Brett followed us into the driveway, begging us to come back in and listen. After getting Augie seated in the truck, I turned to Brett.

“Listen, asshole. We know about your scam. You’re in this bullshit up to your ears, and you’re going to get caught. Leave Augie alone, or both of us are going to the police to give them the evidence we have about CSP and Stiel. Got it?”

Brett stared at me in surprise before stammering out a reply. “I d-don’t know what you think you have on me, but I’ve done nothing wrong!”

“I have a little USB drive of my own that says otherwise,” I lied. Really it was information Rex and Skipper had at Landen. “So stay the hell away from Augie and find another property to fuck up with your illegal schemes.”

He didn’t say anything, so I leaned closer, meeting his eyes so he got the message loud and clear. “And that USB drive lives on my person. Come for it, Brett. I dare you.”

I turned around and stormed to the driver’s side before pulling out of the iron gates.

During most of the drive back to Hobie, I simmered with rage. I knew if I opened my mouth, I’d lash out at the nearest target which unfortunately was the person who least deserved it. When I finally got my head out of my ass, I pulled onto the side of the quiet highway and got out of the truck to walk around to the passenger side.

I opened the door and unclipped Augie’s seat belt before pulling him out of the truck and into my arms. Augie buried his face in my neck and breathed in. Just the feel of him in my embrace calmed me immediately. How had I ever thought I could live without someone to love? How had I ever believed it was better to avoid relationships than to risk loss? Even if I only got minutes with Augie, they’d be worth any amount of pain at losing him.

I pulled back and cupped his cheeks.

“I love you so much,” I said. “I am so fucking proud of you. And I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?”

I felt my face light up in a smile just for him. “Because I didn’t do much better than you. I dropped the L-bomb in a cow pasture for god’s sake.”

Now it was his turn to grin. “It’s perfect. Just you and me. And the giant piles of pungent poop. What man can ask for more?”

I leaned in and kissed him softly before pulling back again. His lips were so soft, I could have kept my mouth against them all night. “Are you angry with me?”

“Christ, no. What for?”

“For dragging you out of there by your hair while I might as well have been brandishing a club in my other hand,” I admitted. “It wasn’t very elegant.”

Augie swallowed and turned us around, nudging me until I sat down on the passenger seat and he could stand between my open legs. He kept his arms around my neck.

“No one has ever stood up for me like that to my family,” he said. “Or made me believe I deserved better than being treated that way. I felt so loved and cared for when you did that, Saint.”

“I didn’t want to stay in the city after that,” I admitted. “I hope you’re okay with us going home to Hobie.”

His smile grew. “Only if we’re going to the same place and sleeping in the same bed.”

My heart soared. “Damned skippy. Your place okay? If we go to the bunkhouse, my family is going to be all up in our business before the rooster crows.”

He nodded. “But maybe… maybe we could still go to the ranch for the chili thing tomorrow night?”

I smirked at him. “You sure you’re going to be hungry? You’re not really a chili fan. And bonfires are hella dangerous.”

Augie pinched me under the arm.

“Yeow! What was that for?” I asked through the laughter.

“I was nervous before. I didn’t know what you thought about me. I felt… I felt temporary.”

I let the laughter die. “Not if I have anything to say about it. I’m through with temporary things. It’s time for both of us to settle in. What do you say? I know it’s soon, Augie, but… I’m ready.”

“Are you really going to consider running Twist with Neckie?”

The familiar tumble of nerves returned to my stomach, but I recognized it for the excitement that comes with change. “I am. Did I ever tell you that I was in charge of PT on my team when I was in the navy? I fucking loved being on the Grinder.”

“I don’t know what any of those words mean,” Augie said. “But I guess it has something to do with being a frogger?”

I snorted. “Frogman. And now I’m going to have to put you in my pocket because you’re so fucking cute.”

He rolled his eyes but simultaneously crawled onto my lap and ground his erection into my belly. “Talk navy to me, frogman.”

“That’s not sexy,” I said, wrapping my arms around him and cupping his butt. “But your little ass in my hands sure is. And while we’re on the subject of this hot body, I need you to promise me no more Grindr hookups. The app stays in the app trash. Got it?”

“Why would I need Grindr when I have you?” he asked in my ear before latching his teeth onto my lobe. “Saint… I want you to fuck me. I want to squeeze myself around your cock and see if I can make you scream.”

Dear god.

“Sss-sounds acceptable,” I hissed. His hands had pulled my shirt tail out and snuck up inside to pluck my nipples with cold hands. All of the nearby skin puckered in response. “Baby, let’s… I don’t know if I can…”

I’d intended to tell him we should continue on to his house where we would be more comfortable, but the whoop-whoop of a law enforcement vehicle split the night and blue-and-white lights began strobing everywhere. I stood up and set Augie behind me before peering toward the vehicle behind us.

“Saint-Michel-des-Saints Cupcake Wilde, spread your legs and—”

I recognized my brother Otto’s voice immediately.

“Asshole!” I yelled. I couldn’t see him or Seth past the headlights of Seth’s sheriff SUV, but I knew the two of them were getting a kick out of coming across us on the side of the road.

“Public indecency,” came the cry from the opening passenger door. “Vehicular necking. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor.”

“Hey!” Augie scoffed. “Take that back. I’m only three years younger than Cupcake here.”

“You know that’s not my real middle name, right?” I asked, putting my arm around him and pulling him into my side.

“It is now,” he said, grinning up at me.

Seth came around from the driver’s side and reached out a hand to shake. “Forgive me. He’s a little tipsy. We went to dinner at Sweet Boy’s in Bowie for meatloaf and cobbler, but then he talked me into stopping at the pool hall for some pitchers of beer.”

Otto flashed a shit-eating grin. “Guess who got to drink the pitchers?”

“I’m guessing not the law enforcement officer?” I said with a laugh.

“You guessed right. It was me,” Otto said a smidge too loudly. “And now he said I can fuck him and be really noisy when we get home since Tishie’s at her mom’s.”

Seth smacked his chest with a laugh. “Shut the fuck up, Wilde Man. Or the offer gets rescinded.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Get in the car, Otto,” Seth said. “If you haven’t passed out by the time we get home, you can try your best to show me what you got.” He winked at us and mouthed too drunk to fuck.

I smiled and chuckled as Otto did an about-face and got his ass back into the SUV.

“Be safe, brother,” Seth said, making my heart feel full. Seth Walker had felt like family since he and Otto had become best friends in elementary or middle school. Now that they were actually married, it was finally legal. “Augie, take care.”

After waving them off, we got back in the truck and headed the rest of the way to Augie’s in comfortable silence.

It wasn’t until two hours after falling asleep curled around Augie that Skipper’s text came through on my phone. The ping woke me up out of a dead sleep because I’d forgotten to put my phone on night mode.

The names rang a bell, but I couldn’t place them for a few seconds until my brain fully came online.

Duvall.

As in Katrina Duvall? Was it her father or a brother? Or could it be a coincidence?

Augie shifted in his sleep and snuggled closer. I guided his head onto my shoulder and wrapped my arm around him before playing with his hair with my fingers.

Could Kat be involved in this? Could Rory? No. No way would Rory do anything to harm Augie.

I debated whether or not to wake him up so I could ask him about Marco. But he’d had a rough night, so I decided to let him sleep.

I came awake again to the sound of breaking glass. It was muffled, but I’d spent way too many hours on special forces missions to sleep through a sound like that.

“Augie,” I whispered, shaking him. “Baby, wake up. I think someone’s breaking in again.”

“Wha? Saint?” He looked adorably confused, but I needed him alert and on the move. I reached for my trousers and slipped them on. I was pretty sure my shoes were in the living room or kitchen.

“Babe, I need you to find a place to hide while I get my weapon. It’s in the truck. Can you do that? Take your phone and call 911. I’ll call Seth.”

“Saint? Fuck. I don’t…” He shook his head to clear it. “Yeah, go.”

“Remember what I taught you. The best way to stay alive is to stay away.”

He was already stumbling out of bed but turned to me and nodded before heading to the closet. I knew he had an attic space above since that’s where he’d hidden the writing slope earlier. If I’d known what or who was outside, I would have forced him out the bedroom window with me. But for all I knew, they were still out there while we were in here. I locked the bedroom door closed and jammed some kind of decorative metal crab under the jamb as a kind of doorstop. It wouldn’t stop them, but it might slow them down enough for me to get there with my weapon.

I made my way out the window into the freezing night air. It wasn’t like me to leave my truck unlocked with the weapon inside. Hell, it wasn’t like me to leave the weapon inside either. But we were in the middle of nowhere, and Augie was terrified of guns. I’d planned on coming back out to get it after he was asleep. So much for that plan.

Scattered rocks in the lawn poked hard into my bare feet. I noticed a white sedan in the drive behind my truck, and the front door of the house was hanging wide open. Why hadn’t the damned alarm gone off? Had we forgotten to set it? Had we seriously been that horny? I deserved to be fucking fired.

I tried not to worry about Augie alone and scared in the closet. Just the thought of him at anyone’s mercy made me see red.

This was all my fault. If the intruder was Brett, I might as well have waved a red cape in front of him before we left.

After making sure the coast was clear, I raced to the passenger-side door of my truck and eased it open. The dome light went on, so I lurched up to click it off as soon as I could.

I reached for the Glock 19, anxious to feel the familiar comfort of the pistol grip in my hand. It wasn’t there. The memory of stashing it in the locked box in the bed of the truck came rushing back. I quickly grabbed the extra magazines of ammo deep in the storage bin before sneaking around to get the gun out of the tool box. Once I’d checked the chamber and pocketed the two extra magazines, I squat-ran across to the front door and peeked in. I could hear someone moving around, but I couldn’t swear it was only one person inside.

Quick decisions were something I’d learned had to come from your gut. I took two steps away from the front door and pulled my phone out of my pocket before pressing the speed dial button for Otto.

“Don’t say anything,” I hissed before he had a chance to bitch me out for the middle-of-the-night call. “Burglary at Augie’s.”

I heard a quick grunt which I assumed was him hitting Seth awake. After quickly setting the phone on the ground so the light wouldn’t come on inside the dark house and rat me out, I slipped back to the door.

Suddenly the loud sound of someone banging on a door cut through the night. I rushed in on quiet feet and followed the sounds to the bedroom door.

Two men stood outside the door. One was Brett and the other one was a darker-haired man with olive skin.

Both men had weapons held at their side. The hallway was dark, but it looked like one of the men held a phone out using its flashlight function.

Brett took a kick at the door, bouncing back and almost stumbling into the wall opposite.

Stupid bastard had obviously never done this before. He was a paper pusher for god’s sake. These guys were idiots. I took aim on the one who wasn’t Brett. Augie had told me a story about Brett being a terrible shot, so I made a calculated decision to worry more about the unknown gunman. This wasn’t a covert mission where I could shoot at will or snap someone’s neck. I was a private citizen. And one of the intruders was a blood relative of the homeowner.

“Drop your weapon,” I said in a clear voice. “The sheriff is on his way.”

Brett jumped and turned, firing immediately without even looking where he was shooting. I managed to duck back out of the hallway and hit the floor as bullets slammed into the wall and ceiling in the general area of where I’d been standing. Part of my brain scrambled to figure out where Augie was up there. Could he have been hit? Surely we would have heard a scream. I forced myself to focus.

“Drop your fucking weapon, asshole!” I yelled. “This doesn’t end with you getting what you want. Too many people know. My boss at Landen knows all about Marco and CSP!”

I needed them to leave, to get far away from Augie. Obviously I wanted them arrested, but it was way more important to get them out of the house right now and away from the man trapped in the attic.

“Go now before the sheriff arrives,” I suggested. “I won’t follow you.”

“He’s lying, Marco,” Brett said. “He’s the only one with the proof. He told me so himself. We need that drive.”

The other man spoke up, his words directed at me. “I’ll shoot you now, claim you’re the intruder, and then take the drive from your cold, dead body. Then I’ll shoot Augie to get rid of the last witness.”

I was such a fucking idiot telling him I had a USB drive. If I lived long enough to see Augie again, I’d have to tell him to dump my ass. No one deserved to be stuck with someone as reckless as I had been that night.

“Give us the drive,” Marco barked. “Slide it over here and no one gets hurt.”

I tucked in my chin and squeezed my eyes closed while silently cursing myself. Where the hell was there a USB drive in this house? Could I get to one in time to fake it? No. What the fuck could I do to get them away from Augie?

When I opened my eyes, the glint of metal reminded me of the key I now wore. It was the second key to the writing slope which was tucked safely away in the old floor safe.

“It’s in a safe in the barn,” I called out. My brain rushed to catch up with my mouth. “I have the key. I’ll take you out there.”

It didn’t have a key. It had a combination, and I didn’t know it. I’d politely looked away when Augie had stashed the box in there earlier in the week. I just needed them out of the fucking house.

“Prove it,” Marco called out.

I slipped the key from around my neck and held it out in front of the open doorway to the hall. “The key. Brett probably knows about the safe in the barn. It’s pink.”

Brett mumbled sounds of agreement to his buddy.

“Go get it,” the man shouted. “Go get it and come back.”

“No deal,” I ground out. “I’m not leaving you in here alone.” We all knew the words I hadn’t said.

Alone with Augie.

“Go get the goddamned drive!” the man shouted. “Or I’ll bust this fucking door down and yank that scrawny ass out of his fucking bed and hold this gun to his head.”

“He went out the window,” I said, hopefully loudly enough for Augie to hear and make his way out of the damned house. “I’m sure he’s intercepted the sheriff by now.”

A gunshot rang out, and I hit the floor. I scrambled to the open doorway and peered around. There Marco stood aiming high into the bedroom door before taking another shot.

Brett screamed for him to stop. “You’ll kill him!”

Now that he’d opened fire, I had no qualms shooting the fucker. I aimed at his right shoulder and took the shot. He screamed like a holy terror and dropped his weapon before crumpling to the ground in shock.

Brett turned and fired at me out of reflex, shooting wildly again into the walls and ceiling. I waited for his magazine to empty before rushing him and tackling him to the ground.

Footsteps thundered toward us from behind me. “Cross County Sheriff—drop your weapons!”

I recognized Seth’s voice. “Two handguns not including mine. Both on the ground. Unsure of other weapons.”

Until I was sure both guns were secured, I wasn’t taking my hands off Brett Stiel’s wrists where I had them pinned to his lower back.

As soon as Seth leaned over me to clip handcuffs on Brett, I jumped up and backed off. One of the sheriff deputies was dealing with Marco, who continued to scream in pain.

“He fucking shot me,” he yelled. “Arrest him.”

Seth gave me a look. “You know you have to come in and help us sort this shit out.”

I was already trying to shoulder my way through the bedroom door when I grunted in agreement. The wood was splintered where bullet holes had torn chunks out of the thing, but it still stayed strong.

“Augie!” I called. “You can open the door now. It’s safe.”

I heard a muffled whimper and almost lost my damned mind.

“Shit,” I muttered, turning to race out the front door and around to the window.

“Where’s he going? He’s getting away!” I heard Marco call from behind me.

I climbed into the window and scrambled to the closet. As soon as my first hand was on the rung, a dark splash of crimson fell on the back of it.

Blood.

“Augie,” I cried up the ladder. “Are you hit?”

I climbed as fast as I could and pushed open the hatch. There, in the absolute farthest corner of the tiny nook, huddled my Augie in a tiny, trembling ball.

He lifted his head up to look at me.

His face was ice white and punctuated with huge, dark pupils. In the tiny space lit only by a few fairy lights glinting off golden keys, the bright red river of blood pouring down one side of his head stood out like a lit flare.

Augie blinked once, and then he hit the deck.