Page 7 of Barbed Wire Hearts

“Alright, buddy,” I breathe, before starting the car and putting it in reverse. “Let’s get out of here before the big bad guys show up and realize what I’m doing.”

I point the nose of the car west and drive.

ChapterFive

DAKOTA STEELE

“Hey, Wiley! You finish up with that mare yet?” I shout from across the yard, my eyes on the wrangler currently strolling out of the barn.

“Yeah. She’s all ready. I expect she’ll give birth any day now. You need something?” Wiley tugs his gloves off and shoves them in his back pocket as he walks up to me.

“Sure do. How much work you still got?”

Wiley scoffs. “So much, I’ll never finish in time for winter. Why?”

I sigh. I’ve known this day was coming. The three of us, Wiley, Levi, and I have managed to keep this ranch going for a decade now despite the bad lot we’d been left with. We have a fair amount of people who work on the ranch with us, but it’s not enough. There’s too much to be done. We’ve grown too fast, and without extra help, we’re never going to get things ready in time for the cattle drive, nor will we be prepared for winter. We’re gonna need help.

“Shit,” I grumble. “I hate to say it, but?—”

“We need more help,” Wiley finishes, nodding. “Yeah. I think the same thing. Or else we’ll never get the prep done in time. I’ve got a mile long waitlist for foals and Levi mentioned that there are at least triple the heifers ready to calve this year. We’re gonna be screwed in a few weeks.”

The weight falls on my shoulders. Always. While Levi and Wiley are my business partners and best friends, this place bears my surname. It’s been in my family for too many generations to count, long before cowboys were something to joke about. The cowboys of generations past slept beneath the stars and ran cattle drives for miles. Nowadays, we don’t have to sleep outside if we don’t want to and we certainly don’t have to be gone for long. But none of that means I still don’t have to make hard decisions. Hiring more workers means more mouths to feed, more people to take care of, but if we don’t, we may very well run this place into the ground like my dad nearly did.

“You think there’s some kids looking for after school and summer work?” I ask, glancing at Wiley.

I don’t mingle with the kids in town too often, but Wiley likes doing talks for career days. He likely knows plenty of kids who need some spare change.

“Of course, but we’re gonna need more than that,” Wiley comments with a shake of his head. “We’ve got the empty cabin. We can hire at least one, maybe two live-in helpers, someone full-time that can alternate giving us a hand. The kids are great for menial work, but we need some more hands on deck. You’ve done the books?”

I nod. “We can afford it thanks to your horse venture, but we gotta make sure the jobs are getting done. If not, we’ll be in trouble for the drive.”

Wiley raises his brow. “So, what do you need me for then if you’ve already made the decision?”

Wincing, I clap him on the back. “Make up some flyers for me? You know I hate crap like that. And take ‘em into town to post around. We should get a few bites. Hopefully.”

Wiley sighs. “Fine. But you get to tell Levi I can’t help him with the south fence posts.”

“I’ll go help him. You just figure that all out and I’ll see you back for dinner.”

I watch him leave, the weight of the ranch on my shoulders feeling heavier than usual. We’re so close to fixing everything my dad ruined, and at the same time, we’re so close to losing everything. It’s taken a decade to get this far, but it hasn’t come easy. There’s never no work to be done on a ranch. Our jobs don’t end with sundown, and it starts well before the sun comes up. But at least with Wiley and Levi on my side, we can make it happen. We’ve done it so far, and now Steele Mountain Ranch is booming.

Now we just gotta keep that good luck coming.

ChapterSix

Kate

Ihave no idea where I’m going. I only know I need to get as far away from New Jersey as I can and west is the best direction to go. Eventually, I may turn and go further north or south, but for now, I just head in the quickest direction to put distance between me and The Crows. That’s my only concern. That and wondering how long they’ll look for me when they come back and discover I’m no longer there.

If they don’t already know I left, that is.

I stop every ten hours and find a motel that’ll accept cash as payment. Many of them are seedy, the kinds of places you just know someone has been murdered in. The beds are less than savory, stains on the threadbare quilts and in the thirty-year-old carpet. The first one I stop at in Pennsylvania doesn’t even have hot water, so I have to take an ice-cold shower. I make sure to wear my shower shoes in it when I see the state of the tub. The white porcelain is stained with rust streaks and clearly hasn’t been cleaned between guests. I try not to think about that as I scrub myself clean quickly and get some sleep on top of the quilt. After checking for bedbugs—I don’t find any thankfully—I grab my own blanket from my car and settle in. Even William seems to think the place sucks. He stays in his carrier most of the time, only coming out to eat and use the disposable litterbox. We’re on the road bright and early again the next morning.

Pennsylvania comes and goes, and we make our way into Ohio. We drive on through Ohio, stopping just over the state line of Indiana. It still feels too close to the Crows for comfort. So we keep going. By the third day of driving, I’m starting to get anxious. How far will we have to go? They have a decent reach with their influence from what the news says, but I don’t actually know how far that reach stretches.

The scenery changes as I drive, as I get further and further away from New Jersey. Every time I stop, I give a different name for the seedy motels I stay in and pay only in cash. I’d opened all new accounts with different banks to make sure I couldn’t be tracked, but I don’t trust using my card and The Crows not able to somehow track it. I’m as careful as possible, trying my best not to give away any information. The only thing they’ll have is that a woman driving a purple BMW stopped in with her cat. Every time I think about that, I wince at the uniqueness of it. How many women are driving in a purple car and walk their cat on a leash? I’m practically a walking neon sign despite trying to stay inconspicuous.

Poor William is getting antsy, and his mood gets perpetually worse at being stuck in the car for so many days. He’s happy to ride on the dash as I drive, and I make sure to walk him every time I stop for snacks or to use the bathroom, but I don’t blame him for his annoyance. I’m tired of being cooped up in the car, too.

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