She’s gone. I heard from Harriet when I went to Mavericks to grab a late lunch this afternoon. Mila and her assistant, Amy, picked up and left town a few hours ago. Shit. I don’t even have her number, I realize.

I expected to feel nothing but relief at the news of her leaving. I thought it’d feel justified. After all, shouldn’t she have to leave? Shouldn’t I want the woman who manipulated me to have to get the hell out of town?

I finish brushing down the horses and toss the brushes and buckets messily into the corner of the barn. Normally I’m meticulous, but right now I just feel pissed and confused. I know I shouldn’t want her back, but fuck it, I do. I want to feel her slight body shiver under my strong hands again. I want to taste that perfect pussy of hers and know she’s completely dialed in to my every move. I want to feel the sense of freedom that came every time I was near her.

I want her back, but it’s too late. I let her go. I have no way to find her now and I’d have to be out of my goddamn mind to try. So I won’t. I’ll suck it up and move on, just like I did when dad died. Except this time the thing I want is still out there, within my reach, even if it wouldn’t be easy.

What she did pissed me off, sure. But now that I’ve had a day to let the anger fade, I know it didn’t piss me off so much that I want to throw everything away.

When I step outside the barn, the sun has just started to set behind the pines to the west. I see Cynthia’s car pulling up the dirt and gravel road to my ranch so fast she’s kicking up a plume of dust that must be visible for miles.

“What now?” I mutter.

She comes to a stop just as I’m reaching the front porch. I’m about to tell her she can fuck off just as fast as she came when I see the ugly bruises on her face. I may not like the woman, but seeing the bruises gets my attention, real fast.

“What happened?” I ask.

She steps out, keeping her distance and wringing her fingers together in an uncharacteristically meek way. Her eyeliner is stained and ruined from crying. “It was Ronnie. If he finds out I came here he’ll kill me. I know he will.”

“Ronnie? My brother, Ronnie?” I ask incredulously.

“Yes,” she says, breaking down into tears and falling to her knees. Her shoulders heave with every sob that comes. “I was dating him. Maybe I still am, I don’t even know. He’s the one who put me up to it. To trying to win you back, the matchmaker, all of it.”

My hands tighten into fists. “What?”

“He wanted me to marry you. He said the will your father left means you could’ve left the property to anyone you wanted. He’d get nothing if you died. But if you got married, it automatically went to your wife if anything happened.”

“What was he going to do? Fucking kill me if I married you?”

“Yes,” she says, bending lower as another round of sobs comes to her.

I take a step back, feeling light-headed as I fall to the porch. “He’d kill me for this?” I ask.

“Or worse. I think… I don’t know if he was serious, but he thought I was unconscious and he was talking to his guys. It sounded like they were thinking if they used Mila as leverage, you might just give him what he wanted.”

“He threatened Mila?”

Cynthia nods.

“Where is he now?”

“Aren’t you even pissed that he hit me? I mention that little tramp’s name and suddenly you care?”

“Jesus, Cynthia. Mila could be in danger right now and you’re worried about whether I care that he hit you? Of course I fucking care, but I’m worried about protecting Mila now. If I hadn’t been such an asshole she’d be here right now instead of on her own God knows where while my psychopath brother goes looking for her.”

“An asshole?” asks Cynthia, who is regaining some of her regular, bitchy composure. “Did you forget the part where she wired me up with microphones and was whispering things in my ear to say to you? That she agreed to set me up with you for money?”

“No, but if I’m going to be pissed at anyone for that it should be you. I was a stranger when she agreed to the job. At least she came clean. The only reason I found anything out from you was because I caught you. And you were going to try to fucking marry me so my brother could kill me off and take my property?”

“He wouldn’t have ever gone through with it,” says Cynthia quickly. She scrambles toward me on her knees to grip the bottom of my shirt like a beaten dog. “I only agreed to it because I always wanted to be with you. I still want to be with you, Lucas. You’re the only real man I’ve ever been with and I should have never left.”

I grimace down at her, feeling nothing but pity. No words that come to mind are productive, so I bite them all down. “Go see a doctor,” I say. “Make sure he didn’t break something. I have to go find Mila. Where does she live?”

Cynthia lets go of my shirt and sinks back to sit on her heels. “Why should I tell you where she lives? So you can go fuck her again? So you can come back here smelling like pussy?”

“Fuck it,” I growl. “I’ll find her myself.”

I hop in my truck with nothing but my wallet, my phone, and the clothes on my back, and I head for the city.