Chapter 47
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
HUNTER
Song- Slam, Pendulum
The Greek is tougher than I expected. He’s been hanging from that beam for twenty minutes. Ace worked him with the crop first. Colten took a turn with questions between each round. Beau watched from the corner, cataloguing every detail the way he always does.
And the bastard still hasn’t given us a name.
I caught Lola’s face in the window a few minutes ago. Green eyes wide behind the glass. She didn’t run. Didn’t scream. She just watched. And when our eyes met, she didn’t look away.
I blew her a kiss because she needed to know that the man in this barn and the man who married her today are the same person. And she needs to be okay with that. There aren’t two separate sides of me. I just am who I am.
She blew one back. That’s my girl.
I turn back to the Greek. He’s on the floor now, curled on his side, breathing in short, wet rasps.
I crouch down beside him. “Who sent you to Ashley’s place?”
He spits blood into the dirt.
“Who are you working with? Someone local? Someone feeding you information about my movements?”
Nothing. He just stares at me with bloodshot eyes that have accepted what’s coming but refuse to give me what I want on the way there.
“Are you tracking me? My family?”
He laughs. “Fuck you, cowboy.”
I stand. Wipe my hands on my pants and grab him by the scruff of the neck. “Only one person in this world gets to call me that now. And that’s my wife.” I hiss so my brothers don’t hear. “Ace. Get me a rope.”
Ace doesn’t ask questions. He pulls a lasso off the wall hook and tosses it to me. I’m surprised my other two brothers haven’t said anything, I suppose now ain’t the time.
Colten shifts his weight. He knows what’s coming.
I loop the rope around the Greek’s neck. Not tight enough to strangle, and I knot it, tug it once to test the give, and then walk out of the barn with the other end in my fist.
Tornado is saddled in the pen. He stamps when he sees me coming, like he can smell the adrenaline. I swing up into the saddle and wrap the rope around the horn. “Bring him out,” I call.
Ace and Colten drag the Greek through the barn doors and into the daylight. He squints against the sun, rope tight around his throat, bare feet scraping the dirt.
I click my tongue, and Tornado moves.
The rope snaps taut. The Greek stumbles, then falls, and then he’s being dragged across the yard. His body bounces over rocks and ruts and hard-packed earth, dust kicking up behind him in a pale cloud.
I keep the pace steady. Not fast enough to kill him.
Fast enough to peel the skin from his back.
He screams. The sound carries across the ranch.
The horses in the far paddock lift their heads.
The cattle don’t even blink. I take him out half a mile and loop back, letting Tornado walk the return so the rope drags the Greek through his own blood trail.
By the time we’re back at the barn, he’s barely conscious. His back is raw. His suit pants are shredded. He’s making sounds that aren’t words anymore. I dismount. Hand Tornado’s reins to Colten, and crouch down beside the Greek. “Ready to talk?”
He coughs blood into the dirt. Shakes his head.
Stubborn son of a bitch.
Beau steps forward. Reaches into the Greek’s pant pocket and pulls out a phone. It’s cracked from the drag, but the screen still lights up.
I snatch it from Beau’s hand before he can unlock it. “Romeo can hack this,” I say, pocketing it. The Greek’s eyes widen. The first real fear I’ve seen in them.
Good. Let him be afraid of what’s on that phone.
I stand and turn to Ace. “Finish up.”
Ace nods. No further instruction needed. I look down at the Greek one last time. He’s lying in the dirt on my property, bleeding from a dozen places, rope still around his neck, staring up at me like a man who knows he’s watching his last sunset.
“I left my wedding day for this,” I tell him with venom. “And you’re going to die for being such an inconvenience.”
I turn my back on him and walk toward the house.
I’m three steps away when I hear it. “Wedding day?”
Colten is staring at me. Beau has gone very still.
“Yeah.” I roll my neck. “I married Lola this afternoon.”
Colten blinks. Opens his mouth. Closes it. Opens it again. “You… married her.”
“Courthouses are open on weekdays, Colt. Turns out it’s pretty quick when you know what you want.”
“You’ve known her for—”
“Long enough.”
Colten stares at me for a long beat. Then shakes his head and lets out a breath that sounds like surrender. “Well. Congratulations. I’m happy for you, brother. An invite would have been good.”
I chuckle. “When we throw the big wedding, you’ll be by my side, bro.”
Beau hasn’t moved. He’s standing by the barn wall with his arms crossed and his jaw set so tight I can see the muscle working beneath his skin.
“Why?” he asks.
One word. But it carries the weight of something heavier than curiosity.
“Because I love her.”
“You loved Ashley once, too,” he says evenly.
The air between us shifts. Colten glances sideways at Beau. Ace pauses what he’s doing behind us.
“This isn’t like Ashley,” I say carefully. “And you know that.”
“Do I?” He pushes off the wall. “What I know is that you married a woman you’ve known for a few weeks while you’re facing a murder charge, a war with the Greeks, and ninety days to prove your innocence. And I’m guessing this wasn’t just about romance.”
I hold his stare. Because he’s not wrong. And he deserves the truth. “If something happens to me. If I go to prison, or worse, Lola has no protection. She’s not a Sterling. She has no legal claim to this ranch. No obligation from any of you to keep her safe.”
Beau’s expression doesn’t change. But something behind his eyes hardens.
“As my wife, she has an interest in the ranch. She carries our name. And if I’m not here, she looks after Wyatt.” I let that sit. “It’s not just about protecting her. It’s about protecting my son.”
“So you married her to rewrite the line of succession,” Beau says flatly.
I guess I did. I did what I had to do to protect the people I love. “I married her because I love her. The protection is a consequence of that, not the cause.”
He stares at me. Something moves behind his expression that I can’t quite read. “The ranch was supposed to go to me, Hunter. That’s what Dad’s will says. That’s what’s been agreed since he died.”
“And it still does. If something happens to me. In which case, Lola will have a stake. To keep her and Wyatt safe. That’s all this changes, Beau.”
He doesn’t respond. He just nods once—tight, minimal, the kind of nod a man gives when he’s choosing not to say what he’s really thinking. “Fine.” He turns and walks toward the house.
Colten watches him go, then looks at me. “He’ll come around,” he says.
“Yeah.” I watch Beau’s back disappear around the corner. “Maybe.”
I don’t have time to worry about Beau’s feelings. I’ve got a dead man’s phone in my pocket, a wife upstairs, and a clock that’s running out.
I pull out the cracked phone and dial Romeo. “I’m sending you a device. Greek operative. I need everything. Call logs, messages, GPS history, and deleted data. Every fingerprint this thing has left on the digital map for the last six months.”
“Give me forty-eight hours,” Romeo says.
“You’ve got twenty-four.” I hang up. Pocket the phone. Look out across my ranch.
Somewhere behind me, Ace is finishing what I started. Somewhere ahead of me, Lola is picking up my son from school with my ring on her finger.
And somewhere in between, the answer to who killed Ashley Edwards is sitting on a cracked phone screen, waiting to be found.
I’m coming for it.
All of it.