Page 35 of Savage Secrets

He knew he was getting too damn close to her. It was inevitable when they saw so much of each other.

But was that true? When Sean Gracey suggested that Zach should marry his eldest daughter, things never worked out between them. He liked Meadow. She was pretty too. But there wasn’t anything beyond that.

Something about Opal drew him to her like a moth to flame.

The thought of anyone coming onto this land and hurting her or Rainie made his fists clench. He hovered one near his belt where he carried a pocketknife while he walked the loop. Feeling the slight weight offered him a bit of reassurance.

His steps were steady, his strides full of purpose as he navigated the fence line, his head swaying left and right as he searched for anything out of the norm.

Just up ahead, the trees gave way to another path. Opal told him that she and her father took the horses on trail rides when she was growing up, but it was overgrown after years of little use.

He stopped walking. Something wasn’t right. The land was vast and quiet. But the hair on his nape prickled with a warning.

On the Gracey, he’d been witness to broken fences and trampled grass where somebody had stepped where they didn’t belong.

Zach swept his gaze over the land, scanning for any disturbance. He didn’t see a thing—not in the open or lurking in the shadows. But that didn’t wipe away the feeling that out there something—or someone—was close.

Drawn to the unused path, he scoured the surroundings. There were hoofprints from deer that used the path to enter the field and graze. He continued on. When he spotted a muddy patch that didn’t get much sun, he squatted, peering closer.

The mud had a smooth spot mashed into it, like a man wearing boots had slid there.

He pushed to his feet and took out his phone to snap a photo. Throwing out his senses, he tried to detect something out of the ordinary, but there wasn’t anything except the faint rustle of wind in the trees.

If somebody had been here, they weren’t now.

He continued on the path, searching for more footprints or signs that any creature besides an animal had come this way. When he spotted a glint on the trail, he quickened his strides.

Crouching, he poked a finger at the metal that caught the sunlight dappling the ground. The object was wedged in the dirt, and he dug at it with a finger until the item broke free.

He jerked his head up, sweeping his stare over the path to the woods. Heart thumping hard and fast, he pried loose the item.

Dammit. A set of wire cutters.

They could have been left here by anyone from the Gracey Ranch. He knew for a fact that the guys sometimes used this path to come to the Springvale, checking things out on the order of Ross Wynton at WEST Protection. The security company wantedallthe bases covered, and when they came for the funeral, they had added the path to that list of places to secure. It also wouldn’t be unusual for a ranch hand to be carrying a set of wire cutters on him.

Zach would damn well be asking the guys at the Gracey too, right after he finished searching the grounds.

The quiet was all wrong. It was too…perfect.

Like someone was watching him.

He whipped out the only weapon he had—the pocketknife—and gripped it in his hand. The metal bit into his flesh, but he ignored the sting as he turned his head left and right.

“Come out, you fucking bastard. Show yourself!”

A rustle in the bush along the trail had his heart punching his chest wall fast and furious. Then a small critter darted out from under a bush and raced to the other side of the trail.

A rabbit.

He still couldn’t breathe. He wasn’t convinced there wasn’t a threat lurking in the shadows, and he would do anything in his power to keep it from Opal’s door.

This was far from over.

Chapter Ten

Opal balanced the basket of wet bedding on one hip and crossed the small back yard to the old clothesline. She’d never seen her father use the line—he put off doing laundry like it was the plague. But she was going to take advantage of the last of the good weather and hang out her sheets to dry.

Getting out of bed this morning had taken a big push from her. It was so easy to snuggle under the covers, to breathe in the masculine scent of the man she’d shared her bed with, and close her eyes.

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