“Ithinkit’s because your ranch sits on a route someone wants.”
“A route?” she asked, her brow furrowed in confused.
“Yeah.”
I saw the moment she understood what I was saying. “Are you fucking joking? Someone wants my land to smuggle drugs and Lord knows what else.”
“Yes. And because you’re all alone out here, whoever it isthinksthey can push you around and get what they want. But they can’t.”
Her breath hitched, just barely. She hated that word…alone. I could see it in the way her shoulders stiffened.
“I’m not helpless,” she snapped.
“I know that. I never said you were.”
“You implied it.”
“No,” I said, stepping closer. “I’m saying you’re a target. There’s a difference, Rowan.”
She looked away, jaw working. I could almost see the war inside her. The instinct to push me off her land versus the part of her that knew she couldn’t fight this on her own.
I didn’t push, or crowd her. Instead I waited for her to come to the same conclusion I had come to.
Finally, she said in a tone that could only be described as sullen, “So what now?”
“Right now we fix the fence,” I said. “Then I go talk to JD in person. And you stay close to the house until I figure out who’s playing games on your land. I can send someone to be with you so you’re not on your own. We have a couple of prospects that?—”
She bristled. “I don’t need babysitting.”
“No one’s babysitting,” I said. “Jesus, I’m just trying to keep you alive, woman.”
Her eyes snapped to mine, sharp and furious. “So you think I’m in danger?” she asked, her mouth pinching in tight.
“I think someone wants you scared,” I said. “And people who want you scared don’t stop at fences. Especially if they know you don’t scare easily—which clearly you don’t. This is only going to get worse before it gets better, sweetheart. At least until I find out who’s doing this and put an end to them.”
The wind picked up, carrying the scent of pine and cold earth. Rowan wrapped her arms around herself, not because she was cold, but because she was thinking.
“Fine,” she said finally. “But I’m not hiding in my house like some damsel in distress, because I’m no damsel and I’m certainly not in any kind of distress!”
“Never thought you were.”
She shot me a look. “Good.”
“Well alright then.”
“Fine!” she bit out.
And with that she stomped back over to the fence line and where the tools were still on the ground, and she got to work. I smirked as I followed after. What was it about this woman that had me smiling like the cat that swallowed the canary? I wasn’t interested in anything but one-night stands, and yet this woman had me conjuring up images of lazy mornings and late nights. She had me thinking about a future I had never seen for myself, or wanted.
We finished the fence in silence, but it wasn’t the same silence as before. This one was heavier and charged, like the ground between us had shifted and neither of us knew what to do with it.
When the last wire was tightened, Rowan wiped her hands on her jeans. “Are you going back to town now?”
“Yeah,” I said. “JD and I need to talk.”
She nodded, but her eyes lingered on me a moment too long. “Be careful.”
I wasn’t expecting that. It hit me somewhere low and unguarded, and I frowned.
