Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 31942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 160(@200wpm)___ 128(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 160(@200wpm)___ 128(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
I want her to stay in my house. But if she’d rather live in Texas, I could sell this place. There will be other ranches but only one woman who holds my heart.
I step lightly on one of the floorboards to make it creak. The last thing I want to do is startle her with everything she’s been through.
She turns and gives me a smile, but something is wrong. It doesn’t meet her eyes. She looks like she hasn’t slept again.
After everything that happened with Sierra, Colt helped her get into therapy. Maybe I’ll ask him for a recommendation. It might do her some good to have someone who actually knows how to help. Sure, I can disable a threat. But figuring out how to make her feel better after this trauma? I don’t have the first clue.
“I didn’t expect you to be up so early,” she says softly. Her gaze flits to the bag by the front door. Fuck, that’s the bag she showed up with and it’s packed again. That can only mean one thing. “I really appreciate what you’ve done for me, but it’s time I go back home now.”
My mind races. There are a million things I want to say to her in this moment, and I don’t know which one to choose. Words are not my thing. I’m a man of action. “Don’t go.”
“I need to be around what’s familiar again,” she says softly. If that’s true, why does she look like she’s in pain?
“Alright, give me a minute and I’ll pack my stuff.” I can talk to Colt and Ryker about my portion of the land once we’re on the road. It won’t be easy, but we can figure this out. Even if I have to take a financial loss by the time it’s all said and done, then that’s what I’ll do.
“I need to go alone. I need to be back to my routine.” There’s a hitch in her voice. I want to go to her and wrap my arms around her. I want to make love to her right here in this kitchen until she promises to never leave me. But fear keeps me rooted to the spot. If I push too hard, I could lose her forever.
“Maybe I’ll come visit some time.”
“That’d be good.” The coffee pot beeps, and she turns. She makes a mug for herself and takes a few sips. I watch her glossy lips against my coffee cup and wonder if there was ever any other way for this to end. Damn Kyle and the way he’s hurt her. He’s made it hard for my lamb to trust.
Halfway through, she abandons the mug on the counter and gives me a too bright smile. “Guess this is goodbye. See you around.”
Then she just walks away without so much as a hug or a kiss or a handshake. Like the past few days and the way I explored every inch of her body never even happened. My heart stutters then stops beating in my chest.
She’s halfway down the porch steps when I follow her out. I call her name and wait for her to turn to me. I toss her my keys. “Take my truck. I sent your rust bucket to the junk yard.”
I watch her go. I’ll give her space for a few days then I’m going after my lamb. I’ll claim this woman and convince her to be mine forever.
“Why isn’t this sitting right with me?” I ask as I stand outside the police department with Luke. It’s only been a day since Charlie left me. She left a voicemail on my phone a few minutes ago, telling me that she’d made it back home and was staying with a friend. But she didn’t sound like herself. She sounded so damn exhausted.
I’ve warred with myself ever since I let her go. Maybe I did the right thing. Maybe I didn’t. Not knowing was driving me crazy so I started digging deeper into Kyle. I can’t shake the feeling that I’m missing something.
Luke grimaces and glances back toward the building. The quaint little place only has two jail cells which means there’s no privacy so we can discuss the suspect where he won’t overhear.
I’m instantly on alert. Luke has a damn good poker face most of the time. But there’s something my friend is keeping from me. “What are you thinking?”
“I can’t prove anything conclusively. Did you ever consider he might have had an accomplice?”
“All the digital records match up. The messages were from his phone and his laptop. I traced everything back to his home Wi-Fi network.” It would be possible for him to have falsified some things, but I didn’t get the impression that I was dealing with some tech genius.
“The thing about it is Deputy Griffin started looking into it. When some of the messages were sent, he clearly wasn’t at home.”