“You are when you don’t take care of yourself,” Colin replied. His tone was honeyed, dripping with a poisonous kind of concern. “You’re pale, Tessa. You’re thin. You’ve let yourself go since you left. Sit down. Eat the soup. I made it just the way you liked.”
“I hate you,” she whispered.
“You’re just tired,” he said, and I could hear the scrape of a bowl across the wood. “Sit down, or I’ll have to make you sit. And we both know how much you hate it when I have to be firm.”
I saw red. A hot, blinding wash of fury that nearly sent me over the threshold right then. I didn't care about the plan. I didn't care about the law. I only cared about the fact that his hands were anywhere near her.
I stood up. I didn't sneak anymore. I stepped into the spill of light from the window.
“Tessa.”
Her name left my mouth like a prayer, a promise, and a death threat all at once.
The silence that followed was absolute. Then frantic movement inside. Tessa turned so fast she nearly stumbled, her face appearing in the window for a fleeting second, white as a sheet, eyes sunken and shadowed, before she rushed toward the door.
She burst through the exit, her face flushing, then crumpling into a mask of pure, unadulterated relief. Her eyes locked onto mine as if she were a drowning woman, and I was the only piece of wood in the ocean. She looked like she was afraid I’d vanish into the mist if she dared to blink.
“Wyatt,” she breathed. It wasn't a name; it was a prayer.
Colin stepped out behind her, slow and deliberate, a pistolpointed at her head. Shock flashed across his face, a momentary flicker of human weakness, before it smoothed into something ugly, smug, and deeply amused. He leaned against the doorframe, the lantern light behind him casting his face in shadow.
“Well,” he said, his voice smooth as oil. “Look who finally managed to find the trail. I was starting to think you were losing your touch, cowboy.”
I didn’t look at him. I couldn't. If I looked at him, I’d kill him, and I needed to make sure Tessa was whole first. My eyes stayed on her, cataloging the damage. The bruise on her cheek. The way she was holding her arm.
“Are you hurt?” I asked.
She shook her head, once, a sharp, jagged motion. “No. I'm okay.”
“Did he touch you? Tell me the truth, Tessa.”
Her jaw tightened, her eyes darting to Colin and back. “No. Not the way you mean. He just, well…” Her chin quivered.
I growled.
Colin laughed softly, a sound that made the hair on my neck stand up. “Always the hero. Always riding in on a white horse. It’s a bit cliché, don't you think?”
I took another step forward, my boots heavy on the earth. Holt appeared at my shoulder, his silhouette massive and intimidating, silent as the grave. He had his hand wrapped around the stock of his shotgun.
“Step away from her, Colin,” I said. My voice was quiet now. That was the dangerous part.
“This has nothing to do with you. This is between me and my woman,” Colin replied, his eyes narrowing. “You’re the interloper here. You’re the one trespassing on a private conversation. You don’t belong in this story.”
“I hate to break the news to you, Colin, but she’smywoman.” I lowered my rifle, knowing that Holt would put him down without question if needed. Shoving my hands in my pockets, I rocked on my heels. “I haven’t required anything of her, other than being who she is, and I’ve become attached to how she looks at me when I make her fall apart.”
I knew I was egging him on, but I needed him to mess up. His weakness was Tessa, and the irony of that was that she was mine too. Tessa’s eyes were locked on me, and I felt like we were able to almost telepathically talk to one another.
“He’s way better than you ever were, Colin. So even if I left with you, it would be Wyatt I dream of. He’s who I’d be thinking of all the time.” She smirked, and god I wanted to hide away with her for a month after these last few days.
Colin’s jaw twitched; he was getting mad, and the gun in his hand was starting to shake. What I needed to figure out was if it was rage or if it was getting too heavy for him to keep holding.
“Tessa’s really bad at poker.” I laughed, then I caught Holt’s eye, and his look asked what the hell I thought I was doing. “Strip poker really isn’t her game.”
“Wy, you said you wouldn’t bring that up again.” She pouted.
“Want to play again with me, baby?”
“Oh, I want to play with you.” There was no question she meant the innuendo. Colin grimaced and shoved the gun to Tessa’s head. Well fuck that wasn’t what I’d planned. Her eyes grew round, and she stared at me again; all the lightness was gone.
