41
S tede McGraw is already frowning. Which doesn’t bode well for me or this conversation. But it’s time. Time for Stede and Fallon to shit or get off the pot. It’s killing both of them, the way they’ve been avoiding each other. Fucking stubborn cowboys who can’t work up the nerve to apologize.
“Thanks for meeting me,” I say, approaching the table. The diner’s nearly empty. Two coffees and a beer sit on the table in front of Stede.
“I reckon it’s time.” Stede gives a nod, and I sit.
I’ve chosen a diner twenty minutes outside Resurrection. A sit down. To clear the air. To come clean. I owe it to Stede. But whatever he says, no matter what happens, I have Fallon’s back. She’s my wife. My heart. My future. I will always support her chasing her dream and all her levels of petty.
“How’s the coffee?” I ask.
Stede smirks. “Ain’t the Corner Store’s.”
I take a sip, cough and grimace. “Holy shit, that’s fuckin’ bad.”
“That’s why I got the beer.” Stede bumps the hat up on his head. “Somehow I don’t think we’re here to talk about the coffee.”
“No, sir.”
His hazel eyes pin me. “Fallon know you’re here?”
I grimace. “No.” I flat-out lied to Fallon, telling her I had to go to Billings for an auction and that I’d be back later this evening.
“You know,” Stede says, scanning around the diner, “this place reminds me of the Corner Store. Beat up but still kickin’.
” His whiskey-soaked voice holds nostalgia.
“That place has been in our family for ages. Fallon worked and supported me all through chemo. She kept that place alive. Spent her whole life trying to make me happy.”
“And now you ain’t?” When there’s silence, I lean in. “You hurt her, sayin’ what you said. Tellin’ her she disappointed you.”
He hangs his head. “Hell, I know it. If I could take it back, I would.”
I sit back in my chair, cross my arms. “If you weren’t her father, I’d kick your ass.”
He runs a hand over his whiskered jaw, chuckling. Then his face sobers.
“I’ll be real with you, son. I was disappointed I didn’t get to give you my blessing.
I was disappointed I wasn’t there. She’s my baby.
Walking her down the aisle was my right as a father.
” Clearing the emotion from his throat, he goes on.
“But I knew that was never going to be Fallon’s way.
Hell, I never expected her to ever settle down.
That girl always had a wildflower heart, she grew where she couldn’t. ”
“I understand,” I say lowly. “If it means anything, I would have asked. If it had been a…a normal situation. But…there ain’t nothin’ I can do about it now.”
Stede sips his beer.
I stare at the dark liquid in my cup. “You let Davis marry Dakota.” Bitterness swells up inside me. “I get it if I’m not good enough, but—”
Stede looks taken aback. “Son, where’d you get a fool-headed notion like that?” He shakes his head then says, “It was never about you being good enough.” His fingers curl around his glass. “I see too much of me in you. A cowboy ’til the end.”
Understanding dawns. “You think I’ll leave.”
“You’ll leave. Or she will.”
“I won’t leave Fallon.” I shift uncomfortably, clearing my throat. Talking to a man about having sex with his daughter will never not be awkward, but it needs to be said.
“I apologize for, well, uh, goin’ back on my word from all those years ago. But I can promise you, I didn’t touch her until—”
I silence when Stede holds up a hand. “Save your breath, son. If I know any better, I know it was probably my daughter who, uh…” Now Stede looks as uncomfortable as me. “Let’s just say she always gets what she wants. No messin’ with that girl’s made-up mind.”
I grin. “You raised a wild one, that’s for sure.”
“How’s she been doin’?” Regret lines his craggy face.
“I’ve been helpin’ her ride. I want you to know that.”
Stede looks proud but also worried. “She plannin’ to rodeo soon?
“Fuck no.” Over my dead fucking body. Fallon’s not riding without me.
Stede sits up straighter. He knows what this is about. “Anything else you want to tell me?”
Be a man. Be like my brothers. Say my shit and own it. Stand up for what I believe in.
And that’s Fallon McGraw. My wife.
“Yeah,” I say and take a steadying breath. “I love your daughter, sir. I’m in love with her. Have been for some time now.”
Stede blinks. Then he gives a wry laugh. “Love is a wild thing, son.”
With Fallon, it’s even wilder. Fiercer. Just the thought of her almost bends me over.
“Look, I’m doin’ this before I tell Fallon.” Nerves twist in my stomach. “I want permission to marry her. For real this time. Hell, to stay married to her.”
Inhaling a long breath, Stede glances at the window. Then he turns his face to look at me.
“You’ve got to want my daughter. You’ve got to want her all the way down to your bones.”
I meet his gaze, those eyes as shrewd as Fallon’s. “I do.” At the thought of her, I smile. “She’s trouble, but I’ll tell you right now, I love that girl.”
Stede lifts a brow. “And if she wants to roam?”
“I go with her. I follow her.” I lean in, my heart racing. “It ain’t always the cowboy who leaves, sir. Sometimes he stays when that somethin’ he’s been searchin’ for is found.”
“And that something is my daughter.”
“Yes, sir.” I look down at my calloused hands.
Make a fist. Look back up. “I always knew I was cowboy. From the day I was born. It was like a built-in feeling. A belonging. Nothin’ ever compared to that feeling of being born for rodeo.
” My throat squeezes. “But when I said I do to Fallon in that Vegas chapel, that same feelin’ was there.
That rush. That knowledge that she was made for me.
” I swallow hard and say, “My heart and all my dreams are for Fallon. I won’t trap her or change her or hurt her. I love her with all my damn heart.”
Stede’s eyes are misty. “She feel the same way?”
“Ain’t sure yet. But I wanted your blessing before I go all fucking in.”
I’ve never heard the air get this quiet.
Stede sticks a hand out. “We’re good, son. You have my blessing.”
My blood sings in relief. I shake his hand. “Thank you.”
We say our goodbyes, Stede promising to give Fallon a call later today. I’m headed to my truck when my phone rings.
Davis’s name flashes across the screen.
“Hey,” I say when I pick up.
“Wyatt, where are you?”
My entire body goes on alert. My brother sounds grim as fuck. “In Dixon. Why? What happened?”
“It’s Fallon…”
That’s all I hear. My brain spirals. The world tunnels, sounds distort.
Fallon Fallon Fallon
I race for my truck, running down the sidewalk. I hop in and gun the engine, fishtailing wildly as I speed out of town. Guilt and helpless rage gut me from all sides.
I wasn’t there, I wasn’t there, I wasn’t there.
Twenty minutes feels like twenty years.
Finally, I’m on Fallon’s street. My stomach bottoms out at the scene. There’s a cop car in the driveway and an ambulance on the curb. Davis stands on the front lawn, talking to Sheriff Richter. I slam the breaks, cut the engine.
“Davis,” I yell, hopping out of my truck.
“Ambulance,” he booms and points, but I’m already headed in that direction.
When I see Fallon sitting in the back of the ambulance with a blanket over her shoulders and an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose, my heart flatlines.
“She’s my wife,” I growl as one of the paramedics holds out a hand to stop my approach.
I swat him away like a gnat and stride toward her.
“Trouble.” Her name falls from my lips in a ragged breath.
She tugs off the oxygen mask, her lips pulling into a smirk. “It’s about damn time.”
I pull her up and into my arms, expecting a protest, a poker face. Instead, a shaky shudder tears out of her. Her arms wrap around me tight, and she burrows into my chest.
“Fuck, Fallon, are you okay?” I ask, kissing the top of her head.
“I’m fine,” she says, her words muffled by my chest.
I pull back, needing her eyes on mine. My heart wrenches when I see her face. Pale. Haunted. “Baby, what happened?”
She whimpers, her eyes fluttering shut. “Someone was in the house, Wyatt. The light was on. I went to the basement for—”
I shake my head at the overload of information. “The fuck were you in the basement for?” I cradle her face in my hands, my stomach turning over in ice-cold dread. “You could have fallen, what were you thinkin’?”
“I wasn’t thinking,” she snaps back. She looks embarrassed.
“I was trying to make you cinnamon rolls, you asshole, and I was out of sugar.” Though her face is fixed into that icy shell I’m used to, she’s white as death.
Her voice trembles. “Anyway, if you’ll shut up and listen to me…
I went into the basement for sugar, and that’s when I smelled gas.
” Her voice drops. “The light was on, and someone was upstairs. They were walking around. I could hear them.”
“Christ.” My pulse spikes at the thought of her being cornered with no way out.
I wasn’t there. I wasn’t fucking there.
“How’d you get out?”
“I crawled through the basement window.” She moves closer to me, her small hands gripping my shirt. “Someone was outside.”
I tense. “Who?”
“I don’t know. I saw boots right before I passed out.” Voice taking on a faraway tone, she says, “They were copper with these strange almost wing-like markings.” A shudder wracks her slender frame. Her face crumples. “I was so fucking scared, Wyatt.”
Choking on my guilt, I crush her against me. “I have you, Fallon. You’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Protect her at all costs. My life included.
“Is she okay?” I ask the paramedic. If she isn’t, I’m taking her to the fucking hospital immediately.
“She’ll be fine.” The paramedic gives me a grim nod. “It’s a good thing we found her when we did.”
“How?”
He shrugs. “Someone called it in.”
I squeeze my eyes shut.
This is my fault. I left her alone. I wasn’t there. I wasn’t fucking there.
“Hey, Fallon,” Sheriff Richter says, storming toward us.
At the sound of his voice, Fallon straightens in my arms. But I don’t let her go.
Richter holds out a small plastic sack. “Got some of your things.”
“Thanks,” she says, taking the bag of her belongings. She looks inside it then up. “What about my cane? It was in the hallway.”
He shakes his head. “Sorry. Wasn’t there.”
Fallon’s eyes water.
Rage. It’s the only emotion I feel. Some fucker violated Fallon’s safety. And now her cane’s gone?
“They took my cane,” she whispers.
“It’s okay,” I soothe. I hate seeing her upset. It absolutely kills me.
“No, it’s not.” This time, there are tears in her eyes. “You gave that to me. I—I loved it.” She inhales a shaky breath. “And now I can’t fucking walk.” Frustration stains her voice.
“Listen to me.” I tilt her chin toward me. “You’re safe. That’s all that matters. We’ll get you another one.”
“It’s not the same,” she complains weakly.
I kiss her brow, wrap her tighter in my arms. “Tough.”
Her voice is husky as she laughs. “So does this count as my last life?”
“Not funny,” I growl. “I go first. Remember that.”
She snorts. “Bullshit.”
Despite the situation, I grin. In competition until the day we die.
“Wy, a second?” I look up to see Richter and Davis staring at me.
“No,” Fallon says stubbornly, pulling out of my arms. “Don’t do that. Tell him what you won’t tell me.”
I grunt, backing Fallon.
Richter and Davis share a look.
Finally, Davis sighs as they both move closer. “We’re clearing out the cottage, but…”
“But what?” I’m pissed. I want to hit someone. If that’s Davis, so be it.
“The gas,” Richter says. “It was turned on as high as it could go.”
Fallon’s breath hitches.
“What the fuck are you saying?” I snarl.
“We’re saying it wasn’t an accident. The gas being that high was intentional.”
Fallon pales and sags limply against me.
Christ. What if she couldn’t get out of the house? What if she lit that fucking stove? I’d go up the same goddamn way if she left this fucking Earth.
“And,” Richter begins, pulling a card out of his pocket, “we found this on the front porch.”
The note reads: All this time you’ve been mine.
Motherfucker.
Fallon’s chin trembles, her dark lashes lowering as she tucks a lock of hair behind her ear.
“Flowers?” she says it so quietly we have to learn forward to hear her. “Were there flowers?”
“Dead ones,” Davis says, keeping his calm expression on Fallon. “Roses.”
The sound of a siren cuts the air.
“Excuse me, I’ll be right back.” Richter stalks toward the arriving police cruiser.
My brother gives me a worried look. “I don’t like this. First Reese, now Fallon—”
Fallon sucks in a breath. “What happened to Reese?”
Davis hesitates then says, “That night y’all went to the arcade. There was something in her drink. She was sick as a damn dog. Ford had to take her to the hospital.”
“Oh my god,” Fallon whispers, clutching at my arm.
“What the fuck?” Anger sweeping through me, I lift a hand. “Why am I hearing about this now?” Fucking assholes. I hate it when my brothers do this. Keep me out of the loop.
Face lined with regret, Davis gruffs out, “You had enough goin’ on.”
“Wyatt.” Fallon tugs on my arm, her eyes wide and wet. “That wasn’t Reese’s drink.” She’s white as death. “That was mine.”
I can’t take the fear in her voice. It unhinges me.
Fallon’s brows pull together as she stares at the note in her hand. “Who the fuck is doing this?”
I cup her pale cheek. “None of this is your fault.”
Davis meets my stare, his eyes full of worry and anger.
The flowers. The DMs. The drink. Now this.
Someone wants to hurt Fallon. We were idiots for not taking it seriously before.
I pull Fallon to me. “I think it’s a good time to tell him about the DMs.” If anyone can figure this shit out, it’s Davis.
Davis’s gaze narrows between the two of us. “What DMs?”
Fallon lets out a stuttered breath then launches into what’s been happening the last two months.
“Goddammit, you two,” Davis growls. But he doesn’t sound pissed. He sounds worried. “You don’t keep me out of stuff when it comes to your safety.” Then, exhaling, he looks at me. “I want you both on the ranch,” he demands. “Tonight. No arguments.”
Rule number one when it comes to Davis: Never fuck around with his family if you don’t want to find out.
I give him a grateful nod.
“Bossy,” Fallon mutters.
“Deal with it.” Davis squeezes Fallon’s shoulder. “You’re gonna be okay, honey.”
She will be. Because if someone touches Fallon, I’ll burn this world to cinders.
After one last glance at us, Davis heads for his truck.
Fallon’s pained eyes search mine. “How many times can everyone say it’ll be okay before it isn’t?”
“It will be,” I promise, pulling her closer. “You’re safe. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
No one will hurt Fallon.
I’ll make damn sure of it.