Page 34 of Without Fail

Tristan had salted the icy brick walkway all the way to the front door, so they reached it relatively quickly considering Aspen had sneakers on his feet. At least Cohen had dressed for the colder weather.

His mother was there with a bright smile. Her face filled with shock when she got a glimpse at Aspen’s bruised face.

“Oh, you poor thing.” She wrapped her arms around the boy and gave him a hug.

Aspen looked scared at first, but his mother had a way about her. It didn’t take but a moment for the boy to become less cautious. Oh, there was still a good dose of fear in Aspen’s slender frame, but at least he wasn’t running.

“This is my mom, Betty,” he said, and introduced them to her.

“Welcome,” she said with a smile, slipping her arm around Aspen’s waist.

“Thank you for this,” Cohen murmured.

“Are you hungry?” Betty asked Aspen, who slowly nodded. “I’ll make you some pancakes.”

“With whipped cream?” the boy asked hopefully.

“My uncle is a tyrant,” Cohen murmured beneath his breath to Marshal.

“I know who your uncle is,” Marshal said, watching his mom coax Aspen with promises of food.

Winchester Armani was not only a tyrant as Cohen had said, but the man was also mixed up in drugs and suspected of having his hands in child pornography. Although that bit had never been proven because Armani was good at covering his tracks.

Armani thought he was untouchable, but now the fucker had a problem.

He had fucked with the wrong person.

Winchester Armani’s actions had brought Aspen to Ryker’s home and that put Ryker in jeopardy.

And that was one thing Marshal would never allow.

“Daddy!” two young voices chorused together and Marshal crouched down to scoop up his twin sons before standing back up with them in his arms.

Cohen stared with a surprised smile. “They look like you.”

“Thanks, this is Owen and this is Colin,” he said gruffly, gesturing with a slight lift of each arm respectively. “Say hello to Cohen and Aspen.”

“Hello,” the twins chimed together, bringing a smile from everyone.

“Tristan is probably gaming,” Marshal murmured to Aspen.

“Yep! He’s always gaming,” Colin said, wiggling to get down and run ahead of them back into the house.

“How much land is this?” Cohen asked as they stepped into the house.

“It’s two hundred acres.”

“Damn.” Cohen gaped. “A working ranch?”

“Not for the past fifty years, but we do have several horses and I also lease the land to neighboring cattle ranchers,” he said, placing his hat on the peg by the door.

After hanging his coat in the entryway closet and kicking off his boots, he left Cohen and Aspen in his mother’s care and headed down the hallway to Tristan’s room.

The twins opted to stay in the kitchen along with the promise of pancakes.

Rapping on the closed door, he waited a few moments and then opened the door to glance inside to find his sixteen-year-old son on his bed with pillows stuffed behind his back and a Nintendo Switch in his hands.

“Thanks for shoveling and salting the walkway.” Marshal came farther into the room.

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