Page 71 of Rugged

“Who cares about paper? What matters is the heart.” As I said the words, I realized how clear my heart was.

Lyssa peered at me like she saw the change in me. Her voice went soft, and she took her hand in mine. “What does your heart want, Emmie?”

I blinked back tears. “My heart wants Johnny.”

As I said it, memories of all the tenderness he’d shown me, all the attention and concern came flitting back. The way he held me this morning. His horror over biting me last night. The way he carried me out of the saloon, suffering over how I’d feel about him for getting in a fight.

It hadn’t just been all hot sex–although the sex had been incinerating. What we had was real. But I’d allowed my own insecurities to let me believe it wasn’t.

If Lyssa tried to be me sometimes, then maybe I wasn’t always doing the wrong thing.

With Johnny, I’d overreacted.

Lyssa fished my phone out of my purse and handed it to me. “Call him.”

I gave a dark laugh. “I don’t even have his phone number. I did steal his truck, so I guess I could drive back.”

She nodded. “Yes, drive back. I mean, I’m sad because I wanted to eat cookie dough and binge watch Gilmore Girls with you, but you should go.”

Then I remembered the full situation.

“No, you have to come, too.” I jumped up. If Johnny really was so serious about Mitch, then we shouldn’t even be here. “Come on, get packed. This place isn’t safe for either of us.”

Lyssa didn’t look appropriately worried. I grabbed her wrist and tugged her to her feet. “I’m serious. Mitch is a sex trafficker or something like that. We could be in danger. Let’s go.”

The crunch of gravel outside made us both dart toward the window.

“Oh shit,” Lyssa said, her very familiar gaze meeting mine.

A gorgeous black Jaguar SUV pulled up and parked in front of the door right behind Johnny’s truck.

“Is that him?” I whispered, my heart hammering in my chest.

She nodded. “Yeah. Mitch is here.”

33

JOHNNY

I stepped on the gas,pressing the pedal to the floor. I was almost at Chapman’s ranch.

I tried calling Lyssa’s phone over and over again, but it went straight to voicemail, like she’d turned it off.

Fuck! My mate was in danger, and every second she was there without me was a second something could happen to her. My wolf howled with anguish.

I didn’t even know she was there officially, but my gut told me I was right in coming here. It was what had driven me to snap at my alpha and pretty much confiscated Boyd’s truck. She was at Running Waters. My wolf fucking knew it.

My phone rang, and I scrambled to answer.

“Johnny? It’s Knox.” Knox was one of the enforcers from the Two Marks pack in Wyoming. They’d been in the area on some other business and were called in when we got notice Chapman was flying to Montana. “Me and Travis are at the edge of the Chapman property now.”

“Wait for me. No–fuck.” I couldn’t think straight. “I think my mate, Lyssa, is on the property. She’s Chapman’s caretaker. We had a fight, and I’m pretty sure she returned here. I don’t want her endangered.”

“Fuck,” I heard Travis mutter. “That’s gonna be a problem.”

“What do you mean?” I practically yelled.

“You, man,” Knox said. “Your wolf will have one objective alone–protecting your mate. Which is fine. Now that we know, we’ll be there to pick up the slack. How far out are you?”

---