Page 35 of Live for Me

In a flash, I had her facing forward, a shout coming from her as I leaned over the seat, clamping a cuff on her wrist and clamping the other one to the steering wheel. “Beau! What the hell?” she gasped, looking at me with wide eyes. “Did you just—”

“Yeah, baby, I did,” I said, righting my hat, rain drops falling from the brim and landing on her bare thighs.

She blinked, staring at me in disbelief for a moment. Then, she gave her hand a tug, the chain of the cuffs clicking. She repeated the process, shaking her head and mumbling something about all of this being a dream.

But this wasn’t a dream.

It was a damn nightmare, and I was at the center of it, being punished for something I didn’t even know I did.

“Beau, let me out,” she breathed, looking at me, her wet hair sticking to her cheeks. She was in shock, but within her warm, brown pools, anger swirled like a damn tornado.

And fuck it all to hell, I’d give anything to see that tornado again. I was ready to spend my life fighting her tornadoes, chasing them down, loving her through it all.

I pointed my finger in her face, grinning just to piss her off even more. “Stay.”

Then, I slammed the door, ignoring her cussing and shouting as I covered her bag and boots with my tarp before heading back into the house. Once inside, I went directly to her coffee table, my boots drumming against her hardwoods. Thoughts of her stalker, or even a damn lover, swirled in my mind as I swiped the box into my hands, flicking open the top.

Nope, definitely not from a lover.

Anger, blood red, boiling hot anger, raged inside me as I looked at the threat from her stalker and the picture he’d provided her with. I bit off a curse, finding multiple locks of hair underneath the photo—all labeled with the names of her friends. “Fucking Christ, this man is nuts,” I muttered, pulling out my phone and dialing Red Snake Investigations for the second time tonight.

“You get your girl?” the ex-Navy SEAL asked after the second ring.

“She’s coming to Hallow Ranch with me,” I told him simply, skipping over the fact that Hallow Ranch was the last place in the world she wanted to be.

Ash hummed. “I fucking figured.”

“Got something here,” I began. “A gift from her stalker.”

“Give it to me,” he ordered.

I gave him the run down as I plucked the card from the flowers, noticing the address on it wasn’t to her home. “He sent this to her work. She must’ve brought them home to not draw attention from her co-workers.”

“Yeah, carrying around a box of fucking hair might do that,” Ash deadpanned. “Alright, here’s what we can do: I can swing byin the morning, get access to her security system feed, and keep an eye on the house while you’re…hosting her at Hallow Ranch.”

“If he shows up, let me know,” I told him darkly, looking around the living room.

“Beau…” He trailed off, leaving the rest unspoken.

“Look, she may notwantto be mine anymore, but she is. There’s nothing else to it. She has my protection for the rest of her life, no matter what happened between us. That was never going to change,” I said, setting down the box.

“You’re fucking crazy. You know that, right?” Ash said softly.

“I’m a cowboy, Ash. A cowboy who made a fucking promise to her,” I said, moving away from the coffee table and doing a second sweep of her house, checking her windows, locks, and doors as I ordered Ash to charge everything to me—not the Hallow Ranch account.

Ending the call, I armed her security system, locked the door, and headed to my truck.

I stopped short, finding Abbie’s eyes through the windshield, the flood lights above her garage giving me just enough light to see the agony on her face. The rain was pouring down on me now, but I couldn’t look away, couldn’t move. Abbie was all I could see.

She fucking hated me, that much was clear.

My throat went dry as guilt weighed heavily on my shoulders.

There was nothing I could do.

I wasn’t the type of man to leave my woman in danger, no matter how much she hated me.

As I got closer to the truck, the agony in her eyes morphed into something else entirely: longing.

---