Chapter 40
FORTY
Ramsey
I want to follow Hazel, but I know her well enough that when she’s in this mood, there’s no point in trying. Some of the bullheaded fury has to wear off her before she’ll listen to my apology or an explanation. And she’s not wrong. She has a job to do, and I don’t want to distract her with minor details—like this asshole fucking all the way off. So I return my attention back to the problem at hand.
“ Leave. Don’t ever fucking come back here. Don’t talk to her. Don’t even mention her name in passing ever again.” I close the distance between us until I’m almost touching him as he holds his ground, looking up at me because I tower over him.
“Fat fucking chance. She’s my fiancée, whether you like it or not.”
“You keep saying that word like it means something. It doesn’t mean shit. Not against everything she and I have. ”
“She loves me. Get that through your thick fucking skull. Or did you get too much brain damage on the field?”
My laugh is cut short by my fury.
“I don’t know what you thought you were pulling with her. If you were just a plant the entire time or thought you’d take a nice buyout when the opportunity presented itself… But I know you’re not who you’ve been saying you are, and I will find out who that is, and then I will crush you under my boot until nothing’s left but a stain.” I’d enjoy it too. I don’t say that part. I don’t want Hazel to know just how much I’d love the opportunity to make him cry like the little bitch he is. I want him to suffer for every single one of the lies he told her.
“Is that a threat? I imagine your parole officer would want to hear that.” He thinks he’s fucking clever, but nothing would stop me from keeping her safe.
“Maybe they would. It won’t change a thing.”
“It’ll change when you’re back in prison, and she has a chance to listen to me without you in her ear feeding her packs of lies.”
“I’ve got my brothers and hers to fill my shoes if they put me back in prison, and they’ll keep her protected all the same. Whatever game you were playing, it’s over now.”
“We’ll see about whose game is over, Stockton.” Curtis storms off the porch and back to his car, tearing out of the long driveway a few minutes later.
I’m going to have to figure out more security for the ranch and convince Hazel that Curtis can’t be trusted once she’s had time to herself. I’ve already been worried for her, but knowing he’s in town means that Hazel isn’t safe. Especially not when he seems so desperate to get her alone.
She’s the only priority I have right now, but it means resolving what the source of all this is. My brothers and I, in- law and blood, have too much work and too little time to figure it out.
But one thing’s for sure—he won’t put a single finger on my wife again as long as I’m breathing.