Kipp slammed his beer down hard enough to rattle the bottles. “Alright. We’re in. What’s the play?”
The sound hit like a gunshot, sharp and final. The knot in my chest loosened, only a fraction, but enough to breathe again. For the first time all night, I felt a flicker of control. The second Kipp spoke, something shifted in the room. The air changed. We weren’t just five men sitting around a kitchen table anymore. We were what we had always been when things got bad. A unit. A line that no one crossed. Brothers.
I leaned forward, palms braced against the scarred tabletop. The surface was rough under my hands, gouged by years of use, but solid. Familiar. “First thing, we find him. No more waiting around for threats to land on the doorstep. No more notes. We put a face to this man and end the guessing.”
Griffin’s voice came steady, calm as always. “I’ll run the plates on those vehicles you flagged last week. The ones near the shop. I’ll cross-check them against county records and property leases. If he’s been hanging around Everton, we’ll know where.” He spoke with quiet certainty, already planning ten steps ahead.
Kipp was already pulling out his phone. His thumb moved fast, the glow from the screen lighting the edge of his face. “I’ll call my contact at the sheriff’s office. He owes me. If there’vebeen trespass calls, complaints, or anything near Kristin’s building, I’ll get copies of the reports. If this guy’s been sloppy, we’ll find the trail.”
Nash sat back, eyes steady and sharp under the brim of his hat. He rubbed his jaw with one hand, the motion thoughtful. “Surveillance first. Control second. I’ll get cameras up at her shop. Small, high corners, nothing obvious. If he sets foot near her door again, we’ll have him on record. And I’ll run motion sensors on the windows. Nobody gets near that place without us knowing.”
Ryder leaned forward, the legs of his chair creaking under his weight. His grin was all teeth and tension. “And I’ll stick close during the day. She won’t see me, but I’ll be there. This bastard so much as looks her way, he won’t like what happens next.” He didn’t need to say more. The look in his eyes said enough.
“Not just her shop,” I said. “The ranch, the roads, the town. Anywhere she goes. Nobody lets her out of sight until this is handled.”
Kipp finally looked up, one brow raised. “You planning to tell her that, or just let her figure it out when one of us keeps popping up wherever she goes?”
I blew out a long breath. “I’ll tell her. She’ll hate it.”
“She’ll like being safe,” Ryder said, his tone low, matter-of-fact. The words sank deep, the truth of them too plain to argue with.
The room went quiet for a while. The only sound came from the hum of the refrigerator and the soft tick of the clock above the counter. The stillness wasn’t comfortable, but it was solid. It meant we were all thinking the same thing.
Then Griffin spoke, voice firm and calm. “We all promised we were done with this. Promised our wives, promised ourselves. But promises don’t mean much if the people we love aren’t safe.If this man thinks he can come near one of ours, we make sure he regrets it.”
His eyes cut to me, steady and hard.
No one argued. We didn’t need to.
Because we all knew the truth. None of us had ever really stopped being who we were. We’d just buried it under ranch work, under families and fences and quiet mornings. But it was still there, waiting.
I sat back in my chair, eyes sweeping over the table. Kipp was still on his phone, already deep in conversation with his contact. Griffin was writing names and addresses on a notepad he must have pulled from his pocket, lines of data and details stacking up like a blueprint. Ryder had shifted to the window, keeping watch even though there was nothing to see but empty pasture. Nash sat at the head of the table, his calm presence holding everything together the way it always had.
My brothers. My team.
And now, Kristin’s shield.
“Alright,” I said quietly, my voice steady again. “We move as soon as we know more.”
Four heads nodded.
The plan was set.
But even after the decision was made, nobody stood. None of us could. The silence that followed wasn’t hesitation. It was focus. We’d done this before—planning, preparing, tightening the perimeter until the threat had nowhere left to hide. The muscle memory of it came back as naturally as breathing.
I looked down at my hands, the veins raised against the back of my skin. The same hands that held her earlier. The same hands that failed to keep that note from finding her. The thought made my pulse surge again.
“This doesn’t happen again,” I said quietly.
Ryder glanced over, his expression dead serious now. “It won’t.”
Kipp pocketed his phone and leaned back. “I’ll have an update before morning.”
Griffin gave a short nod. “I’ll send everything I find to you and Nash tonight.”
Nash stood, his chair scraping the floor. “We’ll start before sunrise.”
The meeting broke up, each man rising to his feet with purpose. Boots thudded against the floor, voices dropped low, plans muttered between them as they headed out. The front door opened and closed, the sound of engines rumbling to life outside filling the quiet that followed.
