Taking Charge (Lone Star Burn #4)(12)

“David, do yourself a favor and forget you met me. I’m not in a good place right now. Not in my head. Not in my life. Don’t come here. It wouldn’t be safe for you.” She hung up without saying another word.

David sat in his truck, staring at the long empty road ahead of him. Not safe? What the hell is she dealing with up there? The idea of her being afraid of anyone or anything filled him with a protective fury that overrode his normally calm nature.

He called Tony and pulled back onto the road. “Hey, I’m heading out of town. Lucas can cover for me as far as working with the horses. Ask Sarah to cancel my Thursday lessons.”

“How long will you be gone?” Tony asked in his usual gruff tone.

“As long as it takes.”

“Where’re you going?”

Tony’s question surprised David. In the many years they’d known each other, they’d deliberately stayed out of each other’s business. Tony’s curiosity was a testament to how much Sarah had changed him. “Up to Mavis.”

“’Bout time.”

David couldn’t argue that point. “Has Sarah mentioned any kind of trouble?”

“You mean besides Lucy calling off her engagement?”

“Yes. Is she behind with the bank again?”

“Not that I know of. Why?”

“Something is bothering her, and I intend to find out what it is.”

“You could ask her,” Tony suggested dryly. In any other situation, David would have appreciated Tony’s new, less abrasive sense of humor.

“I did. She wouldn’t tell me.”

“One might take that as a sign of it not being your business.”

“She sounded scared. I don’t know what’s going on up there, but something’s not right.”

“You want company for the trip?”

“I don’t believe so, but I’ll call you if I need you to come with a shovel.”

Tony laughed even though they both knew David was only half kidding. “Don’t go doing anything that gets me in trouble with Dean again. He says he’s finally enjoying being a sheriff.”

David chuckled at that. “So I shouldn’t ask your brother to bring the lime?”

“Oh, he’d bring it; he’d just grumble about it so long you’d wish you brought it yourself. He takes the law real serious lately. If he was here, he’d be lecturing us on talking about this on the phone.”

“Nothing wrong with discussing gardening.”

Tony laughed again, but when he spoke, his tone was serious. “I’ll ask Sarah if she knows anything more than she’s said, and I’ll call you if I hear anything.”

“Sounds good. It’s a day’s drive, so I won’t see Lucy until tomorrow.”

“Does she know you’re coming?”

“No. She told me it wouldn’t be safe for me if I went there.”

Tony didn’t ask him if that’s when he’d decided to go.

They both knew it was.





Chapter Three


The next day, Lucy took an extra-long shower in an attempt to wake herself up after a long sleepless night. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t stop going over her conversation with David. Fate had a cruel sense of humor. David was coming back into her life, and she still couldn’t do anything about it. If Ted really was dangerous, flaunting another man in front of him would send him over the edge.

Lucy dried her hair and tied it back in a loose ponytail. She donned her jeans and picked a T-shirt out of her closet without much care. Wyatt would be there soon to load up the herd. She didn’t know how Ted’s men would react when they realized what was going on, but they had no right to stop her. It was her herd, her ranch. There would be no reason for any of them to be on her property after that day. She’d considered telling Ted her plans, but she didn’t know what she’d do if he tried to stop her.

She’d found and read over the contract she signed with him. It was just as Wyatt had said. A man in love wouldn’t have added that clause, nor would he have swooped in while she was still reeling from her brother leaving. He probably thought she would be an easy mark.

Ted had been right about one thing. She didn’t have a lot of friends in Mavis, and the ones she’d grown up with hadn’t seen much of her since her return. My fault, not theirs. When I left, I wanted to leave all this behind, and when I returned, I wasn’t anyone I thought they’d want to be around. I’m done beating myself up over things I have no control over. I’m putting my energy into changing what I can—and that starts with me.

I’m taking charge.

One step at a time. Sell the herd. Pay Ted as much as I can afford. Lay low and get the website up and running so I can pay him the rest.

Save the ranch.

Call Steven and tell him he can come home. Make him see that I understand why he left.

I’ll have plenty of time later for hometown friends.

For now, I need to stick to the plan.

Lucy stepped out onto the large porch that wrapped around her house. Two of Ted’s men were finishing feeding the cattle as if nothing had changed. They didn’t so much as look up in greeting, even though she was pretty sure they’d seen her. Another person might have stormed over and ordered them off her land, even used her shotgun to make her demand heard, but Lucy was determined to win this time. What she lacked in physical strength, she would make up for in intelligence. She’d thought through every action she was about to take, weighed the possible consequences of each, and had carefully chosen her best path.