Page 35 of Swallow Your Fear
“Don’t tell me you’re feeling soft.”
I shifted on my feet the slightest bit, but of course he fucking noticed that, too.
He set the knife down on the counter. “She’s here for a reason, Booker.”
“Well the fuck aware,” I said, biting out each word.
Henley shook his head where he sat, as if he had a fucking right to be disappointed in me.
I pinned my glare on him. “You got something to say, asshole?”
He looked at me like he was fucking innocent in this. “Don’t lose sight of the plan.”
I scoffed, stepping closer to him so he had to tilt his head up at me. I only had a couple inches on him, but it made all the difference in the world right now with him perched on his seat. “We wouldn’t need this fucking plan if you hadn’t gotten us into this bullshit mess in the first place.”
Henley stood, the stool tipping over onto the tile floor. “Don’t take your feelings for her out on me.”
One more step, and our noses were nearly touching. “Or what, Henley? Huh? It’s not like you can do any more damage than you’ve already done.”
Then, his fist swung, and my jaw snapped to the side. My nostrils flared as I tried to keep my calm, tasting blood in my mouth from where the inside of my cheek hadsnagged on my tooth. Austin stood to the side, shaking his head. But it wasn’t him who kept me from swinging. It was the little pitter patter of feet coming down the stairs.
“Good morn— Oh my fuck! What happened?” Brynne rushed over, stepping in front of me and placing those delicate little hands on my face to turn it every which way like she was a fucking nurse or something.
I batted her hands away, stepping back. “Nothing.”
Hurt flashed in her eyes, but I pretended I was blind. She was coming in between us, and I couldn’t let that happen. We needed this ranch, otherwise we had nothing.
Henley stood there, remorse clear on his face. I wouldn’t hold his punch against him. Even I could admit, I may have been out of line. It was simply because she was brought up, and I hated how fucking protective I got with just the thought of her. She was a disease, infecting my very blood.
“You still in?” Austin asked her from the other side of the island.
She turned to him, and that almost hurt more than her glare. I wanted those eyes back on me.
She nodded. “I’m in.”
“She’s out.”
All eyes turned to me, but mine were so focused on her, I didn’t give a shit about the other two in the room.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” Brynne said, as if I hadn’t been doing that since that night in her motel.
“You could get hurt.” And that wasn’t something I was willing to risk. Not after finding her in the gym, feeling her shake in my arms, hearing her panicked breaths in my truck.
“Then I get hurt,” she said, like that was a fuckingoption. I started to protest, but she cut me off. “Anything for the ranch, right?”
My eyes narrowed in response, my jaw going stiff.
If she wanted it her way, then fine.
“You remember the plan, then, right?” I asked, my words clipped.
She nodded, and I wanted like nothing else to fuck the furrow out of her brow, to erase any concern that clouded her mind.
I realized then that Brynne couldn’t be temporary. Not with the way she infiltrated the fortress I’d put around myself when it came to women. They were nothing but trouble, but something about her erased any doubts I once had, making me want to claim her again and again until the only name she knew was mine and hers, together.
Brynne had sent the text two hours ago for Chase to meet her at the gas station off eighty-two at nine tomorrow morning. After she’d sent it, she’d disappeared upstairs and hadn’t come down since. I sat in my office for the past hour and a half, waiting for her to return. I watched the clock tick by as I stared at my blank computer screen, and with another minute wasted, I shoved out of my chair, heading for the stairs. She could be mad—hell, she could hate me—but she couldn’t hide.
Peeking in my room, I found it empty, which boiled my blood the slightest bit. I hadn’t demanded she move into my space, or told her that was where she’d be staying untilthis was over, but knowing she was in her temporary room pissed me off.
