“Obviously, he thought better of it, or I’d be dead. I was a kid, Hunt. He would have killed me. But you know, he knew I’d never tell. And I knew I got to walk around reminding him. Just how bad he is.”
“Do you think he... Do you think he was ever sorry?”
Gus looked off to the horizon. “No. That’s why I made sure he lost everything.”
“I love you, Gus, I really do.”
“All right.” Gus cleared his throat.
“You’re the best.”
“Hunter,” he said, looking grave. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I got in your business before. About Elsie. I’m sorry if it seemed like I didn’t respect you. Or like I was saying you might not be good enough. That wasn’t it.”
“You’re protective. I get that.”
“It’s more than that,” Gus said. “I... I can’t really explain it. But you deserve to be happy. And you should be. So go on. I hope they don’t kill you.”
“Will you back me up if they try?”
“Hell, no. You banged their sister. If they kill you, I have no choice but to support them.”
“Thank you,” Hunter said, getting in the truck and heading out toward Garrett’s Watch.
He was gratified to see that Wolf and Sawyer were both in the driveway, obviously getting ready to go out and work together. How nice for him that he got to kill two birds with one stone, and entirely possible that the two birds would turn around and kill him.
But first he had to find Elsie.
Where are you?
The lake.
He drove on over to the lake and was surprised to find her there with Alaina and Travis and a couple of other ranch hands.
Immediately, his hackles were up. He just really didn’t like Travis.
And he didn’t have it in him to be chill anymore. He walked over to Elsie and wrapped his arm around her and kissed her on the cheek. She pulled back and scrubbed at it, looking around.
“We’re not subtle, kid,” he said.
The guys were staring, and Alaina was open-mouthed. “I need to talk to you,” he said to Elsie.
“I thought you just wanted to swim.”
“I didn’t know you were at the lake when I texted,” he pointed out.
She sighed. “Yeah, okay.”
He took her hand and led her away from the others. “I want to go talk to Wolf and Sawyer.”
“What?” She looked like he’d just said he wanted to start walking on all fours and start life over as a cow.
“I want to tell Sawyer and Wolf about us.”
“Why?”
“Elsie, this is stupid. We either go till we get caught, which is going to get our asses handed to us, or we stop. And I don’t want to stop.”
“I don’t want to stop,” she said, looking upset.
“Or we tell them. I’m not ashamed of it.”
“But...but to what end?”
“To the end that you’re not my dirty secret. And I’m not yours.”
“Hunter...”
“You know how it was with Alaina. If you could go back and change something...”
She closed her eyes, and he could see her pulse beating hard at the base of her throat. “Yeah. No, you’re right. I would tell her. Not telling her was a mistake.”
“So I need to talk to them.”
“Why do you need to do it? That seems like macho bullshit.”
“Yeah,” he said, touching her cheek. “It is. You cool with that?”
“I’m not really cool with any of this.”
“But you know I’m right.”
“Don’t push your luck, McCloud.”
He kissed her cheek again. “I’ll come see you later, okay? You going to be home?”
She shrugged. “Should be.”
“Okay. See you then.”
He got back in his truck, filled with resolve. And when he got to Garrett’s Watch, Sawyer and Wolf were sitting outside the barn. Hunter just hoped there were no weapons nearby.
“We need to have a talk,” Hunter said as he got out of his truck.
And two very serious sets of eyes turned on to him.
“Do we?” Sawyer asked.
“Yeah. It’s about Elsie.”
“It’s about Elsie?” Sawyer repeated.
“Yeah,” he said. “It is. I... Well, she and I...”
“Hold on,” Wolf said, stepping forward. “That sentence better not be about to end the way it sounds like it’s going to.”
“I care about her,” Hunter said.
“Hold up,” Sawyer said. “What exactly are you saying?”
And he realized he wasn’t saying a whole lot. Or at the very least, he wasn’t saying enough.
“Are you sleeping with her?” Wolf asked, suddenly getting menacing. “Because I swear to God...”
“That’s not the point. Whether I slept with her or not isn’t the point.”
“So you did,” Sawyer said. “What the hell. I oughtta knock your head off. My sister. My baby sister. My baby sister that you used to carry around on the ranch—”
“I’m in love with her.” He realized what he had to say, the minute the words came to him. Because it was true. Because it had been true. It had been true this entire damned time. “I love her. And I’m willing to do whatever goes with that. I never thought I would. I never thought... Hell. I’ve never been in love. And I didn’t keep it a secret because I was sneaking around, I did it because she didn’t want anyone to know. I did it for her, not to...to take advantage or lie to you.”
“You are in love,” Sawyer said, his tone flat. “With our sister.”
“Yeah,” he said, trying to wrap his mind around the enormity of it.
“You,” Wolf said. “Are in love, with our sister, who pretty much hates your guts.”
“In fairness, she likes me a lot better lately than she used to.”
“What the hell happened?” Sawyer asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Because if I could explain it to you, I probably would’ve stopped it before it got this far. Because do you think I want to be in love with her? No, I don’t. I didn’t want to be in love with anybody. Because I... Hell. Hell. You know. You know my life. You know what I was raised around. I didn’t want anything to do with any of it, not any more than the two of you wanted anything to do with being in love.”