18. Shane
CHAPTER 18
Shane
A fter Nora storms away, I round on the guys. “Way to fucking go, Clint.”
“What the hell do you mean?” he barks. “You’re the one who told her this shit!”
“She deserved to know,” Landon says defensively. “She deserved to know that we might have felt that way once, but we don’t feel that way now.”
“Except she doesn’t know that, does she?” I snap at him. “She’s walking out, thinking that we’re absolute fucking assholes who just waited for her to fail.”
“Well, that’s what we were doing, all because you wouldn’t give up your stupid vision of buying her ranch!” Landon shouts at Clint.
Clint bristles. “Don’t fucking bring me into this.”
“If you had just agreed that we wouldn’t be doing this shit with her?—”
“Enough!” I roar.
They both look at me.
“Enough. Nora’s pissed at us. She needs some time to calm down before we can do anything,” I say, fixing both of them with a look. “And yeah, Clint, she’s not exactly happy right now. Landon, don’t go after her,” I tell Landon. “She needs some space. ”
“She needs to get her ass back here so that we can watch her,” Clint growls.
“She’s there. With her dad. Nothing bad is going to happen to her,” I say. We look at each other, and I sigh. “We need to make sure nothing bad happens to her,” I amend. “So, that means guarding her.”
“You don’t think that’s going to piss her off even more? How’s she going to respond when she sees us lurking outside of her house?” Clint growls.
“Fine. That’s fair.” While my heart aches to go after her, Clint’s right. I said she needed space. I need to stand behind that. “We’ll give her space. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to just trust that her ex will leave her alone.”
“What do you have in mind?” Landon asks.
I wave my hand at my phone. “The cameras.”
“If Nora isn’t there shooting them out right now, I’ll be a horse’s ass,” Clint grumbles.
I smile. “She might be.” I can picture Nora doing just that, making sure that none of us even comes close to her property. She’s truly something else. She’s stubborn as hell, yes, but I gotta admit, I admire her commitment to it.
“So, if she’s out there shooting out the cameras, we won’t see shit,” Landon sighs.
I shake my head. “I installed multiple sets.”
“Shane…”
“I know,” I say. “I was just worried about the fact that her ex seems to be so hell-bent on destruction. I thought that if he noticed some of them, he’d go for those ones.”
“So, you installed secret cameras?”
“Same color as their house.” I nod. “He’ll never see them.”
And neither will Nora.
Clint sighs. “You’re something else. You know that?”
“I know. But it’s nothing I wouldn’t do—” I stop.
I wanted to finish that sentence with, for the people I care about .
I care about Nora. More than just care. She’s an incredible woman. An incredible person. I don’t just think she’s hot as hell, even though she is. She’s smart. Thoughtful. Kind. She’s loyal. I’ve seen the way she protects her dad. I’ve seen how devoted she is to the ranch. She’s the hardest worker that I’ve ever seen, and I can respect the hell out of that.
I smile, remembering how hard she fought me on the price of hay. Nora wouldn’t take advantage of me, or any of us. It makes me care all that more deeply about her.
“Nora would do this for us,” I say, the conviction bone-deep. “If she knew one of us was in trouble, she’d do anything she could to help us.”
“Well, maybe she would have. Now she’ll just leave us to rot,” Clint mutters.
That fucking does it.
I turn, cock my fist back, and punch him in the gut.
Clint lets out a little ‘oof,’ the air knocked out of him as he staggers back. I follow him, ready to beat the hell out of him if I need to. He straightens.
“The fuck was that for?” he snarls.
“Because you need someone to beat some sense into you!”
Pulling himself to his full height, Clint glares at me. “I’ll fucking destroy you.”
“Come do it then,” I taunt. “You’re being a total idiot, and I’m about ready to fucking make you into a toothless one, too.”
“The fuck?”
“Nora isn’t your mom!” I yell.
Clint goes very, very still.
“Nora isn’t your mom, Clint. She isn’t going to just walk away from us. She’s pissed off, but that isn’t the end of the world. We don’t need to go fix things with her right now,” I say, casting a glance at Landon, who looks like he’s itching to run out the door after her still. “But just because she’s mad doesn’t mean she’s going to be done.”
Clint looks at me. He narrows his eyes, and I’m about ready to punch him in the face when he gives me a sharp nod. He grabs one of the radios that we use around the ranch. “I’m going to the barn,” he barks.
Landon and I watch him go.
I turn to Landon. “You also letting your past issues come up, Lan?”
“Nope. I didn’t want to go and make her feel better, so she admits her feelings for me and says she will never leave. Not me,” he says bitterly.
I sigh, then cuff his ear lightly.
“The hell was that for?”
“I punched Clint. You got off easy,” I say.
Landon rolls his eyes. “I’m going to help Clint. I’ll take a radio.”
“Okay,” I say. I watch him go, too.
The house feels weirdly quiet with the two of them gone. I sigh, looking around once more, before I head up the stairs to the attic.
Landon and Clint are both doing what they do best. Working with horses, making the ranch run. It’s time for me to do the same.
For the time being, I’m going to do just that. I’m going to sit here, behind a wall of computer screens, and I’m going to watch.
There’s a whole day before anything happens.
Surprisingly, Nora didn’t shoot out any of the cameras. They’re all up and running, so I watch her do a ton of things: get home, sit on the porch, cry, and talk to her friend Kendall on the phone, which I can see based on the excellent image quality that brings up Kendall’s name on my screen.
One night passes, totally uneventful, and one day. The darkness is descending on us again, and I’ve been here. Watching. Waiting. Doubting that what I told Clint and Landon is right.
From where I’m sitting, it seems like maybe I was wrong. That Nora is not just a little pissed, but she’s absolutely ready to move on. I don’t know that she’s coming back.
The only hint I have of something other than anger from her is when she comes out onto the porch by herself and cries. She looks down at her phone, pulling up each of our numbers in turn. Sometimes she taps out messages before deleting them and shutting her phone down.
I’d give anything to know what she’s saying.
It’s a slow two days. Surveillance, other than that, is incredibly boring .
I’m half asleep when something crosses the screen. I blink slowly, trying to figure out what it is. I look again.
It’s a man in a dark, all-black outfit.
Jolting forward, I hit the button to zoom in. The camera obeys, focusing specifically on the man on the screen.
My heart sinks. I know that fucking face. It’s the face of the man that she showed us. Her ex-boyfriend, Aaron.
My chest feels like it’s going to explode. I grab the radio. “Clint?”
“What?”
“Are you over at the Fosters’?”
“No. Their second mare just went into labor. I’m delivering the foal in the barn.”
Fuck. “Lan?”
“I’m on my way,” he says. “By the tone of your voice, something’s not right.”
“He’s there, Lan.”
Landon curses over the radio. “I’m on it, Shane.”
“Fucking hell,” Clint curses into his radio. “I’m coming. Let me—” His radio drops.
I only hope that he’s handing it off to someone he trusts, and that he’ll be on his way with the rest of us.
I make sure the footage is loading on my phone, then I grab my keys.
I grab a gun, too. I don’t want to have to use it, but fuck.
I’ll do anything to make sure that Nora’s safe.