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I reached into my pocket and removed my keys, discreetly placing them in the palm of her hand. She looked up at me, nodded and left. I turned back to the man.
“What do you want?” I asked, trying to control my voice.
He smiled chillingly at me and placed his glasses back on his face. “He wants you ruined,” he said candidly, sending a chill up my spine.
I opened my mouth but couldn’t respond. He placed his hands in his pockets and continued.
“He wants you to know that he’s going to ruin you and your sister.”
My blood began to seethe underneath my skin. “You tell him that if he so much as comes near us, I will take every documented piece of evidence I’ve kept against him and I will turn it into the authorities.”
The man looked surprised. “I don’t think you’ll do that,” he said after a moment’s consideration.
“You don’t?”
“No, that means you’d be incriminating yourself.”
“Believe me, I would be more than happy to rot in jail right beside him if it meant he couldn’t hurt my mom or Bridge ever again.”
The man thought on what I said before nodding. “I’ll tell him what you’ve said.”
He turned to walk away, but I stopped him. “And?” I asked.
He pivoted my way once more. “And what?”
“How will I know if he’s decided to back off?”
“Oh, you’ll know,” the man said, laughing. He walked out into the cold, still chuckling as if Bridge’s and my lives were playthings to him. I suppose they were. If he worked for my father, he would be devoid of morals. Says the pot.
I ignored my inner jab and rushed out to the truck. It was running and near the door. I got into the driver’s side quickly. The interior lights were on, and I could see everyone, including Cricket.
“What-what happened?” Bridge asked, scooting to the edge of her seat.
Her eyes were red from crying.
I glanced up at Cricket through the rearview and she looked nervous.
“Uh, well, Dad’s found us,” I said.
“No,” she cried, slumping into her seat.
Jonah wrapped his arm around her, and I couldn’t muster up an objection. She bent into him and cried into his shoulder.
“What does this mean?” Jonah asked.
I drove out of the pub parking lot and started to make my way back to Hunt Ranch. “Honestly, I don’t know. I say this because I threw something at him I don’t think he was expecting that might tie his hands.”
Bridge raised her head and wiped below her eyes. “What?” she asked tearfully.
I looked straight at Cricket. “I shouldn’t really say,” I said, afraid to admit something so heinous in front of her. “Let’s just say, if he were smart, he would leave us be.”
Bridget nodded, thankfully accepting my vague answer, and laid her head back down on Jonah’s shoulder. I looked up and noticed Cricket’s narrowed brows, then quickly glanced back down at the road. She wanted to know but she wasn’t going to press.
Guess we all have our secrets, Cricket Hunt.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Weeks went by and the calves started making an appearance by the droves. Jonah and I worked side by side a lot, and although I was still visiting Cricket at night, we barely said a word to one another, both of us afraid to come clean. I didn’t care though. I had to be around her if for nothing else than she appeased my nightmares at night, but we all know it was more than that. It was more than that because I was falling in love with Cricket Hunt, and I was finding it increasingly more difficult to keep that fact to myself.
