I stop in the doorway. My fists clench at my sides so hard my knuckles crack. “He beat a woman.” I pause. The words aren’t enough. They don’t carry the weight of what I saw on that porch. The blood. The bruises. The way she flinched when I touched her cheek. “He beat my fuckin’ woman, and now he’s about to find out the punishment for that.” I say, and the venom in my voice fills the room.
That earns me confused looks from all three of them.
“Since when do you have a woman?” Beau asks, leaning back in his chair.
“Well, since tonight. But really? Since I locked eyes with her last week at the bar.”
Ace’s mouth drops open. “The redhead from the bar?” He frowns. “I heard she was Reese’s girl. Didn’t he put his hat on her?”
I grunt.
“She ain’t his. Never was.” I hold Ace’s gaze. “And now I’m gonna make sure he doesn’t go near her again.”
“You need him,” Colten says flatly. “To keep your ass outta jail.”
“I’ll call Enzo first thing. He’s got a decent lawyer on call I can use. His name is Drago.” I roll my neck, cracking the tension out of it. “I’m sure he can get me out of this mess. I didn’t kill Ashley, we just gotta find who did it. I need trackers. Not Reese.”
Colten lets out an exhausted sigh and drags his hand down his face. “He really beat her? That ain’t like him.”
I shrug. “I think there’s a side to him we didn’t see. But I saw the blood and the marks.” I let that sit in the room for a second. “That’s enough.”
Colten nods slowly. “Teach him a lesson. Do not kill him. Not yet anyway.”
“That’s the plan.” I turn to Ace. “You’re responsible for making sure I don’t commit murder tonight. Alright?”
Ace grins. “I’ll try.”
“Colt, if Wyatt wakes up, go to him. Cuddle him until he goes back to sleep.” I pause. “And Lola is in my bedroom. I doubt she’ll venture out until I’m home, but if she does, both of you, play nice. She’s staying here now.”
Their eyes go wide. Ace smirks.
“I mean it. Lola is part of this family now, and she’s had a rough day.”
I don’t take this lightly. But I can’t help it. Lola is mine. She stole my heart that night at the bar, and now, all I want to do is protect her so fiercely that no one can hurt her again.
“Yeah. Sure,” Colten replies.
I look at Beau. He holds up his hands. “Yeah. Fine with me.”
As I pass through the house, I grab my hat off the dining table and drop it on my head. I want to get the hat I gave Lola back, so I can see her in it again. I close the door, cross the yard with Ace, and we climb into the truck. The engine roars to life, and the headlights cut across the dark yard.
“What are you going to do to him?” Ace asks as I throw it into gear.
I stare at the road ahead.
I’m going to break my best friend’s jaw. Stomp on his face until it doesn’t look like the man I grew up with. I’m going to drag him through every ounce of fear Lola felt tonight and then double it. And then I’m going to look him dead in the eyes and tell him that Lola is mine, and if he so much as thinks her name inside his own head, I’ll bury him and spit on his fucking grave.
Because I want him to suffer for every bit of pain she’s feeling. He hurt my girl. He laid his hands on her. And for that,he’s dead to me. Thirty years of friendship, gone. And I won’t mourn it.
“I’m going to make it fucking hurt,” I tell Ace.
And then I drive. Every mile between my ranch and his house is a countdown. Every mile is fuel. Every mile is Lola’s face on my porch, barefoot and bleeding, telling me she had nowhere else to go.
He’s going to wish she’d never said his name.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
LOLA