“He was cowering on the other side of the barn. Someone must’ve really scared him.” Jagger walked into the kitchen, carrying Potato over his shoulder.
I circled around to Jagger’s back so I could see Potato’s face. “Hi, big boy! I was so worried about you. You want a treat?”
“You get your dad to bed?”
I hurried around the kitchen, getting fresh water and food set up by Potato’s bed. “Yeah. He refused the coffee and was starting to throw a fit because I wouldn’t let him sleep. I put him in one of the guest rooms. He can explain why he didn’t make it to bed to Mom in the morning.”
Jagger put the whimpering dog down and watched as he scuttled over to his bed and curled up immediately. “Poor thing. He was so freaked out he snarled at me when I went to grab him.”
I knelt down next to him and stroked his head. “I’m going to kick someone’s ass. This is ridiculous.”
“Yeah. It’s getting serious. Even if this is just a prank from someone, they’re taking it too far. I’m worried about how far it’s going to escalate.”
“I hate that I agree with you. I… I had a few thoughts tonight, but I’m not sure they’re real anymore.”
“Talk to me.” He grabbed some trash bags from under the sink and sighed. “Better yet, talk to me while I try to clean some of this up.”
I grabbed gloves and followed him out, closing the door behind us. “When I was at the clubhouse, I talked to Franklin. He and his buddies gave me a really bad feeling. I’ve never liked them, but it was different tonight. I wanted to run screaming. I’m not a scared little girl, Jag. It takes a lot to make me want to run.”
He slipped on a pair of gloves I gave him, busting them with his large hands in the process. “Fuck. What did you think? I mean, did you think that Franklin is behind this shit?”
I started scooping up the mess on the porch, gagging occasionally. “I don’t know. I was too iffy to put it into actual words, but that’s what I was thinking, I guess. I get the impression that he doesn’t like me very much. I thought it was just because I turned him down when he hit on me, but now I think it might have something to do with the ranch. Like he knows I don’t want to continue their contract when Dad lets me take over.”
Jagger straightened and dropped the handful he’d been holding into a bag. “Has he done anything weird?”
I absently rubbed my shoulder. “He’s getting more handsy with me. I’m not telling you this as a bodyguard, either, Jag. I don’t need you running over there to punch his lights out. If anyone gets to punch his lights out, it’s going to be me when the time comes. I’m telling you as a…friend, I guess.”
He scoffed. “We are not friends. Working on becoming something much more fun, but definitely not friends.”
I rolled my eyes at him and continued picking up. “Anyway. He grabbed me tonight and forced me to talk to his friends. His creepy friends who wanted to tell me how pretty I was and how I shouldn’t be doing a job like ranching.”
Jagger went still. “He grabbed you?”
I pulled down the collar of my oversized t-shirt and showed him the already dark purple bruise forming on my shoulder. “He grabbed me and when I tried to pull away, he dug his thumb in.”
“I’m going to kill him.”
I hid a smile. I didn’t want him to go vigilante, but it was nice to talk it out with someone and I liked knowing that he cared at least some about what happened to me. Which, I shouldn’t care if he cared… “You’re not. That’s why I started thinking he and his friends were messing with us. I don’t know. Trying to get Dad to stay on or something. Anyone who’s ever talked to Dad for longer than five minutes knows that he is terrified of the cartel and the idea that they could come back for us. But then I saw Franklin tonight. He was with Dad. Plus, he was high on something. There was no way he could’ve done this.”
I scooped up more of the offending stuff and shoved it into a bag. “I think I just wanted it to be him. That would mean we knew who did this and we wouldn’t have to deal with that asshole anymore.”
Jagger came over and stared down at my shoulder. “Show this to your dad. Maybe he’ll wake up and kick that fucker out of there. There are a hundred other ranches around here. A lot of them have clubhouses. It doesn’t make sense that Franklin would be willing to hurt you over this one.”
I nodded. “I guess you’re right. I was just grasping at straws.”
“No, Lace. I mean it doesn’t make sense that he would bruise you and try to fuck with you in an attempt to get you to leave him alone up there. Unless he’s doing something he shouldn’t be doing.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he is just that big of an asshole. It wouldn’t be the first time a man acted like an asshole because he couldn’t get his way.”
“I don’t know, Lacey. Maybe you were onto something.”
“And maybe I just really fucking hate that guy.” I moved to another section of porch and gagged again. “This is disgusting. It’s also not your job to be cleaning it up. I’m sorry, Jag. You don’t have to do this.”
“I don’t mind. I’ve done worse.”
Something in his voice made me pause. I looked over at him and frowned. “You want to talk about it?”
“About the worse? Not particularly.”
“What happened? Why are you supposed to be on vacation right now, instead of helping at the security firm, which seems short staffed?”
He dropped his bag and leaned against the porch railing, right in a spot where blood was smeared. When he felt it, he straightened and growled. “I’m so fucking sick of this shit. When I find out what asshole decided to play doctor sicko with a cow, I’m going to shove my foot so far up his ass he’ll be tasting toes for weeks. Sonofabitch.”
I continued cleaning, assuming his anger would pass. After one bad grip on something that I wasn’t sure was an intestine or something worse, I opened the bag I was holding and violently threw up into it. Halfway through, I felt my hair being lifted and held back.
“Come on. We’re done with this shit. Call in your cousin or someone.”
Normally, I would argue, but my stomach was rolling painfully. I dropped the bag and nodded. “I need to shower.”
“I’ll walk up with you.” He frowned. “I might’ve gotten some stuff in your hair…”
I sighed and tried not to think about what stuff meant.
We locked the door behind us and turned on the alarm. I had Potato come up with us and once I got to my door, I leaned against it and dialed Kenneth.
He answered on the first ring. “Yeah?”
His alertness took me off guard and I had to pause for a second before I could answer. “Kenneth?”
“Yeah. You called me, Lacey. What’s up?”
I shook my head to clear it. “Sorry. I was just surprised to find you so awake.”
“Couldn’t sleep with everything that’s been going on. You good there?”
“Not really. Someone diced up one of our cows in Mom’s garden. Do you think you and Jamie could work at it? I tried to do a little with Jagger, but I can’t handle it right now.”
“Sure. Of course, Lacey. You know you can always call on me for anything. Will the door be locked?”
“Yeah. And the alarm is on. The code is 4-5-8-7. There are gloves under the sink. Take what you need. Thanks, Kenneth.”
“Anytime, Lace. See you tomorrow.”
“Go ahead and take the day off. Jamie, too. I can take care of what needs to be done tomorrow.”
“Thanks. We’ll get everything taken care of.”
I hung up and leaned my head against my door. Jagger stood beside me, looking down at me with an unreadable expression on his face. “What?”
He gave me a soft smile and shook his head. “Nothing. I’m going to shower and then maybe we can talk.”
I wanted to say that I was too tired. I was afraid of what would happen if we were up together, alone, talking so late. There was tension between us, too much for either of us to ignore. If I was smart, I would’ve locked my door and gone to bed.
“Okay.”
He backed away slowly, his eyes intent on mine. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
I didn’t watch him disappear. I hurried into my room and then into my shower. I was disgusting and felt like scouring my skin away, but another, smaller, part of me wanted to smell pretty for the conversation I was going to have with Jagger. In case he got close.
I used scalding water and took my time making sure every little bit of dirt and grime was only a memory on my skin. I scrubbed my scalp and face and didn’t stop until I was completely red.
I wrapped a big towel around my body and opened my bathroom door to walk into my bedroom, but stopped suddenly. Jagger was sitting on my bed, dressed in just another pair of pajama pants and a smile.
“What are you doing?”
He sat up. “Waiting on you.”
I made a wide berth around him and then stepped into my closet. “You could have waited outside.”
“And let you hide from me? I was afraid you’d change your mind about talking to me and lock me out.”
I couldn’t pretend like that thought hadn’t crossed my mind. “You’re pushy.”
“And bossy.”
I stuck my head out of my closet and made a face at him. “You should knock it off.”
“You want me to leave?”
I yanked a t-shirt over my head and then dragged a pair of panties over my hips and snapped them into place. No. I didn’t want him to leave. I wanted him to stay where he was and tell me things. For some reason, I had an overwhelming desire to hear him talk. I yanked up a pair of leggings and stepped out of the closet, toweling off my hair.
Jagger was at my door, his hand on the doorknob. “I’ll go.”
I shook my head and nodded to my bed. “Sit. Talk. I want you here.”
I climbed into my bed and leaned against the headboard with a pillow in my lap. He walked around to the other side and did the same. Then, we both just sat there, in silence, until finally I laughed.
“This got awkward.”
Jagger grunted. “I think I’ll just go back to my room.”
I reached out and put my hand on his thigh. “Stay, please. I want to hear what you have to say.”
He looked down at my hand and then back up at me. “I haven’t felt anything at all in almost a year. Nothing. For some reason, my last mission fucked me up so bad that I stopped getting…you know. Excited.”
My cheeks burned but I held his gaze. “That didn’t seem to be a problem in the barn.”
He laughed. “I know. I guess all that horse scent healed me.”
I went to slap his arm but he caught my hand and wrapped his fingers around mine. I couldn’t help but stare at where our hands combined. His skin was darker and rougher than mine, touched by scars, some faded, some fresh. While my fingers boasted a few freckles and a softness that remained, despite the work I did, his were thick and dark at the knuckles from past fights, I was willing to bet. The contrast stopped the breath in my lungs and I had to force myself to drag in another. What the hell was wrong with me?
“There’s something about this place that reminds me of safety. It reminds me of when things were happy. I know it sounds fucking cheesy, but I spent some of the best days of my life here. When Cash and Hendrix and I were all together, causing havoc. When my parents were around. Hell, with Jason, too.
“He was always the voice of reason with us. He was younger, but fuck, if he wasn’t the smartest one out of all of us.”
I felt the comment straight to my heart and had to look away. It was hard to think of what Jason meant for other people when I was busy pretending that I’d always been an only child.
“Cash didn’t want to send me. Said I wasn’t ready. There’s only so much fucking time a man can spend on a beach before he wants to swallow a bullet, though. I’m not as fucked up as they think. Or maybe I am. I don’t know. I want to protect this place, though. I want it to be safe again. I can do that.”
“What happened to you?” I drew my knees to my chest and blew out a shaky breath. “I want to know.”