Chapter Sixteen
The drive back from town was a blur of gravel, ice, and blinding rage.
Cassidy gripped the steering wheel of her Chevy with her good hand, her knuckles white.
Her left hand, the one she had used to smash the beer bottle, was wrapped in a rough bandage of bar napkins and duct tape she kept in the glove box.
It throbbed. Every pulse of blood was a reminder of what she had just done. She had fought back and drawn blood in the process.
And Sterling walked away.
The memory of his face in the doorway of the Lucky Horseshoe burned hotter than the whiskey in her stomach. He’d looked at her with that dead, flat, clinical detachment he used to liquidate assets.
He’d thought she was with Travis and that she’d played him.
“Let him think it,” she whispered to the empty cab. “Let him rot.”
She turned off the highway onto the long, rutted driveway of the Silver Creek Ranch. The familiar silhouette of the barn and the house loomed against the dark sky, looking less like home and more like a battlefield she had lost.
She wasn’t going to the main house to face him. She was going to the bunkhouse to get the last of her belongings and leave. She would sleep in the truck if she had to and drive until the gas ran out.
But as she rounded the final curve, she saw him.
Sterling was standing on the porch of the main house. The security lights cast long, harsh shadows across the wooden planks.
The CEO was gone, and a wreck remained in his place.
His shearling coat was gone, despite the freezing temperature, and his collar was open. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing the corded muscles of his forearms. He looked dangerous, pacing like a predator that had been wounded and was waiting to kill whatever approached its den.
Cassidy slammed the truck into park near the bunkhouse, leaving the engine running for a quick getaway.
She opened the door and stepped out into the cold. The wind hit her face, drying the tears that had been falling for the last ten miles.
Sterling stopped pacing and turned to look at her.
He didn’t wait, vaulting over the porch railing and bypassing the steps entirely. He landed heavily in the snow and marched toward her.
Cassidy stiffened and held her injured hand against her chest, standing her ground.
He stopped five feet away. “Where have you been?” Sterling demanded in a low growl that vibrated in her bones.
“None of your business,” Cassidy snapped. “I came for my things. Get out of my way.”
“You were with him,” Sterling accused. He took another step, towering over her and blocking out the light from the house.
“I saw you drinking with him. I walked into that bar looking for you, and I found you—leaning into him and holding his hand. From what I saw, it seems like you two were conning me the whole time.”
“I was trapped!” Cassidy shouted. “He cornered me and grabbed me!”
“Don’t lie to me!” Sterling roared and slammed his hand against the hood of her truck, denting the metal under the force of the blow. “Not again. I saw the intimacy, Cassidy. I saw the way you looked at him. You ran to him the second you found the contract.”
“Because I found the contract!” Cassidy screamed back and stepping into his space and poking him in the chest with her good hand. “I found the papers on my dad’s desk, Sterling. The sale agreement with Tokyo—signed and dated three days ago.”
Sterling froze, and his eyes widened slightly.
“You signed it before we went up the mountain,” Cassidy accused, her voice breaking. “You signed it before the storm, before the shack. You sold my home three days ago, and then you played me. You let me think we were building something and that you were saving me.”
“I was saving you!” Sterling shouted. “I bought the debt to stop the foreclosure! I liquidated my own portfolio to pay off the board!”
“You signed the sale!” Cassidy yelled. “The date doesn’t lie. You sold it to Tanaka.”
“I had to sign it!” Sterling argued. “The board required an executed document to release the funds. It was a holding tactic. I intended to void it once I owned the note personally. It was a business maneuver, Cassidy.”
“It was a lie,” Cassidy said. “Everything was a lie. You treated me like an asset, you managed me, and then you fucked me to keep me quiet while you stripped my life away.”
“I fucked you because you are mine!” Sterling grabbed her shoulders, “I risked everything for you—my career, my reputation, my fortune. I walked away from a million-dollar sale to keep this piece of dirt for you. And how do you repay me? You run back to the man who broke you.”
“I didn’t run to him,” Cassidy sobbed. “I ran away from you! Because you’re just like him. You’re both monsters; you just wear a better suit.”
Sterling released her, shoving her away. He looked at her with a mix of fury and agony that was terrifying to behold.
“Is that what you think?” he asked, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper. “You think I’m like him?”
“You manipulated me,” Cassidy said. “You controlled me and lied to me. Yes, you are exactly like him.”
Sterling flinched—the only sign of weakness he’d ever showed to her. He stepped back and looked at the house, the land, and then finally at her.
His face closed. The steel door slammed shut over his emotions, and the CEO returned.
“Fine,” Sterling said. “If I am the monster, then I will play the part.”
He pointed to the gate.
“You want to leave? Leave. Get your things, and get off my land.”
“Your land?” Cassidy laughed, a harsh and jagged sound. “It was my father’s land.”
“It’s mine now,” Sterling said. “I bought the debt, and I own the deed, the cattle, and the house. And I am evicting you.” He turned his back on her.
“You have one hour,” he said over his shoulder. “If you are not off the property by midnight, I will have you removed.”
He walked back to the house with a stiff, mechanical gait, looking like a man who had just amputated his own limb.
Cassidy watched him go, feeling a cold, hollow space open up in her chest where her heart used to be. She didn’t argue or beg; she turned and walked into the bunkhouse to get more of her things.
She grabbed trash bags from under the sink and threw clothes inside. Jeans, flannel shirts, and a few dresses went in unfolded. She shoved down until the bags were bursting.
She threw the bags into the bed of the Silverado and climbed into the cab. Her hand was throbbing so hard it made her nauseous as she gripped the wheel.
She looked at the main house one last time.
Sterling was still on the porch, leaning against the railing, watching her. He was a silhouette against the light, a dark and brooding king in an empty castle.
Cassidy keyed the ignition and put the truck in gear.
She didn’t look back as she drove through the gate. She watched the rearview mirror as the taillights faded into the darkness, leaving Sterling Thorne alone in the cold.
She was homeless, jobless, and alone, but she was free.
And as she hit the highway, heading toward nowhere, she vowed that she would never let a man own her again—not Travis and definitely not Sterling Thorne.