Chapter 13 #3
Carter pushes his seat back and wrestles into the shorts while driving, which seems like it should be physically impossible. My peripheral vision catches every flex of muscle, every shift of bare skin, every drop of water trailing down his chest.
Eyes forward, June. Forward.
Seth’s low voice comes from the back. “That was close. Goddamn Tanner.” A pause. His tone drops, turns dangerous. “He was lucky he left you alone. We were ready to come out of that water and put him on his ass.”
I risk a glance back. Seth is pulling on jeans, water dripping from his dark hair.
“You three are making this chaperoning thing a nightmare,” I say.
“Never promised we’d be easy.” Carter guns the engine. “Let’s go find our idiot.”
“Where did he even go?”
Seth leans forward between the seats, wet hair plastered to his forehead, a grin cracking through his usual severity. “He had a plan. Couldn’t talk him out of it.”
“What kind of plan involves stealing a cop car while naked?”
“A Kai plan.”
We tear down the dirt path and hit the main road. A few minutes later, movement in the trees—
Kai bursts from the darkness, sprinting toward us, paper bag clutched over his groin, the biggest grin I’ve ever seen splitting his face.
Carter slams on the brakes. Kai yanks open the back door and throws himself inside next to Seth.
“WOO-HOO!” He’s breathing hard, grinning like a maniac. “That was insane!”
“What happened?” I twist around. “Where’s the cruiser?”
He shoves wet hair from his face. “Drove the cruiser to that hill past the bend, jumped out, then gave it a nice push toward the river. Rolled into some bushes, then watched Tanner chase after it screaming. After that, I ran.”
“You rolled a cop car into the river.”
“Might’ve made it in. Might not. Either way, his problem now.”
Carter is laughing, shoulders shaking. Seth is chuckling. And somehow, despite the felonies, despite Tanner, despite everything, I’m laughing too.
It bubbles up from somewhere deep. The kind of laugh that takes over your whole body. All the tension releasing at once—Tanner’s grip on my wrist, the fear of getting caught, Kai sprinting across the grass with a bag on his head.
“I wiped down everything before I jumped out,” Kai adds. “Wheel, door handle, gear stick. Saw cleaning wipes on the dash.”
“Convenient,” Carter manages.
“We’re all going to jail.” I wheeze, wiping my eyes.
“Nah.” Kai sprawls across the back seat, still naked, utterly unbothered.
“No way Tanner has evidence that it was us. There was no camera in the Charger like the modern cop cars, so we’re good.
But imagine the paperwork: ‘Some naked guy with a bag on his head stole my cruiser, and I couldn’t catch him. ’ They’d laugh him off the force.”
He has a point. Tanner’s ego would never survive that story.
“Still.” I catch my breath. “Let’s never do that again.”
“Agreed,” Seth says, but he’s smiling.
“Here, Kai,” Seth orders. “Put pants on.”
There’s lots of shuffling behind me, and my seat keeps getting bumped.
Carter glances my way. He’s managed to get fully dressed while driving—still slightly damp, hair curling at his neck.
“You okay?” Voice softer now. “That got intense.”
“Yeah.” I nod, meaning it. “I’m good.”
“Tanner didn’t hurt you?”
I think about the grip on my wrist, the way he leaned in to scent me, and the revulsion still crawling under my skin.
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
Seth makes a sound. “He touches you again, and I’m destroying him.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Yeah. You can.” His eyes meet mine in the rearview mirror, blue and steady. “Doesn’t mean you’re on your own anymore.”
My heart stutters to hear those words that embrace me.
“This kind of chaos normal for you three?” I ask.
“Usually just Kai,” Carter says.
Kai is chuckling. “Doesn’t matter. You’re stuck with us now, doll.”
Stuck with us.
I glance back at them. Kai, finally dressed. Seth, watching me with those too-seeing eyes.
Something dangerous unfurls in my chest.
I like them. God help me, I really do, and a damn lot. Not just my body responding to their scents, though that’s definitely happening, every nerve still humming from proximity. I like them. The banter. The loyalty. The way they’d steal a cop car to protect each other without blinking.
And that’s the scariest part. Because I know how this story ends.
They’re rodeo men. Traveling circuit. Here for a few weeks, then gone, next town, next competition, next horizon. And I’ll still be in Honeyspur Meadow, pretending my heart isn’t scattered across three hundred miles of Montana highway.
I’ve always been practical about this stuff. Smart. Protective of myself in ways that Tanner taught me.
But sitting here, laughing with them, feeling more alive than I have in months… I’m not sure I know how to protect myself from this.
“For the record,” I say quietly, “Tanner deserved every second of that.”
The truck fills with laughter.
Outside, the moon hangs full and silver over the hills. Some old country song crackles through the radio, and Kai hums along, off-key.
I lean my head against the window and watch shadows blur past.
These men are going to break my heart. I can see it coming, clear as the road ahead.
But tonight, wrapped in their warmth and laughter and the electric current of their presence, I can’t bring myself to care.
Tomorrow, I’ll be smart.
Tonight, I’m just going to let myself fall.