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That made him pissed off, sure.
But what made him furious was seeing Anastasia with his grandmother, his family. Seeing her ride side by side with his brother and talk to him with an ease that was impossible for Duke. Her warmth with them. It seeped from her. It was as easy as breathing. He watched her fight it at the start, for about the first ten minutes, but then she stopped. She gave them all of her. The parts that no one had ever seen.
But not Duke.
The only time he got her was in her sleep.
That should’ve been enough. Fuck, that was too much.
But he was a greedy fuck.
He didn’t just want that.
He wanted all of her.
To compensate for wanting that, he was cruel. Too cruel.
And he felt bad. Terrible.
But he also knew if he turned around to apologize, he’d do that by fucking her. So he didn’t turn around and apologize.
He stormed down the stairs, his intention to get on a horse and ride away all these fucking feelings.
His grandmother had other ideas.
She was small in stature, but she managed to bar his way pretty well. No one in his family faced off against his maternal grandmother.
Duke was tempted, but he wasn’t that angry or suicidal.
She folded her arms and raised a brow in that practiced way of hers. “That was interesting,” she said mildly.
Duke knew he deserved more than that, a fuck of a lot more. A tongue lashing that he knew his grandmother was more than capable of giving. He was brought up to treat women right. The way he cursed at Anastasia, the way he spoke to her was not right. But it was his only option.
He inhaled. “You know how I said there was more to this than it seemed?”
His grandmother nodded.
“Well, this is part of the more,” he continued. “And I need you to trust me when I say we can’t have photos of her here. No one beyond the family can know she’s here.”
His grandmother regarded him in the way she looked at everyone. Never a mere glance. Never half interest. She was always dissecting you, always seeing beyond. She stepped forward and cupped his cheek. “My beautiful boy. I may not know many things about the man the world has turned you into, but he’s still my blood. My grandson. And he’s still a good man, even if he acts like an asshole. I trust you. I trust that this is just a little bit of trouble, because you’ve always known how to bring it home.”
He couldn’t help but chuckle at that, despite the situation being not funny at all.
She was right. Of all the things that had changed about him it was that he liked to chase trouble around. But this wasn’t stealing his father’s truck and crashing into the local liquor store.
“I’m all for trouble, honey,” his grandmother continued. “But I’m also aware that there’s more to that girl than meets the eye, which I know you see because you’re not a stupid man. What you might not have seen is just how soft she is underneath all that. And us women, we like a hard man in many ways.” She waggled her eyebrows. “But we need to make sure they know when to be soft. So my boy, don’t disappoint me by bruising that woman.”
She squeezed his chin ever so slightly, a mix between a caress and a warning before she stepped out of his way.
“Now go. Ride out all that testosterone so you can come back and be the man I know you are.”
“I love you, Grandma,” he said, surprising himself.
She grinned. “Join the club.”
He was coming back from the ride when he saw her. Duke knew it was her the second the figure cut on the horizon, and the second the pit of his stomach found a new basement.
He instantly urged his horse faster. And as if she sensed the same thing Duke did, she obeyed.
The sun was setting, and he might’ve found it beautiful had fear not been yanking at his throat the closer he got. It became more and more apparent she was injured. It was a skill that Duke was forced to acquire—to note casualties from a distance.
Although they were oceans away from the war zone where he acquired this skill, there were still many threats in the Montana countryside. His first thought was that somehow Kitsch had found her already, but he quickly discarded it.
Beyond the fact that there was no way to connect her to the ranch and there was no way for a stranger to get on without someone noting it, there would be no way she would be walking, even stumbling if that were the case.
She’d be dead in the grass.
That thought was a punch in the gut.
Duke all but leapt off the horse the second he got close enough. It had been a while since he’d ridden, but considering he’d been riding since he could damn near walk, it wasn’t something you forgot how to do.
