and started out into the pastures. They had some enclosures and outbuildings out on the ranch, and he figured he might find the turkeys there.
The sun rose, and Ace tipped his head back to bask in the light and heat, weak as it was. He and Bishop chatted easily about trivial things, or they rode in companionable silence. They found twenty-one turkeys, and Ace tied the dead birds to his saddle before they headed back.
Later, after the accounting on the ranch and after Ward had said he’d need an hour to put together crews to fix the physical facilities that needed work, Ace headed home. He felt dirty, though he hadn’t done much more than ride a horse and herd birds.
“Hey, baby,” he said as he walked in. “What’s for lunch?” He grinned at his wife, who sat on the couch, flipping through the cookbook he’d bought her for Christmas.
“I didn’t make lunch.” She gestured toward the kitchen. “There’s leftovers from yesterday.”
“Perfect.” Ace got out the pasta salad and a couple of the bratwurst they’d had. “Where’s Mother?”
“She went over to see Lois,” Holly Ann said. “I think they were going to have a little pow-wow about the names.”
“Uh oh,” Ace said, turning toward her. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“I talked to my dad,” Holly Ann said, setting aside her book. “He wants to—” She cut off as the house started to shake.
Ace’s eyes widened, because he’d never known Texas to have earthquakes—not here. There weren’t even really mountains here. A few rolling hills was all.
“What in the world?” he said, turning toward the back of the house. A long, custom sliding glass door opened onto a deck that stretched out and over the edge of the cliff a little bit.
He strode toward it, seeing the far corners of the deck trembling like someone was shaking them with every muscle in their body.
“Ace,” Holly Ann said as he opened the door. “Don’t go outside.”
He went anyway and started to cross the deck as the shaking started to lessen. He felt like he was walking across a suspension bridge, something he’d done several times before. The ground moving beneath his feet unsettled him every time, and he paused when he heard a horrible, fearsome sound of…rocks crashing against one another.
He stopped about halfway across the deck, his heartbeat pounding in his ears as the very real sound of a landslide continued to fill the sky with noise.
“Ace,” Holly Ann said again, plenty of fear in her voice.
“I’m okay,” he said. The rushing sound, combined with the cracking, tumbling echoes in the sky faded until only silence remained. Once the Earth stood still again, he hurried to the railing, despite his wife’s warnings.
The scene before his eyes looked like land and hill carnage. Great gashes had been clawed from the cliff that their house overlooked, and as his eyes moved north toward the road and the town of Three Rivers, he sucked in a breath.
“I can’t believe this,” he said. Things that should’ve been green were the color of rich soil. The gray rocks were white and jagged in brand new places. Down below, where the land leveled out, the debris from the landslide still moved, trying to find a place to settle.
“What’s going on?” Holly Ann called.
Ace couldn’t take in the chaos fast enough, but he knew one thing for certain: No one was leaving Shiloh Ridge Ranch any time soon.
“The hill sheared off,” he said, turning back and hurrying toward his wife. “We lost the road off the ranch.” He gathered her into his arms and held her close. They breathed together for a few seconds, and then he said, “I have to call Ward.”
Chapter Seventeen
Ward lifted his head from the clipboard he studied in the barn. The ground beneath his feet shook, as did the stalls and frame around him. “Dear Lord,” he said. “What else can go wrong?”
He took the clipboard with him and left the barn, his footsteps somewhat stilted as he tried to figure out how to walk on ground that moved. Several others came out of the nearby stables and barns, and Ward held up his hand.
The sound of a full river rushing over rocks filled the air, and Ward actually looked up into the sky. He had the very real feeling that Dot would be staying with him a bit longer. She’d insisted on staying that morning to help with the ranch, and he’d left her in Bull House to shower and get ready for