“What?” I bark. “Eunice was pretty clear the last timeshewent to get food that she don’t serve her kind.”
“Well, then she went ahead and took care of her cat, and she’s got no problem with it now,” Joy hisses. There is no warmth in her eyes now. She knows me well. She takes care of Evie. We’re friends. It annoys the hell out of me that she’s taking Sarah’s side on this.
I shake my head. “It’s funny, isn’t it, how everyone is pretending to forget what a lying piece of trash you are, Sarah.”
Color drains from Sarah’s face. She slowly pushes off her barstool and then, without a word, walks out.
Aria hisses and stands up.
“You’re just an asshole, aren’t you? I expected better,” Joy flings at me. “Hunt, can you drive us home?”
Hunt gets up and wraps his arm around Joy.
“Hell, boss,” Dodge mutters under his breath.
I drink my beer like nothing happened. ‘Cause nothing did, I tell myself, but I can still see how pale she got when I attacked her.
Aria, Joy, and Hunt disappear into the crowd, and my heart starts to pound.
I came here to…what? Not this. I was going to be smarter and controlled, but instead, the minute I see her, I become a loose fucking cannon.
“You do know how to clear a room.” Kaz toasts me, his words dripping with sarcasm.
Mav plants both hands on the table and leans down, his eyes locked on mine. “What the fuck was that, Cade?”
I set the beer bottle down slowly, not in the mood to be lectured. “I called a spade a spade, that’s all.”
“No,” he snaps. “What that was…was you bein’ a grade-A asshole. And one I’m ashamed I ever called a friend.”
That stings. “Come on, Mav, you don’t know?—”
“Idoknow,” he contradicts evenly. “Iknowthat your family and this town railroaded a kid who said she’d been assaulted.”
“She lied,” I bark, loud enough that a couple of heads turn.
“That’s fuckin’ thin brew,” Kaz mutters, shaking his head, disgust plain on his face.
Mav slams a fist on the table, rattling glasses. “This ain’t 2015 anymore, Cade. It’s 2025. We believe women now as we should’ve then. You don’t get to repeat an old story like it’s new evidence.”
Heat crawls up my neck. “You got no clue what you’re talkin’ about.”
“Yeah, Mav, you weren’t there. She played CadeandLandon,” one of my brother’s friends calls out from the bar.
“What I know—” Mav raises his voice, scanning the room like he wants everyone to hear it—“is that woman’s been workin’ her ass off savin’ your animals and mine. Y’all need to show some fuckin’respect.”
I push away from the table and step into Mav’s space. We’re eye to eye, shoulders squared, and for one long beat the whole Spur goes dead quiet, waitin’ for fists to fly.
Kaz lays his hand heavy on my shoulder. “Easy, cowboys. This ain’t the time or place.”
But then Pony—Noelle’s cousin—snorts loud enough to carry. “Sarah Kirk was always a slut. Cade’s better off.”
“Shut your damn mouth,” Mav growls, spinning to fix Pony, who’s an asshole on a good day, with a stare that could light a fuse. He then looks around and raises his voice, “All of you, listen up. Dr. K’s a vet, and she’s part of this community now. Y’all wanna hold onto something from ten years ago, that’s on you. Don’t drag it into public.”
“Yeah,” Moxy chimes in from behind the bar. “Treat everyone right, or you’re outta the Spur for a month. No exceptions.”
I hate it. Hate that it’s Mav standing up for Sarah, when that used to be me. Hate it more that he’s protectingherfromme. I came in here feeling guilty for the way I lit into her at the Dunn ranch, and now I’ve gone and done worse.
Humiliated her in public.
