Page 111 of Knot Her Cowboys
I’d never seen Bryan stand up to Bruce before.
Bruce looked just as shocked as I was. “Excuse me?”
“I’mtired.” Bryan angled himself between me and Bruce. “You chased off the one good thing in my life, turned me into someone I never wanted to be just trying to keep the peace, and I’m never going to forgive you for it.”
Bruce narrowed his eyes. “You don’t have to forgive me. You havenothingwithout me. Webothneed this deal, now stop being a fuckup and do your job.”
“Bruce, stop being such a cunt,” I snapped. “For god’s sake. You’re a grown man. What the hell are you even talking about for him to do his job?”
“He wanted me to…” Bryan grimaced, a shudder rolling through him. “Oskar and Karl wouldn’t accept the deal without you. They’re miserable, by the way. You’d have hated living with them. They told us to come back with you or it was all off.”
A cold shiver shot down my spine. “Why do they want me so badly?”
“I don’t know, but I had to make sure you didn’t come back.”
“Shut up!” Bruce snarled. “They’re perfectly fine if you just follow the rules. Something Anneused toknow how to do.”
“That’s not even her name,” Bryan huffed. “She used it to hide, and she goes by Riley now.”
I tugged on Bryan’s arm. “What did he want you to do?”
His face flushed, his eyes dark with shame. “We know you went on suppressants just for the move and that your heat would come quickly if you got off them. Bruce knew you were more comfortable with me, and he thought I could convince you to have your heat with us so one of us could bond you so you’d have to come with us.”
“Absolutely the fuck not.” Cash growled. “Neither of you are laying one fucking hand on my bondmate.”
“Come with us,” Bruce said steadily, but to Cash, not to me. “We’ll cut you into the deal. You don’t need to stay here and work with this trash. She’ll go where you tell her to. She has to since you’re first bond.”
“Fuck this. I’m getting my rifle,” Cooper announced. “You have until I get back to be gone. Riley, you should go back to the house.”
“If you’re shooting my ex-fiancé, I’m going to be here for it.”
Bruce grabbed for Cash. “Come with us,” he insisted again. “This is worth a lot of money. More than you’ll ever see in your fucking life working here.”
Cash wrenched his arms away from Bruce with a sharp laugh. “You don’t know who I am, do you? Do you think you own the fucking world just because you have a New York City penthouse and a fat bank account? My family has that too and your dollars meannothingto me.”
“Honey.” June waved at us. “I know you said to wait inside, but I was eavesdropping in the bushes.”
I snorted at that and looked through the trees, where the rest of our guests were also snooping.
June was picking her way through the underbrush toward us. She paused, staring at Bruce. “You look familiar.”
Bruce looked like he had no idea how to respond.
“What’s his name?” June asked me.
“Bruce Rochford.”
“Rochford, yes. Melvin, Duncan, George, and Kayla’s boy, right?”
Bruce paled, his mouth gaping for a moment before he recovered himself. “How do you know that?”
“Oh,honey.” The way she said the word was the opposite of how she said it to me, absolutely dripping with condescension. “I’m terribly afraid you picked the wrong family to fuck with. I do believe we own the building your family runs their little business out of, isn’t that right, Johnny?”
“Quite right, Junebug,” John replied.
Every ounce of color drained from Bruce’s cheeks, his knuckles white where he gripped the gate.
“Good boy,” June continued. “I’m glad to see you’ve got half a brain to remember your family isn’t as powerful as you think they are. Now, Mr. Balor and I were listening carefully to everything you said to our son and about our beautiful new daughter and her pack. I can imagine you’d like to recant some of those statements, wouldn’t you?”
