Page 67 of A Cowboy in the Streets

I reeled back. “But why? Why would he do something like that? It doesn’t make sense.”

“I don’t think he actually wanted to see you hurt,” Adam said gently. “He didn’t think of the consequences, that’s all. He was being a dumbass, but I can’t let that kind of thing happen here. He had to go.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. “But you didn’t have to punch him.”

A muscle twitched in his cheek. “Oh, yes, I fucking did.”

Brax’s mouth flattened into a grim line. “He claims you hit him first after”—Brax paused and squeezed the bridge of his nose—“after he called your girlfriend a slut.”

Girlfriend? Adam had a girlfriend?

What. The. Fuck.

I twisted in my chair to reach past the space between us and slap him across the stomach. “You have a girlfriend?” I shouted. “Who? Who is she?”

“Ah!” Adam grunted, lifting his arm to block my next hit. “Woman—”

“James,” Brax said.

“What?” I snapped.

“You’re the girlfriend in question.”

“Me? What are you talking about? I’m not…” I looked from Brax to Adam and my voice died on the look of Come on, seriously? he served me. Oh, shit. I cleared my throat. “I don’t know why Steven would think that.” My voice pitched higher than normal.

Brax stared at me. Hard. I chewed my lip and tried to look like someone who hadn’t had the best sex of her life with his brother.

Brax turned his stare to Adam. “He also says you threatened his life.”

“It wasn’t a death threat,” Adam protested. “It was a boundary. So long as he stays away from James, he’s got nothing to worry about.”

“Fucking hell.” Brax dragged his hands down his face like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “All right. Here’s what I need to know. Are you two together? Because that determines how I handle this.”

“In what way?” Adam asked. Carefully. I took note of that.

“If you’re together, he has a stronger case. He could paint you as a jealous boyfriend who went crazy on him. Maybe that would put wrongful termination on the table, seeing how you’re his boss…and hers.” Brax shrugged. “If you’re not together, that weakens his case. I might be able to convince him to walk away with a small payment for his troubles. He seems more interested in money than pressing charges.”

Tension rolled off Adam in waves. And I knew he was about to do something stupid. Like tell Brax the truth out of some misguided sense of duty toward me. But I couldn’t let him do that.

Lodestar Ranch and his family were everything to Adam. And I was…Well, I wasn’t the love of his life. That title had already been claimed. And I refused to be another duty to him. Another responsibility. Not when we could both walk away from this before either of us got hurt. Before the ranch got hurt.

“We’re not together,” I said firmly. I could feel Adam’s eyes burning into me, but I kept my gaze focused straight ahead on his brother. “I’m not his girlfriend.”

For a long moment, no one said a word. The room was so quiet I could hear the sounds of horses chewing their oats in the barn.

“You’re sure?” Brax asked. “Because I can—”

“You heard the woman. We’re not together,” Adam bit out.

I blanched. I wanted to touch him. Soothe whatever sore spot I had rubbed open. But I couldn’t do that here. Later. Later we would talk it through, and everything would be okay. We would go back to a strictly professional relationship, on and off Lodestar property. He understood as well as I did that putting the ranch at risk wasn’t acceptable.

Brax looked from Adam to me and back to Adam again. He shook his head.

“All right,” he said finally. “I’ll make this go away.”

Chapter 28

Adam

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