Chapter 16

Before anything could happen, proving how I felt, I peeled out of the parking lot, racing back to the farm. None of the ranchers were out. My shoulders tensed. Inside the Calving Barn, a table was stretched out between the corrals and chutes. My father and brother were near the office, the door propped open, speaking in hushed voices.

“Good. You’re here,” my father said, slapping my back. “Seems we’ve run into some trouble with the new hires.”

“Cash,” Sawyer said. “Equipment too.”

I scrutinized the table. Our employees were waiting, playing cards, talking amongst themselves, and zoning out on their phones.

“One of the new hires,” I said.

“Has to be,” Forrest said.

“Could be your wife,” Sawyer said.

I rubbed my jaw. “Maisie wanders the pastures. She doesn’t go through the barns.”

“Are you helping her, then?” Sawyer asked.

Maisie had stolen from me the first night I met her, money that I had offered her and she had refused out of pride. At the time, I had found it amusing. Money is hungry, but not so much that she’d take someone’s pity cash, and yet, willing to lower herself to steal it from others, as if theft gave her that much more power.

“It’s not her,” I said. But there was a big chance it was her. My father nodded, but Sawyer examined me. Read more than what I let on. I wasn’t defending her. I just didn’t want him or my father on my case. If they thought my wife was stealing, neither of them would leave me alone, and I wasn’t about to let that happen.

So why didn’t I get rid of her myself?

“Go on. Find the thief,” Forrest said.

The new hires were seated at the far end, still finding their place in our world. Once you had developed our trust working with the cow-calf pairs, we graduated the men to hunting, then later, to ranching in the Dairy Barn.

These men were still on the pairs.

Forrest had taught me how to find traitors.

I opened a folding chair onto the hard ground. One of them glimpsed at me, then tapped his fingers against the table, his black hair ruffled. The next one wouldn’t look away from the deck of cards, shuffling them back and forth like a pendulum. The third man had dead eyes. He tipped his chair. They had to act tough. To prove themselves worthy of the Dairy Barn. There was more money in ranching for our other business.

I punched the table, and the three of them startled, finally looking at me. Card Shuffler flicked his wrist, then looked off into space again. Dead Eyes stared at me, not seeing a thing. Black Hair sniffed, then wiped his nose, not backing down from my gaze, until his eyes twitched.

He thought he could beat us.

Instinct surged inside of me. I went back to my family.

“The one with the black hair,” I said. Forrest gestured to Sawyer, signaling for him to begin.

“Daniels,” Sawyer said, motioning with his hand. Black Hair sighed and stood, coming up to the three of us, trying hard to seem like he wasn’t the disrespectful little shit that he was. “The rest of you can go,” Sawyer added. Black Hair turned to Forrest, making small talk. The procession of employees left the barn. I got dressed, pulling on my black leather gloves.

The door closed, and Forrest instantly went from his charming bastard persona to nothing, his face empty. I stepped forward.

“What’s this about?” Black Hair asked. “Am I being promoted to hunting?”

Sawyer grinned, then pulled out his gun. “You stole from our family.”

Black Hair lifted his hands in defense. “I didn’t steal any—”

I bashed a fist into his skull. He threw punches back at me, but within a few seconds, he was on the ground, grasping his bloody nose. I grabbed him by the throat, dragging him to the barn doors. Sawyer pulled down the gate in the back of the truck, and I jumped up, pulling Black Hair with me.

“Lay down,” I ordered. He didn’t move. I railed into him. He cowered, whimpering like a little bitch, then finally laid down. “Don’t move.”

I slid into the driver’s seat. Sawyer hit the back of the truck, then got out his gun, ready to keep Black Hair in line if he tried to escape. As we passed my house, I saw Maisie’s shadow standing at the edge of the yard. Waiting for me. She was following me again.

At that instant, Black Hair lunged out of the side, rolling onto the pasture. I slammed on the brakes, then ran after him. I pulled out my gun, holding it to his head, his body instantly freezing.

“Not another inch,” I growled, my dick bulging.

Grass shuffled behind us, the wind mixing with footsteps. How much could Maisie see?

Why was I letting her follow me?

I put Black Hair in a chokehold, dragging him to the Dairy Barn. He stomped his feet, trying to push off the ground to get away. The stars rose over the fields, the chirping crickets serenading the sleeping cattle. The Dairy Barn was silent. We had been lucky to have a break in livestock orders at the exact right moment to take care of one of our own.

I pulled Black Hair into the barn with me. Maisie hovered in the distance, stomping after us, faster now, knowing that I was about to disappear into the forbidden Dairy Barn. I left it unlocked. What would I do when she found me? Would I finally kill her? Or would that prove that I cared?

The lights flickered on, and the electricity hummed, waking up with the barn. I turned on the video cameras and put on the right clothes, keeping an eye on Black Hair’s panicking face.

If Maisie wanted to follow me so badly, then I would let her.