Page 8 of Love, Lies, and Whiskey

But Seeley hadn’t been raised to back down, and he’d had enough. He’d climbed onto his motorcycle and driven to the governor’s home in Boulder, mentally rehearsing what he’d say the whole way there.

He drove past the massive brick Colonial twice, noting the same two burly bodyguards flanking the front door that had shown up the day her father had taken her away from the ranch. They were dressed in dark suits, but there was no mistaking their military-type stances. They were ready for battle. So was he. He parked around the corner, his heart thundering as he climbed off his bike, and with his head held high, he went to speak his mind and get the girl he loved with everything he had.

As he approached the front door, the larger of the two bodyguards, a bald man with cold eyes, stepped off the porch, blocking his way.

Seeley stood his ground. “I’m here to speak with Governor Adkin.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Whiskey. You’re not welcome here.”

“I’m not leaving until I speak to the governor.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“My ass it’s not.” Seeley tried to walk around him, but the man moved with him, and the other bodyguard descended the steps. Fuck this. Seeley looked up at the house and shouted, “Hey, Governor! You want to threaten my family? Get out here and face me like a man!”

The bodyguards grabbed his arms, trying to drag him off the property, but he fought back, shouting, hoping causing a scene would be enough to bring the governor outside. “Come on, you coward! Fight your own battles! I love your daughter, and I will make her mine!”

The front door opened, and Governor Adkin stepped outside. “Let him go.”

Seeley tore his arms free and barreled up the walkway, but before he could get a word out, the governor’s voice cut through the air.

“I actually feel bad for you, Seeley. You think you’re something special to Juliette.” With a sinister grin, he shook his head. “My daughter is an expert manipulator. The tears you saw, the proclamations of her love? They were all for show. She could never be serious with a boy like you.”

“You’re lying,” Seeley bit out. “She doesn’t have a manipulative bone in her body.” He stepped toward the prick, but the bodyguards moved between them.

“She really did a job on you,” the governor said. “That’s a shame. You seem like a fairly smart kid. Open your eyes, Seeley. You were her summer fling. Her last hurrah. She’s already back together with Josh, so do yourself a favor and find a girl who’s more your kind, and don’t ever come around here again. This was your one free pass. Next time your family will pay the price.”

Seeley saw red. “Juliette is my fucking kind, you lying bastard! Get her out here!” He plowed forward, but the bodyguards grabbed him again. “Let go, you motherfuckers! Juliette! Juliette, come out!”

“Get him out of here,” the governor directed over Seeley’s shouts and curses. “And make sure he understands my message.”

Seeley struggled as the men dragged him around to the back of the house and fought for all he was worth as they carried out the governor’s demands.

Doc sat back, taking another swig of whiskey. They’d dropped him, bloody and bruised, in the grass by his bike. He’d been too full of rage to feel the physical blows, but despite not believing what the governor had said, the emotional strikes were torture. Right there and then, lying in the grass, Doc had vowed to save Juliette from that monster’s wrath.

He’d never told a soul what went down that day. He didn’t want to see the disappointment in his parents’ eyes. He’d gone back to school and had told his buddies he’d gotten into a scuffle. He tried to keep his vow to Juliette but made a point of staying away from the governor’s house, afraid of his parents having to deal with the repercussions of his actions. For weeks he’d gone by Juliette’s private school and all of her favorite hangouts, but he’d never once seen her coming or going.

Two months later Cowboy had sent him a link to Juliette’s engagement announcement to Josh Fucking Chambers, putting the nail in that coffin.

Chapter Four

“I’M JUST GOING to listen to your heart,” Juliette said to the three-month-old colt she was examining. She’d taken a part-time veterinary position working for Jade Braden, a well-established veterinarian in Weston, so she’d have time for Lucas while they settled into their new home and town. Lucas had signed on with a bull-riding coach when they’d first moved, and he’d started his sophomore year of high school last week. He hadn’t been thrilled about moving, but he’d connected with a group of friends and was finding his way.

She pressed the stethoscope against the colt’s rib cage and closed her eyes, listening to the steady lub-dub of its heartbeat. Pleased with what she heard, she pulled the earpieces out and petted him. “You’re a sturdy little guy.”

As she continued the exam, she was reminded of a palomino colt the Whiskeys had rescued and allowed her to name the summer she’d interned there. The neglected colt had a white face, white legs from the knee down, and a blond mane and tail. He’d been far too thin, and she’d chosen the name Romeo, which was what she’d secretly called Seeley. She and Seeley had spent weeks taking care of him and nurturing him, hoping to give him all the love he’d missed out on. Memories of that summer were a constant struggle, even after all these years. Those memories had almost kept her from pursuing her dreams of working in veterinary medicine. But she’d vowed not to let Seeley take that from her, too.

Juliette’s mind tiptoed back to that fateful summer again, when she’d willingly and wantingly given him her virginity and her heart.

She’d always stayed with her grandmother for a few weeks during the summers to help her with her horses. Staying with her grandmother had offered distance from her overbearing father, as they lived in different towns, but it didn’t offer freedom. Her father had still kept a tight rein on her. That summer she’d needed veterinary experience to put on college applications, and her father had agreed she could intern at the ranch.

Much to her father’s dismay, the week before leaving for her internship she’d ended her relationship with Josh Chambers, her boyfriend of two years and the son of her father’s attorney. She had loved Josh only as a trusted friend, while he’d been in love with her. He was devastated by the breakup, but she was excited to finally get out from under her father’s thumb and to learn from the ranch’s vet. Her grandmother had taught her to ride horses when she was a little girl, and she’d wanted to be a veterinary technician for as long as she could remember. She wasn’t expecting to meet a guy there, much less a guy who was in college and made her body come alive from the very first time she saw him.

Her friends at school were a year older and more experienced than she was, as she’d skipped a grade. They’d talked about feeling sparks and getting hot and bothered with certain boys, but she’d never felt anything like the gust of prickling-hot wind that had engulfed her when Seeley had come around the side of the barn her first day on the ranch. He was tall, tanned, and broad-shouldered, with piercing dark eyes that made her pulse race and a chiseled, scruffy jaw. He didn’t just walk, like the boys she knew. He strode, rugged and powerful, thick legs eating up the space between them, until their eyes had locked like metal to magnet, and he’d stopped cold. She hadn’t been sure she’d be able to find her voice when Wynnie introduced them, but Seeley had made a playful comment, and for the first time in her life, she’d felt like she was being seen as something more than her father’s daughter, and she’d flirted right back. The sizzle and burn that had chased up her arm when they shook hands should have warned her away, but it only made him more intriguing.

She tried to push those memories away now, focusing on the colt, but laughter drew her attention as the farm owner’s twentysomething grandson and his girlfriend walked by holding hands, sending her mind reeling back to the steamy afternoon when she and Seeley had shared their first kiss.

They’d been working together every day for nearly a week, getting to know each other and sharing secret glances and playful flirtations that kept her in a heightened state of hopeful anticipation from the moment they saw each other at breakfast until she fell into bed at night, shamelessly fantasizing about all the things she wanted to do with him. Things she’d heard all about from her friends but had never done, or wanted to do, with Josh.