Page 91 of On His Ranch

“Sure you coulda, you could have gotten another job, or gone to your aunt sooner, or—”

“Somepeople don’t have anyone to borrow money from!” she snapped, glaring.

Chase pressed his lips together, his eyes shooting sparks as he glared in his patentedyoung lady, I have had enoughlook.

“Alright now, let’s all settle down,” Patti, the voice of reason even now, spoke up.

“So… the gunshot… the fire… now Senior… you knew the whole time?”

Piper drew in a shuddering breath, but realizing she couldn’t speak, she nodded.

“Well, how ‘bout that.”

She didn’t look at him, only sniffled miserably. “And… and that’s not all.”

“What elsepossibly—”

But before he could finish his sentence, they all heard the distant sound of police sirens approaching the ranch.

Chapter 18

“What did you do?” The words wrenched through him, a growl emitted through gritted teeth.

“I… your grandfather… I thought…”

“Youknowhow I feel!” he snapped, clenching and unclenching his fists at his side. His palm itched—if his mom hadn’t been standing there, he would have turned her over his knee then and there.

“Yes, but I—”

“Piper, this isn’t aboutyou! Can’t you get that through your head for a change?” he interrupted. “We do things our own way, and you need to butt out of it, sit down, and do as you’re told!”

At his bellow, his grandfather groaned.

Chase cut him a look to make sure Senior was okay.

“Alrighty, now,” his mother said, taking Piper by the shoulders and steering her away from him. “What’s done is done, and there’s no use fussin’ over it.” The look she gave him was somewhere between firm and pitying.

“You’re right. I have other matters to tend to—at the moment.” He gave Piper a hard look, one that he hoped communicated that he would be ‘fussin’ at’ her later—which she was naked from the waist down over his lap, preferably with paddle in hand. With that, he let himself out the front door and fumed on the step while he waited for the police cars to pull up.

I’m gonna tan her hide until she can’t sit for a month!he seethed.What the hell was she thinking? What gives her the right?

Even once the vehicle pulled up, they sat for several minutes in the car before the door finally opened.

It was a good thing, too. It gave him time to cool off some so that he could force himself to be polite by the time they approached. “Mornin’, Officer. What brings you out this way?”

The officer lifted a hand in a brief wave before he began walking toward him. A short, burly man who looked to be about his mom’s age. “Are you Chase Whitfield?”

“Yep.” Almost immediately, he heard his grandfather’s voice in his head:Always mind your manners. No exceptions.“Yes, sir.” As the policeman joined him, he stuck out his hand. “That’s me.”

The officer shook it briefly. “I understand there was an incident here earlier?”

“Yes, sir, you could say that.”

“Uh-huh. And what happened exactly?”

Chase thought about Piper—beautiful, sweet, sassy Piper. She was currently hiding in the house while he had to deal with the consequences of her choices. Even though he’d been perfectly clear how he felt.

Guess she didn’t learn much after all.

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