And somehow my breathing eased immediately.
Dangerous.
So dangerous.
Tate noticed.
Of course he noticed.
The sheriff’s mouth twitched slightly before he looked back toward Ava.
“If cartel boys walked into my town pretending to be deputies,” he said evenly, “then they’ve already escalated.”
Wolf’s expression darkened.
Trigger cracked his neck once.
Ranger body language.
War body language.
Ava looked around the room slowly.
“You’re talking about turning Eagle River into a battlefield.”
“No,” Hersh said quietly beside me.
Everybody looked at him.
His voice stayed calm.
Controlled.
Terrifying.
“They did that the second they came here.”
The room fell dead silent.
Because every person standing there knew he was right.
My stomach tightened hard.
Not because of the danger.
Because of Hersh.
The man I loved at seventeen would’ve protected me.
The man standing beside me now?
He’d go to war for me.
And somehow…
that terrified me even more.
Trigger suddenly looked toward the front windows.
