“An opportunity to help someone who needed it crossed my path and I’ll be damned if I was gonna leave her there with no place to go and no one to care for her.”
As angry as I am with his withholding information even after I asked him, I’m grateful that he found her and took her in.
I shake my head and close my eyes for a second, “Dad, I’m not sayin’ you shouldn’t have helped her, but you should have told me. I deal with traffickers all the time.”
He takes the defense and stands up, his hands on his hips “How would I know that? You never call or come home, you’re too busy playing when you’re not working to care about what’s going on back here.”
Every word is like a gut punch, but I deserve it.
Before I get a chance to respond he narrows his eyes and points his finger at me, “I know you’ve been hanging around her and I’m telling you right now that if you hurt her just to get your cock wet, you and I are gonna have a problem.”
Another fucking gut punch, but this one gets a reaction. I step up to his desk and drop my hands to my sides, “Sloane and I met before I knew she worked here, it started casual, but things have changed.” I pause because I wonder what it is that I’m trying to say, and it comes out so easily that I surprise myself, “I care about her, and I want to make sure she’s safe.”
Would I go so far as to say I care about her?
Fuck yes, I do. I think I might go one further and say I think I love her.
I wasn’t lying to her when I told her that I think about her every day, she’s on my mind all the time. When she told me that men from the skin trade were after her I wanted to kill every last one of them, I will kill any one of them that try to put a hand on her.
He looks over my face and drops his hand, “Yeah, we’ll see about that, but in the meantime, we need to figure out whatwe’re gonna do if we get any visitors here.”
“I’ve called my team and some of them are on their way here now. We need to tell Gray and Tucker,” I scrunch my face since I know the rest of my suggestion is going to be the hardest part, “we also need to make Kinley stay in the main house for now.”
Dad’s shoulders slump and he slaps his leg as he looks at the opposite wall, “God damn it, you may as well tell me to make one of the damn horses drink.” It’s a mumble that isn’t really aimed at me and a smirk crosses my face.
He grimaces and asks, “Do we know what we’re up against?”
I nod my head, “It’s a small outfit that covers Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. I’m not sure of the extent of her brother’s involvement, but I’m sure if there’s money in it for him, he’ll be involved. If he got my plate number at the gas station, it’ll track back to my address in Tennessee, but I’m sure they’ll connect my name to the ranch. It’s just a matter of how long.”
He tilts his head and looks at the wall, “Hell, I’m sure they already have.”
Taking a deep breath, I look across the aisle to see Lainey Rai unhooking the stallion to take him back to his stall and she is still talking to him, I hesitantly say the next part, “Dad.” His eyes move back to me. “I hate to say this, and I know you’re gonna hate hearing it more, but we need to keep a close eye on Lainey Rai. I don’t think I have to tell you why.”
His eyes narrow practically to slits and his mouth tightens into a line, rage crosses his face and he points his finger at me again, his voice is lethal and low so Lainey Rai can’t hear him, “Any one of them bastards even touches my granddaughter and not only will I cut their hands off, I’ll cut their fucking dicks off and watch ‘em choke on it.”
The memory of the fuckers in Oregon crosses my mind and I press my lips together to keep from smiling.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
SLOANE
SINCE Itold Mason everything, I’m not allowed to leave the ranch, not that I wanted to anyway, not after the run-in with my brother. To be honest, I’ve been paranoid and afraid to go outside of the house.
Yesterday, he told his dad about my brother seeing me with him and today there are more rifles in random corners of the house. When I asked Mason about them being out where Lainey Rai could get them, he laughed and said her dad’s been taking her to their little range on the property for target practice since she was seven.
The nine-year-old in the house knows more about guns than I do.
Looking over the canned section of the pantry, I compare my menu list for the next week with what I have so I can make my grocery list. Mr. Harlow insists on having his favorite potof beans and cornbread for dinner once a week and the rolling bin that the beans are in has a broken wheel.
Setting my list and clipboard down, I crawl under the bottom shelf and look for the wheel that’s come loose from its setting… again. As I back out, I knock the back of my head on the shelf and curse under my breath. The sore spot from the knock on the attic rafter last week just stopped hurting in the past couple of days.
“You keep hittin’ your head like that and you’re gonna damage something permanently.”
I thought everyone had left the house and hearing Mason behind me makes me jump and I hit my head again. “Damn it to hell, Mason!” I curse and sit back on my heels with my hand on my head. “I thought you were outside with everyone else, why are you sneaking around the house like a creeper?”
He smiles and holds his hand out to me to pull me up. I bump into his chest, and he kisses my forehead with a chuckle, “Let me see.”
“I’m fine,” I grumble and turn away from him to set the broken wheel on the shelf.
