Page 27 of A Christmas Baby for the Cowboy
“She’s with my mom,” Knox said. “I may have to fight her to get the baby back, in fact, but she’s safe and sound. I just FaceTimed them from the truck.” He took a pull from his coffee and then set it back down. “Wilder, Boone, and I tracked down the Delaneys.”
Ramona wasn’t expecting that. Her eyes widened. “Oh wow. Did you find Shoshana?”
Knox shook his head, his gaze on hers. “Do you know where Devil’s Gorge is?”
When Ramona shook her head, he sighed. Then shifted a little in his chair. “It’s a good three-hour drive west. Not because it’s that far as the crow flies, but because there’s no direct route. It’s all fire access roads and suggestions of trails with nothing marked. Especially this time of year. When I say that it’s off the grid, that’s an understatement. It’s not as much off the grid as allergic to the grid. I didn’t actually know that anybody lived there full-time. But the Delaney family does. Has for a while, it turns out.”
“This doesn’t sound like a story with a happy ending,” Ramona said quietly. “And I know I’ve told you this before, but those are the stories that I prefer.”
He nodded. “I hear you. We got out there and we found what I can only describe as a collection of shacks. There’s no running water. They’re living off camp stoves if they’re fancy, and campfires if not. It’s not clear who is actually a member of the family and who is… just out there, for fun, I guess?”
“Some people like to live like that.” Ramona had seen this firsthand in her time here. There were those who came to these wild places to disappear, and they pursued that goal no matter what it cost them in comfort or ease. “They don’t want to answer to anyone, or do anything they don’t want to do. Ever. On some level, I can see why that’s appealing.”
“I like running water,” Knox said, his mouth curving. It seemed to be connected directly to the center of her, like a kind of punch. And everywhere else. “Radiant floor heating. Electrical appliances. Me, personally, I’m of the opinion that modern advances make life better rather than worse. I like camping as much as the next guy, but I’m always happy to come back home.”
“I love getting away from everything,” Ramona agreed. “My grandfather and I used to go on long camping trips in the summers down in Yellowstone and over near Big Sky. He taught me how to forage, how to fend for myself, how to build myself a shelter in any kind of weather. All life skills that I’m happy to have.”
Knox waited, like he knew where she was going with this.
She smiled. “But I’m with you. I like coming home. I don’t really think you would appreciate getting away from it all if you didn’t have the contrast of it.” She made a face. “Also, for the most part, my observation is that most of the people you’re describing who live in situations like that aren’t really doing it because freedom calls. It’s usually because they’re avoiding pesky inconveniences like law enforcement.”
“Atticus confirmed that.”
He traced a few patterns on the table, idly, and she found herself wondering what he was drawing. Or, if it was letters, what they spelled out. She didn’t let herself ask.
“I’m not going to lie,” Knox said into the quiet of the kitchen. “It wasn’t the most welcoming place I’ve ever been. Happily, Boone is intimidating without trying. And Wilder can talk to anyone. So we didn’t get shot, which is a bonus. It looked dicey there for a minute.”
Both the doctor and the woman in her had to work not to respond to that. Not to ask what he meant by dicey—but then, she could guess.
“It doesn’t sound like you found who you were looking for, either,” she said instead, because the less she imagined dicey, the better.
“They definitely didn’t like anyone coming there, looking for one of them,” Knox agreed, and he laughed. “They also strenuously discouraged us from ever doing that again.”
“I’m sorry that you wasted your time.” She cupped her hands around her mug because otherwise, she didn’t think she’d be able to keep from reaching over and touching him. “Though I suppose I’m glad that you went, if only so I know to avoid that area. Something I probably would have done anyway, given the name. My experience of Western place names is that they tell harsh and sometimes bitter truths.”
“That they do.” Knox took another drink of his coffee, and continued his story. “We figured they knew exactly where Shoshana was, but there wasn’t much use trying to get such fine, upstanding folks to share that information with us under the circumstances. We figured we’d regroup, maybe see if we could happen upon one of them the next time they came into town. Because they’ll have to every once in a while. Everybody does.”
“Great thinking,” Ramona said dryly. “They sound like exactly the kind of people who would react well to being ambushed at the General Store.”
“Fair point,” he agreed, his eyes crinkling in the corners. “Anyway, when you’re leaving Devil’s Gorge, you have to sort of maneuver around this big boulder to find your way back out of the gorge and onto one of the so-called roads. It separates you from the part with all the scarily rundown shacks with piles of debris all around them and the folks who look a whole lot like serial killers, waving their weapons.”
“This is sounding better and better.”
He fully grinned at her then, his eyes gleaming like burnished gold, and Ramona felt her breath flutter in her chest.
Making it abundantly clear to her that she wasn’t clean when it came to him. At all.
But he kept going. Thank God. “There was a girl waiting and she flagged us down. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen. She knew exactly who I was, though I’ve never met her before and she refused to tell us her name. What she did tell us is that Shoshana is in Billings. She even gave us an address.”
That could only be a good thing, Ramona thought, though there was a part of her that didn’t want Shoshana found—because what would that mean for little Hailey. And Knox, who she’d watched dote on that little girl in a way she wasn’t sure she’d known he could.
But she didn’t want to say that out loud.
“Please don’t tell me that you left that poor girl there,” Ramona said instead. “That doesn’t sound like the sort of place where eighteen-year-old girls should be hanging out.”
Knox nodded. “A sentiment that was widely shared between me and my brothers. But the thing is, Ramona, you can’t go around kidnapping eighteen-year-old girls. No matter how much you might think they’d benefit from it. It’s pretty universally frowned upon.”
Ramona frowned. “I guess that’s true. But I don’t like it.”
