she’s saying?”

I shook my head. “Can’t make it out.”

“Well, she was yelling it earlier when I touched her.”

I got close and leaned down and tried to find a safe place to lay my hand that wouldn’t cause her undue pain.

I decided her feet were probably the safest even though the bottoms were scratched up fierce. I laid a hand on her left foot and got an instant reaction. She screamed and started kicking and waving her right arm like she was trying to fight and started yelling. “ACE WILDER, COWBOY UP, ACE WILDER, COWBOY UP!”

Only one person still alive in Montana knew that phrase. I knew who this woman was, but we’d never met. “All hell. Boomer!”

“Do you know this young lady, Ace?”

Mom asked from where she waited for the paramedics.

I shook my head. “Never met her, but I know who she is. My Army buddy, Boomer Bench, used to say that to me. When we got a new mission, he’d tell me to ‘cowboy up’. He stopped by the hospital after Dad’s heart attack. He told me he thought his sister was in trouble. She’d denied it, but he let me know he’d told her if she needed help to find me and tell me to cowboy up.

“What was her name, J something? Jaycee, Jaclyn NO! Jaelyn, that was her name, Jaelyn Bench. She’d be my guess.”

“How’d she get here?”

I shrugged. “No clue. Boomer said she was living just an hour east of Missoula. A little town, I can’t remember its name.”

“Skyview.” My baby sister Amber said. “I stopped at a truck stop just outside of Skyview for supper. She must have climbed into the empty horse trailer there.”

Just then, Craig and Gerri came in. Craig looked at the woman, then at Gerri. “Holy hell! Better get the gurney. She’ll need to be transported. Get an IV and morphine prepped too.”

He looked at me. “This girl’s a mess, Ace.”

I nodded once, the sarcasm obvious in my voice. “You think, Craig? If you’re transporting her, then I’m riding with her.” I told him in my command voice.

The minute she’d said my name and told me to cowboy up, she became my responsibility. Nothing these first responders could say or do would keep me from her side.

Craig looked from his patient to me. He must have seen my resolve, because he just nodded. “Yeah, okay. You know who she is?”

Even though I was certain who she was, I shook my head. “Not sure. I think I do, can’t tell by looking. She’s too out of it to tell us for sure.”

Craig nodded. “I’m going to give her the morphine first, then once she’s out, Gerri and I will strap her to a backboard. Who would do that to anyone?”

Anger boiled over me. “I don’t know, but they better hope I never meet up with them.”

Here was proof you needed to be careful what you wished into the universe. I’d been thinking this morning that I needed a mission beyond just running the ranch to give me purpose. I didn’t even have to hunt for one. This was a mission that had been dropped at my feet, literally. Finding out if I was right about her came first. But no matter who she turned out to be, I’d protect her. Hell, I would find the son of a bitch who hurt her and teach him a lesson he’d never forget, as well.

The two paramedics worked fast. Thankfully, she had passed out again. They got an IV in her and injected the morphine. Then they strapped on a neck brace and secured her to a backboard before placing her on the gurney.

As they went to load her into the ambulance, I climbed in with them. Gerri started to tell me to get out. I wasn’t family. However, a slight shake of the head from Craig and the look of cold, hard determination on my face had her shutting her mouth without uttering a word.

Wouldn’t have mattered if Gerri had said something. I wasn’t leaving her side. She had made it plain she was seeking me and needed my help. At present, all I could do was ensure she wasn’t alone and that her safety wasn’t compromised. Nothing would stop me or stand in my way. I would stand watch over her as if she were the president of the United States and God help anyone who tried to interfere.

Skylar stuck her head in the ambulance. “I’ll follow in your rig, Ace. Also, I called Linda Owings. She’ll meet you there. You might want her to do the medical stuff to keep the town rumor mill out of it. I also called Sheriff Colton. He’ll need to talk to her, document her injuries, get her to tell us who did this to her.”

I nodded. “Good thinking, Sis. Thank you.” I turned to mom who was standing beside Skylar. “Mom, can you let Dad and GrayWolf know I’ll be gone until she can return?”

Mom nodded and looked me dead in the eye with the look I’d grown up seeing. The one that said she was seriously upset and would take no more sass.

“You take care of your business, Ace. We’ll see to things here.”

Just then, Gerri cursed, and my attention returned to the paramedic. Gerri keyed her mic and alerted the hospital they were in route with a female of undetermined age and started listing her injuries. When she said severe vaginal and anal tearing and bruising, I saw red. Not only had she been beaten, someone or multiple someone’s had violated her. Whoever was responsible had just earned themself some Delta Force style justice.

We were moving as fast as Craig could drive over the rough road, lights and sirens blaring. Gerri looked at me, concern on her face. I couldn’t stop myself from asking the question. “She gonna be okay?”

Gerri shook her head, then shrugged. “I just don’t know, Ace. It’s a miracle she’s alive at all. I’ve never seen anyone beaten this bad.”

I had, but I couldn’t talk about that. The mission was highly classified, and I couldn’t talk about what they did to me and the handful of people held captive, anyway. Not that it mattered; they’d all paid. I killed my torturers one night, and we’d all escaped.

“You’d be surprised what a person can endure when they have to.”

“True, I’ve seen things on this job, but never anything this bad. Honestly, Ace, she isn’t out of the woods yet. It’ll be up to the doctor to figure how bad she is internally. But her pulse is weak and thready. If she lives, her recovery won’t be quick, and I suspect her emotional recovery will be even longer.”

We both sat in silence after that. I remembered my ordeal and slow recovery, the one that still wasn’t finished almost two years later. It just made me more resolute to see Jaelyn safely out of her troubles.

*****

Jaelyn

I hurt everywhere. That wasn’t an exaggeration. My whole body was one giant hurt. I struggled to open my eyes. The lids felt heavy. My mind was clouded. I was having trouble focusing on anything.

I tried to move and found myself restrained. Was I still in the cellar? Had Edward strapped me down? If so, just what horror did he have planned for me next?

Tears streamed down my face. I’d dreamed that I’d escaped. I’d made it to the truck stop, hid in the back of a horse trailer. Then into a barn. Was it all a dream? Was I still under Edward’s control? Being strapped down made me think I was.

Then I realized something was different. The sounds I heard sounded more like a hospital. Where was I? Slowly, I forced my eyes to open. Even that hurt. I moaned in pain and a deep, warm voice spoke. “You’re awake, I see. Don’t struggle, you’re safe, Jaelyn. That is your name, right? Jaelyn Bench? You’re Boomer’s little sister?”

I looked to the right where that voice was coming from. The most ruggedly handsome man I’d ever seen sat there. He looked like someone had taken my three favorite movie stars and combined them into one hot cowboy. He seriously looked like a mix of Chris Pratt, Chris Pine, and Chris Evans.

The perfect mixture of Captain America, Star Lord, and Captain Kirk in tight wranglers and a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a beat-up brown Stetson in his hands. Then his words penetrated the fog around my brain. “Yes, I’m Jaylen. How do you know Bryson?”

The cowboy smiled. “I’m Ace Wilder, Jaelyn, and I heard you were looking for me.”

Instant relief flooded me. It wasn’t a dream. I had gotten away. But to have Ace here was a miracle. “The rancher knew you?”

He laughed. “I reckon you could say that, since it was my barn you hid in.”

Just then, a wave of pain hit, making me gasp. “Hold on, let me get your nurse to give you some pain medicine and let the doctor know you’re awake.”

“I need to get out of here. If Edward finds me, he’ll kill me.”

Ace pushed the button on the side of my bed and shook his head.

“You’ve been here a week, Jaelyn. You were so battered, the doctor had to put you in a coma. Your body needs time to heal some. Don’t worry about anyone finding you. You aren’t registered under your name but as Jane Doe. Officially, no one knew who you were because you couldn’t tell us.”

“Why am I restrained?”

“You kept thrashing and the doctor was afraid you’d undo all her hard work.”

“How bad?”

Before Ace could answer, a nurse entered the room. “Oh good, you’re awake. How are you feeling, miss?”

“Everything hurts.”

“Well, let me get you some pain medicine and let Doctor Owings know you’re awake.”

The nurse left to get me pain medicine and alert the doctor. I didn’t let that derail my train of thought. “How much damage this time?”

Ace turned red. I could see the burning anger in his eyes. “This time? That means there have been other times he’s beaten you. Why are you just now coming to me for help Jaelyn? Your brother told you to get in touch with me if you needed help a year ago. I would have stopped this before he almost killed you.”

I know my face was red with shame as I shook my head. “I couldn’t. You don’t understand Ace. I tried to get away several times. But Edward had spread rumors before he ever started hurting me. He told everyone that I was severely depressed and psychotic. Telling them I was okay when I took my medicine but would try to hurt myself when I didn’t. He slowly convinced everyone that I was crazy. He almost convinced even me. Everyone kept giving me back to him and when they did, he hurt me worse than the time before. I’d gone to the sheriff’s office and hospital several times.

“The last time was the day I left. There was a new deputy there. I thought he might help me, but the other deputies showed him a file that said I was under psychiatric care and they called Edward.

“We returned home. I was tossed into the basement, he beat me several times and did other things to me. He told me the next time he’d kill me, and no one would even wonder where I went. He’d tell them I was in a mental facility and they’d believe him. After all, he’s the son of Congressman Paul Robinson and Skyview’s hometown former football hero. If he finds out I’m here, he’ll follow through on his threat and no one will know any different.”