“Wait.” Rose stopped, putting her hand out. “Do you hear something?”

Sammy strained to listen over the sound of the rustling plants, and the breeze moving through the trees. And then just faintly she could make a plaintive sound out.

“Yes,” she said. “I hear it.”

They moved quickly toward the sound, picking through brambles and trees, and making their way into a thicket on the edge of the wood.

And that was where they found the little calf, tangled around thornbushes, looking desperate and thin and dehydrated.

Poor little thing.

Sammy knelt down next to the tragic creature. She put her face on his, listening faintly to the sound of him breathing.

“Oh, dear,” she said.

“I’ll text Logan,” Rose said. “We need him to bring the pickup truck out here. And call Bennett Dodge. He’ll need help.”

“Of course,” Sammy said.

She kept her hand on the pitiful animal while Rose sprang into action. Sammy appraised the situation as best she could, looking at the brambles wrapped around the little creature.

“Trust me,” she said, her voice soothing. He began to thrash as she grabbed hold of him where the stickers were buried in his skin.

“Trust me,” she said again, knowing full well that the cow couldn’t understand her, but hoping that he would somehow get her intention.

He was horribly tangled and she tried to help get him undone, sticking herself every few minutes with one of the terrible thorns. At least the animal tired after only a few moments and didn’t struggle anymore. Although, she wasn’t sure she should be relieved about that or concerned. Concerned, likely. If he didn’t even have enough energy to fight for himself...

She swallowed a lump in her throat, unsure why this was affecting her quite so deeply.

But the calf didn’t know any better. He was innocent. And he had wandered off and gotten himself into trouble. And she just wanted... She wanted to help.

She wanted to do something good and make a difference.

She fought harder with the brambles, her hands a bloody mess.

Rose was finally done with phone calls and turned her focus back to the spot, back to Sammy. “Holy hell, Sammy. What did you do?”

“Nothing intentional,” she said. “I just wanted to help.”

It sounded so feeble when she said it out loud.

“The boys will come with something to cut all this with. And Bennett will be here soon with his whole mobile unit.”

“Good,” Sammy said.

But still, she sat with the calf and worked at the thorns. Because she couldn’t stand for him to be in pain.

By the time the truck rolled up with Logan and Ryder, her hands were a disaster, and Rose was pacing angrily.

She had asked Sammy to stop several times, but Sammy wasn’t listening.

“What did you do?” Ryder approached her directly, sinking down to his knees beside her and taking her hand in his.

A bolt of electricity shot through her.