{Chapter 1}

Katie Morris smiled as the couple at the alter of the small country church exchanged wedding vows.

*That makes twelve*

She sighed as the ceremony came to a close. The bride looked stunning in her white lace dress and glowing face. The groom looked… nervous. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead as his eyes darted to the preacher then to his bride. She smiled knowing that the man took marriage seriously. This couple was sure to last.

“You may now kiss the bride” the preacher’s voice rang loud and clear throughout the church.

Katie cringed. Now they both looked nervous. Why wouldn’t they be? To her knowledge, neither had kissed before.

It was an awkward kiss, but nonetheless a kiss. The first kiss of Avery and Elizabeth Jenson’s wedded life.

Katie slipped out the back door when the ceremony was over. She had done her part for Avery and Lizzy, now she was on to her next couple. Jane Peters needed a match, but Katie was baffled when it came to a possible husband for her. Jane was shy and timid and nearly a 17 year old hermit, which was unacceptable. Katie had to find her a man who could bring out her personality and confidence. Yet what man like that existed Sundance? None that she could think of, that was for sure.

“Katie!” a voice called.

Katie turned to see the bride walking toward her.

“Lizzy! What are you doing? Get back in there with your husband” Katie pointed back to the church.

“You ran off before I could thank you. Avery is a good man, and we never would have met if you hadn’t helped him along” Lizzy smiled.

Katie hugged the woman. “It was my pleasure.”

“Now you just need a man for yourself,” Lizzy said.

Katie gave a weak smile, her heart stinging at the words. “Maybe” she said to satisfy Lizzy, as she always did when people pressed her to find a man.

“It’s been four years, Katie,” Lizzy said sympathetically.

Yet it would take a lifetime to recover from the grief of losing her fiancé. Besides, now was no time to discuss her love life when Lizzy had a wedding party to get back to.

“Never you mind. Run along before your relatives come looking for you” Katie shooed Lizzy off toward the church and smiled, though her heart was breaking at the constant reminder of what she had lost.

Lizzy ran back to the church and went inside. Katie turned on her heel and walked away from the church and her newly wedded couple.

The town of Sundance was flowing contentedly with business as usual, and the sound of wagon wheels and horse hooves echoed through the dusty air, giving the town its usual comforting ambiance. People walked here and there, chatting and talking comfortably until a fight broke out in front of the saloon and Katie made herself scarce. That fat Sheriff Duncan hadn’t lifted a finger since he was voted in five years ago, and there was no reason for him to start today. If Katie knew the town of Sundance, there would be a town-wide brawl in a matter of minutes. Things like that had started happening since the only law enforcement left with Deputy Adam Sterling, who disappeared two months ago after a bank robbery and his brother’s death. Katie personally didn’t like the man, but he was good at his job when he was around. Now he was probably belly up in some abandoned ally after hunting down his brother’s murderers.

Mounting her old appaloosa, Joe, Katie rode out toward the MC Ranch where she made her home. She passed her close friends on the way there, the Dylans, about an hour out of town. She smiled as she recalled how she knew that Wade and Aubrey would stick together from the very beginning. They were still getting along after nearly five months of marriage, and Katie hadn’t heard them once argue. Some couples were just meant to be, and Wade and Aubrey Dylan were a fine example of that.

The MC Ranch. Katie smiled at the spread of land laid out before her. Her cousin’s empire.

“Erik! You’re doing it all wrong!” Cousin Toni McBride interrupted her peaceful thoughts as she yelled at her husband.

Toni and Erik were a lovely couple. Erik had more spunk than he ever let on about to Toni, and let her tell him what to do every once in a while. Toni knew just how everyone else was supposed to do things, and never hesitated to tell them so. That’s how the MC was where it was today. What had started out as a struggling horse ranch was now a thriving cattle ranch. Sure, people could pin all the praise onto Toni’s uncle who owned half the ranch, and whose cattle had helped the ranch back onto its feet, but Katie knew that Toni was the one who deserved every bit of credit.

Now she was nine months pregnant with her second child and ready to deliver any day now, and Erik wasn’t replacing a fencepost in the way that she desired.

“I’m telling you, Erik! You do it that way and it’ll be lopsided for sure!” Toni placed her hand flat on her back to support her large belly.

“No, it wont, hon. I’ll straighten it up before it sets all the way” Erik told her.

“For a nickel I’d do it myself,” Toni mumbled.

“You can’t. You’re too long on belly to do this sort of stuff,” Erik said.

Katie dismounted her horse. “Erik, Toni, really? Toni, you’re about to pop and you’re out here in the sun? Go and sit down. Erik, just do what she says and we can avoid all of this.”

Erik rolled his eyes and situated the post in the hole.

“I don’t wanna sit down, Katie. I can’t sit down anymore hardly,” Toni said.

“Then try. Go on, Toni” Katie shooed her cousin inside.

Toni sighed and hobbled inside, not looking like the old Toni in the dress she wore but every bit her old self with the attitude on her face.

“How’d the wedding go?” Toni asked once the both of them were inside.

“Went good. Awkward, but good. Where’s my little sunflower?” Katie smiled, looking around the front room of Toni and Erik’s house.

“Here I am!” Two-year-old Sandy bounced into the room, her copper curls dancing on her shoulders.

“There she is” Katie giggled. “Come give Aunt Katie a hug.”

Sandy ran into Katie’s arms and hugged her tight.

“Any word about Sterling?” Toni asked.

“None that I heard” Katie sighed. “You might as well admit defeat. Anthony Duncan will be stuck in that office chair until he dies. We’ll probably have to get a crowbar to get him out then.”

Toni groaned. “Don’t tell me that. I promised that I would dethrone that man and it looks as if I’ll have to shoot him myself. After that deputy ran after those killers and lost the election… again, it appears that all hope I had of getting that man out of office is gone with him.”

“Maybe it’s for the best that he’s gone,” Katie said, taking a seat in an overstuffed chair and pulling Sandy up into her lap.

“It’s not for the best” Toni collapsed like one of her pregnant heifers onto the couch and sighed.

“Whatever you say,” Katie said, though she was not convinced in the least. Her past with Adam Sterling was something she didn’t need his presence to remind her of, that was for sure.

**********

Tracks. He dreamed them. He thought them. Every time he closed his eyes they were there. He breathed them.

Adam Sterling had gone from the man who protected the hunted to being the hunter in a matter of weeks. He had endured countless delays, including following the wrong set of tracks for a week and a half to find an old man on a donkey selling corn whiskey. The Deputy Sterling in him wanted to lock the man up and get rid of his brew while the new Adam he hadn’t even realized he had become wanted to shoot the old man for leading him miles from the murderers he was chasing.

He rolled over and faced the blazing fire across from him, reliving that horrible day all over again as he had done ever night for the past two months. Scenes from his childhood found their way into his dreams and putting the stabbing feeling of regret in his stomach. He had tracked men all over Texas, even into Mexico, and far beyond his jurisdiction as a deputy sheriff. Which is exactly why he had left his badge behind when he had left Sundance after his brother’s murderer. Only one of the killers was taken care of so far, and there were four sets of tracks had started following. They had since split up so he had chosen one set to follow, hoping it was their leader.

Adam looked up at the stars and sighed. “I’ve got to find them, Lord. I don’t know what I’ll do when I do, but I’ve just gotta catch up to them. Please.”

He’d had a headache since leaving Sundance, and it hadn’t left since. He felt like he was losing his mind in the chaos of his need to avenge his brother’s murder. The need to set things right for Joel’s widow and daughter… and for himself.

**********

“Hon, wake up” Aubrey Dylan groaned as a whispered voice pulled her out of the blissful unawareness of sleep.

“What’s wrong?” she mumbled.

“I’ve got to go to work. You gonna sleep all day?” her husband’s sweet voice said to her.

Aubrey groaned and pulled a pillow over her face. “Please tell me it isn’t Saturday.”

“Nope. It’s Friday,” Wade told her.

Aubrey sighed. “Good” she said with a yawn against the pillow.

“Jay’s still asleep so don’t worry about getting up just yet if you don’t want to” Wade said. “I love you.”

She felt him sit down on the edge of the bed and pulled the pillow from her face. “I know. I love you too.”

Wade smiled and kissed her forehead.

Ever since moving to Texas five months ago, she had come to love Wade more each day. God had blessed her more than she had ever deserved with this man in front of her.

Pulling into a sitting position, she grabbed her robe from a peg beside the bed. “Are you moving the herd today?”

“Yeah, we’ve gotta get them to that south western pasture before they eat the dirt in the south eastern. It shouldn’t be that hard, but you know cattle. Unpredictable” Wade said.

Aubrey stood and wrapped her robe tightly around her shoulders. Walking to the kitchen, she heard Wade’s spurs jingling with each step he took.

“To put it in the words of Rawhide” Aubrey took on a deep, manly voice. “Cows is a dumb as they come.”

“You sounded more like a dying desert canary, honey bunch,” Wade told her smiling.

“Precisely. How’re things going down there? I haven‘t seen them in a while” Aubrey asked

“Eh, its dull music, I’m afraid. Either Toni’s complaining about Erik getting dusted, Tiny’s running from that stupid chicken, or Rawhide’s giving us one of his boring speeches about life,” Wade said.

Aubrey poured him a cup of coffee and looked at the clock on the wall. “Goodness, Wade. You’re gonna be late if you don’t get a wiggle on.”

Wade smiled. “Rawhide’s rubbing off on you.”

“Actually, I got that from Katie” Aubrey smiled in pride. “Now scoot!”

Wade gave her the coffee cup, only half empty.

“Take the cup and don’t lose it” Aubrey shooed him off with her hands.

A man couldn’t do a proper day’s work without a good cup of coffee in his belly.

“Whatever you say” Wade grabbed his hat and slammed it on his head.

“Have a good day” Aubrey kissed him and opened the door.

“I love you,” Wade told her again as he went out the door.

“I love you too!” Aubrey called after him.