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“Be back. Stay in the house,” I ordered, leaving her in the room.
I moved downstairs, grabbed my hat, and headed out of the house. My eyes went to the barn and fuck it all to hell, the sheriff was here, talking to the twins.
Mags was leaning against the railing, petting Ranger.
“You know what you’re doing with her?” Mags asked.
“Not a fucking clue,” I found myself saying, putting on my hat.
“Jesus,” he muttered.
Exactly.
I untied Ranger and mounted him. I looked down at my friend, being real with him. “I don’t know what I’m doing, man. All I know is that I didn’t like seeing her walk away from me.”
“You’re talking like she’s yours,” he said, stepping down from the porch.
I turned Ranger to face the barn and looked at Mags over my shoulder. “That’s because she is.”
Valerie was mine, whether she liked it or not.
She was mine.
“FortheloveofChrist, Denver, you can’t just kill a man in the street.”
“Technically, I wasn’t in the street, Sheriff,” I returned, calm as ever. I killed a man in the alley. Chase stared at me as I leaned against the back of the bunkhouse. He bit out a curse, put his hands on his hips and paced back and forth in front of me.
“Now is not the fucking time to be a smartass,” he clipped. He looked at the fields. Half of the herd was grazing there today, moving on their own from pasture two to here. The sun was shining down on him, his badge like a fucking beckon, a reminder of what he is and who he had to be.
Clean.
Sheriff Chase Bowen had to be clean.
He left the dirty work to me.
“What’s really bothering you, Chase?” I asked, folding my arms over my chest.
“That woman—the one you protected, is shehere?”
I tilted my head. He looked at me up and down and then pinched his nose.
“You’re getting in bed with Moonie.”
“Valerie was fired by Moonie Pipelines days ago,” I snapped.
“You sure about that? You sure she isn’t just trying to get under your skin, using her good looks and pussy—”
“You lookin’ to get your jaw broken today, Sheriff?” I growled, pushing off the wall.
His nostrils flared. “You get my fucking point.”
I went up to him, looking down at him. The sheriff was a big man, but I was bigger. Langston genes made big boys. Mason was only an inch shorter than me, and we both towered over everyone in town. Our Pops was the same way.
“Your point is shit, Chase. That woman has no one but her mother.”
“Oh, so she has a sob story.”
Before I could stop it, my hand was at his throat, and I spun him back against the bunkhouse. I bared my teeth, leaning down to his shocked face.
