Page 60 of Some Cowboys Fight for Love

Cayden moved to block the door where Daniel had intended on pushing past him.

“You don’t want to do that,” Daniel ground out. “I’m not against putting you on your?—”

“Let him in, Cayden. It’s not a big deal.”

Cayden glanced over his shoulder, presumably to where Aria had been listening to their conversation.

The ache in Daniel’s chest continued to fester, knowing she hadn’t said something sooner. Charlie was wrong. Aria had zero interest in him stopping by. She wasn’t ready.

Cayden smirked, holding up placating hands as he took a step to the side.

Daniel’s dark gaze remained fixed on the man as he shifted past him and found Aria seated on the couch with a large blanket wrapped around her. She didn’t look like she’d gotten a good night’s sleep in several days. Her eyes looked somewhat sunken in. She was a lot worse for wear than Charlie had made it sound.

He dropped to his haunches in front of her and took her hand in his. “Aria, what’s going on?”

She didn’t look at him right away. Instead, her gaze flicked to Cayden, who had shifted to stand a few feet behind Daniel. Slowly she dropped her eyes to meet his. “What are you doing here, Daniel? I told you that we were over.” Once again, shelooked to her supposed boyfriend… or was he her fiancé? It didn’t matter. They’d get married over Daniel’s dead body.

“I came to see you. I needed to see for myself that you were okay.”

“Well, I am.” She said it far too quickly and with too much vitriol. “You’ve seen me. Now you can go.”

Daniel shook his head. “You sure don’t look okay.”

Her features contorted, making her look almost alien. “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything. I’m with Cayden now. We had our fun, but it didn’t mean anything.”

Each of her words struck him hard in the chest—so hard that he felt as though he’d been kicked to the ground.

Aria pulled her hand from his, leveling him with a hard look. “Please leave, Daniel,” she whispered. “Don’t drag this out more than it’s already been.”

He watched her carefully, searching for any sign she was begging him for help. There had to be something—a twitch, a tick—anything.

But he saw nothing.

Slowly, he rose so he could get close enough to her to whisper, “I’m not going anywhere. When you finally come to your senses, I’ll be here waiting.”

He wasn’t sure, but he thought he heard her sharp intake of breath.

Cayden grasped onto the back of his collar and Daniel’s hand flew to knock him free.

“Don’t touch me,” he snarled. “If you want to keep your hand, you’ll remember that.”

Cayden laughed. “The lady asked you to leave. I’m only facilitating what she wants.”

Daniel’s eyes locked with Aria’s one last time. “Remember what I said,” he murmured. Then he walked away, wondering if he was making the biggest mistake of his life.

26

Aria

It was for Daniel’s own good.

At least that was what Aria had to tell herself if she didn’t want to spend her entire day in tears. She couldn’t prove it, but she assumed that Cayden had figured out where she was through Mateo and Sophia’s participation in her father’s parole hearing. Even if they hadn’t been there, Cayden would have found her. He had enough money to do whatever he wanted. She was only surprised it took him this long.

She didn’t bother asking how or why he bothered. Cayden would only enjoy knowing that she was upset about it. All he wanted was control. And she’d willingly give it to him as long as he didn’t hurt those she cared about.

It didn’t matter if she was miserable or lonely. She was keeping them all off the radar.

A couple of days had passed. The only bright spot in her schedule was when Cayden had to work. She didn’t know how he managed to work out something remote when hewas supposedly a high-ranking employee of some Fortune 500 company, but he did.

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