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My heart races. This can’t be good news.
We’ve just arrived back at the ranch after lunch, and I’m getting ready to go check on the tractor Chance wanted me to look at.
The tractor will have to fucking wait.
My woman needs me. I feel it in my bones. No way would she leave me a half-assed text and nothing else.
Without bothering to tell my brothers, I race outside, scramble into my truck, and plug in the GPS coordinates from yesterday’s visit to Curt Hopkins.
I make a quick call to 911 and then I gun it out of town.
26
SADIE
My father walks in,wearing jeans, a red and black flannel shirt, and holding a bright yellow hard hat. He looks me over, clearly not happy to see me. “What the hell are you doing back here?”
“Can’t a daughter visit her father two days in a row?” I ask, sarcasm lacing my tone.
“I checked you out, Sadie Jane Hopkins,” he says. “You’re a fucking cop.”
“I never hid that fact. You’re my father. I assumed you knew.”
“How the hell would I know?” he snaps. “You know I don’t like cops.”
“Uh…you’re myfather. Shouldn’t a father know what his child does for a living?”
“Your mother never mentioned it.”
I huff out a laugh. “When’s the last time you talked to her?”
“Around the fifth of never.” His gaze drops to my waist. “You armed?”
“I’m off-duty,” I say.
It’s not a lie. Iamoff-duty. But I’m also armed. My Glock is strapped to my ankle. Good thing boot-cut jeans came back into style.
Rainey ambles out from the kitchen, cigarette in her hand. “What are you doing home so soon?”
“Storm’s coming in. We stopped for the day.”
My father eyes the living room, the mess on the floor and the coffee table. “What the hell happened here?”
“I was going to empty the ashtray for Rainey, but I dropped it. I’ll replace the glass.”
“Damn right, you will.” He nods to Rainey. “Get me a beer.” Then back to me, “This mess isn’t going to clean itself up.”
All he sees me as is another woman to do his bidding.
“I’ll take care of it.” Rainey heads back into the kitchen.
“Did Joey give you that ashtray?” I ask.
He gives me a look as if I’m crazy. “How the hell should I know? It’s just a damned ashtray.”
“It’s an ashtray with the logo for the freight company he was working for.”
“So?” He drops his hard hat on the couch.
