Page 86 of Westin

Her chin dips, but I lift it. “Tell me.”

“There’s this…knot that I always have in my chest. Maybe it’s anxiety, maybe just from being all tensed up, but I don’t feel it tonight. Maybe I don’t feel it when I’m with you at all.”

She doesn’t want to look me in the eyes. I hold her against my chest so she can hear how my heart is beating for her tonight.

“I have you,” I say quietly. “And I’m not letting you go home.”

She goes rigid and pulls back. I said the wrong thing. I should have just locked her in my bedroom, but I know that would break her heart.

“I have to go back,” she says. “Carter Farms is mine, and I’m getting it back.”

I shake my head. “No.”

Fire blazes in her eyes. “You can’t tell me shit, Westin.”

I want to laugh, but she’s dead serious. Instead, I do something incredibly reckless and decide to tell her the truth, maybe because I’m at the end of my fucking rope.

She’s my wife, not his.

She shouldn’t be in his house. She should be in my bed where she belongs.

“We’re going to kill them,” I say.

Her entire body goes stiff. Her lips tremble. “What?”

“Sovereign is going to kill the Garrison brothers,” I say. “We’ve planned on it for a while now. It was just never the right time, but I think it’ll be soon.”

She mouths silently, then she shakes her head.

“No, no, he can’t do that,” she says. “They’re the only thing keeping my farm safe. He can’t do that.”

I grip her waist, keeping her in my lap.

“His family has feuded with theirs for decades,” I say. “Abel Garrison, your dead father-in-law, tried to rape Sovereign’s mother. He evicted their family when they fought back. And Clint fucked Sovereign’s fiancée, back when they were young, right before he got in a car wreck that killed her.”

She rears back, shocked.

The clock in the hall ticks. Her throat bobs. I see the gears working in her head.

“I understand why he might want revenge,” she whispers. “But please, let me talk to him.”

“No,” I say. “No, I have this handled. I won’t have you begging anyone but me for mercy or for the lives of the Garrison brothers. They’re not worth your breath.”

“No,” she says, her nails digging into my chest. “But my land is worth everything.”

She jerks herself from my grasp and steps from the tub. I follow her, water dripping on the floor as she heads back to the bedroom. Her hands shake. She starts tearing up the room, looking for her clothes.

“Diane,” I say.

She ignores me.

“Diane Carter,” I say. “I will tie you to my bed if I have to.”

She freezes, glancing up. I mean it, and she can tell. Tears rush into her eyes, and she sinks down onto the bed, cradling her hands.

“It’s all I have of her,” she whispers.

I kneel before her. She’s rubbing her knuckles so hard, I have to grip her wrists to get her to stop. Her hands were warm when I fucked her. Now, they’re ice cold.

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