Chapter One

      “I miss you, buddy.”

      Slade McKenna’s throat burned and he swallowed hard. He shook his head and grunted at his own foolishness. He wasn’t in the habit of talking to those who’d passed on. Thankfully, no one was here to witness the rarity.

      Stirrup-high Texas grass brushed across his boots as he rode the fence line in search of bent posts or breaks in the barbed wire where the Becketts’ cattle might get free. Mending fences kept his mind off the bad stuff.

      Mostly.

      He wasn’t the kind of guy who expressed emotion, verbal or otherwise, but right now his feelings were digging as deeply into his side as spurs, no matter how hard he bucked and resisted to throw his grief.

      His best friend Brody Beckett was gone. Forever.

       Dead.

      He could hardly bear to think the word, much less say it aloud, especially when Brody’s absence was such a stark, bitter reality. Checking the fences on his parents’ ranch property had been Brody’s chore since he was old enough to sit straight on a horse, and as his best friend, Slade had often accompanied him in his rounds. When they were both little tykes, Slade and Brody had spent many hours out here on the range together, where the lowing of cattle, the gentle Texas wind and the creak of saddle leather were the only sounds to break the sweet silence.

      That, and the howling and hollering of a couple of ornery young boys who’d rather have been wrestling than wrangling.

      Riding and roughhousing with Brody. Those were some of the best memories Slade had.