Never Fear (Whiskey Ridge #2)

1. McKenna

McKenna

I popped a piece of strawberry gum in my mouth and steeled myself for the delivery of my death threat.

Well, actually, it was more like a strongly worded hate letter.

Or a promise of vengeance? Either way I wanted to phrase it, my best friend wasn’t going to be happy about it.

Her and her three protective cowboys. Well, technically only one was hers , but she’d told me their little secrets.

She’d had a taste of each of them. How she’d been able to keep food down since then, I wasn’t sure.

They were overbearing, broody, and way too fucking protective—something my careless personality didn’t have the time or patience for.

One of them in particular I could be okay with castrating.

All that aside, I tried to ignore the fact that I had a crumpled note in my jacket pocket that basically held the receipt for my casket.

It was endearing that someone was thoughtful enough to resort to handwriting with a good ol’ pen and paper rather than leaving an ominous text or a breath-filled phone call, but the sentiment didn’t mean that much when all it basically said was that I had a target on my back.

I liked men looking at my ass, not wanting it six feet underground. Maybe I was giving mixed messages to the patrons at the diner.

The comforting taste of strawberry coated my tongue as I slipped out of my SUV and closed the door behind me.

I didn’t bother locking it, being on a big ranch in the middle of nowhere and all.

As if the property needed the emphasis, the crisp smell of fresh hay and fall rain washed over me.

I inhaled deeply, wishing that sense of peace everyone talked about would work on me too.

The attempt proved futile when not an ounce of pressure eased off my chest. Rolling my shoulders back, I crossed the driveway and climbed the few steps to the large front door, having to crane my neck back to see the pitch of the roof before it disappeared from sight with the overhang.

The size of Booker, Henley, and Austin’s house was a bit…

daunting. What men needed a place to live that was this big?

I chewed quicker, harder, my jaw working overtime as I knocked.

I already knew Brynne, my best friend, would be furious, but the gum was doing little to ease my nerves like it typically did.

Booker, her boyfriend, would want to put a bullet in someone’s skull for upsetting his girl.

Henley, one of Booker’s best friends, would offer outlandish advice, and Austin, his other, more annoying friend, would?—

“Nightmare!” Brynne shouted right as an awkward, lanky black dog darted out the door, nearly taking me out with him.

His too-big-for-his-body paws landed right above my hip as he immediately went to gnaw on my fingers.

His tail thumped wildly against the wooden beam on the porch as Brynne reached forward and pulled him back by his collar. “No jumping!”

I smiled at the six-month-old black lab, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth now. “Still working on that one, I see.”

The dog’s tail moved at a more rapid rate with my recognition. Booker had promised Brynne a puppy after the shit show they went through weeks ago, and he delivered. He’d surprised her with him, and they’d been nearly inseparable since.

“We’re still working on a lot of things,” Brynne explained, tossing her ponytail over her shoulder. She was a natural brunette, but she’d bleached her tips years ago and had been doing it ever since. I, on the other hand, had near-white blonde hair.

Brynne turned to the puppy, who was now sitting and staring up at me with barely-contained excitement. “Go potty, weirdo.”

With a high-pitched bark, he took off, almost face-planting after leaping off the porch.

“Are you here to talk about Thanksgiving?” Brynne asked, tucking her hands into her sweatshirt and moving to one of the wooden chairs on the porch. “Because I have thoughts.”

I let out a small laugh as I took the seat next to her. “I’m sure you do.”

Her eyes shot to mine. “What was that?”

“What was what?” I asked innocently, sitting back in the chair and chewing quicker.

“That laugh tells me you’re hiding something.” She gasped, shooting forward. “Did you go on a date and not tell me?”

“No! No. I did not go on a date. If I had, you’d have been the first to know.”

“Good.” She sat back, crossing her arms. “Now talk.”

Pursing my lips together because my best friend was too damn good at reading me, I dug through my wool jacket pocket and internally flinched when my fingers brushed the crumpled paper. I held it out to Brynne, and she quickly took it, eyes scanning the few words on the paper.

“‘They took from us, so we’ll take from them.’ What the fuck does that even mean?”

I sat back in the chair, tucking my hands in my pockets as if this was a casual conversation and not speculation around a handwritten threat. “I’d love to know.”

Brynne folded her feet onto the chair, facing me. “Where did you find this?”

“On my driver’s seat.”

She opened her mouth to speak before her eyes widened. “Wait. In your car?”

I nodded. “They somehow opened it without setting off the alarm while I was working.”

Brynne flopped back on the chair, blowing out a breath that caused a stray strand of hair to fly upwards. “Well, fuck.”

An airy laugh came out of me. “Yeah, fuck . I don’t know how the fuck I got involved in this shit.” I waved a hand at the note in accusation.

“There’s no shit to be involved in,” Brynne said. “It was all taken care of that night. Or so we thought.” She held up the note, scanning it again like an explanation might appear out of thin air.

“You’re not going to find anything else there. Trust me, I’ve reread it about a hundred times.”

“We have to show the guys,” she murmured, more so to herself.

“Brynne,” I warned. The last thing I needed was her hounds getting protective of me too.

She shot me an I’m-fucking-serious look. “This note,” she waved it for emphasis, “involves them, too. And believe me, you’ll want them on your side in this.”

I sat forward, hands gripping the stained armrests. “The absolute last thing I want is that asshole more involved in my life than he already has to be. Which is your fault, by the way.”

Brynne grinned. “You like placing blame, don’t you?”

The gum was the only thing reining me in right now. The only thing dampening the nerves that threatened to make my limbs shake. “Just be thankful I dropped my death wish to Henley. Austin, on the other hand…”

The asshole had tried to put me in my place many times, telling me when to calm down and when to, and I quote, put my claws away .

I was protective of my best friend, pissed as hell when she was nearly killed, and he hadn’t let me take my rage out on the man mostly responsible for it because he was their friend.

Friend or not, I needed to do something at that moment because I’d felt so helpless, and Austin held me to a chair .

Nope. I didn’t need whatever protection they claimed to offer. Next .

“Speak of the devil,” Brynne said, popping up from her chair.

I followed her line of sight, a headache growing with the tension of my now-clenched jaw. I forced myself to resume chewing my gum, because if I didn’t, I’d likely commit murder within the next few minutes.

Booker, Henley, and Austin were coming through the pasture gate, each of them wearing felt cowboy hats, winter coats, gloves, and— Fuck, McKenna. Stop looking at Austin’s chaps.

“Brynne,” I warned, my tone low.

“Baby!” Brynne called, already skipping down the steps toward Booker on his fucking giant black horse.

Nightmare was darting in between the horses’ hooves, practically jumping up their legs to get the men’s attention.

And when he set his large paws on Austin’s calf, I tried not to notice when Austin bent over and scooped up the puppy, placing him on his lap in the saddle.

A cowboy and a fucking puppy.

I needed a drink.

I was barely out of my seat by the time Brynne was handing the note to Booker. He scanned the page and then he was looking up, directly at me. Even from this distance, I could feel his calculating gaze burning into me.

He and his friends liked to hunt, whether it was people or animals, and suddenly, he’d found himself with a shiny new target.

I slowly descended the steps, my hands still deep in my pockets, as Austin shifted his horse closer to Booker’s. He plucked the paper from his grasp, eyes moving as he read .

I stopped a few feet from them. “It’s not show-and-tell, guys. Just a little love note. You don’t have to be jealous.”

Henley was the last to get the paper. Austin’s gaze didn’t so much as flick over me after he handed it off. Instead, he and Booker stared at each other, some sort of silent communication happening between the two of them.

“Does it ever fucking end?” Henley grumbled before handing the note back to Booker. He trotted off toward the barn, leaving the four of us alone.

“Who gave it to you?” Austin asked, finally looking at me with his forearms resting on the horn of his saddle, right over the panting puppy.

“If I knew that, I would’ve taken care of it by now,” I snapped.

He narrowed his eyes, and I did the same right back. “Like hell you would. You wouldn’t know what the fuck to do if a goddamn dog stole your dinner.”

Nightmare’s head perked up at the mention of a meal.

I scoffed. “Are you saying you don’t think I’m strong enough to handle myself?”

Austin glowered at me.

“They left it on her driver’s seat,” Brynne interrupted.

“So you left your car unlocked,” Austin surmised.

My hands slid from my pockets to cross my arms defensively. “I’m not a fucking idiot.”

Austin straightened, adjusting his grip on the reins. “It’s okay to be forgetful, kitten, just don’t act dumb about it.”

My mouth popped open right before Booker interrupted, “Would you two stop behaving like teenagers?”

Brynne looked up at him, her hand on his thigh. “Let them have their moment, baby. We had ours plenty of times.”

“This is not a moment,” I snapped. I stepped forward, snatching the note from Booker with a little too much force. “If none of you have any advice, I’m leaving.”

“McKenna—” Brynne started.

I turned on her, frustrated and wanting to get the fuck out of here.

I knew this was a bad idea. “No, Brynne. Coming here was probably the dumbest thing I could have done. Austin clearly can’t show an ounce of respect, and you and Booker are here playing domesticated ranch lives or whatever the fuck you call this fairytale life, so this is pointless. ”

Hurt flashed across her eyes before she quickly covered it up.

“This doesn’t only involve you,” Austin stated, looking down at me from his bay horse.

I tilted my chin up. “No? Where’s your love note?”

“Stop calling it a fucking love note,” he gritted out.

I forced a smirk. “Jealous, cowboy?”

His nostrils flared the slightest bit before he was holding Nightmare in one arm and hopping down.

His boots kicked up dust as he stomped toward me, one rein in hand as his horse followed.

He set the puppy down, then closed the distance until our chests nearly touched.

“You like your life being threatened, McKenna?”

“Guys,” Brynne spoke up, but we both ignored her.

“I wish whoever it was would’ve left a phone number.” I cocked my head to the side. “Then I could have looked death in the face and known what it truly felt like to be turned on before I died. ”

His jaw ticked, the muscle in his cheek jumping. But whatever he saw in my eyes, whatever he noticed on my face, made him back off. “It’d be my pleasure to end their life solely to rob you of the opportunity.”

“Too bad I’ll find them first.” I pouted out my bottom lip, patting his chest. “I’ll take a video just for you.”

He sneered, turning away with his horse and heading toward the barn. “I’m sure you would.”

I watched the retreating horse—because I was not watching Austin walk away—when Brynne’s voice filtered in. “Well, that went well.”

My teeth dug into my gum, the sticky substance likely rooting itself in my molars as we spoke, and I turned to face her. “You said something about Thanksgiving?”

She patted Booker’s leg before coming over to me and looping her arm through mine. He took that as his signal to leave, and Brynne led me back to the porch.

“Yeah,” she started hesitantly. “We have to get a few things from the store, and Booker and Au—” I shot her a look.

“The others will go hunting for the turkey. I thought we could make a day out of shopping while they do their thing. We don’t need anything for a few weeks, though.

So really, we just have to pick what day we want to go. ”

I nodded. Hell, I’d agree to getting our toe hair waxed right now if she asked. I wanted to do anything other than deal with this stupid note and that fucking cowboy.

“That sounds great.”