“See,” she said. “Rory gets it.”
“We get it too,” Ford said. “It’s about pushing buttons and sending whoever it is off track.”
“They must not know Gale enough to realize something like this will fire her up, not cool her off,” Clay said.
“Or they know her well enough that she’s going to dig more and it’s what they want. She’s helping me. She’s going to see if the person is sloppy. We could be looking at this wrong. Maybe it’s a signal for us to keep going. Like calling our bluff.”
It wasn’t unheard of but not a high probability. Just so many things they were guessing at.
“They aren’t sloppy,” she said. “Because they would have been caught long before now.”
“I don’t know,” Rory said. “I just know I’m onto something here and the last thing I’m doing is stopping, but Gale can back off. I told her.”
“No,” she said.
“Yes,” Ford and Clay said at the same time.
“You all suck if you think I’m going to stand down.” She pointed both her fingers at her brothers. “You both know better than to even suggest it, yet you are.”
Clay’s eyes narrowed, and he let out a menacing growl. Ford put his hand on his brother’s shoulder.
“Gale. We aren’t telling you what to do,” Ford said.
“Sounds it to me. Rather than do that, why don’t we come to terms? I know you, Ford. That’s the next step.”
“You let someone know where you are at all times. Meaning when you leave your house, you text someone when you’re at the office. During the day, there are people in your office or you’re at the courthouse most times. When you get home, you do the same,” Ford said.
“Both of us get a text,” Clay said.
She looked at Rory, her eyes on fire. “Do you want it too?”
“Yes,” he said.
She pulled her phone out of her purse and typed. Two vibrations and a beep sounded. “You’re in a group chat. Enjoy the interruptions to your day, gentlemen. See, I can compromise.”
Clay pulled his phone out of his pocket first. “Really, Gale. Talk about juvenile.”
She laughed, causing Rory to look at what the message said.FU with a heart.
He didn’t know why these brothers thought she’d walk away.
As much as he wanted to protect her, the truth was he couldn’t stand the thought of doing this without her anymore. He was coming to rely on her. The way her smile softened the edges of his anger, the way her laugh chased the ghosts back into the shadows and the way her sharp wit reminded him he was still alive enough to feel something.
For so long he’d carried this alone, convinced no one could understand, and now… now he had her. And it felt like a lifeline he hadn’t known he needed.
With Gale beside him, the fight didn’t feel quite so endless. She didn’t just remind him of what he’d lost, she reminded himof what he still had, of what was worth holding on to. And for the first time in years, he believed he might actually see this through.
He didn’t know if he could risk giving any of that up. Not now, not with the three Ridgeway siblings crowded into his rented ranch.
Two brothers glared at him, their anger simmering just beneath the surface while their sister’s sharp gaze carried its own brand of annoyance.
Still, they were here. Listening. Helping. Standing with him in a way he had expected no one ever would.
He couldn’t let them down. He wouldn’t. Not again.
Not the way he’d let down Rene.
“Is that how you’re going to start all chats?” he asked. “Swearing at us?”
