Page 18 of Rolling Thunder

She blinked at him. Nodded. Looked away. She did need to know that. But was it true?

Even his damn dog was a criminal. When he came back to get her as promised, Kayla was already astride another horse, cantering around in the arena with a determined look on her face. She obviously didn’t want to talk further.

Parked where Trent had been only minutes before, he opened the cab of his truck and Abbey jumped in. He closed the door and drove back home, careful to latch and lock Kayla’s gate.

Back at his place, he walked his property line, inspecting the dilapidated fence. It had so many holes, it was more like a polite suggestion than a real fence. Abbey wasn’t a dog who responded to polite suggestions. He thought he should put up a better one before his outlaw dog got her stupid self killed running up the road to visit Kayla. Worried the dog had given him the slip yet again, he walked around back to see if he could spot her. There she was, paddling lazy circles in his pond, her ears floating on the surface like fuzzy black lily pads. With the alligators around here, that wasn’t really a safe hobby for her either.

“All you need is a rubber ducky,” he commented sarcastically.

Abbey did one more lap and then bounded out of the pond, ungracefully shaking off and running simultaneously, slinging water in every direction. She raced up to him and skidded to a halt, a gleeful smile on her face.

“Abbey, huh?”

She wagged her tail.

“That ain’t a very tough name. Maybe you should go stay with Kayla and I’ll get me a blue tick hound and name him Grizzly.”

As if she somehow understood, Abbey ducked her head slightly and looked up at him imploringly with big, brown, white-rimmed eyes. She was like a damn cartoon character. Much as he didn’t want to admit it, he’d grown fond of her.

“Oh, all right. You can stay.”

She followed him obediently up to the porch and flopped down, dripping next to the chair where he often sat to drink a beer.

The situation with Kayla and Trent was bizarre. He’d bet his bottom dollar she was terrified of Trent, and for good reason. So, what had the dirtbag done, and why was he still hanging around? Why did she let him hang around? Had she lied about him being her boss? Evan had the distinct impression she’d been trying to cover up something between them. Trent was the type of guy who sold drugs or women for a living, not a man who did honest work. Evan could spot a guy like that from a mile off.

Worse, that bastard had planted a seed of doubt. He saw it on Kayla’s face. After Trent’s comment about jail, she didn’t trust him. Not that she necessarily ever had, but now she definitely didn’t.

The injustice of it boiled up inside him with the taste of rage in the back of his throat. It was something that wanted to explode out of him, but couldn’t—exactly like when he’d been trapped in a cell going mad.

Hell, his own parents hadn’t truly believed him. Sometimes he thought they still didn’t. Their relationship remained strained and distant. He shared the bond of thieves with his brother Jake, but that well was poisoned too. Poisoned by his anger at Jake for getting them into the whole mess in the first place. Every relationship, past, present, and now future, was being ruined by the one big lie.

He knew in his bones that Trent was the worst kind of man, and Kayla needed to be protected from him. He knew he could do it. But she would never let him protect her if she thought he was as bad as Trent.

He’d had years inside to practice sizing men up by the spark in their eye and their fighting stance. He could take Trent.

He saw the shadow of doubt in her eyes. He saw it in his parents’ eyes. And always it was followed by the fury of the injustice of it all… The secret that he knew and they didn’t.

Honestly, he didn’t totally trust her either. Her explanation of her relationship with Trent was thin and wanting. And he would never take another chance on a deceitful woman.

He wanted to wash his hands of the whole mess, but this chick was really getting to him. She was the whole package: she knew bikes, she was badass, sexy as hell, and his dick jumped to attention at just the thought of her. Worse, she seemed much too alone with dangerous people sniffing around her. He wasn’t one to go for the damsel in distress, but his hackles were already up over her, big-time. Would she let him do his job? Was she worth it?

CHAPTER 7

Awall of heat hit her as she opened the door to her house. It was like an oven in there. Which meant the power was out again. It was temperamental, but so was her bank account. Had she forgotten to pay the bill? Had her check bounced? Or had the old house itself just decided to shut down and take a nap?

She went around opening windows until the meager breeze outside began to stir through the house. Thank God the sun was going down. But hell…the sun was going down. She wasn’t the sort of person to be prepared with normal civilized stuff like candles and flashlights. This wasn’t the first time the power had abruptly gone off with no explanation. She ought to have gotten prepared. And she couldn’t even charge her phone. She had just enough juice left to check her bank account balance. She had $50 left in her checking account.

“Goddammit,” she muttered, scrolling through her account history. There was the check to Florida Power and Light. So, she had paid. She stepped outside. The sun was setting as she looked up and down the street. The other houses had power. She could see their lights on.

She opened her breaker box on the side of the house to inspect it. It was hot to the touch. She knew nothing about breaker boxes. She flipped a few switches experimentally, hoping to get lucky. Nothing.

A sour taste rose up the back of her throat. She knew it well. It was desperation, come to whisper in her ear that she couldn’t get out of the red with this damn farm. She should sell it and go back to Fort Myers, go back to Trent. Nasty, little black desperation sitting on her shoulder, whispering, “You don’t know what the hell you’re doing. You can’t manage on your own.”

Like always, it was followed by her own hard swallow and clenched teeth. It wasn’t in her to quit. She wasn’t going to give up on this farm until the bank came and pried it from her fingers. Despite everything, her grandmother wanted her to have it. Her grandmother had made an honest living here, however modest. Her grandmother had been a dignified woman, and goddammit, Kayla intended to make her life dignified too.

She sat on her stoop as the last light faded away. No electrician was going to come rushing all the way out here, and she didn’t have the money to pay for one anyway. The rumble of his motorcycle told her Bill had left hours earlier and the silence since indicated he had not returned. Although there was a tense truce between them, she couldn’t just walk over there and ask him for help anyhow. Besides, it was undoubtedly his handiwork from years past that had fucked up the house in the first place.

There was one person she could call. She had five percent left on her phone and no way to charge it. It might be the frying pan into the fire, but she couldn’t think of any other option. She texted Evan.

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