Page 71 of Wild and Unruly
Mav and another hand come and take our horses, making my concern amp up even higher and I take a deep breath, reaching for Bonnie’s hand and pulling her to my family.
“What’s going on?” I direct my question to my cousin, and she looks at Bonnie.
I feel Bonnie’s hand sweating and squeeze it reassuringly.
“Bonnie, your article was published in the digital journal this morning.”
Bonnie frowns and shakes her head. “Shoot. That was supposed to be for next month’s issue.” She reaches for her pocket, probably looking for her phone and then realizes it’s been in her bag in the back of my truck this whole time and runs to get it.
I turn to Dani and shrug. “What’s the problem? You don’t like the article?” I feel my hackles rise, something protective coming to the surface, because I don’t want Dani to say anything negative to Bonnie. There isn’t anything negative to say. “I thought it was amazing.”
Dani shakes her head and CT sighs, worry marring his brows. “It’s notthatarticle, Stets.”
Worry and anxiety crush my chest as Bonnie returns, her face white with worry and her gaze on me.
“What?” I ask, looking from her to my family and lifting my hands out to the side. “What’s going on?”
Bonnie looks like she’s about to cry, so I turn to her, grabbing her hands and realizing one is holding her phone. “Baby, what’s wrong? What happened?”
“I’m sorry,” she whispers to me and then hands me thephone. On the front page is a picture and not of what I thought. It’s of Tommy Smith.
I look back to her and frown. “What is this?”
“Stets, it’s an article exposing Tommy’s actions,” Dani says, just loud enough for me to hear.
I snap my gaze over to my cousin then back to Bonnie. “What?”
“I’m sorry, I know?—”
“I told you to stay away from him.”
Something rises in Bonnie’s expression then, and I brace myself for her comeback.
26
bonnie
I feellike my world is shattering around me. I feel betrayed by so many people, but the look on his face, showing the true betrayal, is almost too much to take.
“What, did you think I wouldn’t find out, Bo? It’s fucking front-page news!” His anger pulses through his hands. I can tell because he’s clenching them repeatedly. Dani raises a hand over her mouth, watching her cousin lose it.
“I-I’m so sorry,” I stutter out, wondering what I can do to make this better. I was hurt and embarrassed, desperately wishing that we weren’t having this discussion in front of his family.
“That’s it? Now you lose your ability to find words.” His sarcastic words hit the mark, making me take a step back.
“Stetson…” Dani cautions, shooting a look at her husband and back to Stetson. “Calm down.”
“I can’t fucking calm down. She just painted a target on herback.” He turns back to me, worry, confusion, and anger all visible on his face. “You know how dangerous Smith is. Why did you go meddling in something like that?”
“Because he hurt Mason!” I yell, even after telling myself not to. Even after swearing I would keep myself calm. But I can’t. I’m guilty. Of course I am. I wrote that article, and it has my name stamped on it.
But none of this was going the way I planned at all.
He gives me a disbelieving look, his hand slipping his leg. “Well, that’s great. You’re getting revenge for a brother who wouldn’t do the same for you.”
I gasp, stung by the words, and take another step back toward where my truck sits.
“Stetson!” Dani scolds and CT moves closer, ready to intervene at any moment.
