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Now he was pissing me off. So much for feeling bad for him. “You didn’t mind having it out there just now.”
“The rest of us could have handled it.”
“I’m not backing down on this.”
“Neither am I.”
He stomped toward the barn, and I acted like I was going to the house in case he turned around for a glimpse of my fine ass. After a few moments, I doubled back and headed to the shed where the ATVs were stored.
I hot-wired one, then headed out to where we’d exchanged fire with the dead guy and his friend. I knew Madison would thoroughly examine the body, but we also needed to see what clues we could find.
I was well aware the man who’d disappeared could come back and bring reinforcements, but I was ready. After tangling with Rhys again, I was so fucking frustrated I would relish a fight with blondie and any of his friends, then I’d torture them for all the answers I wanted.
I scoured the area, but these men were good. They hadn’t left anything behind except a bloodstain from the asshole I’d killed.
We needed to get rid of that, but I was confident that was already part of Grant’s plan. I’d seen his truck parked by the house, so I had no doubt Rhys had caught him up by now, and Grant would probably be looking for me soon. I had no doubt Grant was ready to tell me off for acting in the only way I could to protect his brother and his employees.
Rhys can take care of himself.
Could he? Not all the time. Why did I like the idea of taking care of him so much?
I reexamined the ground I’d already covered. There had to be something out there. Finally, I found it, a scrap of navy-blue fabric. I picked it up and examined it. There was no way to be sure without analysis in a lab, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was government issued, most likely FBI. If these men were feds, we were all in serious trouble.
I pulled out my phone and placed a call to X. I trusted Grant as much as I trusted anyone, but I was also sure he’d be stubborn as hell about wanting to handle everything himself. We needed X’s connections and his expertise, especially if the feds were after us.
Just as I hung up, I heard a vehicle approaching. I took cover until I verified it was Grant. Rhys was with him. Great. They could tag team me. I grinned despite myself. I’d be more than happy to be caught between the two of them if only they weren’t so fucking angry.
Grant didn’t bother with a greeting, he just yelled, “Get back to the fucking house. Now.”
When I started to protest, he interrupted. “You’re lucky I didn’t find your body out here.”
Had my father told them I was fucking incompetent. Surely they had to know my reputation. Grant seemed like a man who did his research. “I can take care of myself. I already told my father that. I don’t need any of you.”
“Take it up with your father, then,” Grant snarled. “I’m being paid to protect you, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
I’d had it with this—being sent away, being talked down to, being expected to be no more active than the furniture. “If you’re supposed to be protecting me, you’d better up your surveillance. No one even noticed I’d walked away.”
Grant let out a long exhale, and I could tell he knew I was right. “If you had any sense, you wouldn’t want to walk away. You’d recognize that—”
“Someone is out here trying to drag one of us back to the fate we’re hiding from. I have no intention of letting that happen.” If they’d let me help, we’d all be better off.
Rhys had remained quiet the whole time, looking back and forth between me and his brother like he was trying to detect all the things we weren’t saying. Suddenly, he laid his hand on Grant’s shoulder. “We all need to get out of here. Fast.”
Grant turned to him. “What are you sensing?”
“I’m not sure, but something is off.”
Rhys jumped onto the ATV I’d ridden, leaving me to take the passenger seat in Grant’s truck. I kept my gun in my hand, staying ready and alert until we’d made it more than halfway back with no sign of our mysterious friend. At that point, I let my gun rest on my lap.
Before Grant had a chance to start in on me, I told him I wanted to be part of his investigation. “I can’t just sit around. I’m losing my mind.”
Grant huffed. “We tried to put you to work.”
They’d given me some miserable tasks around the ranch like repairing barbed-wire fencing and filling water troughs. I was never assigned to any chores that would put me near Rhys, the bastard.
“Your skill set isn’t exactly what we need to work a ranch.”
I didn’t want ranch work. I wanted to do what I did best, stalking and killing. “It is if you’ve got someone planning to make a move on you.”
