The Unwanted Runaway

ATV

Evans POV

Evan stepped out of his house and made his way down the porch to his truck. He grumbled under his breath about having to fix his own tire, thanks to that pervy kid Seth's drone. Squatting down to change the tire, he couldn't help but feel frustrated at the damage done to his truck. But at the same time, he was relieved that he would have a chance to see that kid again.

As Evan was working on the tire, Mia came outside with the house phone in her hand. "Evan, your mom just called. She saw one of the ATVs leave the property, but she couldn't see who it was because they were wearing a helmet."

Evan looked up at Mia, confused. "What are you talking about? The ATVs are all locked up, and everyone's pretty much done for the day. I know Jason is fishing up in the stalls with the foals. Why don't you ask him who it was and then tell Ma ?"

Mia looked at Evan with concern. "Why are you so cranky? Don't give me attitude like that."

Evan sighed and replied, "Babe, I'm just exhausted." He threw the tire down and pulled Mia towards him, causing them both to fall to the ground. Mia landed on top of Evan, and he grinned at her. "You know, I know the perfect way for you to take care of my exhaustion. And if you don't like my attitude, I'll just have to give you a reason to like it." He playfully smacked his lips against hers.

Just then, their daughter Lily appeared at the screen door and exclaimed, "Mommy, daddy, that's gross!" Evan and Mia both stopped and laughed at Lily's innocence.

Mia got up and said, "Alright, babe, I'll let you finish up whatever you're going to do. I'm going to go back inside and finish things up for tomorrow." She swayed her hips playfully as she walked away.

Evan howled after her as Mia was stepping inside the house turned to Rose on the phone. "Is my ma” still on the phone? Tell her to call Jason and figure it out. I'm busy with my woman." He winked at Mia before hanging up.

Lily came back outside and looked at Evan with concern. "Daddy, is EJ going to be okay? I'm scared."

Evan asked Lily why she was scared, and she replied, "Because Evan's hurt, and I don't want to see my big brother hurt."

Evan's heart melted, and he picked Lily up and gave her a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. "You're just the sweetest little girl ever. Your brother will be fine. Now go back inside because it's getting cold out."

Lily scurried back inside, Evan soon followed. Mia just got off the phone with Rose. She then tells Evan that Rose tried calling Jason, but he didn’t answer so he must lost track of his phone again. Because he’s usually really good at answering it unless he misplaced it.

Evan then decided to go down to the stalls To check if Jason was still there . Evan now was too curious to figure out what was going on with the ATV .

As Evan made his way down the stalls and looked around, he noticed that no one was there. He decided to head over to Jason's trailer, hoping to find some answers. He knocked a couple of times and eventually Jason answered the door.

"Hey, Evan. What's going on?" Jason asked, treating Evan with a friendly tone.

"Sorry to bother you, Jason, but I have a question for you. Do you happen to know who took the ATV out?" Evan replied calmly.

Jason's face fell. "Anna did. Why?"

"Well, Ma saw someone taking it out of the property and it looked like they were headed towards town. But she couldn't tell who it was," Evan explained.

"s**t, if I had known Anna was gonna take it to town, I would've-" Jason started to say before Brooke stepped up behind him.

"What are you both talking about? Why would Anna take the ATV into town when we were just there today and finished all our shopping? It doesn't make sense," Brooke chimed in.

Evan nodded in agreement. "Exactly. Those ATVs are not meant for long distance travels and it's getting cold out. I might have to go into town to look for her and bring her back home."

Jason let out a chuckle. "That's funny," he remarked.

"What's funny?" Brooke asked, confused.

"Earlier today, Denton was also looking for Anna," Jason explained.

Evan interrupted before Jason could finish his sentence. "Wait, wait, wait. Denton was looking for her? Well He's probably trying to get with her if you know what I mean. I'm worried about her safety." Okay Jason. We all know Denton has it bad for her. Well, except for Brooke obviously.

Brooke turned to Evan. "Hey now I did not know that Carter was seeing somebody OK when I tried to send Carter and Anna up. So are you going to tell Denton that Anna is missing?"

Jason scoffed. "She's not missing, Brooke. She just took the ATV into town when it's freezing outside."

Evan bid both Jason and Brooke goodbye. He turned and walked back to his house, got into his pickup truck, and headed towards town.

Two hours had passed and Evan had searched everywhere in town, until finally, he spotted Anna walking with the ATV at the edge of town. As he pulled his truck over to the side of the road, Evan remained calm, knowing that everything in Heston was closed at this hour and it was only getting colder.

He got out of his truck and walked back to where Anna was. When he saw the look on her face, Evan could tell that she had been crying. He asked her, in a gentle tone, "What's wrong, Anna?"

Anna replied with a simple "Nothing."

But Evan could see through her facade. "Anna, I can see that you've been crying. What happened?"

Anna hesitated before finally saying, "I just don't want to talk about it."

Evan looked at her with concern and said, "Let me help you load the ATV into the back of the truck. We'll head back to the ranch."

Anna reluctantly agreed and together they lifted the ATV into the back of Evan's truck. As they drove back to the ranch, Evan could tell that something was clearly bothering Anna, but he didn't push her to talk about it.

It wasn't until he noticed a gun in Anna's jacket pocket that he knew he needed to intervene. He quickly texted Carter, saying, "Hey, something's going on with Anna. You need to talk to her."

Evan knew that his main concern was Anna's safety, and he was determined to help her through whatever was troubling her. Evan then text Mia to let her know that he found Anna. Also that Anna for some reason now he’s acting frightened, and is carrying a small gun.

Evan’s phone things with a text he glances down to his phone and his lap while he’s driving and reads The text reply from Mia.

Mia- we will figure it out. something booked her enough to go to town and purchase a gun.”

Evan puts his eyes back on the road to pay attention.He wants to ask more questions to Anna but chose not to but rather chose to enjoy the quiet ride back to the ranch.