Page 68 of Christmas with Three Cowboys

Darla scoffs. “Dumb question, son. She’s terrified, and for good reason.”

“Hey, I’m trying to help,” I defend myself.

“Sorry. We’re all on edge, I guess,” Darla sighs. She gives Melissa a shot of whiskey, but the glass ends up on the table, untouched.“You need to unwind a little, honey.”

“I’m fine,” Melissa mumbles. “What do we do next?” she asks me. “They came all the way up here. Hell, they practically walked through the front door, Colton. God, I should have just left like I planned.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Ethan snaps. “We protected you, didn’t we? They left.”

“Doesn’t mean they won’t be back.” Mitch sighs heavily, his head hanging in defeat.

I’ve never seen him like this before. “It’s not over, but we know what we’re dealing with now,” I say. “We can handle them. Wewillhandle them.”

“How?” Melissa replies. “Mitch is right. They only left because they were supposed to give you a message if they couldn’t get to me.”

“And because we wounded one of them,” Ethan grumbles.

“I’ve already spoken to Sheriff Kavanaugh,” I say. “Deputies will be stationed at every gate, 24/7. He’s bringing state troopers to assist as well. And I called in a favor with a buddy of ours from the security company. They’re coming in tomorrow to install a couple of new features on the system, as well as to fix whatever wires were cut.”

Melissa exhales sharply. “They got too close, too fast, Colton.”

“I need you to have a little more faith in us,” I insist, though I can’t exactly blame her for being wary. They did take us by surprise, and it could’ve ended way worse than it actually did. Dammit, she’s right. They got too close, too fast. It cannot happen again. “Stay here. Ethan, Mitch, with me.”

Darla and Sammy stay with Melissa while my brothers and I head outside.

It’s afternoon, but the temperature is quickly dropping. It’ll be near freezing soon, and it’s still New Year’s Eve. The champagne won’t go down as easily as I’d hoped, but I sure as shit am not letting the Esparza cartel ruin this for us. We survived fucking Bosnia and a whole lot of other fresh hells so we could live out here in peace.

We’ll do whatever it takes to protect our ranch and our woman.

That much I know.

“Melissa’s right,” Mitch reminds me as we get in my truck.

I turn the key in the ignition, and the engine rumbles to life. “I know. I just couldn’t let her sit with these thoughts, man. The last thing we need is to for her to try to run off again.”

“The law can’t do much,” Ethan says. “They don’t have the proper resources up here.”

“But we do,” Mitch replies.

“We need to cross the T’s and dot the I’s before anything else,” I cut in, driving up the dirt road to meet with the sheriff at the front gate. “We secure support through every legal channel, and then we draw a plan for ourselves. Those Esparza fuckers are determined to make an example out of Melissa. Jake Miller needs to pay for this.”

Mitch nods in agreement. “We need to handle the cartel before we take care of Miller.”

Ethan snarls. “Miller is the one who ripped off the cartel. They should be after him, not our woman.”

“We don’t have any proof to support that yet,” I say as I pull over by the gate.

Kyle and Jason give us slight nods as they continue to assess the damage done to our security systems while taking notes on their phones. Sheriff Kavanaugh keeps looking around, squinting at the great sea of snow surrounding us.

“Sorry you had to come out here today, Sheriff,” I tell him. “We certainly didn’t have angry cartel goons on our bingo cards for the end of the year.”

“We sort of knew this was coming, didn’t we?” he replies with a raised eyebrow, hands deep in his dark green jacket pockets. “They took you by surprise.”

I point at the wires Kyle is currently photographing. “Only because of that.”

“We’ll need to secure the wiring,” Ethan mutters. “To stop others from doing the same or worse.”

“I put a BOLO out on the three SUVs,” Kavanaugh says. “I wouldn’t hold my breath, though. They probably dumped them already.”

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