Page 59 of Love At Peace

“Not only that, but it seems that someone shared a video of him trying to slip drugs into a woman’s drink at the bar,” he said. “It’s all over social media.”

“Hot damn.” I laughed, loving it. Karma was a bitch like this.

“Wendy heard from Mindy about the camera. Then she saw the video being shared. He’s not going to be able to escape any of this now.”

I wasn’t so sure. The asshole knew how to spin things to his favor. I wanted to be optimistic, but time would tell. “I hope so. Thanks for telling me. I was eager to know, ever since Wendy mentioned that about that camera showing who took Eric from his house that night.”

“I look forward to things being a lot more peaceful around here without a slick city boy trying to—”

Pops sounded off. They came too close, out of nowhere, but I wasn’t slow to react. When gunshots were being fired, there was no time to waste.

My horse was startled, though, standing up on his hind legs and tossing me off. Whoever had fired had done so out of the blue. I was out here alone. No one was supposed to be this far back from the ranch entrance. No one with a damn gun.

I fell onto my side, wincing at the instant hit of pain. As soon as I touched the ground, I rolled with the momentum of falling and being tossed off the horse. It cleared me out of the animal’s path, because he was out of here. Spooked by the shots, he took off, galloping back toward the house.

“Roarke?” Gavin’s voice came from far away. I wasn’t sure where my phone had fallen, but I wasn’t holding it anymore. By the time I shook my head to clear it, I was only up on one knee.

“You motherfucker!”

I spun at the sound of a man’s angry shout, but I was too tardy to make the pivot more effective, like a hit.

David lunged at me, coming out from hiding among the few trees out here. A gun remained in his hand, but at this close range, he seemed to want to run at me and tackle me, not shoot again.

“What the fuck?” I shouted as he reached me.

He struck out with the gun, to pistol-whip me, but I anticipated it and pulled his arm toward me, throwing off his momentum. We toppled together, instantly hitting and striking out. He could fight, which surprised me, but he wasn’t familiar with what it meant to take on a man who made a career out of working on the ranch. I had to wrestle bulls into submission. I’d refereed my fair share of fights, but when I was young and stupid, I’d participated in enough of my own.

He punched and kicked, trying to get me off him. I wouldn’t let him. He was going down.

This wasn’t anything like the little brawl at the bar when he’d badmouthed Heather. This was no minor scrimmage. I intended to beat the shit out of him and hold him down until I could deliver him to Marty.

“You fucking asshole,” he ranted, spittle flying from his mouth as he growled and yelled. Squirming and resisting, he tried to get out of my grip, but I wasn’t releasing him, not for a damn second.

“Heather is mine!”

I squeezed my hand harder as I reared it back to punch him. Letting all the anger funnel into my hit, I wished I could knock that line of bullshit right out of him.

“She belongs with me,” he said after I sent one of his teeth flying out.

“The hell she does. Who are you to decide, huh?”

“I’m her—” I headbutted him.

“You’re nothing. You are nothing to her but a past she wants to erase and never think about again.”

“I’m going to kill—”

I punched him again. “That’s for Eric. You piece of shit. Why’d you have to hurt him too?”

“He was supposed to encourage her to come home with me. To go back to my side where she belongs!”

There is no fucking way that would happen. “Let me guess,” I taunted. “He didn’t want to say something as stupid as that, huh?” And then he’d hit him.

“She’s mine. She belongs to me. She owes her life to me.”

“Oh, because you staged a fake crisis and pretended to save her? You’re a twisted, sick fuck.”

“No. I am her boyfriend. Her man. And she is not going to stay here in this shitty little town and shack up with someone like you.” He got a lucky punch in, but it wasn’t going to change the fate of this fight.