Page 232 of Ride a Cowboy

He sighed and nodded slowly. “I’ll get one of the guys to drive me back down in the morning.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Chapter 9

Bridget stood at the kitchen window and stared out into the dark nothingness. She’d spent eight amazing days in this cabin with Matt and Mark. Every day that passed solidified her feelings for them. She was falling in love…hard.

Rodney had returned to the James Ranch the day after their arrival, leaving her and her handsome twins completely alone in their wilderness retreat. The men never let her venture out of the cabin. Instead, they spent their days playing games and talking. Most evenings they curled up on a quilt on the floor, sitting in front of the fireplace. The three of them had made love on the floor more than in the bed, none of them ever able to keep their hands off each other long enough to move to the mattress.

She listened as Mark said good-bye and clicked off his phone.

“Everything okay on that end?” she asked.

He nodded once, then shook his head.

Matt’s head popped up from the book he’d been reading on the couch. “What’s up?”

Mark took a seat at the kitchen table. The cabin was one large room, each corner containing a different area. She and Mark were in the kitchen corner, while Matt was only a few feet away, lounging in the living room. Across from the living room area was the bedroom. Fortunately for them, there was a king-size bed taking up most of a side wall, plenty big enough for the three of them to play in. And play they had. The only walls in the cabin were in the fourth corner, and they contained the bathroom complete with a toilet, small sink and shower stall.

“Rodney decided to take a chance. He went to the bank today.”

She could tell from the look on Mark’s face the news wasn’t good. “The flash drive wasn’t there?”

Mark shrugged. “Rodney doesn’t know. The damn bank manager claimed there was a pin number attached to this box. He didn’t even get near it because he didn’t know that magic number.”

“Shit!” Bridget turned and banged her fist on the kitchen counter. “How the hell are we supposed to get to this damn thing?” She glanced heavenward and considered railing at her late friend. Guilt over his death aside, Lyle was really pissing her off right now.

Matt rose and came to console her. He placed a comforting arm around her waist. “No worries. We’ll figure it out. Grab the note, Bridget. Let’s go over it again.”

“There are no numbers in that note.” She had the fucking thing memorized. That much she knew.

Mark beckoned her to join him at the table. “It doesn’t hurt to look.”

She went to the bedside table to retrieve Lyle’s message. Rodney had left it in her care when he returned to the James Ranch. They both thought they’d cracked the thing and didn’t need it anymore.

She sat down at the table, laying the piece of paper between them. “He should have gone to the bank earlier.”

Since returning to the James Ranch, Rodney had curtailed his trips into town, instead remaining in seclusion on the ranch. According to Jake, Rodney had started helping out with the ranch duties and was turning out to be quite a horseman. Matt had laughed when he relayed this information. Matt thought it sounded like Jake was sort of upset that Rodney was better at riding than him after only a few days of lessons. Considering Jacob had spent a lifetime on horseback, that was saying something about Rodney’s natural skill.

They’d all decided Rodney should delay his trip to the bank. First of all, they wanted to be sure the hit man didn’t spot him or Bridget. And secondly, they’d genuinely thought the code was cracked. Rodney figured the flash drive was much safer in the safe deposit box, where it had been hiding for months, rather than in his possession.

After several frustrating moments of looking at the message and finding nothing even remotely like a pin number, Bridget put her head down on the table.

She was leaving the day after tomorrow. Her escape from reality was about to come crashing to a painful halt. While she’d loved every moment of her time with Matt and Mark, none of them had discussed what would happen after she boarded that plane and returned to New York. She sensed that the men, like her, were afraid to admit something they all knew.

They lived in Wyoming on the land that had belonged to their family for over a hundred years. They earned their living on that ranch. She was a city girl—born and bred. Her apartment, her job, her friends and family all resided on the east coast.

She felt a hand land on her head, lightly massaging her scalp. Mark’s. She’d become accustomed to their touches, knew whose hand it was without looking. They’d played a game in bed one night where they blindfolded her, then took turns touching and kissing her. After each red-hot interaction, she had to guess which man it had been. She’d been right every single time.

Matt stood up, coming behind her to rub her shoulders. “It’ll be okay, Bridge. We’ll get that flash drive out of the bank. You and Rodney can take it back to New York and Rodney’s job will be safe. You have to believe that. You’ve come too far to give up hope now.”

She didn’t respond. Depression was closing in fast. Leaving them was going to be the hardest thing she’d ever done. “What’s going to happen to us?”

She’d resisted asking the question for days, fearing the answer, not wanting to accept the truth. She couldn’t hold it in any longer.

A chair scraped along the floor and strong arms lifted her from the table. Mark. She never ceased to be amazed by his sheer strength. No one had attempted to pick her up since she was a child. He did so with ease, walking across the room and gently depositing her on the bed.

Mark lay down beside her, wrapping her up in his warm embrace. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, darlin’. All I know is I don’t want to lose you.”

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