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"Why don't you take it easy today?" Travis was watching her reflection in the mirror as she dried her long blond hair, "You didn't sleep last night after you woke from that dream. I couldn't sleep after that, and I have work I have to get done. Take a horse and the puppy and go for a ride. Have Elena pack you a lunch and don't come home until you feel like it." He took the dryer from her hands and finished drying the back of her hair then put the dryer back in the cabinet. "So, what do you think?"

"Will you go with me?" she asked and turned to face him, "I'd feel better if you were with me."

It was hard to resist her soulful blue eyes, but he had to say no. "Sorry, baby, but I've got things I've got to get done. You bought that fancy camera that you haven't used yet. Why don't you take some pictures of the ranch for me?"

Her mother had insisted that her children have hobbies outside of ranching and horses. Coralee had taken photography in school as an elective and was good enough to get a job on the school paper. Her parents had hung her pictures around their house and people often thought they were professional.

"Yeah, you're right," she told him, "I need to get out of my head. All I can think about is that dream and it wasn't even real. I feel like I should be working out with my horses, so I'll be ready for my next competition."

He took hold of her hand, "You reacted like the dream felt real. Your family's ranch is under threat and that must be hard to deal with." He kissed her hand, "You need to get out, stick to the trails I've shown you and you won't get lost. If you can read a compass, bring one. Be home by dinner, it'll make a good day."

They ate breakfast mostly in silence. Travis always kept his cell phone beside him in the morning, knowing that the hands would be calling about one matter or another. Dinner was another matter, his cell would be turned off and he'd place his phone in the bedroom, only fetching it when they finished their meal. Dinner was for talking about their day, or maybe he'd explain something that was going on. If she didn't understand she would ask questions which he'd patiently answer.

It would take a year or two before she'd be able to help him run things, but she had a good head on her shoulders and made a sincere effort to learn. The baby would slow things down for a while, but Travis intended to have a family business. Boy or girl, it would grow up on horseback the way they both had. They would start in 4-H and slowly work their way up as she had.

Right now Coralee was only half paying attention to him. She had formed a plan which she was not sure she wanted to carry out. Travis would not allow her to fly to Montana. How would he react if she went behind his back and defied him? Travis did not know what it was like to have his home under threat, what would he do? Would he stay home?

She could stay home and make phone calls, and either Zoon or FaceTime, but it was not the same. If the ranch was attacked once, what would stop someone from attempting it again? It was hard not to feel guilty that she hadn't been there to help defend it. There was a suspicion she had, wondering if Jamie knew more than he revealed to her.

Once again she felt like she was being treated like a child and protected from the truth. Before Tate was born, she had been the baby of the family, but she was twenty-four, almost twenty-five now, and it was time they treated her as an adult.

She kept her eyes focused on Travis so he could not see that she only half paid attention to him. Her mind was going in all directions. Would it be possible for her to slip away before Travis knew that she was gone? She'd bought a pickup so she'd have something to drive so she could drive to Fort Worth and catch a flight to Montana. Once she got there, she could rent a car and drive to the Yellowstone. She had all the documentation that she needed, and money for a flight and car rental, but could she manage to get away? And how angry would Travis be when he found out?

Travis was a control freak. She loved him and understood why, but it drove her nuts sometimes. Controlling the business was one thing, he was as good a businessman as he was a horseman, but when it came to her that was another matter. At first, she'd ignored it, or hadn't noticed it, but he saw himself as the head of the family and expected her to do as she was told. He still didn't know her that well.

She smiled at Travis as he kissed her goodbye, then went to the office and got her laptop. She flipped it open and began searching for departure times for flights from Fort Worth to Bozeman. It would be nice if she could get a midnight flight, but there is no way she could leave without Travis noticing. If she left while he was asleep, she could get away and reach Fort Worth in about three hours. He was a deep sleeper, and he probably wouldn't know she was gone until the next morning. With any amount of luck, she could find a flight between four and six a.m. and be on her way to Montana.

She was having second thoughts, there was no denying that. Travis would be angry, and she didn't know how he'd react. If he did get mad at her, she wasn't so sure she could deal with it, she loved him, and she didn't want him to be angry with her. He had only been mad at her once, and she didn't want it to happen again. He had expressly told her that she was not to go to Montana and expected her to stay home. How would he react when she disobeyed?

She kept on searching for flights and found three on Southwest that would do. The only problem now was whether she was prepared to follow through.

She closed her laptop and called to the puppy, "Come on, Shelly, let's go for a ride. I need to clear my head so I can decide, this is killing me."

She grabbed her jacket and her gloves; indecision was a terrible thing. The puppy followed her to the ATV and jumped on, then they rode to the barn.

Travis had a horse saddled for her. She checked the cinch and tightened it, then swung up into the saddle. She took off at a canter so the puppy could keep up then rode up into the hills so she could get away from the barn. She did not want to run into Travis.

It was good to be alone with only Shelly following in her footsteps, The puppy stayed by her side, only occasionally going off the trail to follow an interesting scent. She could almost forget her dilemma if it weren't for the fact that she could not stop thinking.

She wanted to go to Montana, badly. She was worried about her uncle and the ranch. She was not sure that everything was all right. If someone could invade the ranch once, why wouldn't they try it again? And she wanted to hear firsthand what had happened, not just from Jamie but from the wranglers too. It wasn't just that she wanted to go, she needed to.

She didn't want Travis to get mad at her and if she did leave and not tell him he would be angry. Why didn't he understand that this was important? She shouldn't have to sneak around, she wasn't a child or one of his wranglers. She might be needed, there might be a part to play even if she didn't know what it was for now.

Her stomach was rumbling. Elena would have fixed her lunch, but she didn't feel like talking to her. She'd like to get rid of her and hire someone who suited her better and did not have a history with her husband. For now, Elena was something that she had to tolerate. Travis valued her, and he thought well enough of Elena's husband that he'd hired him to help manage the ranch.

The trouble was she didn't have much time to make up her mind. She had to get her tickets before Travis had a chance to find out if he even suspected he'd stop her. She'd have to print out all her information and then delete it from her laptop's history so she wouldn't leave any traces. It would be easier to just forget about it and stay home, but that wasn't what she wanted.

She turned her horse around and called to the puppy who came bounding up, her tail wagging. She couldn't decide anything on an empty stomach. If she was going to do this, she needed to book her flight and her rental car now. Once she made her decision there was no turning back, but she still worried about Travis.

Oh lord, she thought, am I going to do this? For the first time in her life, she didn't know what to do and she'd never had that problem before. She spurred her horse, as if riding faster would help but she was afraid that the puppy couldn't keep up and showed down. Shelly managed to keep up with her horse as they galloped back to the barn.

She cooled her horse down and removed the saddle as Shelly waited impatiently in the ATV. Coralee got into the ATV and told her, "You can't be all that hungry, you had a big breakfast and Elena fed you table scraps." The puppy wagged her tail and Coralee couldn't tell if she agreed with her or not.

The puppy jumped down even before Coralee stopped the ATV, eager to get into the house and let Elena know it had been hours since she ate, and she was starving. Elena had fixed arroz con pollo and Coralee gave herself a generous serving and a tall glass of iced tea. She took her food up to her room and began to browse the travel sites to see if the flights were still available.

She booked a six-thirty a.m. flight and went to another site to reserve a small truck. There was also a parking lot where she could park her truck and leave it until she returned. She printed out her information folded it and hid it in a deep pocket in her shoulder bag.

She watched TV while she ate, more to calm her nerves than for the program. She couldn't believe she was doing this, she was risking Travis getting angry at her, but what choice did she have? She had a feeling that she needed to do this, more than a feeling, a compulsion. If he hadn't forbidden her to go to Montana, the subterfuge would not be necessary. She was going whether he liked it or not, she would not tolerate being told what to do.

She finished her lunch then brought her dishes to the kitchen and put them in the dishwasher. Shelly was asleep, snoring softly, her belly full of the generous lunch Elena had given her. She gave Elena a nod then went back upstairs and packed a small suitcase and hid it in the closet where she could easily retrieve it. It was too long a walk to the garage, so she'd have to risk taking the ATV.

She'd found an old Ford F-150 and had purchased it, then took it to a mechanic and had him fix everything that needed it. She kept it gassed up and she should be able to drive to Fort Worth without something breaking down. She'd park it in the lot, then take the shuttle to the airport. She should arrive in plenty of time to check-in. "You'd better remember to turn off your phone," she told herself, "As soon as Travis knows you're gone he's going to start calling you."