Page 73 of Rough Ride

“Stop me. I’m not staying here at the house by myself, or with a guard. And I am not going to spend a bunch of time arguing with you about it. I have my own questions for Sean, if you don’t mind.”

“I said no,” Eli said. He tried frowning at her, but it did no good.

“If you order me to do something one more time, I’m going to stab you with a fork. I want to be there to keep you from killing him.”

“And why would you want to do that?” he asked.

“I don’t want the man I love in prison for killing someone. Let’s go.”

With a sigh, he gave Dillon a look as she marched off. “We might as well let her go.”

Dillon nodded. “I’ll call the office, see if they have anything else. Plus, Maura was trying to hack into some…sites.”

Eli chuckled thinking of Dillon’s sister. There was a good chance that whatever she was doing, it was illegal.

“Give us ten minutes then we can go kick Kaheaku’s ass.”

And with that, he jogged up the stairs. The bastard had a lot to answer for if he set Sam to attack the ranch. Bastard would pay for doing that.

twenty-three

The minute Sean opened the door, Eli punched him. He stumbled back as Eli advanced on him. Fear for them both, knowing just how pissed Eli was, Crysta grabbed his arm, but he shook her free. He hit Sean again before the other man had a chance to recover.

“That’s enough,” Crysta yelled out.

They both ignored her. She glanced at Dillon, who looked bored. “Aren’t you going to do anything?”

He shrugged. “I figure one of them will get the better of the other. Then we can talk.”

“Oh, for the love of God.” She grabbed Eli, who was about to punch Sean again. Crysta held onto his arm and he gave her a mean look.

“Let go, Crysta,” he growled.

“No.”

His frown turned darker. “He shot at you.”

“You don’t know that,” she said.

As soon as the words left her mouth, a fist came flying up and caught Eli on the chin. Eli fell back. Sean scrambled up and was about to hit Eli again when Crysta smacked him on the back of the head. He looked at her, his eyes wide with astonishment.

“You hit me,” he bellowed.

“Yes. And I’ll hit you again.”

“That’s my girl,” Eli said.

“Your girl?” She looked down at him. “I think you need to rephrase that because I’m not anyone’s girl.”

“Sorry. My woman.”

She huffed. “And I’ll hit you too. We don’t have time for this.”

Dillon stepped forward. “I have to agree. We need to talk about things, and we need to sort it all out.”

With a sigh, Sean moved back and Eli stood up. It struck her then that he was as graceful as Eli. As if they both had the same training.

She was surrounded by people who hid their true selves all the time. It was getting to be annoying.

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