Page 132 of Live for Me

The happy ending Abbie and I were supposed to have six years ago finally settling on my shoulders.

I dropped my head, spotting something between my knees, poking out from the pine needles against the porch steps.

A wildflower.

Epilogue

Abbie

Three Days Later.

“Are we going to talk about it?” I asked softly from my spot on the couch, staring at Beau’s bare back.

He was looking at his portrait.

After I’d passed out, according to Mags, Ricky was trying to light it on fire.

Mags took his shot before Ricky could light the match.

The last few days had been an exhausting whirlwind of events.

Beau still wanted to kill Chase, but I forbade it.

After the horrible truth about Ricky Johnson came to light, airing on the evening news, everything Chase did made sense. Even though things went to complete shit, I couldn’t blame the man—not like Beau and the rest of the cowboys were anyway. Ricky Johnson and his team had been laundering money from the state for the last four years, and he had been under investigation since last year, which explained Chase’s reluctance to send him out here for the grizzly in the first place.

There had been no shift in power.

Johnson was being watched, and Chase didn’t want Hallow Ranch getting sucked into the fray.

Chase, like me, had been protecting Hallow Ranch all along.

The story about Johnson stalking me also made the headlines, and everyone assumed that this was a result of self-defense. No one but us knew the truth.

Even though I didn’t see it, I’d heard every gunshot.

His team had been declared missing, and the last call made to Johnson conveyed they were taking the grizzly to the national park where they would release it.

It was a good cover, one that would blow over.

Their ashes, alongside Johnson’s, had been spread on the mountain.

Harmony and Mason left for Texas this morning.

After the way things went down, Harmony needed to step away, which was completely understandable. According to Lance and Lawson, Valerie hasn’t left the main house in days. Ricky pointed a gun in her face when he’d grabbed me out of thebooth and threatened to kill NJ and Caleb if she tried to follow us. After everything Val had been through, I could understand why she was spending all her time with her babies.

As for me, I was waiting on my blood test results from Red Snake.

We still didn’t know what Ricky drugged me with, and Ash was worried it might be a drug calledNightwalker.Even though I felt totally fine, just a little sore from being thrown around, Beau was waiting on me hand and foot. In the morning, he would wake me up with his tongue on my clit, eating me until I was spent and breathless. After he was done, he’d carry me to the shower, wash and dry me, dress me, and then carry me downstairs.

He was watching me like a hawk and had yet to say anything about the portrait.

“Talk about what, baby?” he asked, turning to face me, folding his arms over his sculpted golden chest.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, twisting my hands together in my lap. “I don’t know. The painting. Our future. Something.”

He stared at me for some time before he spoke. “The painting makes me feel things, Abbie. Things I regret.”

I didn’t even try to hide my flinch, my nerves eating at me now. “What are you talking about?”

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