Page 57 of The Stone Family Warrior

Trent yanked his attention to Roger. “Back off, dude.”

Roger settled his gaze to Trent. “Why, Stone? You after her money?”

Trent froze and the look on his face turned to bland disgust. “Yeah.” He sputtered out a laugh. “That’s what I’m after.”

Cheryse gave Roger a nudge. “Let’s get in there. You don’t want to be late.” She frowned at Trent. “Chill.”

“Me?” Trent put his hand to his chest. “I’m the one who needs to chill when your boyfriend is the shark who smells blood in the water?”

Roger stepped forward between Cheryse and Trent. “You’re calling me a shark? A shark? I’m the one raising money for children who have cancer. Cancer, Trent.”

Liberty decided Trent was exactly right about Roger: the man was good at smelling blood in the water.

Trent didn’t respond, only crossed his arms and gave Roger a look that said he was full of crap and everyone knew it.

Roger turned back to Liberty, and his lip curled up in a nasty snarl. “So do you want to donate?”

Did the man think being a grade-A jerk would make her want to do what he wanted? “Actually, I just decided not to sell the place.”

“What?” Trent blurted.

“What?” Lucy repeated.

And just like that, she stuck to the decision. “Yep, I’m keeping the place.” She pointed to Trent’s motorcycle. “Didn’t you promise to teach me to shoot? We’d better go.”

“A gun?” Roger called out, his tone tinged with outrage. “Really? You’re going to shoot guns? How … vile.”

Trent laughed. “Yes, let’s go shoot the vile things.” He mounted his motorcycle, and she slipped on behind him.

“Come to my party tomorrow night,” Lucy all but ordered Liberty. “Be there or be square.” She shaped her hands into a square.

Liberty waved. “So fun to see you all!”

Cheryse waved. “See you guys!”

They took off. At the stop sign, Trent asked her, “You’re really keeping the place?”

“I don’t know. Do you want me to?”

“Uh, well, yeah, but do you want to?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I didn’t want the shark to be sniffing blood.”

“Good call.” Trent hit the gas, and they revved away.

She laughed and held him tightly around his waist, loving the feel of being next to him and loving the idea that maybe Trent wanted her to keep the place, too.

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