Page 65 of Westin

I can’t go down that road. I won’t do it.

I can’t visit my mother, sit in her kitchen, and talk to her with the same mouth that touched another man’s wife.

I shake my head in the dark, even though Jensen can’t see it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Jensen is quiet for a long time. Then, he sighs and gets to his feet. “Diane is a lot stronger than you’re giving her credit for,” he says.

Hell, I know that. She walked into the belly of the beast and told me not to follow her. I run my hand over my face. The night is hot, and I’m sweating. Jensen goes to the door and pulls it open. I start down the path to the barn.

“Hey,” Jensen calls, and I stop, turning. “You want her back, gunslinger? Get the fuck out of your head and do what you do best.”

He doesn’t wait for an answer; he just goes inside. My heart thumps like a drum as I take Rocky up to the hill over Diane’s house. Her lights are all out tonight, so I sit up there for a while and just look at the stars overhead.

Gunslinger.

He called me that on purpose; he knew what it would do to me. I turn Rocky around and ride him across the ranch to the valley where Jensen and I shot beer cans. In the dark, I dismount and kick through the ground until I find a shard of glass the size of a dollar bill.

It’s dark, but my eyes adjust enough so I can see the railing. I walk to it and place the glass in the center. Then, I walk back and take mypistol out. I think I see a faint glimmer as the barely-there moon catches the glass.

The man I wanted to be and the man I am are two different people. I didn’t realize that until it was set in stone.

I spin in a circle and take a breath. My finger comes down on the trigger.

Glass shatters.

Goddamn it.

I go home, defeated for days after. Then, things move slowly up at Sovereign Mountain—until they move fast.

One minute, the ranch is quiet as we ready it for winter. The next, I wake abruptly to the sound of gravel spraying beneath pounding hooves. I’m out of bed in a second, pulling on my clothes and boots and heading out the door. Up the path of the gatehouse, I can see the outline of Shadow just inside the barn.

Sovereign slides off. As I approach, I can make out another shape on Shadow’s back—a woman.

I enter the barn. “Is that the Garrison girl?”

Sovereign nods. There’s a hard set to his jaw. “I need you to cool down Shadow, put him away.”

“What happened?”

He lifts the Keira Garrison down. I see a flash of her as she writhes in his grip. She’s barely clothed, her curvy body protected only by a thin slip against the early autumn cold. Her brilliant red hair flips back, her wide, scared eyes rolling.

“Someone burned the house,” Sovereign grunts. “I have a pretty good idea who. I pulled her out and released her horses.”

My stomach sinks. He’s implying that Thomas and Avery did this.

“Would they? It’s their property,” I ask.

Sovereign shrugs. “Can’t say. Looks like vandalism to me, but I doubt we’ll ever get the truth out of them.”

I gather Shadow’s reins. “Better take her inside. It’s fucking cold out here.”

He lifts her, carrying her from the barn and out of sight. I can’t help but feel a pang of jealousy at seeing him get his girl. Still moreintense is the thought of Diane being in a house with a man who was willing to hurt Keira.

That thought sits in my head all night. By morning, my mind is made up.

I have to, somehow, find a way to see my girl.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

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