Page 118 of Gunner

“Corbin, no. Gunner wouldn’t hurt me.” Haizley looked up at me, a question in her eyes.

“We were at the Powell Ranch yesterday and one of the horses got spooked when she was petting it. Swung his headaround and broke her nose.” The lie rolled off my tongue without hesitation.

The look on his face made it clear he didn’t buy it, but I didn’t fucking care. Let him try to disprove it. I’d already talked to Winchester this morning and told him to call his brother and have him back me up.

“Are you ok?” he asked Haizley, holding her chin in his hand while he looked at her face. My hand reached out to her elbow, pulling her out of his grasp.

“Why the fuck are you here?” I snapped.

He ignored my question, and after another long look at Haizley, he explained to her why he was there.

“Got a call this morning about suspicious activity.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, her body starting to tremble.

I grabbed the blanket folded over the chair and wrapped it around her. Hoping Blackwater would believe she was cold, not scared. All she had on was a thin fucking robe. She’d better have fucking clothes on under it.

Looking around the room, his eyes narrowed on the floor.

“What happened to your rug?”

How the fuck did he know she had a rug there? Haizley turned to look where Blackwater was. I squeezed her shoulders, reminding her I was there, and she instantly relaxed.

“I spilled some red wine.” She looked up at me and smiled.

I swear it was brighter than the fucking sun. Turning back to Blackwater, she dipped her head like she was embarrassed.

“We um... got a little carried away and spilled the whole bottle.” She added a little giggle for effect and burrowed against my chest. She was a great actor. Either that or she was envisioning something that I would be more than fucking happy to recreate for her.

Clearing his throat, he added, “Like I said, we got a call this morning about suspicious activity. Neighbor said a man came over last night and never left. But then more guys showed up and were taking things in and out of the house, including what looked like a rug.” As he spoke, he looked at his notebook.

“Yea, like she said, we got carried away.” I kissed the top of her head, selling the point. My arms went around her shoulders, and she leaned back into me. “Had a couple of the guys come by and grab the rug. The wine soaked through, so I had Zero come over and make sure it didn’t seep into the wood.”

Blackwater and I stared at each for a moment before he looked at Haizley’s face again. Looking back at me, I saw something in his eyes that looked an awful lot like respect. He nodded and turned back to the front door. Before leaving, he looked at the two of us.

“Whatever you got carried away doing, make sure it doesn’t come back to bite you in the ass.”

My eyes flared briefly before I hitched my chin at him. Then he left.

I wasn’t surprised he didn’t believe my story. But fuck, I was more shocked that he seemed to understand what might have happened and ignored it. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. Declan was the only man on the force we trusted. But maybe there were two men who had our backs. At the very least I knew he had Haizley’s.

Once the door closed, Haizley sagged against me. “I don’t think he believed us,” she muttered.

“No. But he also won’t push it.” I turned her in my arms. “You and I need to have a talk. What the fuck was that?”

She looked up at me, obviously confused by my tone. “What was what?”

“You walked over and opened the fucking door without seeing who it was. Again.” I growled the last word.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” She bowed her head and continued, “You were here, and I felt safe, so it didn’t occur to me I could get hurt again.”

“Fuck, baby. I love that you feel safe with me, but you just got attacked last fucking night. Nav is coming by today to install a security system. It’ll be hooked to your phone, so when someone knocks, you’ll get an alert. You will not open that fucking door without checking your phone.” I turned away, walking back to the kitchen. I didn’t want to scare her with how fucking pissed I was.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

When I turned to look at her, she stood in the middle of the room, right where Greg died. Her arms crossed over her chest and a frown on her face.

Last night, she hadn’t taken her eyes off that spot until Zero put himself in front of her. Now she was mad and not thinking about where she was standing. Mad was better than whatever the fuck that silence was last night.

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