Kid. Jesus. Liam sighed. I’m twenty-one in a couple of months.

“How is he?”

“Still has his off days. Shies away sometimes.”

Liam didn’t have to think about what Robbie meant. The latest Liam-losing-it incident had been a bad one. Hanging his head in shame, he buried his face in his hands and drew his knees up to his body. He couldn’t help how he felt when he’d split the grain bag. He’d thought he’d get his head smacked for being an idiot. Hell, he could have handled that, but all Robbie did was patiently help him sweep away the crap and retie the bag so what remained would stay inside. All he’d said is that Liam should watch for any sharp corners or nails because some of the bags were getting worn.

Liam had cried like a fucking girl. Luckily Robbie had already gone and Liam had been alone. But fuck, one piece of being nice to him and he all but lost his shit.

“I wish he’d talk to us,” Jack said softly. “He has no reason to be scared here.”

“I don’t know what the hell happened in Laredo, but I put some feelers out, see if I can find out anything that will help. I know what it’s like to come up against hate,” Robbie had a sad quality to his voice, and Liam screwed his eyes shut. He was pathetic if Robbie was that worried about him.

Then he realized what Robbie said about feelers and his chest constricted. The last thing Liam wanted was Robbie or Jack or any do-gooder tracking down anything about Liam and what he’d been through. Because if the ones who didn’t trust him to keep his mouth shut found out where Liam had moved to, they’d come get him, and Liam didn’t even want to think about that. After what he’d witnessed at the Bar Five, it was likely the Castille family would tell Jack all about the kid with no past who stole from them and disappeared overnight.

Not for the first time, Liam berated himself about not stealing more money. Then he could have made it up to Montana or even stopped in Arizona, anywhere near horses and far enough away from Texas so that no one tracked him down.

Flashes of fists and feelings of utter helplessness flooded him, and he whimpered under his breath. Stupid. Stupid. Idiot. He just wanted this to end and to find one place where he wasn’t asked questions and where no one wanted to help him.

“Let me know what you find out,” Jack answered evenly. “I worry about him and I want to support him any way I can. He’s a natural with the horses.”

“Agreed.”

“I’m going to try to get in a few hours before the twins wake me up and I need to get to the hospital”

“They still feeding every four hours?” Robbie asked with a chuckle.

“Should be cutting down soon, they’re nearly eight weeks old now. Lexie slept near through last night.” Pride dripped from Jack’s voice, and Liam heard Robbie chuckle.

“You and Riley with kids is a good look,” he laughed. “Shame about the bags under your eyes.”

“Asshole,” Jack replied with no heat in his tone. “Night.”

“Night.”

Robbie stayed a little longer, fussing Solo, but then he too left. Finally it was just Liam cowering in Hatty’s stall and wondering when the hell this would all stop. The fear and anxiety. All too much.

* * * * *

Jack stopped to look in on the twins on his way back to bed. Both lay peacefully and quietly, and he leaned over and placed gentle kisses on each tiny baby. He never thought his love for his family could ever get stronger, but these tiny scraps were so precious to him. He had dreams for them, ponies, horses, school, college, happiness…that was all he wanted for both of them. Lexie moved her head, and Jack held his breath, hoping to hell she didn’t wake up. The last feed may well see her through to the morning, but Connor wasn’t moving to longer gaps yet. It never failed to amaze Jack how Lexie could sleep through her brother’s keening for the dawn feed. The soft nightlight threw shadows around the room, and he realized he could stand here forever and it would never be long enough to watch them sleep.

Pulling the door nearly shut, he crept down the corridor and looked in on Hayley. He tucked her covers around her and placed a kiss to her forehead. Hayley was a child of his heart. She looked so much like Riley he’d joked yesterday that he could imagine Riley as a woman. Of course that had led Riley to proving he was far from being a woman, which ended with them locking themselves in the bathroom for privacy and enjoying the quickest blow jobs known to man.

He stripped, then crawled into bed with Riley and was immediately warm from the heat radiating from his husband. Riley instinctively moved into Jack’s arms in his sleep.

“Okay?” he mumbled groggily.

“Yeah. Go back to sleep.”

Jack lay staring up at the ceiling for a few minutes and tried to work through all the shit in his head to at least compartmentalize it until the morning. Beth and the baby was a constant worry in his head. Josh was exactly the same. The two brothers couldn’t help it; they were protective of their little sister and the baby she carried. Then there was Max and the whole digging deep into Riley and Jack.

Jack had to face that fact he’d been humiliated when they’d called his lack of education into account over Max’s adoption. What did it matter what education he had on paper when he ran a successful horse training ranch and looked after the accounts and worked with Riley in the house? Seemed to him offering Max love and family was more important than whatever education Jack had scraped together.

He also spent time worrying about Liam. Some days the young man was skittish and jumpy and that made Jack nervous. Added to that, Hatty wasn’t well, but no one could find out what was wrong with her. She only seemed to perk up when Max was over with Rebecca.

Then there was the nanny problem. Even though he and Riley had initially decided they weren’t going to have a nanny, the reality of the situation was that they needed another pair of hands in the house. Family helped them in emergencies, but two responsible careers—him with the ranch, Riley with the oil—meant that they needed a third in the house on a more permanent basis. Someone they could trust.

The concerns and stress tumbled in his head, and only when he finally addressed each one individually did he manage to push the issues into boxes in his head enough to relax against Riley and close his eyes.

Chapter 2

The phone startled Jack from sleep and he saw it was five am when he fumbled for the phone.

“’Lo.”

“Hi, Jack. Beth is having the baby if you want to get to Mercy.”

Jack blinked the sleep away and a combination of fear and excitement gripped him. He tried to move in the bed but the sheet was somehow wrapped around his leg and stuck under Riley’s ass. “Is she okay?”

Steve chuckled. “Mother and son doing fine so far. She’s got a couple of hours yet.”

“We’ll get the twins sorted out and we’ll…okay…did you call Mom and Josh?”

“Yep, in that order. They said they’d meet you there.”

Riley rolled onto his side and the action released the sheet so Jack could finally move. “Beth?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Jack didn’t know what to do first. Should he just get dressed? Nah, he needed a shower first.

It was like Riley read his mind. “Get a shower. I’ll call Mom and Dad to come sit with the twins.”

Jack scrambled out of the bed and was in the shower as soon as he could. When he came out, Riley went straight in.

“They’ll be here in an hour. You go, I’ll bring Hayley and catch up later. Call me if anything changes.”

Only fifteen minutes after getting the call, Jack was in the truck and on his way to the hospital. He couldn’t help the dread inside him. He wanted to be excited, but all he felt was fear. Last time Beth had been this close to giving birth she had collapsed and they’d nearly lost her. This time everything had been so calm and on time. She’d gone longer than Rebecca had with the twins, but then she was only carrying one baby, a brother for Emily, they wanted to call Zachary.