Page 83 of The Cowboy Who Worked Late

A calm, slow voice told him,Your grandparents live in town. Misty will be fine. Link took a deep breath, slowly enough to help him calm down.

“Just rumors,” Uncle Ward said. “Coming up out of Hondo, but I checked the radar, and it doesn’t look good. I want everyone home and accounted for in the next thirty minutes. I’m sending the message now.”

His fingers flew across the phone, and in the next five seconds, Link’s own device chimed out the tone he had assigned to Uncle Ward. He looked up and said, “Go on, now. Get home to your wife.”

“We don’t need to try to round up the animals and put them in the barn?”

Ward shook his head. “They’ll be better off if they can run.” He turned to leave the stable. “You’ve got the longest drive, so get going.”

Link nodded and said, “Yes, sir,” and did exactly that. He’d barely made it to his truck when his phone rang, and Misty’s name appeared on the screen.

“Hey, baby, where are you?” he asked. “Did you get Ward’s text?”

“Yeah, I got it,” she said, and she sounded near hysterics. “Are you on your way home?”

“Yep,” he said. “I just made it to my truck.” He turned the key in the ignition, and it roared to life. “I’m ten minutes away.”

“You’ve got to come up that hill,” she said. “It’s been so muddy lately.”

“I’m gonna make it, Misty,” he assured her. “Are you at home?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“I thought you were working in town today.”

“I did this morning,” she said, her voice pitching up. “Link, it’s really windy up here.”

“I’m gonna make it,” he said. “I’m on my way.”

Any number of houses sat down here on the main part of the ranch. He could find shelter for sure. The Top Cottage, where he lived, stood up a dirt road at the top of the hill, just across the border from the Rhinehart Ranch.

They’d had mudslides in the past and some felled trees during bad storms that blocked the road, but Link was absolutely going to make it to his wife. He couldn’t imagine her in their house alone during a storm, though he could probably get Dawson or Duke to go check on her. Heck, Dawson lived closer to Link than anyone in his own family, even though they lived on two separate pieces of property.

“I’m leaving right now,” he said. “I’m at the stables.”

“Okay,” she said, and her voice pitched up and broke again. “Please hurry.”

Link promised he would, and he ended the call so that he could use both hands to drive. The wind whipped across the ranch, lashing rain against the windows and the top of the truck. No wonder Misty was upset.

At the same time, her emotions didn’t make sense. She’d lived in Texas her whole life. She’d lived through hurricanes. She’d been in tornadoes. She had an apartment fire just a couple of years ago. Why wasthisthe thing upsetting her so much?

Link pushed it out of his mind as he trundled past True Blue on his right, and then a few hundred yards later, Uncle Ace’s house on his left. He started up the hill then, slipping sideways in the mud as a powerful gust of wind blew over the top of the hill and slammed straight into his truck.

“Please, God,” he whispered as he righted it. “I have to make it.”

Messages came in fast and furious, probably from people reporting on theEverybodythread that they were somewhere safe. He hoped none of them needed help because if they did, it would be him and Uncle Ward out there providing it. Then what would Misty say?

Not only that, but Uncle Ward was getting up there in age, and he couldn’t do everything that he’d once been able to do. Uncle Preacher had some physical limitations, and though he was the other foreman at Shiloh Ridge, if someone needed physical help, it wouldn’t be Preacher out there doing it.

Probably Uncle Ranger or Uncle Judge. Uncle Bishop and Uncle Ace had plenty of strength left in their bodies, and they would come to anyone’s rescue too. Heck, anyone that bore the last name Glover would be there for anyone else who needed it.

Including your wife, a voice whispered, and Link’s grip on the steering wheel relaxed. The wheels spun; the truck slid in the mud; he quickly shifted into four-wheel drive, and the truck kept climbing.

His heartbeat rode on a roller coaster, up one moment and then plummeting the next. He’d probably have to fix the road later from the ruts he put in the soft mud, but right now, he didn’t care.

Inch by inch, foot by foot, minute by minute, Link climbed the hill, and the ten-minute drive from the main part of the ranch to the Top Cottage took twenty.

By the time he turned and came to a stop in front of his cabin, he had over two hundred messages he hadn’t read, and Misty had called two more times. She had his location, so she knew where he was, and he wondered if it looked like he hadn’t moved or something.

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