Chapter 24

I walk outof the back door of the ranch house, along the flooded path that leads past the greenhouse. The rain has stopped, thankfully. The path is flooded, but my sweats are protected by the thick rubber boots I keep next to the back door.

“You hear me all right?” I press the phone against my ear, angry at myself and the situation, and the fact that I caved.

“Yeah, it’s way clearer now. Cell signal not great out there?”

“It’s been spotty since the storm started.” I glance up at the sky, then out over the greenhouse and the distant fields, the trees rearing up on the border of the fence. I love it out here. It’s quiet and hidden, fog drifting between the trees.

“Yeah, I’ve been worried fucking sick about June and Alex,” Cash says. “Turns out, this wasn’t a great time to take a trip out of Heatstroke.”

“Have you heard from them?” I ask.

Usually, I wouldn’t. I care about my friend, but I don’t pry unless he asks for input. But it gives me a second to bring my thoughts to order.

Hannah’s in there, irritated at my hesitation.

She thinks we can keep this quiet, emotion and complication-free, but I don’t believe it for a fucking second. Maybe she can keep her heart in check, but I’m already falling into a state of obsession, and it’s dangerous for her.

“—so they’ve been holed up at Ganny’s. Apparently, the backyard is flooded. Alex is excited about it, of course.”

“Sure,” I say. “I’ve heard that about teens.”

“She’s the exception to the rule,” Cash replies. “She gets excited about things like that. But she’s always willing to tell me how cringe I am.”

I hum a noncommittal answer.

“Anyway, how are you? How’s Hannah?” There’s a sharp edge to his tone.

“She’s fine,” I say. “She’s indoors. Power is out at the ranch house. Not sure how long it will take to restore, but the rain has stopped.”

“That’s good. She’s safe?” Another loaded question.

“Yeah, she’s fine,” I say. “But we did have a problem the other night.” I tell him about the person we caught on camera.

“You’re fucking kidding,” Cash says. “That’s weird.”

“Why?”

“Because I came out here to find this Fucklin asshole, and he’s here. He’s at his place,” Cash says.

My shoulders sag. Tension leaks out of them, and I release a breath away from the phone. Fuck. “Then it must have been someone else looking for shelter.”

“Hmm. Maybe.”

“So what happened?” I ask, and I pace further down the pathway, away from the house, to the glass greenhouse that is one of my favorite places to be.

“I came out here to find him, and I did. I told the little asshole that if he talks to my sister again, messages her, or even thinks of coming near her, I’ve got a bullet with his name on it.”

“The picture of calm as always,” I say.

Cash laughs. “Yeah, well, fuck that guy. He thinks he can threaten my family? I won’t let anyone mess with Hannah.”

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“You realize you’re going to have to let your sister spread her wings one of these days,” I say.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Savage? Spread her wings? She’s not a baby bird.”

“That’s exactly what I mean. She’s grown. She can handle herself.”

Cash falls silent. “Suddenly, you’re the expert on Hannah?”

“We’ve been talking.”

“Talking?” The word whips out.

“Of course. Unless you expected me to give your sister the silent treatment while she’s here.”

Cash exhales through his nose. “I’m tense. I expected this guy to put up a fight, but he caved. Which is a good thing, because I didn’t particularly feel like going to prison, but if the cops aren’t going to do shit, then fine.”

“What happened, exactly?”

“I arrived here, knocked on his door, and he nearly wet himself looking at me,” Cash says. “He recognized me.”

“Did that help?”

“I think so. Given that I told him I’d out him as a stalker in front of the entire country if he didn’t leave her alone. And then I said the bullet in the brain thing, so yeah,” Cash says. “He pretty much fucking crumpled after that.”

I grunt.

“I deleted her number off his phone, and stood over him while he deleted the many profiles he’d made on different social media sites to talk to her. And I told him that if she so much as hinted at the fact that he had contacted her in any way, I would be back.”

“And he agreed?”

“Yeah,” Cash says. “He has no choice.”

The fact that Cash had to do that is fucked up. That little piece of shit didn’t respect Hannah’s “no”, but because Cash is a man who’s big and scary?—

“It’s over,” Cash sighs.

“So you don’t need me to be your sister’s bodyguard any more, correct?”

“I doubt this guy will do anything after our little chat,” Cash says. “But I don’t want to take any chances. Keep watch over her for the next couple of weeks. Let’s see what happens.”

“You mean until she leaves?”

“I doubt she’ll leave,” Cash says. “Why would she need to now that this stalker is taken care of?”

“Because she wants to.”

“Is there something going on here that I’m missing?” Cash asks. “Seems like you’ve got a lot of opinions about Hannah all of a sudden, and I gotta tell you, buddy, I’m not that comfortable with it.”

“You’ve trusted me for years, haven’t you?”

Cash sniffs. “Yeah. Listen, make sure that she stays safe. Let’s not let our guardsdown now.”

“Are you heading back soon?” I ask.

“Yeah, once the weather clears, and I can get back into Heatstroke.”

“Any news about that?” I ask. “We’ve been cut off for a while.”

“Storm is passing, but there’s an instruction to shelter in place. There are emergency teams working to provide for those who have been hurt or displaced by the storm. I don’t know what the timeline is like, but I’m hoping this should clear up by the end of the week, at least in the sense that the flood water will have gone down, somewhat.”

“Right.”

“Savage?”

“Yeah.”

“Keep her safe. Don’t let anything or anyone hurt my sister.” I can hear it in his voice—the trauma, the memories. It must have been real fucking tough to deal with Hannah’s illness as a boy. Cash is already hyper-protective of the people he loves.

“I won’t, brother.”

“I believe you.” And then he hangs up.

I stare at the phone, squeezing it, a cold wind plucking at the back of my neck. It’s icy out here, but I don’t care. I can’t go back in there and see Hannah right now. How can I simultaneously regret what happened, but want to go back and do it over again anyway?

She drives me crazy. She’s always driven me crazy, and I’ve been so fucking diligent about avoiding contact with her for fear I will lose control in exactly the way I did.

My dick is already twitching again at the memory of her on her knees, her greedy mouth open for me, desperate, and the taste of her still on my lips and tongue while I came.

I haven’t had sex in years. The build up to having her was too much for me, and now I’ve done it. I’ve broken everything.

I have no choice. I have to tell Hannah that it can’t happen again. I have to try to make her understand why, but that would mean telling her the truth about everything.

“Fuck.” I stare down at the blackened screen of my phone, shaking my head, then turn to head back to the house.