Page 91 of Chasing the Wild
“Let’s get you out of the cold. Just step right inside my footprints. That’s all you gotta do.”
Something tugs behind my ribs and hooks me to him. Doing exactly as he says, we follow the track I cut through the snow when I first came around here. Daylight has all but vacated and made way for nightfall, with only a blackish-purple hue stretching over Devil’s Peak as we reach the house.
Just like the night after stitching up the livestock, he tells me to go shower and quietly takes charge of organizing some food for us. I should be fucking stronger and should shrug this whole thing off, but the shock and cold have eaten away at my reserves of energy. Besides, I get the feeling this man would simply pick me up and toss me in the shower by force if I didn’t listen to him.
When I return to the kitchen, he’s not at the island like I expected. Our plates have been heated and there are a couple of beers already opened, but then I hear him coming out of his office in the hallway.
Stopping in front of me, he takes my chin in between thumb and forefinger and studies my eyes. There’s a solemness in his gaze, and I don’t really know what to fucking say. How many times is too many times before a man like Colt realizes what a goddamn headcase I am and is relieved to be rid of me? Why do I seem to crumble in his presence? Or is it just a sequence of ridiculous occurrences, each of which he’s been right there for.
Now I’m going to be forever stuck—the knowledge chafing my brain like sandpaper—knowing what it feels like to have someone who sticks by you even when you’re falling apart at the seams.
What a cruel and unusual punishment.
“Feeling better?” His voice is low.
I nod. Once again, enjoying the roughness of his hands and the closeness of him too much for my own good. “Thank you…” I trail off. There’s every chance I’ll start crying again, and I don’t want that.
“Let’s get some food in you.” Dipping his head, he places a gentle kiss on my lips, then ushers me toward the source of another incredible-smelling dinner he’s reheated. Colton Wilder is my perfect man, and I’ve never fucking hated our circumstances more than in this moment.
After we’ve sat and eaten in silence for a while, Colt clears his throat. “There are cameras around the place, not that I ever have the need to use them much. But I keep some going over by the barn for the security of the horses, and around the yard, the front of the house… just a couple of spots where anyone coming and going can be captured on camera.”
He scratches at his beard, not looking at me, studying the beer label on his bottle real fucking hard instead.
“There aren’t any unusual footprints or tracks in the snow I’ve noticed. It hasn’t snowed fresh in over a week. So whoever has been up here and laid that trap did so long before the laststorm came through. Fuck knows why, or what for, but my gut is telling me it has something to do with whatever happened to the stock that day.”
I fiddle with the hem of my sweater. What is he saying?
“While you were in the shower, I ran back through the older records. The cameras out there sense movement and detect when there’s been something or someone pass by. A lot of it was just wildlife, but…”
“Someone has been up here?” I gasp. Not sure whether I’m more freaked out by the idea that there’s been an intruder on the property, or that there’s every chance whoever it was might have seen something between me and Colt during that time.
Oh, god. I suddenly feel like my stomach has flopped. It can’t have been Kayce—he wouldn’t be fucking with the ranch or the stock—but what if this person whohasbeen here saw us together? What if they were to tell him?
What a nightmare scenario. For my ex-boyfriend to find out about me and his father through a goddamn stranger spilling secrets to him in a bar down in Crimson Ridge.
“Not just someone.” Colt grinds his molars. “The footage is blurry, it’s nighttime when the cameras caught the movement, but I know it’s them.”
“Who?” But even as the words come out of my mouth, I already can tell what the answer will be.
“Those Pierson assholes. I’ve every right to fucking shoot them on-site. Should’ve done it with Alton, the older one, the night of the bonfire.”
The dots start connecting. “The stock were hurt right after that day one of them turned up in the barn.”
Colt dips his chin. “Right after Henrik was poking around. Then the snow stuck that night of the bonfire, and hasn’t cleared until these past couple of days. So whoever laid that trap did so probably the night we were all down at the fire,and whatever happened to the cattle was probably retaliation for being threatened. Those two fuck faces deserve to be in jail, and yet they’re out here creeping around the ranch causing shit.”
“But you’ve got them on camera, right? You could take the evidence to the sheriff of what they’ve done?”
He shakes his head and digs a hand through his hair, making it stand on end. “No. All I’ve got is grainy fucking shadows of two figures dressed in black and a gut hunch that has never let me down.”
“But why would they do any of it… what makes you a target up here?” There’s an uneasy feeling building in my chest. One that tells me this has everything to do with the way Colt sat up guarding the property—and me—that night with a shotgun in hand.
“They’re bad people. Damaged fucking kids who only want to pass that poison on to others. That’s all they want to do in return is hurt, because they’re hurting.”
“I don’t understand. That trap could have seriously maimed someone.”You. I want to shout it at him from across this countertop. It was obviously set there with the intention of injuring whoever went out to collect firewood from that pile next. No prizes for guessing that it was Colt they were targeting.
“Layla.” His voice is soft, but it’s a warning to drop the subject.
“Why? Why don’t you get on the radio right now? Even if you don’t have the evidence it wasthem,you should at least be reporting that there’s been someone trespassing and creating god knows what dangers on the ranch.” I’m bristling on his behalf. The thought that anyone could come and disrespect him and his property and his livelihood, not to mention that they intentionally hurt his cattle, is making my blood boil.
