Chapter 6
JAKE
Hearing Emma’s name on Turner’s filthy tongue, I have to clench my hands to keep from ripping his throat out right here in the parking lot. As far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t have the right to breathe the same air space.
Mason Rivera and Luke Bennett, my brothers in every way but blood and now equal partners in Blackthorn Ranch, would say I’m not rational when it comes to Emma Hayes. I can’t disagree. I haven’t touched her in eighteen years—haven’t even seen her in person yet—but that doesn’t change anything.
She was mine once, and she will be again.
At eighteen, her father forced me out of Iron Ridge because he didn’t think I was good enough for her. I’d heard it all every day growing up here and seen it in people’s eyes how I’d turn out like my no-good alcoholic father.
Always guilty until proven innocent.
Not even working as a hand on his ranch made Robert Hayes inclined to see me differently—especially where Emma was concerned.
Faced with the choice of leaving or going to jail on trumped-up charges his buddy Sheriff Garrett was going to throw at me, I figured leaving was best. I joined the military to prove him wrong—to show him the kind of man I am.
The joke was on me, though, because Emma moved on. Just after my second tour, when I was going to come back, decorations in hand, I found out Emma had married some dude in Chicago.
That weekend, I went on a bender that landed three men in the hospital.
Instead of leaving the military, I accepted recruitment into the Delta Force.
All the years in the Unit, all the covert operations, all the focus to get the job done, and I couldn’t forget her.
Where some of the guys carried pictures of their girl with them, I carried Emma—on my heart rather than in my pocket.
She was always right there with me, my shoulder angel, encouraging me to live.
Every woman I’ve fucked since was Emma. It was always her body under me, her tight pussy I was sliding home into. It was her green eyes I saw as I came. Imagining her touch and voice that brought me peace.
And now—finally—she’s free, the ink on her divorce papers barely dry. To top it all, her father died in a car accident four weeks ago.
An accident that looks suspect, if you ask me. The official ruling was that his brake line went out. To my knowledge, no one’s pointed out that brakes don’t just fail all at once, especially on a truck owned by a man as proud about maintaining his possessions like Robert Hayes was.
But there’s nothing to be done about that except make sure Emma stays safe—and to be grateful I don’t have to try to get along with the man.
Mason says it’s divine compensation for the past.
Luke says I’m obsessed.
I just say I know what I want. I came back to Iron Ridge for one reason, and it sure as hell isn't nostalgia. It’s for Emma Hayes—the girl I chased in secret during our senior year. The first girl I ever cared about.
The only girl I’ve ever loved.
No one knows except Mason and Luke. And Emma, though she probably hates me for leaving without saying goodbye after graduation.
I didn’t have a choice, but she doesn’t know that.
I told myself her father was right to run me off—that she deserved better than a kid with no future and a shit reputation.
I was a fucking idiot. I should have fought for her.
“That’s a lot of house for a woman alone,” Turner continues, and I have to restrain myself from punching the sick sneer off his face. “But it’s got a lot of windows, so it’s easy to check in on her. Watch her at night, when she’s going to bed, make sure she’s all tucked in nice.”
No one has the right to watch Emma but me. The first thing I did when I returned was set up the surveillance cameras around her house and property. Emma was always feisty, so I know better than to crowd her. But I will make sure she’s safe.
Turner smirks, too cocky and stupid to know that death is standing in front of him. “I’ll miss that once I buy the land.”
“She going to sell to you?” I make a mental note to check into Emma’s situation to see if she needs money badly enough to consider doing business with someone like Turner.
“Oh, she’s gonna sell to me.” Greed darkened his expression. “Some women just like more convincing than others.”
The Turner brothers have had a reputation for convincing women with their fists since high school.
“You want in? I’ll give her to you once I’m done, if anything of her is left.” Snickering, he staggers closer to me. “She’s waiting for me inside. Bet she’s warmed up, thinking about me coming in.”
The gravel shifts under my boots as I close the distance between us. I’ve had enough of this fucker.
“Maybe I’ll even buy her a drink, get her nice and loose.” He flashes an oily smile, unaware of my intent. "She’s like those damn wild horses her daddy loved so much. You want me to let you know when I break her in? Frigid little bitch won't be able to resist once I—"
“You’re not going near her.” I take him by the throat and walk him backward, behind the old pickup parked next to Emma’s vehicle, keeping him off balance as I move toward the chain-link fence that runs around the lot.
"You need to mind your own business," he growls, glaring at me with bloodshot eyes as he struggles.
I smile. "Emma Hayes is my business."