by KB Winters
It sounded flimsy even to my own ears, but the dark look on his face ruined my post-sex haze.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Holden
“Why did you wait so long?” It wasn’t a deliberate act, at least I didn’t want to believe it was, but the thought came instinctively. “Well?”
She sighed in front of me with a mouthwatering set of tits that made it hard to have a serious conversation. It was damn hard, but I managed to meet her gaze.
“I forgot, okay? It was the first day I didn’t feel completely awful, and I overdid it with Martha’s stew and the cake. And the ice cream. I barely made it to bed before I shut my eyes.”
She hadn’t even made it to bed that night, dozing off at the kitchen table with her head resting on my shoulder. I lifted her in my arms, reveling in the feel of her warm curves pressed against my body, and carried her to bed myself.
“And no other reason?”
Something like hurt, or maybe it was guilt, flashed in those light blue eyes that were now dark and stormy. I saw the moment my words sank in because she blinked all emotions but anger.
“Right. Of course. You think I conveniently forgot to what, to help out Ken somehow?”
She shook her head and scooted down off of the table. Her gaze scanned the room until she found what she was looking for. Her panties.
“Unbelievable. Really, you are un-fucking-believable, Holden.” She yanked her bra off the floor and put it on, disgust dripping off her every move.
“Just when I think things have changed or were maybe starting to change, you remind me why it never will. Well, thanks, Holden.”
She shimmied into her jeans and tank top, tucking the other shirt into her back pocket.
“What else should I think, Aspen?”
She sighed. “Apparently, you’ll always think the worst, no matter how much time and distance have been put between me and that arrogant high school girl I used to be. So keep on thinking that.”
“Try telling the truth.”
“I never lied to you. Not once. What reason would I have when your opinion of me couldn’t possibly get any lower?” She shook her head, blonde hair still mussed and along with those kiss-swollen lips, even angry she looked gorgeous as hell.
“Another lesson learned, I suppose.”
Without another glance or another word, not even an argument to reconsider, she walked away.
She needed a few minutes to cool down, and then we could have a reasonable conversation. At least that was my thinking before I heard the front door open and close and realized the stubborn damn woman had left. The sun had set long ago, and even with a flashlight, the walk back would take about thirty minutes.
Alone.
“Shit!” I stepped into my jeans and boots, grabbing a t-shirt on my way out the front door.
“Aspen, get back here!” I darted back inside the cabin to get my flashlight and scanned the area beside the house for a beam of light.
“Aspen!”
“Go back inside, Holden.”
I followed the sound of her voice. “Dammit, woman, stop running from me. Get back here, and we’ll talk. Like adults.”
“Because insulting me is gonna get you your way? Go screw yourself, Holden.”
I could hear the heaviness in her breathing, but the grass was so goddamn thick and so tall, it was hard to see much of anything beyond the occasional splash of light.
“Look, Aspen, seriously. This isn’t funny.”
“Who’s laughing, Holden? You just fucked me and then insulted me before the jizz was dry. God, just go away. Please!”
“Can’t do that, sweetheart.” When she put it that way, I had sounded like an asshole, but somebody had to ask the questions. It was better to be up front than to spare feelings, right?
“I’ll see you to the bunkhouse, and then I’ll leave you alone. Okay?”
“No. I don’t need you to be my babysitter. Oh!”
A whizzing sound and then another followed the sound of two gunshots.
“Shit! Someone’s shooting!”
“Down, Aspen, get down!” I couldn’t hear what direction the shots were coming from. Yet. “Turn off your flashlight.”
“How am I supposed to see?” Her words came out on a sharp whisper, which would make it hard for the shooter to see us without high-grade military equipment.
“Just keep telling me what an asshole I am, and I’ll follow the sound of your voice.”
“Glad you can crack jokes at a time like this.” Her displeasure was easy to hear, but still, I smiled. Another shot rang out, and Aspen shouted, giving the shooter a clear line to our location.
“Quiet, Aspen!”
She breathed loud enough that I could hear her, but she was low to the ground. When I found her, that pretty face was about two inches from the ground.
“Over here,” she whispered. Angrily.
“Hey, did you miss me?” I knew I was close, but I couldn’t risk turning my flashlight on.
“Shut up.” She smacked my chest, and that was how I found her.
“You did miss me.” Another round of shots rang out, and I dropped down, draping my body over Aspen’s. “Can’t say this isn’t what I was hoping to be doing right about now.”
“Too bad about your big damn mouth and your suspicious mind. Oh, and let’s not forget your cynical heart.”
I grunted. “Maybe we can have this discussion when bullets aren’t flying all around us?”
“Then maybe stop pressing your fat fucking cock against me.” She sounded annoyed, but that little hitch in her voice said she was also turned on. At a moment like this. “Where do we go?”
“West. There’s a supply shed about eight hundred feet west of here.”
“West would be?”
“Go to your left, Aspen. Stay close.” I turned on my flashlight and tossed it to the right. “Run and stay low!”
We took off together, running low while the sound of the shots grew more distant. The grass was tall, and the mosquitoes were all over the damn place, but we made it to the shed without any bullet holes piercing our skin.
“Shit, shit, shit!”
I stepped up behind Aspen and put a hand over her mouth. “Shhh, we’re not in the clear yet.” I kept one hand wrapped around her and the other turned the shed’s knob and pushed. “Step up once and to your left.”
As soon as we were inside, she smacked my shoulder. Again. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”
“I was behind you the entire time, Aspen. I know it’s scary, but please, try to stay calm.” I put my hands on her shoulder to steady her. “It’s cramped in here, and we can’t use the flashlight to see our way around. That’s probably for the best, so we don’t make too much noise.
“What is this place anyway?”
“You mean in all your ranch work you never ran across a storage shed? There’s an old tractor in here, some shovels, and pitchforks, an old pickup truck. Some other junk.”
She glared at me. “No. Daddy had buildings built for that kind of thing. Likes to keep the ranch looking streamlined.”
Good, keeping her annoyed and distracted kept her from freaking out, and that was my number one priority. Number two was getting some fucking help.
“See what happens when you venture outside without me?” My timing was bad, but our proximity was good, plus I just couldn’t help myself.
Neither could Aspen, apparently, because she stepped in close, looked me right in the eyes, and punched me in my arm.
Again.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Aspen
Holy. Shit. Someone just shot at me. A lot. Or maybe they were shooting at Holden? He is in a biker gang, which pretty much guaranteed somebody was always shooting at him, doesn’t it? Not that I could talk, though. My ex-boyfriend had somehow gotten hooked up with a black ops dude with a penchant for causing pain. The more I thought about it, the more those shots could have been meant for both of us. Crap.
“A
ny idea who that was?”
“How in the hell should I know? I’ve been chasing you through the damn fields for the past half hour, maybe longer.”
Even in the dark, I could hear the scowl that marred his handsome face when something pissed him off.
“Don’t yell at me, damn you, Holden. I didn’t ask you to follow me, did I?” It was a childish response; one Daddy would have bitched about until I apologized or rephrased.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t ask you to run out of the cabin like your ass was on fire, did I? Nope you did that all on your own, which meant I had to run after you, without my gun, into a gunfight.”
Okay, yeah, so maybe he had a point. Still. “Sure, Holden, this is my fault. You fucked me and then insulted me, but somehow this is all my fault. Sure.”
Sometimes I wondered why I even bothered with men, but the twinge in my thighs and the way my pussy pulsed, even now moments after escaping death, was a keen reminder.
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to, and I’m done talking about it.” I thought it might be best if I was done talking to Holden for a good long while.
“Fine. Did you grab your phone before you stormed out of the cabin?”
“Of course, I did, since I didn’t think I was coming back. I already activated the green button on that app Peaches installed on my phone. She said it was perfect for when the shit hit the fan. I think this qualifies.”
I could only see his outline in the tiny sliver of moonlight that crept through the wooden slats at the top of the shed. “Good. That means they should be here any minute, hopefully, armed.”
Good. That was exactly what I needed, a reprieve from Holden’s proximity. Being around him made it hard to think, hard to focus on anything but his big body and masculine scent. “Can’t wait.”
“That eager to be rid of me? Didn’t take you long to grow bored, I see.”
I refused to let him taunt me. I may have a shitty record when it comes to men, and maybe even being a good person, but I wouldn’t rise to the bait. I wasn’t wrong this time, he was, and I refused to take the blame for someone else’s mistake.
“Nothing to say?” he said in that gotcha tone. “That has to be a first.”
Oh he was so damn smug, wasn’t he? “There’s a first time for everything.” That was all I felt the need to say, drawing into myself until I heard engines in the distance.
“You’ll have to talk to me sometime, Aspen.”
That’s where he was wrong. “What would you want to talk to me about, Holden? I’m just a ditzy blonde trust fund slut, oh and a backstabber. Seems like you got away just in time.” With that parting shot, I patted his chest and walked past him and out of the shed to greet the Reckless Bastards.
My unintended heroes.
“You doin’ all right, sweetheart?” Slayer was the first off his four-wheeler. He strolled up to me with all the swagger of a movie star and wrapped an arm around me.
“Better now. Thanks for coming to get me.” My gaze found Gunnar and his permanent scowl, and I nodded my thanks because I knew that was all a guy like him would accept.
“Did you see anything?” Gunnar asked.
“Not even a muzzle, but I think the shots came from behind us. I never saw a flash of light, but then I wasn’t looking for it, either.”
“Okay. We’ll get you back to the cabin—”
“That won’t be necessary. I was headed back to the bunkhouse when this happened. I’ll just go over there since it’s on the way.”
Whatever he wanted to say, Gunnar kept his questions to himself, and I was grateful for it. “All right.”
I stood off to the side and out of the way, watching the bikers interact. You could tell by the way they walked, the way they carried themselves that they were all former military. The currently tense set of their shoulders said they were all on alert.
Gunnar was the clear leader. The man had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and Wheeler was his clear number two. But right now, they worked like a solid military unit, scanning the area for tire tracks, cigarette butts, anything that might indicate who was out there.
“We’re clear. Let’s head out but keep your heads on a swivel!”
“Hop on,” Slayer said with a knowing smile. “Still doing all right?”
“Considering I’ve never been shot at before, I guess this is as okay as I’m supposed to feel,” I said.
“Well you know what they say, you always remember your first time.” Slayer flipped his hair over his shoulder and slid in front of me. “Hang on tight. I like to go fast.”
I held on to Slayer’s hard body and closed my eyes, letting the cool night air wash over my skin as we made our way back to the big house. And I didn’t look back at Holden once.
Progress, as they say, comes in small steps.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Holden
“I am fucking, so fucking tired of always reacting. We need to be proactive from now on.”
Gunnar had a point, and we all felt his anger as we stood in a circle, cramped in his office in the main house because he refused to leave the women unguarded. “Do we know anything yet?”
“Not enough. But I suspect whoever did it didn’t just get lucky. They were waiting. Hell, they would’ve been waiting until morning if we hadn’t been fighting.”
Still were fighting if the way Aspen had given me the cold shoulder was any indication. She hopped on the four-wheeler with Slayer and let him whisk her away without one look back at me, the man who was between her and the bullets.
Cruz laughed and shook his head. “Still your same old charming self, eh?” They all had a good laugh until Wheeler spoke.
“It’s probably a good thing. I would’ve waited until you were asleep and put two in both your heads.” That sucked all the laughter and oxygen right out of the room.
“Way to make it dark and fucked up, Wheeler.” Cruz snickered again, and even though Slayer elbowed him in the side, I admired the man’s ability to laugh even when shit started to look bleak.
“What? That’s the truth. That fight probably saved both your lives.” Wheeler meant it, which was fucked up in its own right, but also what got him out of the service in one piece. Physically, anyway.
I snorted out a laugh at his logic. “Try tellin’ Aspen that, would you?”
“Sure.” More laughter went up, which might seem odd to anyone listening, but this was what we did. Laughed through the tough shit because that was how the tough shit got done. Humor and levity helped you stared death in the face and do the impossible time and time again.
“Wheeler’s right. Now we have the chance to act first.” Gunnar had a determined look on his face, and I took a couple of deep breaths, taking my time to exhale because I knew this meant game faces on.
“No offense, Prez,” Saint began in his quiet, certain style, “but we don’t even know who did this yet to form any kind of plan.”
“I know that,” Gunnar snapped, more upset at the situation than the messenger. “That means we need multiple plans. One for Ken and one for Farnsworth.”
Before Saint could ask another question, I had one of my own. “You think there’s a possibility Ken isn’t acting on orders from this Farnsworth character? Maybe he’s a dick all by his lonesome?”
“Could be, but if it was Ken waiting out by your cabin, that means he’s after Aspen. From everything Peaches has said, his crazy is more of an act.”
“So we don’t have to worry about him coming after Aspen? Or we do?” Cruz asked the most damn questions, but Gunnar didn’t seem to mind.
“Make no mistake, he’ll kill her if he needs to, but it’s unlikely.” Before Gunnar could say anymore, a knock sounded. In the split-second Saint and Slayer went for their weapons, Wheeler’s was already aimed dead center at the door.
“Come in.”
Blond curls appeared first, and then the ridiculously boyish face of our first prospect, Ford, appeared.
&nb
sp; “Is it a good time, sir?” He wasn’t allowed to attend any meetings in the Sin Room, and being so fresh from the service, the kid still had a healthy respect for hierarchy and formality.
Gunnar waved him in. “I told you to quit it with the sir, shit. This ain’t the service. This is a brotherhood.”
“Right,” Ford said, face fixed into a blank expression before he jumped into his business. “Ken wasn’t at home. The place is dark and locked up like he left voluntarily. His car wasn’t in the designated spot or the garage, or the office he rented to keep up his businessman image.”
Ford paused and looked up to Gunnar for the okay to continue, which he got.
“Nobody’s seen his car in town for the past twenty-four hours, and I did a block by block drive through the town. Nothing.”
“Good job, kid. Grab some food from Martha and keep watch out back.” Ford nodded at Gunnar and left without another word.
“Goddammit, this motherfucker—whoever he is—came on to our property and shot at one of us. This shit won’t stand. It can’t.”
“I agree,” Wheeler added. “We need to do another sweep of the property and we need more weapons.” His brain never shut off. I was pretty sure Wheeler dreamed of ops and logistics, probably why he was more fucked up than the rest of us.
Gunnar nodded, grateful for that twisted mind, I was sure. “Saint, grab Ford and go load up the truck from the armory. And watch your fucking backs. Please.”
That one growled word said how worried he was, and I didn’t blame him one fucking bit. Chances were good that his woman was the target of all this. My woman, too, if that was what Aspen was to me, or wanted to be anymore–anyway, she was just collateral damage. A means to an end.
Saint nodded and stood. “Any requests?”
“Grab me another knife, one for my new ankle sheath,” Gunnar said with a wild-eyed smile. and unstrapped it from his leg, handing it to Saint. “Thanks, bro.”
Saint flashed another look around the room, and when no one spoke, he left. The room fell into a tense silence, and I wondered where Aspen was and if she was still pissed at me. I had to ask the question, even if it made me an asshole. If we were gonna be together, she’d have to get used to that. Hell, did I even want to be with her? Did she want to be with me, here on Hardtail Ranch?
