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Beth scoffed. “You’re kidding, right? Did you just hear yourself? You sound like the day you told me I couldn’t ride Midnight. Are we back there again?”
“Maybe,” he admitted, his own arms crossed now. “You didn’t let me protect you then, and look where it got us. Now I can, Beth. So call me an asshole or hate me more than you already do for trying to find her a good home when the only human she truly cares about is going to eventually leave her anyway.”
Beth flinched. “That’s not fair, Eli.” But it was, wasn’t it? She was going to leave Midnight—and him.
He let out a mirthless laugh. “Fair? You want to talk to me about fair?” He shook his head, then pinched the bridge of his nose, the gesture she now knew meant that Eli Murphy had taken all that he could take. He would shut down soon, which meant he would also shut her out. “You’re not setting foot on the Murphy property tonight. It’s the only way I can keep you safe. Don’t you get that?”
Beth clamped her jaw shut. She couldn’t believe they were back where they started after all this time.
“Yeah,” she replied, her tone clipped. “I got it, Dr. Murphy.”
Then she spun on her heel, pushed through Sam and Delaney’s door, and slammed it behind her.
Somewhere in the recesses of the house, a toddler shrieked, and her baby-making parents—even behind closed doors—audibly swore.
Chapter 23
Eli paced the stretch of concrete between Midnight’s and Cirrus’s stalls, though Cirrus was still at the Meadow Valley Ranch.
“You’re kidding, right?” Boone barked in his ear. “Because I can’t remember the last time you had such a batshit idea.”
“So Sam ratted me out already?” Eli had barely been home long enough to get Midnight situated back in her stall.
“Of course he did. He’d have followed you home if he wasn’t working the guest ranch tonight.” Boone sighed. “What the hell is going on, huh? You’re going all vigilante on a hunch when you’re supposed to be the rational one, the one who plays it safe and keeps everyone in check, including yourself.”
Eli ran a hand through his already wild hair. Three years…no…a decade at least of being rational and keeping everyone in check had finally reached its boiling point.
“Why?” he asked his younger brother. “Why does that job still fall on me after all these goddamn years? Dad got hurt, and the ranch became ours to run. Ash took off and never looked back. You and Casey…look, I know you had your shit, and that shop was your escape. But that left me and Tess with the clinic and the ranch, and we made it work. We never took on more than we could handle. We kept to ourselves and our quiet little lives while still keeping tabs on you and Ash, and we were happy. And where the hell did it get me?”
Even from the barn, he heard the sound of tires on gravel, the roar of an engine. Or was he hearing it in the phone?
He jogged out of the barn, not sure if he was moving toward whatever he heard or if the sound was simply moving toward Boone, wherever he was. Except outside, in front of the clinic, was Boone’s motorcycle…with Boone on it.
Eli looked at his phone, then at his brother, still confused as the distance between them grew smaller.
“You were riding the whole time?” Eli scratched the back of his neck. “I didn’t hear… I mean, what are you doing? I thought Casey had clients all afternoon and evening.”
Boone pulled off his helmet and stowed it on the back of his bike. “Her mom is watching Kara. Told her that my big brother needed some help, and she didn’t question me. But if you rat me out, I’m toast.” His hair stuck out at odd angles in multiple spots. “What are you looking at?” he added, nodding at Eli. “At least I was wearing a helmet. What’s your excuse?”
Eli huffed out a laugh. It might have been the first time he smiled in days.
“Thank you,” he told his brother, but his smile was short-lived. “So you came all the way here to, what? Lock me up while someone trespasses on my property and takes what belongs to me…again?”
Boone shrugged. “I guess it depended on how you reacted to me showing up. But hearing you refer to Midnight as yours changes things a bit, doesn’t it?”
Eli’s eyes widened. Had he really… Did he actually…
Shit. He did, didn’t he?
“I wasn’t going to keep her,” Eli told him, hearing the realization in his own tone. “I didn’t want her here in the first place.”
His brother nodded. “I know.”
“It’s not because of Beth,” Eli added.
The younger Murphy gave his brother a pointed look. Both men knew that was a lie.
“Fine,” Eli amended. “It’s not only because of her, and the because of her part doesn’t even matter anymore because despite knowing she was always going to leave, she probably, most likely, definitely never wants to speak to me again.”
