River's Escape (River's End Series, #2) by Leanne Davis

figure out something, but she had no idea what that could be. Eyeing the tack room again, she saw the floor was filled with big boxes covered by straps.
    “Let’s just wait until they get here. No sense killing you by lifting those.”
    “I can lift them,” she replied quickly. She was definitely no wuss. She regularly moved furniture around in order to clean his freaking house. Of course, she could lift heavy boxes.
    “They weigh eighty pounds each; and we need to lift them high enough to strap each to the sawbuck. We’ll just wait. No reason to make them stand there either. We’ll have to pack and saddle up the five horses Shane is bringing when he gets here.”
    “Oh. So we just wait?”
    He nodded and sighed before he started scooping away the fresh horse manure that had dropped since they began saddling. He threw it off into the grass beyond the clearing, and put the scooper away. “I’m going to unhitch the truck and go down to where I can get cell service. I want to see what’s holding them up this time.”
    “Oh. And I should stay here? Alone?” She nearly gulped out loud. Sure, they were on the road, but there wasn’t another soul around. And there were wild animals in the woods. That she did know.
    “I’d like you to stay here so the horses remain calm. I don’t like leaving them tied to the trailer, but they’re saddled. This is ridiculous. Stupid Shane. He should know better.”
    He leaned down to quickly unhitch the truck and she watched his movements. There was no denying the man knew exactly what he was doing. Thank God, or she’d be lost. She couldn’t even tie the knot correctly to hold the horse. It was a bit of comfort to realize his expertise would be keeping her safe and secure despite whatever lurked on the deep face of the mountains. She was starting to have serious doubts now that she could actually handle the endeavor.
    “I’ll be about a half hour or so. Don’t worry, I’ll return as soon as I can.”
    She struggled to keep her inner groan to herself. Being stuck in the woods alone, with four horses and no cell service. Yeah, that sounded great. She couldn’t wait idly. She walked around, rubbing each of the horses nervously as his truck roared down the road, stirring up clouds of dust until it disappeared in the distance. Holy crap, it was silent. She kept glancing around while picturing a bear or wolf coming out of the woods. The day was brightening, but her heart still pounded painfully. The horses snickered and groaned as they stomped the ground, impatient to either get on with it, or be released, she supposed. Feeling bad for them, she kept going to each one and talking softly in an effort to comfort herself as well as them.
    Finally, Ian’s truck came barreling back. He swung a quick U-turn and backed up almost an inch from the hitch. As he jumped out, his expression was not the normal dour, blank nothing. No, he looked pissed off. She never really saw Ian showing any kind of feeling, so she came up to the side of him, unsure of what was going on.
    “Where are they?”
    “Getting drunk. Decided to start a little early and now Shane, the shithead, is too buzzed to drive.”
    She watched Ian slamming the trailer hitch back onto the hitch ball of his truck and noted his movements were jerky, using too much force. He straightened back up and his last words finally sunk in.
    “They’re not coming? Not at all?”
    He walked towards the first horse. “Nope. Well, perhaps tomorrow. But I told them to just fuck off. I don’t intend to go through this again tomorrow.”
    Who does that? Who starts drinking at only ten o’clock in the morning? “And my brothers?”
    “They’re with mine.”
    She felt her legs growing rubbery as she sat down on the bumper of the truck. The disappointment was crushing. She literally put all her heart into the trip. And thought… well, she thought her life would actually change because of it. And now they glibly decided to get drunk and not