Page 35 of Burned & Bound

West made a sound but said nothing.Not that I expected him to.He disappeared into the dark while I went inside. Tess bounced around, her tail banging on the wall as she danced in excitement. If only everyone got this damn excited when they saw me.

Her whining grew incessant while I took off my boots before giving her attention. If I started with her, I'd never leave the entryway.

She ran ahead as I followed her to the living room, bounding onto the couch. That happy smile of hers was almost enough to take away the crappy feeling settling inside me. I ran my fingers through her scruff and hit all the spots to make her wiggling increase.

“I did the right thing,” I told her softly—though, I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince her or myself. Either way, it had me feeling a hell of a lot more than I wanted to.

CHAPTER 23

west

Iwas free.To leave.I couldn’t wrap my head around that piece of information. Jackson was ready to lie to a fucking judge just so I could get the hell out of there. He gained nothing from it.

Okay, maybe he gained not having to be around me any longer, but that didn’t feel like the reason either. Not really. Not considering everything he’d said.

And that fucking thing about his door being open?What the fuck was I supposed to do with that? Did he honestly think there was a shred of anything left between us?

Or was there?

I shook that question free as I arrived at the stables. There wasn’t. He couldn’t see it. I was too fucking broken to be with anyone—even if I did want a relationship. Who the fuck would choose to be with someone like me? I had nothing to offer him but the demons I couldn’t conquer.

I was free to start over—to take the money and find somewhere remote and alone to start over.

Bailey huffed, her head popping out over her stall door. The sight of her tugged hard at my heartstrings.Did I want to be alone for the rest of my life?

I couldn’t take her with me. There was no good way to take a horse on a road trip with no destination in mind. She deserved a hell of a lot better than that. She deserved everything she had at the ranch.

Beamer’s head joined hers in the aisle with a neigh. A small smile turned the corner of my lips. Beamer was loud and nosy. It wasn’t so much that he liked people. He just liked knowing what was going on and what snacks he could get out of it. He didn’t like sugar nearly as much as he liked peppermint, but he’d trample a bitch for some pumpkin.Hell, he’d almost trampled me the first time I brought it out.

Two more heads popped out at the noise—Domino and Dolly. They were brother and sister, inseparable in the most annoying way.Cute but annoying.Wherever one went, the other just had to go or they became irate. It made doing everything with them all the harder—especially with the way Domino liked to chew on shirttails if he wasn’t the one getting attention.

As I stood there staring down the line of stalls, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to leave. Sure, living in a stable wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t the worst place I’d ever slept. And I had a purpose for the first time in a long fucking time.

But was it enough to make me stay?

I didn’t have a clue what I was supposed to do.

CHAPTER 24

jackson

Thank you for everything.

Four words scratched ontoa piece of torn notebook paper never hit so hard. Somewhere in the middle of the night, West had come in to drop off the signed contract. It sat on my table with that stupid note—a neon sign that he was gone.

Whatever weird tiny shred of hope I had that he’d stay shattered with it.Not that I truly expected him to.I couldn’t blame him for getting out as quickly as possible. Hell, I would’ve too.

After texting Mickey to handle the morning crap out in the fields, I did the one thing I never did. I went back to bed. Or at least tried to.Tess made it damn difficult to go back to sleep. Once she was up, she was up. I managed to doze on and off for a few hours while also giving her the attention she demanded.

Somewhere around noon, I managed to crawl my ass out of bed. I pulled on whatever clothes I could find and made a cup of coffee to go. While I didn’t want to, I needed to get out to the field. I left Mickey to run everything too often anyway when I was on tour. I did my best to be available when I was home.

The stables were busy—a fact that put an immediate frown on my face. My guys milled along the fence, eating lunch and talking. Their horses wandered around the corral while they did. Most of the time, my guys took their lunches in the field. It was a waste of time and ridiculous for them to come back.Granted, with West gone, I had no idea how the morning had gone with the horses.Fuck, I hadn’t thought that one through.

Mickey peeled away from the lot of them when he saw me approach. That stupid fucking grin on his face annoyed me. It didn’t feel right that he was still here while West was gone.

“All right.” I sighed as I got out. “Tell me the damage, Mickey. What the hell are we dealing with?”

“Regardin’ what, boy?” he asked.