Chapter Nine #2
“I’m fine.” Her voice was higher, and her words were faster than normal, making her sound like a high-strung chipmunk.
That might have been cute for Alvin and his crew, but for her, she sounded more like a neighing horse.
She cleared her throat, hoping to get some control before Brooklyn really became suspicious.
How the hell did Hastings get onto the property without security notifying me?
“Actually, I am expecting company. As of thirty seconds ago, yes. You mind heading out the back? It’s sort of a personal situation.” She slapped on a weak smile and hoped it appeared genuine enough that Brooklyn wouldn’t call her on her bullshit.
“You and the cowboy still smashing? I thought it was a one-and-done situation.”
“Listen, I won’t keep tabs on your coochie if you’ll stop worrying about mine. Fair deal?”
A rare smile lit up Brooklyn’s face as she turned around and started for the back door. “Deal.” With pointed fingers and wink she said, “I hope it’s good,” as she passed her and disappeared down the hall.
Seneca walked toward the front door, waiting to hear the back door close before she attended to the next set knocks against the heavy door.
She extended her shaking hand toward the doorknob and tried her best to get it under control. If Hastings saw her this torn up over a text, he’d own her. She couldn’t let that happen.
She took a breath before snatching the door open, ready to face the sheriff.
“Listen, I don’t know why you’d show up here unannounced, but it’s—” The sight of Colton standing on her porch was like a balloon being stabbed with a carving knife. All the tightness in her chest dissipated in one rush of air escaping from her lungs.
“Seneca, what’s going on?” He stepped toward her, pushing into the door and walking into the house. He closed the door behind himself and when she tried to put distance between them, he wrapped a gentle hand around her wrist. “You’re shaking? What the hell’s going on?”
She looked down where his hand covered her wrist. She knew she could pull away with little effort.
He wasn’t trying to restrain her, just support her.
And that knowledge cracked a fine line in the dam holding back her emotions.
She placed her free hand on her chest and tried to open her mouth, but the only thing that would come out was this foreign, ragged sound that tore through the air, pushing Colton into action.
Before the first tear could spill over onto her cheek, he had her in his arms with her head buried into the curve of his neck.
“Baby, what’s wrong? I can’t help if you don’t tell me. Did I do something? What?”
She tried to talk again. She didn’t want him blaming himself for this. But for the brief seconds she’d thought Hastings was on the other side of that door, she’d felt as helpless and afraid as she was when she was behind bars and at the then prison guard’s mercy.
She didn’t know how long he held her and rubbed her back while whispering soothing words in her ear.
But by the time she was able to get her sobs down to small hiccups, his plaid shirt was soaked through at the shoulder.
Sensing she was mostly cried out, he moved them over to the couch.
He pulled his button-down shirt from his belt and took it off before sitting down on her couch.
When she went to step past him to sit next to him, he pulled her onto his lap and let her curl herself around him again.
He lifted her chin with his finger, before grabbing her shirt and wiping her face free of her tears.
“Seneca, baby, you gotta give me something. You’re scaring me.
” He huffed with worry painted across his face.
His bright blue eyes were dim, his brow marred with tight lines as he tried to figure out why she’d suddenly turned into a puddle of water in front of him. “You want me to call Aja or Brooklyn?”
She shook her head. Neither of them could know about this. If they did, things would only get worse for them.
“It’s Hastings.”
With those two words she felt his muscles bunch beneath her. His fair complexion did nothing to hide the streak of red peeking out of the collar of his T-shirt and quickly climbing up to his face.
“I swear to God, Seneca, if he did something to you, I will put a bullet in him.”
Fear spilled down her spine. She’d never seen Colton engaged in violence, but everything about him in this moment said he could hurt someone if necessary.
His big, tense muscles and the fiery rage boiling in his sea-blue eyes, all of it said this wasn’t just a meaningless threat.
He meant that shit and knowing that was enough to bring Seneca back to her senses.
She had to get control of herself, of this situation before someone got hurt.
“He didn’t do anything to me directly. Brooklyn and I were talking, and Mr. Bitterman called to say the servers I ordered for the ranch network are backordered.
It’s an annoyance, but I didn’t think anything of it until I asked Brooklyn about our upcoming building inspections and she mentioned she’s been having a problem getting the city inspector to finalize a date for inspection of the ranch.
It’s a small town. There aren’t that many new construction jobs going on.
She thought it was strange and it concerned me because of Hastings’s threats against Aja and the ranch.
Then I got this.” She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and showed him the text.
He read it, then put the phone aside on the couch and looked up to her, waiting for her to continue.
“When you knocked on the door, I thought it was him. I panicked because Brooklyn was here, and I didn’t want him to get any ideas about coming after her too.”
He cupped the side of her face, the heat comforting her. She nuzzled into it. “I will not let him hurt you, Seneca.”
“You can’t stop him, Colton. If you get involved, he will take it out on me and everyone I care about. When this is done, you’ll go back to Austin. But Aja, Brooklyn, and I have to live here. We’ll have to deal with his wrath eventually.”
“That son of a bitch scared you enough that you burst into tears from relief when you realized it was me on the other side of that door. I’m not letting that shit slide. He’s not the only one with a badge.”
“Colton, please. I can handle this.”
“It’s not safe for you to deal with Hastings on your own. Let me figure out a way to take care of him.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I won’t. If I don’t take care of this, he’ll just keep coming back. Besides, I may have discovered a way to stop him without him even knowing it was me.”
She couldn’t tell if it was suspicion or curiosity that flashed in his eyes. Whatever it was, she had his full attention. “How?”
The single word fell heavy from his lips like a boulder from a mountain peak—fast, loud, crashing into her with the power of speed and momentum behind it. “I ran into someone at the diner today. His name is Holden Eames.”
His full lips flattened into a straight line and the muscles in his jaw clicked. This close to him, she could actually hear the click of his teeth clamping together.
“He says you know him.”
“I do. What did he say to you?”
“He asked me to help him hack into Hastings’s computer.” He started shaking his head, a clear indication he wasn’t happy to hear shit about her getting involved in this. Tough nuggies, this was her life. She wasn’t going to just sit around and let him or anyone else control her anymore.
“Seneca, I asked you to stay away from Hastings. I won’t let Holden get you involved in some shit that could get you hurt, or worse, dead.”
“Let me?” She lifted a skeptical eyebrow, trying to ascertain if she’d misheard him.
She put her hand on his strong shoulders and some of the fire building inside her receded.
She shook her head, standing quickly, refusing to let her attraction to him cloud her judgment any more than it already had.
“Last I checked, I’m grown. I wasn’t aware I needed your permission to make decisions that affect my life. ”
He stood up in front of her. With his hands on the vee of his waist accompanied by the angry scowl on his face, all he needed to complete the picture of the angry lawman was his Stetson.
“Seneca don’t start with your ‘I’m every woman’ bullshit.
This has nothing to do with chauvinism and everything to do with keeping your ass safe.
” He looked up into the sky like he was asking for celestial strength to get her to listen to him.
“If you get mixed up in Holden’s case, you could become collateral damage.
Is that what you want? To lose your life just so an adrenaline junkie federal agent can add another notch in his win column? ”
Anger began to burn inside her chest. “You think I’m stupid? You think I don’t know the risks? I know I can do what Holden needs without getting hurt. What I can’t do is stop Hastings from hurting the people I care about if I keep listening to you and stand by and do nothing.”
“Can you stop being so stubborn?”
She matched his stance and placed her hands on her hips too. He wasn’t the only one who could make a threatening picture in cowboy boots. “I won’t let him hurt Aja.”
He threw his hands up in the air, and walked to the opposite end of the couch, cussing a blue streak with each step.
“Why is Aja’s well-being more important than yours?
Don’t get me wrong, I understand why you’re loyal to her.
But her business does not mean more than your life, Seneca.
And if she knew what the hell you were suggesting, she’d tell you to stay out of it too. ”