Page 39 of His Tenth Dance

There have been snakes on this farm before.This time, the voice belonged to him, and it was calm and rational.

Mission turned to Eli. “Hunter is going to come out.”

“I’d come out if it was my wife too,” Eli said.

“Paramedics will be here in seven minutes,” Boone said.

Mission nodded. “She still hasn’t woken up, even a little bit?”

Boone shook his head. “Did she hit her head?”

Since Mission didn’t have to watch the snake anymore, he pressed his eyes closed and rewound time to when he’d heard Lady scream. Of course, he’d immediately looked over. Molly was already falling from the saddle as the horse beneath her bolted away.

“She hit the groundhard,” Mission said. “Couldn’t catch herself at all.”

“I bet she hit her head then. Might have a concussion,” Boone said. “She’s breathing real good right now.”

Mission’s phone rang, and Deacon’s name sat there. Deacon had grown up with Molly as Hunter’s wife, and Mission knew they were close. He took a steadying breath and swiped on the call.

“Paramedics are six minutes out,” he said. “Molly is still passed out. She hit the ground pretty hard, sir. I’ve got the boys bringing out poles to collect the snakes.”

“Right here!” Zeke called. “They’re here. Mish, they’re here right now with the poles.”

He nodded over to Zeke and tried to focus on the phone call. “We’ll try to clear them before the paramedics get here, so they don’t have to worry about the snakes while they’re trying to take care of Molly.”

“Good,” Deacon said. “Hunter is on his way over.”

“Of course,” Mission said.

“I’m in the north quadrant. I can come if you need me,” Deacon offered.

Mission hesitated because he wanted to be strong enough to handle this situation on his own. But Deacon knew every sort of detail of Mission’s past, and his offer was really a question:Do you need me? I will be there if you need me.

“I got it, boss,” Mission said. “Boone’s here too, and Hunter will be here soon enough.”

“All right then,” Deacon drawled. “We’ll catch up when I get back to center.”

“Yes, sir,” Mission said.

For the longest time, Deacon had told everyone that they didn’t need to call himsir.While he was fifteen years younger than Mission, he owned the farm. He ran it. He was the ultimate boss, and of course, everyone was going to call himsir—including Mission.

“These three are cleared,” Zeke said.

Mission turned away from his thoughts and the phone call to find Eli reaching for one of their snake hooks and Zeke pushing a big blue trash barrel over the ground toward them.

“They’re in here,” he said. “We can take them out and let them go somewhere else.”

“All right,” Mission said. “We don’t hear or see any others. I want everyone to fan out and look. We don’t need paramedics getting bitten.”

They didn’t needanyonegetting bit—but that went without saying.

His phone buzzed, and he glanced down to see a text from Clyde.I’ve got Lady and she’s hurt. It doesn’t look good, boss.

His heartbeat didn’t feel normal in his chest, and he wasn’t sure how to get it to stop throbbing so violently against the vein in his neck.

I’ll call Kristie, he said, and the moment that text went through, he tapped to do just that.

She didn’t pick up on the first ring or the second, and Mission turned his back on the cowboys who were scooping up the last rattler and putting it in the bin.

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