19. Nora
CHAPTER 19
Nora
I don’t notice the hand that closes over my nose.
The first sign that something is wrong is when a rancid, sickly sweet smell fills my nostrils. Then, there’s nothing.
I wake later, my head absolutely pounding. I look around, try to sit up, then realize with growing panic that I can’t. My hands are tied behind my back.
I lay down, my mind racing. I shut my eyes, trying to take deep breaths around the tape covering my mouth.
Breathe, Nora. Figure it out. You need to figure out where you are.
Yes. I can do that. Step one, figure out where the hell I am.
I look around, my eyes slowly focusing on the space around me.
Car. I’m in the back of a car. A nice car, by the looks of it. The seats are leather, and they feel expensive under my cheek.
Okay. Check. Luxury car. Now, do you recognize anyone nearby?
I flex my abs, trying to sit up again. There’s no one in the backseat with me. This is definitely a sedan, or a small SUV, because I’m in the only backseat.
I look, slowly, up toward the front. The face in the rearview mirror makes me want to puke.
It’s fucking Aaron .
Of all the people, Aaron is the one I least expected. But it all clicks into place now. He’s the one who’s been sabotaging the ranch. He drove some kind of a Mercedes when we were at school, and while I don’t think this is the same car, he clearly got something similar to come up here with.
I can’t believe he’s here. And that he literally stole me out of my own goddamn bed.
He better not have hurt my dad…
“Finally awake, Princess,” he says.
God, I always hated that nickname. I make a disgusted noise, even through the tape blocking my mouth.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. You’re happy to see me again,” Aaron says with that awful smirk.
I’m anything but happy.
“I’d take the tape off your mouth, but I bet you’d just rip me a new one, right? Always did have a mouth on you,” he says, the annoyance in his tone evident. “Yeah, I think I’ll keep that tape right where it is. You never did know your place. And I think I like you like this. Quiet. Bound up, so you can’t run from me. It’s much fucking nicer than when we were in college.”
Oh, dear god. He actually believes that.
I make a noise, wiggling again.
Aaron gives a short, barking laugh. “No use in doing that, Nora. No, we’re going to go away for a while.”
I stiffen.
“Oh, are you worried about the stupid fucking cowboys that you’ve been whoring yourself out to? Don’t worry. They won’t give a fuck about you. I bet they only liked you for the land, same as I did.”
The statement makes something inside me, brittle and sharp, break. I freeze, my mind racing. What does he mean?
I give a little grunt, wiggling again. I think one of my hands is only halfway in this zip tie. If I can just get it free…
I start to work on it, my eyes glued to the front seat.
Aaron, however, doesn’t seem to notice that I’m slowly working my way out of his bounds. “My dad told me to find you, you know. That night during sophomore year. He heard about the Foster Ranch from someone who had been scouting nearby. Yours is the property with the pretty little stream running through it, right?”
We do have a stream. And the water rights to it.
“Yeah. That’s the one. So, I got close. My dad wants that land, Nora. My brothers have all made names for themselves in the real estate world. You know the only one who hasn’t? Me. So I thought that if I could get this land from precious Nora Foster, I’d finally be able to keep my head up at the dinner table. Really show dear old Dad that I’m just as worthy of the real estate biz as any of my idiot brothers.”
His brothers, while cruel, are considerably smarter than he is.
“I was gonna marry you, Nora. You would have said yes, because you were eating out of my palm. And then those two bitches,” he spits, referencing the sweet freshman girls who told me about him cheating on me, “had to go and ruin it.”
I roll my eyes so hard, they’re practically in the back of my head.
You’re the one who ruined it, asshole. You couldn’t just keep that shit in your pants.
“They wanted me to make them feel good. Make them feel important, like they belonged on campus. Hell, it was just a rite of passage.”
Oh, my god. How on earth did I date this fucking asshole? I wiggle my wrists and silently cheer when I feel one of them break free. Even though the other one still has the zip tie around it, I can finally move my fingers. I slowly bring my hands forward, flexing them to bring some blood flow back into them. Aaron still hasn’t noticed.
“We’re going to go away for a while, Nora. Then, when you’re missing and your dad is desperate, I’m going to show up. I’m going to tell everyone that I saved you, and you’re going to fucking smile and nod and sign over the rights to your fucking ranch.”
He’s delusional.
“You’re going to fucking smile and nod and—” He pauses. “The fuck is that?”
My heart leaps into my throat. I hope it’s the cops. Dear god, I hope he’s speeding or something, and that’s a state trooper.
“Who the fuck does this guy think he is?” Aaron snarls. “Fucking dick in a silver 4Runner…”
I go still. No. There’s no way .
All of their trucks are so much nicer. There’s no way that he would take my car. There’s no way that they would come for me at all. They don’t know where I am. They don’t know who took me…
The cameras.
I could smack myself. Of course they’ve been watching the cameras for the last few days. I’m sure that Shane saw everything.
My face heats. I hope he didn’t see me sit out on the porch and cry. Or all the times that I thought about texting them and then stopped. God, could he hear me? He probably heard me talking to Kendall, telling her everything…
“Fucker just won’t get off my ass.” Aaron slams the brakes, and I fly around in the seats. I almost throw my arms out to brace myself. But I stop myself at the last minute.
“Fine,” Aaron snarls. “I’m going to go this way. You fucking pass. Jackass,” he mutters.
The road starts to get bumpy. Clearly, wherever he turned, it was some kind of dirt road.
“Yeah, motherfucker. Keep driving. Keep— Fuck,” he curses.
They’re never going to let you get away with this.
Even though I’m still mad at the guys for their lies, I know that in my bones. I might have been pissy with them, but I know that they’ll move heaven and earth to get me back.
The thought makes me feel… happy. Safe.
I have to figure out how to get out of here, but if I can… I know they’ll be there to help.
“What the fuck does this guy want? I’ll just?—”
There’s a loud cracking sound. Then the car spins.
I do throw out my hands now. We’re not flipping, but it’s clear that Aaron has lost control of the wheel. I think that a tire popped, because there’s a loud thunking noise as the car rolls over the dead tire. Popped, or was shot. I can’t tell which.
When we finally roll to a stop, I sit up. I ache, and I think one of my ribs might be bruised, but otherwise, I’m unhurt. Despite the fact that I wasn’t strapped into the backseat, I seem to be okay. Looking around, I first look for my stupid ex-boyfriend .
Aaron’s in the front seat, his head lolling to the side. It looks like the airbag went off, and he’s pinned behind it, stuck for the minute.
Good. Now’s my chance. I need to get the hell out of here before he wakes up. Even if I’m just running away, I can find my way back to the highway. I can get the hell out of here.
I take a hand and pick at the tape on my mouth. This is going to suck. Getting my fingernails under it, I rip. I gasp with pain as it pops off of my face.
“Fuck,” I grunt. I shut my mouth quickly, though, because I don’t want Aaron to wake up.
In the front seat, he’s stirring. I need to go, and I need to go now. Eyeing him warily, I open the door to the car.
I don’t close it. I turn, looking behind me…
And I see Clint, riding Storm, barreling down the road.
There’s no time to look and see if Shane and Landon are near, or to see if Aaron is following me as I stumble out of the car. I sprint toward him, my arms out.
“Clint!” I yell. Clint leans down, putting his arm out. He’s not going to stop.
This is not going to be fun. I stretch my arms up, leaning up as high as I can. The thunder of Storm’s hooves gets closer and closer, until it feels like they’re beating a rhythm inside my chest.
I look up, watching Clint lean down. For a second, I think that it’s not going to happen. That there’s no way he’s going to pull me up and onto that horse with him.
Then, his fingers wrap around my arms. His biceps flex. In a heartbeat, he swoops me up and plops me on the saddle in front of him.
“Are you hurt?” he asks.
I shake my head. I’m fine. Banged up a little, but not seriously hurt. “No, but…”
A gunshot makes Storm rear, and I grip the pommel, desperately trying to stay on while Clint calms Storm down.
“Move again, and I’ll shoot that fucking horse!” Aaron yells.
Oh, god. “Clint, he’s a terrible shot. Even if he hits Storm?—”
“Police are on their way,” Clint murmurs. “Take Storm and go.”
“No,” I whisper .
But he’s already sliding down the saddle.
I take the reins, desperately patting Storm’s neck as I try to calm him down. Amazingly, he settles under my hand, watching Clint with his ears pricked forward.
I have no doubt that, given the chance, Storm would wade in after Clint and stomp the shit out of Aaron. I’m half tempted to let him. If I didn’t worry that Aaron would shoot him, I would let Storm do whatever he wanted to that asshole.
Instead, we both watch Clint. He storms forward. Aaron points his pistol at Clint, and for a second, my heart is in my throat.
He’s going to shoot him.
“Clint!” I scream. I urge Storm forward, and he trots toward them…
But Clint’s faster. He ducks, head going down and under the range of the weapon. His hand, though, snaps up and knocks it out of Aaron’s hand.
They scuffle, and the sound of tires and sirens makes me look up. I see my trusty 4Runner, accompanied by more flashing lights than I’ve ever seen in my life, driving down the road to us.
My heart swells. I nudge Storm forward, and the window to the SUV rolls down.
Inside, Landon and Shane smile. “Hi, Hellcat.”
“What the hell are you doing driving my car?” I ask. Behind us, the cops are streaming out of their car and toward Clint and Aaron. My heart skips as they head straight for both of them. “Wait,” I murmur. “They’re not going to arrest him, are they?”
“No, Hellcat. We called the cops.”
“But how do they know?—”
“The surveillance footage,” Shane says. “We had Aaron walking into your house, then walking out with you unconscious.”
“My dad?—”
“Is fine. He’s waiting for us back at the ranch,” Landon says.
There’s yelling. I turn to look at the scene that’s unfolding in front of us. Clint’s beating the hell out of Aaron.
“Police!” the officers yell. “Hands up where we can see them!”
“Clint!” I call.
Clint glances up at us. He sees the car, the cops, and he looks to where he has Aaron held by the collar. He delivers one more solid, resounding punch, right to Aaron’s eye. I can hear the crunch of it from here, and I wince. Storm whickers, seemingly in approval.
“Fuck me,” Landon murmurs. “That had to hurt.”
“Going to jail with a shiner is going to be great for him,” Shane agrees.
I sigh, trying to calm Storm as he shifts underneath me.
Clint marches back to us as the cops take over. He brushes off one of the officers, making a beeline for us. Storm leans forward, nibbling at Clint’s shirt.
“Was that necessary?” I ask.
Clint shrugs. “Seemed necessary at the time.”
“Clint, you cleaned his clock!” Landon hoots from the SUV. “That last punch? Stone cold, man. Stone fucking cold.”
“Thanks,” Clint laughs. He puts his foot through the stirrup, hand on the pommel, and pulls himself up behind me.
I lean back into him. “You came for me.”
Clint presses a kiss on the side of my neck. “Always, darlin’.”
I love when he says that.
“We’re not about to just disappear on you, Nora,” Landon says softly. “We fucked up. We upset you. But we, and I do mean we, meaning all of us,” he says, glancing at Shane and Clint, “we want a chance to make up for it.”
I look away. “It sucked that you hid the stuff about the ranch from me.”
“I know, Nora. I’m so fucking sorry,” Shane says. “But believe me when I say that we started to see you and the ranch as so much more…”
“They did,” Clint says from behind me. I look back. His face is tight, and his eyes are sad. “They told me that they didn’t want to buy the ranch from you. That they wanted to help you fix it,” he grunts.
“Clint…” Shane says.
Clint shakes his head. “I was the one who kept saying that it wasn’t going to work. I thought that once you knew about us, you’d leave.”
My heart squeezes. Just like everyone’s left him. Just like everyone has left all of them.
“I was mad, but I…” Okay. I realize that I said lots of things I didn’t me an. Such as never speak to me again. That does sound pretty final, I guess. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“We’re sorry,” Landon says.
“I’m sorry,” Clint adds.
I turn, looking at him in the saddle.
“Even if you were going to go, I shouldn’t have made you… I shouldn’t have said that shit about the ranch. Especially if I didn’t mean it.”
I tilt my head to look at him. “Clint?”
“I didn’t mean it, Nora. I don’t want to buy the ranch from you. I want to help you make it better.”
My heart swells. “That could be nice.”
“Hey, I think the talking should probably stop for a bit. Instead of that, let’s get the hell out of here,” Shane says. He nods at the officers, who are currently frog-marching Aaron back to their car.
I grin. “Sure. But why did you take my car?”
“Oh, this was only Plan A.”
“What was Plan B?”
“To use this thing like a tank and run that motherfucker off the road,” Landon says cheerfully.
Storm starts clopping, and I shake my head. “That’s my car.”
“We’re getting you a new one, darlin’,” Clint tells me. “That thing’s a fucking death trap.”
I roll my eyes, but I lean back into him. I’m still mad about the ranch. But I also appreciate their apology.
I want Clint to help me make the ranch better, too.
Back at the house, my dad and I have a tearful hug. He’s over the moon to hear about the fact that Aaron was arrested, and I am, too.
After we all settle in and eat some dinner, Dad rises. He looks at the clock, then at me. “I, uh… if we’re all good here, I think I’m going to go.”
I frown. “Go? Go where? ”
He looks to the counter, where I notice a bunch of brownies. Which happen to be the specialty of a certain kindly older lady in town.
I look at him. “Are you bailing on me to go on a date?”
“Well, you’re fine,” he says, rubbing his hand behind his neck. “Aaron’s in jail. The ranch is fine. And when she stopped by to drop these off earlier, she told me real nice-like that she was going to be at the Hangout later…”
I laugh. “Dad. You were the one who told me that it’s all about focusing on the time you have. I just never thought you’d take that advice so soon.”
His face drops. “I just… It’s been a long time since your mother passed, Nora.”
I study him. His face looks like he’s blushing a little.
“And I know that you don’t like the idea of me dating…”
“Oh, my god, Dad. No way. That’s not true. I love this idea.”
He blinks. “What?”
“I’ve been waiting for you to date for years! Seriously,” I add at his shocked expression.
“But your mother?—”
“Died when I was a baby. From a freak thing. You’ve raised me alone your whole life. If there’s one thing I realize now, it’s that doing something alone kind of sucks.”
My dad looks over. “Nora…”
“I know, Dad. You raised me to be independent. I don’t take shit from anyone, and the ranch is included in that. But that doesn’t mean we should turn down help when it’s in front of us.”
My dad blinks and looks away. I can see the tears in his eyes.
“Well. I’m out then,” he mutters. He stands, and I tug him into a hug.
“Tell Ellen hi for me,” I whisper into his ear.
“Will do. Boys,” he says, looking at the guy, “take care of my girl for me.”
I don’t think he means it in the way that it comes out, but I blush and look away all the same.
I wait for the door to slam. For my dad’s truck to roar to life, and for the sound of tires to get distant .
Then I turn back to the guys. “I’m not selling the ranch.”
“Nope.”
“Anyone who tries to take it from me is going to get their stuff rocked,” I warn.
“Wouldn’t dream of it being any other way, Hellcat.” Landon smiles.
“And if we do this, we do it all together,” I say.
They all freeze at that. Shane breaks out of it first. “When you say ‘do this,’ what exactly does that mean?”
“Be very, very clear, Nora,” Clint rumbles.
I look at all three of them. I take a deep breath.
“I’m falling in love with you assholes,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper. “All of you. I like each and every one of you. I like how you make me feel about myself. I like what you do for me and the ranch. I don’t want just one of you. I want all of you.”
The noise in the room is so minimal, you can practically hear the cows in the pasture three miles away.
“I want this. I want you. I want to help my dad fix up the ranch. I want to come home to the three of you. I want to know that I can count on you to help me, because this place is a hell of a lot to run… but it’s mine.”
One by one, they nod.
“I can rip up the contract if you want?—”
“The lease stands,” Shane says quickly. “Except from now on, there will be no charge for labor.”
I raise my eyebrows. “No?”
“No. We’ll lease the land we need from the Foster Ranch. Wild Spur is going to do just fine. And Nora, you can lean on us.”
“Without a contract.”
“You can rely on us because we want to help,” Landon says. “Come hell or high water, we’ll help you get the Foster Ranch to whatever place you want it to be in. We’ll do whatever it takes, because we care about you.”
“I can’t speak for them, but I’m falling in love with you,” Shane murmurs.
Landon grins. “Me too. ”
Clint shifts. “I?—”
“You don’t have to, Clint,” I reassure him.
He looks awkwardly away. I can tell he wants to say more, but… there’s time for that.
Instead, I walk over to him. I put my fingers under his chin, tipping his lips to mine. When he leans down, I kiss him, slowly and tentatively. I break the kiss, looking up.
“I think that we can still seal the deal on this new arrangement.”
Clint’s eyebrows pinch together. “We?”
I grin, looking at the other two guys. “We. All three of us. I want you. And I want you all. Together.” I turn, walking up the stairs. Halfway up, I pause. “You coming?” I call back down.
There’s a screech. Clattering of chairs and the sound of bodies thumping to get on the stairs.
I grin, stomping up to my room.
My guys, as always, are right behind me.