Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
KASEY
“Want me to kill him?” Rhett asks, keeping his voice low.
I wince.
“Shit,” he says regretfully. “Sorry. I meant ‘Want me to hurt him?’”
“No,” I grit out, staring at the shitstain of a man glaring at us from the middle of the driveway.
His dark-blond hair is combed back, glossy from too much product, and he’s wearing a suit that looks expensive enough to pay for all the repairs needed in the barn.
Nothing about him looks like it belongs anywhere around here.
At least he has the good sense not to come any closer.
“Know who he is?” Wells asks.
I exhale through my nose. “I think it’s Ava’s ex from Miami.”
“Why would he be here?”
I don’t answer, because the likely answer is he’s probably here for Ava. Or the baby. And despite the fact I have no right to decide so, he’s not going anywhere near them.
“Where the hell is she?” Tobias shouts again.
For the third fucking time.
“I don’t know what you’re after,” I finally call out, “but this is private property and we’ve already asked you to leave the polite way—”
“I think I’ve made what I’m after pretty clear, but since you rednecks clearly lack the intelligence to keep up, I’ll say it again: I’m looking for Ava Jones, and I’m not going anywhere until I see her.”
“Yeah,” Rhett mutters, tone full of violence. “This guy’s fucking dead.”
“What makes you think she’s here?” I ask, ignoring my brother.
“Lady at the bakery said she’d be at ‘Bennett Rescue Ranch’ so I plugged it into my map app and here I am.
” His gaze flicks from the house to the roof of the barn just visible behind it.
To the corral where a black stallion nudges a ball around with his nose, happily unaware of the tension growing over here.
“Is she back into horses or something? Is this some kind of wilderness spa camp?”
Wells snorts.
“Unless Ava extends an invitation for you to come here and see her,” I say, “I’m not allowing you past the driveway.”
Tobias rolls his eyes, annoyed. “Of course she wants to see me, I’m her goddamn boyfriend. Who are you to police who gets to see her, anyway? This is ridiculous.”
“Boyfriend?” Rhett smarts, pointing a thumb at me. “That’s weird, ’cause last I fucking checked she’s married to my brother. Pretty sure husband trumps”—he waves a hand in Tobias’s direction—“whatever the hell you are. Time to get lost, dickhole.”
Tobias goes still, eyeing me with new regard. “Married?” he snorts. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Tobias!” We all turn around to see Ava and Layla running down the dirt pathway. Ava’s flushed with anger, glaring at him. “You have no right to be here!”
“You fucking married this hillbilly piece of shit?”
Rhett lurches forward but I thrust a hand out to push against his chest and stop him.
Ava stops herself about ten feet behind us. “You have no right to be anywhere near me, Tobias. I told you I wasn’t coming back.”
He marches forward, sneering at Ava. Wells and Rhett join together in creating a wall to block him, and Rhett shoves him hard in the chest. “Hear that? She asked you to leave, motherfucker.”
But Tobias doesn’t hear him, because he’s zeroed in on Ava. “I will not allow the mother of my child to shack up in some podunk town with a backwoods loser like a bitch in heat!”
I hit him so hard in the jaw it audibly cracks. “Don’t ever fucking talk to my wife like that,” I shout as he falls to the ground.
“Damn,” Rhett grumbles. “I would’ve had him.”
I flex my hand, testing for pain. “It’s my fucking fight.”
“You’re gonna pay for that, you cocksucker!” Tobias screeches from the ground, clutching his face. “I’m going to sue you for everything you’re worth! This fucking property will be mine by the end of the year!”
“Yeah, yeah, get in line.”
Ava stomps forward, pushing between me and Wells.
Instinct has me reaching to pull her back, to tuck her close and keep her safe, but I know I can’t stop her.
That she needs to face him. She leans down, pointing a finger inches away from his nose.
“You were asked to leave multiple times by the owners of this ranch and you didn’t listen.
You knowingly trespassed and made a scene big enough to establish yourself as a threat.
My husband acted in self-defense. If anyone’s going to be paying for this, Tobias, it’s you! ”
“Fucking bitch!” he yells.
This time, it’s Ava who punches him, and I’m hurling forward to grab her around the waist, pulling her back so she’s not in striking distance in case he decides to do something stupid enough for me to end his miserable life.
Ava’s a ball of tension, muscles so rigid I have to grip her tight.
“Don’t you fucking pretend to care about me or my baby.
Go back to Miami and stay gone, Tobias, or I’ll make sure the partners at the firm hear from every single one of these witnesses! ”
Tobias rises to his feet, still clutching his jaw.
I wonder if it’s broken. Hope it fucking is.
His gaze bounces from Ava to me, eyes empty of anything good, and it’s enough to momentarily pull me into a panicked flashback of another man with depthless eyes who died from a shot from my gun. “Leave,” I growl at him, chest heaving.
He keeps his eyes on me as he spits a mouthful of blood on the ground. Doesn’t turn his back until he’s around the hood of his stupid fancy car. And then he’s sinking into the driver’s seat, starting the ignition, and roaring back down the driveway.
“Well. Shit.” Rhett turns to face Ava and me, his gaze narrowing in on her.
“Did that fuck-for-brains call you the mother of his baby?” My heart sinks.
So does Ava’s body in my arms. I shoot Rhett a sharp glare that tells him to back off, but he doesn’t.
He gives me a sharp glare right back. “What did he mean by that?”
“Knock it off, Rhett.”
“Do you think he’ll come back?” Layla asks, her expression worry-stricken. “Maybe Ava and I can go somewhere, get a hotel room or . . .”
“Olivia’s house,” Rhett offers, though he’s clearly upset. “I’m sure she’d love to put you two up.”
“Ava’s not going anywhere,” I snap. “She’s safest here on the ranch. With me.”
Wells looks at Ava with a careful expression. “You know him best,” he says, not unkindly. “Do you think he’ll come back?”
Ava hesitates, her chest rising and falling with the force of her adrenaline.
“I thought it possible that he’d come looking for me.
” She turns to look at me, her eyes full of shame.
I reach for her hand and give it a light squeeze—she has nothing to feel guilty about.
She’d told me this might happen, and it’s not her fault that it did.
“He’s never really been one to accept defeat in anything in life. It’s what makes him a good lawyer.”
Wells’s gaze jumps up to meet mine. “Our workload on the ranch is already overcapacity. Without Brooks—” He sighs.
Resets. “Unless Ava comes down here with you every morning, she’s alone up at your cabin.
We have fences around the perimeter but they’re to keep horses in, not people out.
He could come back and go looking for her. ”
“Then we’ll move into the main house,” I counter, frustrated. “I’ll keep her close and—”
“Kasey,” Ava says softly.
“No!” I look at her and swallow roughly. “You have nothing to be afraid of. We’ll make sure of it. I will make fucking sure of it.”
Now she’s the one reaching for my hand. “Will you walk with me?” she asks, voice featherlight. “Please?”
My heart beats so hard I feel like it might burst from my body.
Every ounce of my focus narrows in on her face, on the worry creasing between her brows and the tight press of her mouth.
I just got her back. I just fucking got her back and I will not let some dumbass piece of shit in a suit come here and support her thinking that she’s too goddamn messy, that his mess is hers.
I squeeze my eyes shut. “Fuck that motherfucker,” I mutter quietly, trying to catch hold of the reins on my fear.
“Please, Kasey,” she says again, her blue eyes watery.
I sigh. Give her a small nod. And follow her into the field, out toward the fence line of the mustang pasture. Once we’re well out of earshot from everyone else, Ava turns around and hugs me, hard.
“I’m so sorry,” she murmurs into my shirt.
I dig my fingers into her hair, rubbing gently against her scalp. “Ava, you have nothing to be sorry for. Absolutely nothing. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Maybe not directly, but . . . I don’t know what I ever saw in him. I mean, he was nice in the beginning. Fun, you know? But there were red flags that I just willingly ignored because I thought, who cares? What’s the point?”
I want to tell her he never deserved a second of her time, but I’m not sure it would be helpful. She already knows it. So I don’t say anything, combing my fingers through her hair to help her relax.
“It’s always been easier with guys like him.
When I don’t care as much, you know? It feels so much safer.
But this baby feels like—like a wake-up call, you know?
Like life is so much bigger than my fears, and I want to figure out how to let the right people in so I can feel safe with them too.
I know . . . I know my history with Tobias changes the way you look at me—”
“No. I’m going to stop you right there,” I rumble, pulling her face up to look at me.
My eyes trace the slope of her nose, the curve of her mouth.
As if it’s the first time. As if I haven’t already seen every piece of her.
“There is nothing you could ever do that would change the way I look at you, sugar. Nothing.” I stretch my thumb across her chin.
Press it into her bottom lip. “It drives me fucking crazy to think of someone else touching this mouth. Warming your bed. And when I think of all the ways you’ve been hurt.
. .” His voice drops to a dangerous whisper. “I can’t stand it.”
Tears gather in her eyes as she leans into me.
“But none of it could ever change the way I look at you. Ever.”
“I felt her this morning,” she whispers, looking utterly heartbroken. “I felt her move when I woke up. I was on my way to come tell you.”
My heart fists in my throat. “Come here.” I pull her into my chest. Wrap my arms around her and rest my chin against the top of her head. “What can I do, Ava? Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
She lets out a long, tired breath. “I don’t think it’s the worst idea in the world to stay at Olivia’s for a night or two.”
“Ava.”
“I’m not running,” she says quickly. “I promise I’m not running from you.
I just . . . I feel too raw and exposed.
Like I’m cracked wide open, and all these people know things about me that I wasn’t ready for them to know, and I’ve never been good with vulnerability, and it feels like .
. . like a lot. And my heart wants to ask you to whisk me back to the cabin and hold me tight until morning, but—”
I close my eyes and brace for it.
“I just think we need to take a beat. Between Maeve and Tobias, I’m feeling unsteady.
” She pulls back to look at me, pressing her lips together before her mouth lifts into a small smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
“I’m trying to do things differently, Kasey, and part of that means taking the time to process through my feelings before acting out impulsively.
Just give me a little time to focus on myself. ”
I groan. Pull her back into me. And let her words sink in. “I’ll give you all the time you need,” I concede. “Just know I’m right here when you need me. Always. You hear me?”
Her arms wrap tight around my middle as she presses her face into my chest. “I hear you, Kasey.”