Chapter Fourteen – Every Breath You Take #2
Her words hit me low and fierce in the groin because I wanted to give her commands that had nothing to do with whatever the hell was going on at the ranch. I wanted to demand she climax just before I dove over the edge myself.
That singular thought was what would damn me to hell for the rest of my life.
I leaned into her space more. “You really think you don’t need protection?
Let’s recap exactly why you do, shall we?
First, the man you sent to prison for eighteen months is out and pissed and cozying up to your loser boyfriend, who attempted to set you up for a drug rap you escaped by the hair on your chin.
You’ve had two cows mutilated, one with a clear message saying you’d pay.
Your tractor tire was sabotaged, and now you’ve had a building burn down.
If anyone needs to leave, it’s you while you let the authorities do their job. So why the hell are you still here?”
Fury swept through those golden eyes. “No one is going to send me scurrying from my ranch with my tail between my legs.”
And that was what scared me more than anything in my life ever had. The thought of her standing there, hands on her hips, defiant chin thrust in the air, while someone came at her with a knife. Or a damn gun.
“This is my land, Parker. Mine . No one is going to steal it from me or scare me into running. I don’t care how many explosives they leave, how many tires they cut, or how many condoms they poke holes in—”
Her little rant cut off abruptly, and she clamped her lips shut.
“What the fuck are you talking about? Condoms? Explosives?” Confusion leaked into every syllable as I realized I was missing more than one thread of this conversation .
She moved, pacing in front of me. “Beckett, the firefighter who was with Kurt and me when you arrived, showed us some kind of detonator he found in the cabin’s wreckage.
Whoever placed it there didn’t care that they might have hurt someone…
” She inhaled sharply. “Killed someone.” She rubbed two fingers of her right hand over the thumb on the left.
A sure sign she was tempted to chew on the nail like she had as a little girl.
“It could have been your dad in there this morning, or you and Theo…if you’d been a day earlier, or the bomb had been set a day later… ”
She clutched her stomach and whipped away from me. Her shoulders shuddered again. I hated seeing her like this. The last time I’d seen her this upset had been that night at the beach when she’d saved Celia Turner’s life.
I stood up and did the one thing I knew I shouldn’t but couldn’t stop myself from doing anyway.
I put my arms around her, pulling her into my chest. I rested my chin on the top of her head and tightened my arms when she struggled.
After a second, she went limp, leaning into me and letting me hold her up the way she rarely let anyone.
“No one has been hurt yet,” I told her softly. “We have time to stop this from getting worse.”
“The cabin was destroyed.” Her voice broke, and she caught a sob before she let it out. “It was the one place on the ranch that Dad loved.”
“This isn’t your fault,” I said, hoping to soothe her.
She fought her way out of my arms and turned to face me.
“It’s mine to protect, Parker. Spence left it to me, and I walked away from it for years so I could, what?
Play surfer? College girl? Let a man into my life who only wanted me for my money?
” Every word was spoken with such self-loathing that it tore at me.
“Stop it,” I growled. “I refuse to let you blame yourself for any of it. This place wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for you!
Rafe never would have rolled up his sleeves and worked side by side with you to save it if you hadn’t convinced him it was the right thing to do.
Your mom would have slipped away into addiction if you hadn’t found a way to get her help.
You are one of the strongest humans I’ve ever met.
So do not berate yourself for acting your actual age for a few short years instead of being the mini adult you’ve always been. ”
Theo came out of the house, his eyes darting between Fallon and me, worry in them. I swallowed hard over the fury I felt. It wasn’t directed at Fallon but at whoever had made her doubt herself. The asshole JJ. Whoever was attacking the ranch.
“You ready to go see some horses?” I asked him.
His eyes lit up. “Dogs too?”
I glanced over at Fallon, and she shrugged. “Teddy usually brings his dogs with him to work. The female, June, just had puppies, so she’ll probably still be at his place, but it’s likely he’ll have Johnny with him.”
“Puppies!” Theo exclaimed just as I said, “Johnny and June?”
My lips twitched, and I was relieved when I saw hers do the same.
“Teddy is a romantic. He says Johnny Cash and June Carter are his ultimate life goals.”
I snorted. “Isn’t he, like, fifty or something and still single?”
Fallon’s expression turned wary. “Yeah. But before Mom’s accident, I thought maybe…” She shook her head. “He’s been a regular at the rehabilitation center since she’s been there.”
“Your mom and Teddy are hooking up?” It was hard to imagine the wild beauty, Lauren, dating the narrow-faced, red-haired, skinny cowboy.
“I’m not sure she’ll let anyone close after what happened to her leg,” Fallon said sadly.
“She’s going through a lot right now, but people live long, happy lives without a limb. The prosthetics they make nowadays allow people to do nearly everything they did before.”
She shrugged and started down the drive, veering off to take the steps and the worn path to the main house on foot.
“Fallon,” I called out, irritation growing inside me as I realized she was just walking away from the house. “You aren’t going to lock up?”
She rolled her eyes. “Shut the door, Parker. It locks automatically. I’ll give you a code once I have it programmed in by the security team.”
I mounted the porch, slammed the door a bit harder than I should have, scooped up Theo, and jogged down the path till I caught up with her. “The security team has some explaining to do.”
She glanced over at me. “You’re right. They do.”
“Does the detective in San Diego still insist JJ is there?” I asked.
“When I talked to him after the tractor incident, yes.”
“There are ways to trick an ankle monitor, Fallon. I could do it with my eyes closed.”
Her eyes turned thoughtful. “A month ago, I would have said JJ didn’t have that much tech savvy in him, but I’m not sure I ever really knew him.” That bitter tone eked into her words again. The self-reproach.
“Who really ever knows anyone?” I said. “Who was it that said that quote you love? The one about people only seeing the version of us that we choose to show them?”
“You know who it is,” she shot back. And I held back my smile.
“Eleanor Roosevelt?”
“Try again, Kermit.”
“Oprah Winfrey?” She rolled her eyes at me, and I considered it one of my achievements for the day.
“I know, that chick from The Painted Daisies? The singer who died?”
She gave me an exasperated huff. “That would be Landry Kim, and no, it wasn’t her or her sister, who actually writes their music. But you’re getting closer. It was a singer.”
“Country artist or pop?” I put as much loathing as I could into the words, and she finally slammed a fist into my shoulder like she had in the old days.
“You’re a moron.”
“Moron!” Theo chanted, shoving his dog in the air like he did whenever he was excited.
“Don’t use that word,” I told him. “It’s another one only adults can use.”
“Fallon’s an adult?” he asked, eyes wide and innocent.
And that took all the lightness I’d been able to tease back into her and sent it sailing. Under her breath, she muttered, “Not according to every man in my life, and hell, maybe they’re all right. ”
“Hell!” Theo said.
Fallon glanced over at him, and then she burst out laughing. “Kid, you’re going to get me in trouble.”
Theo shot her his bashful smile. “I don’t like getting in trouble.”
“Me either,” she said, shaking her head.
We were almost at the back door of the castle when she shot me a look. “Please tell me you really do know who said it. Otherwise, all my years of trying to salvage your taste in music has been a complete waste.”
“Zendaya?”
“I give up!”
I reached out and tweaked her braid. “I know, Ducky. It was your superhero, Taylor Swift.”
Her eyes crinkled at the corner when she smiled. “You might just be savable after all.”
Then, she swept into the back hall as it hit me that I wasn’t savable at all. Because that look, the satisfaction that had flickered over her face, had me craving to put it there again in all the wrong ways, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever rid myself of the desire to do so.