Page 135 of Pretty Little Scars

I scroll through the other cameras, just to make sure there aren’t any animals about, and then feel my heart stumble when I see a strange truck in the driveway. I zoom in and feel my blood run cold.

That’sPeter’struck.

“Fuck, let’s go, buddy.” The horse speeds up, and I switch cameras again, and I growl when I see that Peter is at the door of the barn, watching my girl.

He startles her. I can see them saying something, but I don’t have sound on the cameras.

Quickly, I close out of those and call Easton.

“I’m about to go to work,” he says.

“Good. I need you at the ranch. Fucking Peter’s back, and Darby’s alone in the barn. He’s there with her. I’m watching it on the video feed now, andfuck.”

“I’ll be there in ten.”

“Get therefaster,” I growl and hang up, switching back to the video and seeing that motherfucker advance toward her. I’ve never felt so goddamn helpless as I do right now, knowing that I’m at least ten minutes away myself and she might not have that long before this piece of shit hurts her.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

DARBY

“Says the restraining order, for starters,” I reply and reach around to my back pocket for my phone and then realize that I left it in the garden.Shit.

“A piece of paper doesn’t do anything. You’re old enough to know that.” Peter scoffs and shakes his head, but he doesn’t move from the doorway, as if he’s biding his time. As if he’s enjoying the idea of making me scared.

And I am.

I’m fucking terrified of him now because he outweighs me by fifty pounds of muscle, and I’m not stupid enough to think that he couldn’t easily hurt me. The only reason he hasn’t hurt me in the past is because someone else interrupted him. There’s no one else here, and honestly, I’m so fuckingexhausted.

How long am I going to have to do this with this asshole?

I may be scared, but I’m fast, and I absolutely won’t go down without a fucking fight.

“Look, I don’t want any trouble with you,” I tell him. “And that’s the fucking truth.”

“See, I don’t believe you.” Now he pushes away from the door and slowly walks toward me, but I step back, and he moves in a circle, as if there’s a magnet in the middle of us, keeping us apart.

And that works for me while I figure out what in thehellI’m going to do.

“I think youdowant trouble because ever since I met you, I’ve had nothing but exactly that. I’ve been to jail, lost a damn good job, and now because of you, I lostanotherjob. Sure, it was shitty, mucking stalls and being treated no better than a fucking slave, but it put food on the table.”

God,how do I call for help without my phone?

“I didn’t say anything to Kincaid about you,” I tell him. And it’s true, I didn’t.

Tucker did, but I’m not going to tell him that.

“Then how the fuck did he find out that I was fired before? And how did he get the stupid idea that I ever put my hands on you?”

“Youdidput your hands on me,” I remind him with a scowl, but he just smiles.

“That’s your word against mine. Now, it seems to me that you’re all alone out here.”

“Tucker will be back any minute.”

“Nah, he won’t. He’s out with the herd.” His smile widens when he sees my frown. “Betcha didn’t know that one of his ranch hands is my brother-in-law, did you? All I had to do was call him and ask what was going on out here today to know that you’re going to be alone for some time.”

“So, what are you going to do, Peter? Rape me?”