Darla’s arms wrap around her middle, as if she can somehow hold herself together if she holds tight enough.
Lennox follows Tripp’s line of sight to Darla where she stands, so he turns to address her, his face tightening. “I don’t like deals I make to be broken, Darla Savage. I’m sure you know well enough what I do to people who fuck me over.”
“I didn’t know—” Darla starts, but Tripp steps forward.
“You ain’t got no business with her,” he grunts. “I declined the deal when I found out about it. This place is in my name, therefore, it ain’t for sale. Sorry to disappoint, Crow.”
“What the hell do you even want a bull farm for?” Ram asks, frowning.
“That’s my business,” Lennox says, his eyes taking in all four of us standing here. His gaze lands on me, but I don’t really care about anything he has to say. My eyes are solely on those of my father’s.
“Bá ba?” I say again, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. “When. . . when did you get out?”
“I got him out,” Lennox says, catching my attention. “He’s too valuable to leave in prison to rot, especially now that his daughter is knee deep in shit in this neck of the woods.” He smiles at me, and it makes my skin crawl, and weirdly at the same time, he’s attractive. It’s a weird juxtaposition that I really don’t appreciate. “It seems you may be just what I need, Indie Chen.”
A look of shame crosses my dad’s face as he glances from Lennox and finally back to me. “I told him you could help,” he finally says.
Those are his first words in over a year. That’s what he tells me.
My face hardens and I look at Lennox head on. My dad isn’t here for me. Silly me for thinking anything different. “He lied,” I say, my voice as hard as my expression.
Anger flickers in Lennox’s eyes. He pulls a roll of papers from the dashboard of the car. “Sign the papers, Savage. A deal was made. I don’t care by who. Fairview Acres belongs to me.”
Tripp stares at him. “No,” he replies, not moving an inch.
Lennox pulls a gun from his hip and points it at Darla. I gasp, my hand tightening in Ram’s. Darla screams.
Tripp? He doesn’t move a muscle.
“Sigh the fucking papers!” Lennox growls again.
Tripp shakes his head. “No,” he repeats, unmoving.
Darla is crying now. But Lennox isn’t even paying attention to her. Instead, his eyes focus on me, on where I hold Ram’shand. Too late I realize my mistake. I release Ram’s hand, but what’s done is done.
We’ve already shown the evidence.
“No?” Lennox repeats. He swings the gun to me and Tripp stiffens. “How about now, Savage?”
“He won’t shoot me,” I say confidently. “I’m an asset. It would be stupid to shoot me.”
Lennox grins. “You think I won’t?”
Beau inches closer, barely moving, the movements so slow, I wouldn’t have noticed if not for my awareness of his body heat. I can feel him grow closer with almost imperceivable movements.
“Sir?” Dad says, talking to Lennox. “You promised she wouldn’t be hurt.”
Lennox bares his teeth. “That was before she decided to stand in my way.”
He pulls the trigger, and the sound of the gunshot rings out across the snow-covered mountains. It echoes, and echoes, and echoes. . .
Chapter 51
Indie
Ihear the gunshot, see it even. Everything around me grinds to a halt, and though it’s cliché as hell, time literally slows. There’s this moment where I register that the muzzle of Lennox’s gun is pointed right at me, that the bullet he fires will hit me. I’ve been shot at before. Hell, I’ve been shot before. But I’m not fast enough to dodge a bullet. I’m going to die here.
Because of my dad.