Dallas is on stage, boots thudding hard against the wood. Then comes the blow. Sharp and solid, leveling the guy off the bench and onto the floor. He falls hard with a grunt and the surface cracks under him.
The rest of the place turns into a ripple of voices and scraping of chairs.
I watch in horror as my future husband bends down, lifting Ponytail by his collar and growling into his face. “Hell do you think you’re doing, Callahan?” Dallas grits.
Callahan?
Anytime Dallas and Ricky are in the same room—there’s blood.
This isn’t aboutme. This is the never-ending feud Rose was telling me about.
“Just welcoming your new bride to town. Got quite the taste, cowboy. Helluva lot better than—”
Another punch and my heart starts to hammer against my chest again.
Callahan sneers, wiping blood off his lip. “I was going to say Laurie. Christ, man.”
Two, maybe three men jump in and I can’t tell if they’re trying to help or making it worse.
The speakers shriek and I cover my ears, then flinch when someone grips my arm.
“Come on.” Rose yanks me away just as Wilder jumps on the stage to help.
When I look back, I notice Ricky isn’t the only one getting it bad. Dallas’s cheekbone is red, his lip cut and bleeding.
I have the urge to jump between them and practice that move Dallas showed me. But I’d knock myself out cold.
Before I have a chance to decide, Carl and a bunch of others rush past us onto the stage and tear the guys off one another. “Get out. All of you. Dallas—I’m sending you my bill.”
Despite being restrained, Dallas’s glare is unrelenting, voice lethal. “Come near her again and I’ll end this between you and me for good.”
“Get out. Both of you, out,” Carl shouts at the bruised and bloody men. He hops off stage and hands me an envelope. “Great job tonight. Please don’t come back.”
My mouth falls open at the painfully familiar blow. My hands are shaking. I don’t even defend myself. I can’t find it in me to lash out at Carl for my feeling unsafe on his stage.
This is just my life. A sign that I really am on my own.
Defenseless.
And right now, I can’t find it in me to prove Eric wrong.
I shove the envelope at Rose, who’s standing beside me, then storm off, stepping out into the cool night air with a gasp.
Dallas is one step behind me. “Willow.”
I spin toward him, but only in time to see Callahan stumbling out of the bar with two men at his side. He peers over at us with a sneer. “Call yourself a man, Thorne? Puttin’ your woman to work? Ranch sufferin’ that much?”
To his credit, Dallas ignores him. His eyes only on me.
Ricky mumbles something inaudible to his friends and the trio disappear into another bar across the street.
My chest rises and falls with each second we’re alone. Before either of us have a chance to speak, Rose and Wilder step out. “Gonna head home in Rose’s car. You two be all right?” Wilder tosses Dallas his car keys.
Dallas tears his gaze off me, nodding at his brother. “Thanks. I’ll get the truck back to you tomorrow.”
Leaving Rose behind, Wilder crosses to fetch her car from where we parked it.
Turning his eyes back to me, Dallas tilts his chin toward the truck. It’s double-parked like he owns the damn street. “Get in.”
