Zeke’s cool hand gently wiped her hot forehead. Instantly reassured by his touch, she snuggled back down beneath the blanket someone had lain across her, grateful to feel warm for once. She must have slept, but without panicking this time, and woke when the wheels of the plane bumped against tarmac.
“Here we are, sugar,” Raoul said. “We’re home.”
She rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her knuckles. “I wish I could remember,” she said, so quietly that she didn’t think they would hear her.
“You will, honey,” Zeke replied. “When your mind decides the time is right.”
They helped her from her seat and down a few steps. Zeke disappeared and returned behind the wheel of an SUV. How did she know it was an SUV? Some memory stirred in the back of her brain. So many fragments of jumbled information rattled around inside her head and she had no idea where they came from. It was disorientating.
“Come on, sweetheart.”
Raoul helped her into the back seat and slid in beside her. He buckled her seatbelt for her, then attended to his own and rested an arm along the back of the seat, bringing it to rest on her shoulders. He looked at her apprehensively, as though he thought she might fight him off. That was her first instinct, but the moment his fingers caressed the top of her arm with slow, lazy swirling movements, she relaxed. Something that felt so soothing couldn’t possibly cause her any harm. Besides, she had no fight left in her. Whatever these two guardian angels had in mind for her, she had no energy to protest.
She looked out of the window as they sped down a busy highway, wondering where she was being taken. She didn’t ask because for as long as she could recall she had refused to speak at all. It had infuriated her captor when she refused to speak to him, but talking was now an effort. Besides, even if they told her the truth, she would be none the wiser.
Everything seemed to move so fast. All the cars were travelling at breakneck speed, as though the people in them had somewhere important to be. Zeke turned their car off the highway onto a quieter road. It must be summertime. The sun was high in the sky, bathing green plains with its brilliant rays. Horses and cattle were making the most of the verdant grass, and there was a range of craggy mountains in the distance. The Rockies. Cantara frowned. How did she know that? She noticed lakes everywhere, torpid water speckled a dozen different shades of turquoise by the sun. It was so serene that she sensed tension drain out of her, and felt an immediate affinity with her surroundings. No one who lived in this sort of place would try to hurt her, would they?
“Wyoming,” she said abruptly.
“You know where you are?” Raoul looked delighted, as though she had said something remarkable. “That’s great, babe.”
“How did I know that?”
“It’s where we all planned to live together, darlin’,” Zeke replied from behind the wheel. “Before…well before what happened.”
What did happen? “Oh.”
The car slowed. Zeke turned it between two tall gateposts and paused at an electronic gate. Cantara tensed. Electronic gates meant high security, meant lack of freedom.
“Relax, babe,” Raoul said easily, gently squeezing her hand. “This is home and the gates are to keep out unwelcome visitors.”
She glanced at a sign on one of the pillars and noticed the name of the place. It was simply called Cantara.
“That’s my name,” she breathed as the gates swung open and Zeke drove through them.
“We named the spread after you,” Raoul told her. “The first thing we did when we bought it was to change its name.”
“Oh,” she said again.
She stared out the window as they drove for what seemed like forever along a private road on the ranch’s land. There was neat post and rail fencing keeping some lovely horses inside different paddocks. It seemed neat and well organized and she saw no people at all. Only animals. Animals were good. She liked animals.
The vehicle came to a halt in front of a sprawling brick and timber ranch house with a wraparound porch. Raoul jumped from the car, leaned back in to unfasten her belt, and offered her his hand. She paused for a second, then slipped hers into it, reassured rather than apprehensive when his long fingers closed around her palm. He helped her from the car and swept her from the ground.
“Welcome home, darlin’,” he said, dropping his head to cover her lips with his own. “We missed you more than you could possibly know.”
“Now this place feels complete,” Zeke added, grasping one of her hands as Raoul carried her into the house.
Raoul put her down in what was obviously the great room—the heart of the house, with stunning views over paddocks dotted with horses either grazing or chasing one another around.
“It’s lovely,” she said. “Very peaceful.”
“Which is just what you need,” Zeke said, sliding an arm around her waist and standing with her to admire the view. “See that paddock there?” He pointed. She followed the direction of his finger with her eyes and nodded. “Those are Arabians. I promised you that when we got this place I would buy you an Arabian mare.” The arm circling her waist tightened. “And I kept my promise, even though I never thought the day would come when you’d get to ride her.”
“I can ride?” she asked, blinking. “I seem to remember that I can, but…” She shook her head, frustrated because the ephemeral memory had already slipped away.
“You can ride, honey,” Raoul assured her, coming up on her either side and touching her face. She didn’t even flinch. Zeke was holding her waist, Raoul was touching her face, and she didn’t appear to feel threatened. Remarkable. “And Zeke broke that beautiful gray Arabian especially for you, the one there that’s prancing around, showing off because she’s almost as beautiful as you are. She’s just waiting for you to take her out as soon as you’re well enough.”
“Her name is Iesha,” Zeke said. “I remember you telling me once you thought it was a pretty name.”
“It is pretty, but I don’t remember that. I wish I did.”