My fingers curled into fists. “Can I help you?”
“Just checking in,” he said, leaning against his truck like he had no cares. “Heard you’ve been having some trouble out here.”
My heart thudded once, hard. “Who told you that?”
“Oh, word gets around.” His gaze drifted to the fence line we’d just repaired. “Looks like that was a real headache.”
I didn’t answer and I didn’t move. I wouldn’t give him anything. Instead I cocked my hip and glared at him with as much anger as I could muster as I pushed my fear away. “It was nothing I couldn’t handle.”
He pushed off the truck and took a slow step closer. “A woman alone on this much land, it’s a lot to manage, no?”
I kept my voice steady. “I manage just fine.”
“Sure you do.”
“And who says I’m alone?” I added.
His smile widened, revealing perfectly straight teeth. He was a handsome man, and I wondered how it was possible that someone with so much ill intent could be handsome like that. He was the sort of man that had all the charisma and the looks, and yet he’d still decided that his path in life would be…this. He’dchosen this life, this world for himself. He hadn’t stumbled into it. He thrived on the danger and the violence. It pulsed beneath his skin, desperate to be set free. And that made him the most dangerous man out there.
“What do you want?” I asked, my tone showing impatience. “I’m busy.”
“Sometimes, Miss Hale, it’s smart to have friends. People who can keep an eye on things for you. Help you.”
There it was. The offer. The threat wrapped in politeness.
“I don’t needanythingfrom you,” I said with a small laugh. “And I certainly don’t need any help.”
He tilted his head. “You sure about that? Because from where I’m standing, it sure looks like you could use a friend.”
My pulse hammered, but I didn’t back up. As my mom used to say, I was too stubborn for my own good at times. “Get off my property.”
He chuckled. “Feisty. I like them feisty. But remember, you can’t always be here—and when you’re not here, things might happen.” He clucked his tongue almost apologetically. “You know how it is on these old ranches.”
I reached inside the barn and grabbed my shotgun. “Get. Off. My. Property,” I said with more force as I aimed the gun at him.
His eyes hardened. Just a flicker, but enough to tell me the smile had been a mask.
“All right,” he said, raising his hands like he was doing me a favor. “No need to get worked up. Just thought I’d stop by and introduce myself.”
“You didn’t give me your name.”
He paused, his dark eyes boring into mine and sending a chill across my skin. “Oh, that wasn’t the sort of introduction I was thinking of, if I’m being honest with you.”
That chilled me more than anything else he’d said, because it was the threat of something unspoken. He climbed back intohis truck, the engine growling to life. Before he pulled away, he leaned out the window.
“Be careful out here, Rowan. Wouldn’t want anything unfortunate to happen to a woman as pretty as you.” He looked me up and down lazily, taking his time over every curve I had, purposefully trying to make me feel uncomfortable. But I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
The truck rolled down the drive, dust kicking up behind it.
I stood there long after it disappeared, breath tight, hands clenched into fists at my sides, my body shaking with an anger that I refused to call fear.
Someone was pushing me, and someone wanted me scared.
And for the first time since Tex left, I wished he hadn’t.
The dust hadn’t even finished drifting back to the ground when the quiet hit me again, sharp and unnatural, like the whole ranch was holding its breath. I stood there in the yard, fists still clenched, pulse still thudding in my ears, trying to make sense of the man’s visit. His voice lingered like the aftertaste of something rotten.
Finally, I forced myself to move. Standing still felt too much like being prey.
