We both looked.
A man had her by the wrist near the side of the building, leaning into her space. I could see that his posture was aggressive even from a distance.
The blood drained out of my face.
“Oh, no. That’s her ex.”
“Is he bad news?” Amos asked, already standing.
“The worst,” my heart started wobbling in my chest.
Amos was across the parking lot in a fast sprint before the words even left my mouth.
A second later he shouted, his voice carrying the kind of authority that made people stop and look.
He was as loud as a bear, moving fast and lethal.
Every muscle in my body tensed. I hopped off the edge of the truck, running after him.
“Amos, be careful!”
But I might have been warning the wrong man, because Amos reached into the back of his waistband and leveled a pistol I hadn’t known he carried directly at the man’s chest.
“You’ve got ten seconds to let go of her arm and get in your truck,” Amos said, his voice deadly calm. “And if I ever see you near her again, I’ll drop you off the cliff at Jasper Rock. Are we clear?”
Mina’s ex let go of her arm, cussing up a storm, full of fake bravado as he stalked off to his truck.
Amos holstered the gun and put his hand on Mina’s shoulder after her ex drove off, saying something quietly to her that I couldn’t hear.
She nodded, wrapping her arms around herself, and he walked her back toward the bar door and made sure she got inside before he turned back around.
Then he crossed the parking lot toward me, unhurried now, tucking his flannel back down over the holster like it was nothing.
I looked at him standing there, big and steady and completely unrattled, and I knew that I wanted him to be my person.
I wanted him to be my person so bad it was almost unbearable.
I needed a lifetime with this man.
Chapter 11
Amos
Shelly was looking at me like I’d hung the moon, and it made me feel like a fraud.
“You were incredible,” she said softly, and I could hear the awe in her voice.
It sat wrong in my chest.
Violence wasn’t my speed.
“I wasn’t,” I growled. “I was just doing what men have to do sometimes.” I started the truck and let the engine idle while I figured out my game plan. The rest of the conversation with Shelly was going to have to wait.
It was too big to cram into a few minutes.
Shelly turned toward me in the seat. “What do you mean?”
I gripped the steering wheel and looked straight ahead at the parking lot. I’d never told this to anyone outside of Hall and Zane, and even then I’d kept it short.
