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“Let’s do it,” Ethan snarls and steps forward, but Trey pushes him back with hands to his chest.
“Just stop it.” I glare at Ethan, hands on my hips. “You are in my home. You came here uninvited. You’re trying to bully me into submission like you always do because you think you know what’s best for me. Just like Mom and Dad, you don’t care what I want, only what serves the farm’s best interests. You wasted your time and jet fuel coming here.”
“Jet fuel?” Kellen asks. The curiosity in his tone overrides his anger.
“The family jet,” Wade answers.
Kellen’s eyebrows fly upward in shock, but he doesn’t say anything.
Yes, my family is rich.
Super rich.
Our horse farm is very lucrative, an empire unto itself.
I sigh heavily and rub the bridge of my nose. With my eyes closed, I say, “I think you need to leave.”
“Not while you could be in danger,” Ethan says stubbornly.
Trey and Wade remain silent, and I know they’re probably torn where I’m concerned. No one wanted me to leave Kentucky, but some supported me fully—that would be Thing Two. Some didn’t quite understand but still supported me—that would be Trey and Wade. And some didn’t care to understand—my parents and Ethan.
“If you’re worried about her safety,” Kellen says, calling all eyes to him, “I can assure you, it’s covered. I had words with Hellman a bit ago, and he’ll be staying away from Abby.”
My jaw drops, and I take a worried step into him. “You did? What did you say? What did he do? Are you okay?”
Kellen rolls his eyes. “Am I okay? Are you serious?”
I’m duly abashed, but I need details. I’m stunned he did this. “What happened?”
“I went to his house. When he came to the door, I had him come outside into the yard to talk.” I frown at Kellen, because that sounds far too civil. “Well, actually… I pulled him out of the doorway, tossed him off the porch… same difference.”
“Holy shit,” Trey mutters, and I hear the respect in his tone.
“I nicely asked him to stay away from you. I let him know I’m former Special Forces—”
“Are you?” Trey asks.
“Close enough,” Kellen replies with a side glance before turning back to me. “And that I have ways to make him disappear so no one would ever find him. He tried to knee me in the nuts, so I backhanded him in the nose and broke it. He might have cried. It was a very short conversation.”
I stare at this man—my hero—agog. That he’d physically intimidate another human to keep me safe is kind of… hot.
“You’ve probably only stirred him up more,” Ethan says contemptuously. “He’ll come after Abby to make you pay for humiliating him. She’d be safer in Kentucky with her family.”
My attention goes to Ethan, and I struggle to level my voice. “I don’t want to live in Kentucky. I’ve told you this at least a dozen times.”
“You need to quit running away from your problems,” he hurls at me. “You need to stop seeing home as a bad place.”
I whirl on Ethan and march across the room to him. Wade and Trey scramble out of my way. I stare up at him—the tallest of the brothers—and my green eyes meet his. “You wouldn’t know about my problems, Ethan, because you never bothered to ask me about them. You merely hold the party line. You put the farm first over your own sister.” Ethan’s jaw tightens, and Wade murmurs my name sympathetically. I ignore him. “You’re a good little robot, Ethan. You do exactly as programmed, and you have no fucking heart inside that hollow chest.”
A flash of pain crosses Ethan’s face, but I refuse to feel bad about my words. He’s an excellent representation of why I won’t move back to the farm.
Tears prick at my eyes as I realize he didn’t come here to protect or stand up for me. He’d never go confront Levi Hellman the way Kellen did. He came here for the farm’s benefit, not mine. He’s using my current circumstances to pressure me, and if I didn’t love him so much, I’d hate him.
I can’t stop the tears threatening to spill, so I blink once and let them fall. “You need to leave.”
Spinning from him, I dash at the wetness with the back of my hand and stride toward the door.
“Abby,” Ethan calls, and perhaps that’s contrition in his voice, but I let it roll off my back. I refuse to be suckered in by a sudden onset of understanding.
As I move past Kellen, he doesn’t stop me. But he does grab my hand and gives it a short squeeze before letting go. No words are necessary, but his action says that he has my back. It’s all very confusing at this moment, but when my head clears, I might consider this the point where I tumbled into love.
