I lunged for her, but Walker stepped in between us as Heidi and Linc restrained me.
“Little girl, you best leave,” Walker said, his tone calm and deadly, not unlike Hayden’s had been moments before.
Marcel Cagot cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Walker, but we have a contract.”
It was a contract we spent all day renegotiating, but I didn’t care. He could stuff it. I shoved Walker out of the way and stepped up to Cagot, bumping his chest with mine as I snarled down at his ugly mug.
“Fuck you. And fuck your contract. I’d say fuck your cunt bitch of a daughter, but everyone in a hundred-mile radius has already done that. And how was it, you put it, Linc?”
“I don’t do sloppy seconds unless I help make the mess to begin with.”
“Jesus,” Walker groaned.
Marcel sputtered, but I said, “Nope, that’s not the one.”
“Oh! Right, I wouldn’t even fuck her with someone else’s dick.”
“That’s the one! Now, get the fuck out.”
“I’ll sue you.”
Walker grinned and stepped next to me. “Yes, Marcel. You could, but I’d pit my attorneys against yours any day. But you won’t say a goddamn word.”
“Why? Because you said so?”
“No, because if you do, I’ll ruin you. You don’t fuck with my family, and that’s what you’ve done. See, there’s a difference between you and me that you’ve failed to realize,” Walker said. His mouth turned up in a smug smirk. “Youthinkyou have power., but IknowI do. And what’s more, I have a network of people who respect me. Who would kill for me. And you don’t. So, gather up the piece of trash child you’ve raised, and get the fuck outta my goddamn house.”
Mara screamed like the spoiled brat she’d been raised to be as her father herded the fucking cow out of the house. The whole time, I stared at the wall above my family members’ heads. I couldn’t meet their eyes. I was barely holding my shit together as it was.
The moment the door closed, Heidi and Linc left the room, but not before stopping to offer a small measure of comfort. Linc gave a quick, firm squeeze of my shoulder, and Heidi a similar squeeze to my forearm.
A single unbidden tear rolled down my face. Followed quickly by another, each of them cutting tracks through the salty crust left behind from the earlier deluge. Clenching my teeth against the tidal wave bearing down on me, I tried to hold it together. I really did, but how do you fight annihilation?
Walker approached me slowly like you would a cornered animal. My tears flooded my eyes, distorting my vision and clogging my throat. My nose burned and itched until it started running.
“Don’t,” I sniffled. “Please, don’t.”
“It’s gonna be okay, kid.”
The wail I’d been fighting forced its way up and out, past my clenched teeth. The sound… it echoed through the room, reverberating on itself. It ricocheted off the walls, battering me with the realization of all I’d lost.
Walker’s arms came around me, and I fell into him as I lost the battle to remain upright. He lowered us to the ground, cradling me as my world came crashing down around me.
EPILOGUE
DECLAN
Fence line stretched out before me. The barbed wire cut across the plains of the family ranch, splitting the land into pastures with cattle and grass as far as the eye could see. Instead of a four-wheeler or a UTV, which we typically used for this job, I’d saddled my favorite mount and headed out before the sun rose above the horizon.
Mama tried making me food, but I just shook my head and left. If I had to sit around and listen to her cluck at me like a mother hen, I would lose my shit and the massive amounts of liquor that still filled my belly. She was worried. I got it. The whole fucking family was concerned. Hell, I was fucking worried, but there was shit all any of us could do about the situation.
Most days, I wasn’t fit for human consumption, and this was one of those days. When my eyes popped open this morning, a foul mood greeted me. I’d say it was out of character, and once it had been, but not anymore. Lately, it was the norm. Foul moods fueled by whiskey and a broken heart were my default since…
“Fuck,” I sighed, continuing to ride the fence.
This was what I did nowadays. Well, this, drink, and work on the house I broke ground on because Mama and Daddy were driving me bonkers. I should’ve stayed in Washington with Walker and his family, but he lived near a naval base, and no matter how hard I tried, I kept running into Marines. Besides, I’d been there for so long I’d started feeling like a moocher, so I came home.
Big mistake.
