Oh, well. He drew in a breath. “I am.”
She glared at him, and his chest burned.
“Sierra, please. Let me?—”
“Don’t.” The word came out fierce, final. “Don’t you dare ask me to let you do anything. You lost that right when you let me believe you were dead.”
She gasped as if at her own words.
It might hurt less if she put a knife in his chest than to see her eyes fill.
“I need to go.” She turned for the door, but her legs seemed unsteady.
“Sierra, wait?—”
She ignored him.
“Sierra,” Detective—Mike—Martinelli said. “C’mon?—”
She kept moving, down the hall. Stubborn as usual, and shoot, he couldn’t not follow her.
“Sierra,” he said. “I know about your missing cattle. That’s why I’m here.”
She stopped. Turned slowly, her face a mask of barely controlled fury. “What did you say?”
“Your cattle. The six pregnant cows that were stolen this morning. I know about them.”
“How?”
Oh. “Um. A buddy of mine heard it at the Renegade Café. And I thought…”
She cocked her head at him.
“I’m worried you’re a target.”
She just shook her head. “What are you doing here? In Renegade?”
Oh. Um. He swallowed. “It’s a long story.”
“I’ll bet.” She held up a hand. “Save it. And I can take care of myself, thanks. I have for…” She glanced past him, and he guessed at Martinelli. “A long time.”
Detective Martinelli cleared his throat. “Maybe we should all sit down and?—”
“No.” Sierra’s attention returned to Rowan. “Listen. I don’t know what happened, but three years of you being dead is just…well, there were seven before that where I stood waiting for you. And nothing—nothing, Rowan.”
Oh, she was right, but still…“I was…Please let me explain.”
“I don’t want your help. I don’t want anything from you.”
“Sierra, these people are dangerous. What if they killed your grandfather?”
She blinked at him. Swallowed. “We had a funeral, you know. You might have come to that.”
He might have, if he hadn’t been fighting fires in Alaska and, well, still supposed to be dead.
She shook her head, turned away, kept walking.
“You can’t handle this alone.” Oh, he sounded desperate now.
