Page 128 of Live for Me

“Are. You. Hurt?” he repeated, each word colder and darker.

I looked over my shoulder to find her shaking her head. “No,” she breathed, wrapping her arms around her middle, Harmony standing beside her, looking pale. “I’m not hurt.”

Mason kept his gun pointed at the men as he swiftly dismounted his horse, heading straight for his wife. Harmony met him halfway, burying her face in his chest, sobs taking over then.

Mason looked up to his older brother, his jaw tight as he put his free hand on the back of Harmony’s head. “Our wives are crying and Beau’s woman is missing,” he stated darkly.

“Please! We don’t know anything! We don’t—”

Denver, being Denver, fired the gun anyway, the force of the shot jerked his shoulder back, the sound ringing throughout the air, followed by a pain-filled scream. I looked over the bastard at the end, finding blood oozing from his leg and fragments of his kneecaps sticking out of his pants. He wailed out and fell forward, his body bucking from the pain.

The officer who was currently under my mercy started crying. “Please, I don’t—I don’t know where Johnson is. H-he said he was going to have lunch with his wife and—ahh!”

I shoved the man back onto the gravel, hitting him in the face with the butt of my gun, shouting down at him between each hit.

“She!”

Hit.

“Is!”

Hit.

“Not!”

Hit.

“His!”

Hit.

“WIFE!”

I heard bones crunching and blood was splattering all over my shirt. His co-workers were screaming and shouting, begging for mercy. When I finally let up, I fisted my bloody hand in his shirt, pulling him up and pressing the gun underneath his chin. “Where the fuck is Johnson?”

“We know you all have trackers on your phones,” Mason said from behind me. “The cowboy that suggested burning you all alive? He’s in the barn trying to unlock them.”

My eyes burned into the man’s swollen ones. “I sincerely hope you don’t talk before he unlocks one of your phones, because then you’ll get to watch me play with your buddies over there,” I explained, smiling at the man. “Are you ready to find out how many ways I can make a sorry son of a bitch like you scream?"

Police sirens wailed in the background as Chase’s squad car flew down the hill, gravel flying behind him.

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

He got out of the car and held up his hands. “Everyone needs to lower their guns,” he began.

Denver’s neck twisted to look at his friend dead on. “Go home, Chase. We’ll handle it from here.”

“Denver, this is crossing a line.”

I was about to whirl on him, fully ready to break his goddamn jaw when Lance’s voice shot through the air.

“I got it,” Lance screamed, running out of the barn, phone in hand. “He’s on the fucking ranch!”

All of heads snapped in his direction and Pop pulled out the radio. “Mags, do you copy?”

I shoved the worthless fucker to the ground and got to my feet, glaring at Chase. Without even looking back down, I fired off three rounds. Two in the chest and one in the head.

“Was that really fucking necessary?” Chase barked.

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