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I smiled and nodded, all too willing to keep my mouth full of her cooking.
“Your soul has been waiting a long time. It was ready when Ms. Gallagher came into your life. Her soul was ready too.”
I looked up at her. “It isn’t like that.”
“I have eyes. I can see what you refuse to. The heart knows when the search is over. Listen to your heart, Mr. Smoke.”
“I’m too old for her.”
Ms. Wynona smiled and nodded.
I moved my empty plate, leaned forward, and rested my arms on the table. “You want to know the truth? She remembers something that never existed. When her memory comes back, she’s going to hate me just as much as she did before. Probably more.”
“Did you expect your soulmate would come into your life peacefully?” She laughed and shook her head. “No, child. Ms. Gallagher will make you question everything. She’ll make you look at your life with new eyes. She’ll make you question yourself, your beliefs. That which you’ve always been certain of, will no longer be.”
“You have that part of it right,” I mumbled.
“Oh, but the joy that comes along with it! Not everyone finds it, you know.”
I didn’t believe I had. Or maybe it was that I didn’t believe Siren had. I was certain there was someone else far better suited to her than I could ever be.
I never expected to find someone to spend my life with in the way Ms. Wynona was suggesting. More, I wasn’t looking for it, because I hadn’t ever wanted it.
I pushed back from the table, grabbed my plate, and put it in the dishwasher. “Thanks for dinner,” I muttered, stalking outside.
* * *
“I was comin’ to look for you,” said Zeke, meeting me halfway between the house and barn.
“What for?” I snarled.
“Ashford sent over a proposal.”
“Yeah? Since when do you need my help making a decision about something for the ranch? I pay you not to bother me with that kind of crap.”
Zeke turned and walked away without saying another word. He didn’t look mad, either. That’s what I liked about the guy. No bullshit. No nonsense. No flowery fucking words about soulmate shit.
I went to the opposite side of the barn, grabbed a set of keys for one of the ATVs, and took off.
I rode for a solid hour, surveying areas of the Blazing T that I thought might be vulnerable to poachers. There were literally hundreds of access points, none of which were easy terrain to navigate. They had to be coming in and carrying the calves out almost by hand, which also meant they had to be sedating them.
I turned off the ATV and placed a call to Decker.
“Hey, Smoke,” he answered. “You get my proposal?”
“I haven’t had a chance to review it with Zeke yet. You wanna give me the rundown?”
“It’s essentially the same thing we use here at King-Alexander, with a combination of stopgaps and surveillance.”
“Got anything that will electrocute them to death?”
Decker laughed. “Not that I’ll admit over a cell network.”
“As if they aren’t secure.” I knew they were. Any call made by an Invincibles team member, whether they were a partner like Deck was or a contractor like me, were more secure than what was used by the highest level of the US government.
“Anyway. Look it over, and let me know what questions you have.”
“Implementation lead time?”
