Page 78 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bargain

“I didn’t know I had totellyou I was leaving…”

When he and Pops went out to the barn to check on Apollo and some of the other animals, leaving me with Davey to finish cleaning up after dinner, it gave me the perfect exit without having awkwardness between me and the man now staring me down with a strange mix of anger and concern brewing in his gaze.

I tighten my hold on Davey, who waves excitedly at his friend. “What’s wrong, Dalton?”

He clenches his jaw and glances away.

“And don’t tell me nothing.”

Dalton approaches, his gaze softening, and he takes Davey’s hand in his and grins. “Everything’s fine, bud.”

He wasn’t the one who asked the question, but the fact that Dalton is being so careful about what he says in front of him only concerns me more.

“Is it?” I raise a brow at him, trying to keep my voice level. “Because he told me about the men at the lake…”

Dalton winces, confirming exactly what I feared.

They don’t know who it was.

And they’re worried about it, too.

He steps closer and rubs his hand up the side of my exposed arm. A breeze flows over us, but the goosebumps that pebble on my skin could be from either touch. “Look, we don’t know if there’s any reason to be worried yet…”

“Bullshit. If there wasn’t any reason to be worried, you wouldn’t have that look on your face or have chased me up here.”

He leans in, brushing his lips against my ear in an intimate move he never would have attempted yesterday. “Yes, Iwouldhave. I wasn’t going to let you run away from what happened today as if it didn’t. I would have come after you,regardlessof the reason.”

Shit.

Pulling back slightly, he locks his gaze with mine. “But that conversation can wait. I need to check the house and make sure no one’s been in there or on the property.”

Oh, God…

“You think…they camehere?”

All that calm I experienced only a moment ago upon seeing Dalton arrive vanishes in an instant.

“I don’t know. That’s the problem.” He scans around us, as if he can somehow see through the darkness and dense trees. “We don’t know who they were or why they were up here. Even the sheriff doesn’t have any idea.”

I clutch Davey tighter, thankful he doesn’t seem to understand the tense situation surrounding him.

“Where’s your shotgun?”

Swallowing back dinner as it threatens to rise up my throat, I incline my head toward the house. “On top of the bookcase to the right of the door. Shells are behind the first row of books.”

His hand glides across my arm again. “Follow me up to the porch. I’m going to go in and clear the house. Stay in the doorjamb until I tell you it’s safe to come in. If you hear anything suspicious—”

I suck in a sharp breath before he even says the words. “I get back in the truck and go to your place.”

He nods, then lifts his hand to cup my cheek. “It’ll be okay.”

Will it?

I want to believe him when he says that, want to believe the words are true, but it’s hard to when I can see that hint of panic in his gaze, too. The concern there matches my own. The very real possibility that somebody could have come onto the property while we were gone and done something…or worse, be lurking to do somethingmore.

All I can do is put my faith in Dalton as I follow him up the steps and onto the porch. He turns the handle of the door we never lock—which I will start doing after this—and slowly eases it open to utter darkness.

We both stand still and listen, but all I can hear is the sound of my own heartbeat and blood rushing in my ears.

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