“You won’t be having your party here. Leave. Now.”
“Who the hell do you—”
“It’s a shame you came all this way,” Bodhi said, interrupting fuckhead and not sounding like he meant it at all. “Have a safe journey home.”
“What’s going on?” Charity asked, confusion all over her face.
Fern glanced between me and her brother for all of three seconds before she stepped up and started to herd the couple toward the door. “I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan, but we won’t be able to book your event. I’ll see you out.”
“Now listen here, you assholes,” Richard began, but Charity turned her wide eyes on her husband.
“Richard! What’s going on?”
He rallied quickly. “Clearly we don’t want to do business with these people, dear. The rudeness alone…I would have never guessed. Let’s go. We’ll find somewhere better.”
The Buchanans left, Charity now placated and taking her husband’s side, shooting daggers at us over her shoulder. Fern made her eyes big, staring at me for a second, before jogging off behind the couple.
Bodhi spun to face me. “You know something.”
“Yep.” I wasn’t about to share Hawk’s business, not sure how much his family knew. Clearly, at the least, they didn’t know the man’s name, or Fern would have never even made the appointment. I took a slow breath. “I’m sure Hawk’s waiting for me. I’ll see you later.”
Without waiting for a response, I went in search of my man, trying to shake the whole encounter off. He didn’t need to know that the asshole who used and abused him had shown up so I needed to get it out of my head before I laid eyes on him.
Chapter 21
Hawk
Since Bodhi stole Carter, I was pretty sure he was going to talk about his business idea. Having some afternoon delight would have to wait, because there was no way those two would be done talking anytime soon.
I concentrated on Greta for a while longer, then took her to her stall for some alone time. She still needed to unwind after some more intense sessions, and she did it best in quiet solitude. I could relate.
Instead of going to my office and potentially bothering them—I knew Bodhi wanted privacy for this kind of deal—I saddled a quarter horse gelding I was desensitizing. It was an easy enough job I’d taken because the owner was someone I’d known for years. She liked all her horses to go through all sorts of desensitization to make them bomb proof for her kids, and I could appreciate the thought behind that.
I wasn’t sure where we were going, but maybe the cows could be a good bet for the day. I decided to do a circuit around all the barns and other buildings to start with, so Teddy could see a bunch of different things. There was always something exciting-for-a-horse happening somewhere on the property.
Including a big ass fancy SUV speeding off the ranch in a cloud of dust.
“The fuck was that?” I blurted out, as if Teddy would know.
We rounded one of the barns and I saw Fern clicking on her phone. She was walking and didn’t realize we were approaching at first.
Then she looked up and started, which startled Teddy.
“What is it with my siblings scaring the crap out of my trainees today?” I snarked, because Bodhi had spooked Greta, even though he’d done it smartly.
I could tell by her expression that Fern was annoyed. “I don’t fucking know.” Well, there it was.
“What’s up?” I slowed Teddy to a halt next to her, and she immediately went to pet him a little.
“Your man just drove a potential client off the property and Bodhi backed him up.” I must’ve looked as confused as I felt, because she let out an exasperated laugh. “Exactly!” She gestured at my face.
“Who was the client?” I asked, trying to make sense of the situation.
I knew Bodhi could be overly protective, but Carter getting fired up at someone to this degree seemed very unlikely.
“I got a potential booking for a twentieth anniversary party. The wife seemed really nice if a bit ditzy, but the husband was, on hindsight, a bit odd. They wanted to go to your barn because you trained her horse.”
Pieces were clicking together and bile rose in the back of my throat. “Uh, what’s their last name?”
