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He’d done some thinking last night. And while he understood Raid and Beau’s reasoning when they’d told him to pull back and put some distance between them . . . he’d decided it was bullshit.
He’d thought about her for months.
Grown bitter over what happened.
Would he have done that if he hadn’t cared? Nope. If she’d never meant anything to him, then he’d have quickly forgotten about her. He’d planned to marry her. And he figured the fact that she had turned up in his town was a sign.
That he was supposed to have her.
So, he didn’t care who got in his way nor her reasons for ghosting him. The simple fact was, if he had to lock her up in the bunkhouse to keep her, he would.
Or even put a tracker on her . . . yep, he liked that idea.
He wasn’t letting her go. And he wasn’t stepping aside so Linc or Devon or any other prick interested in her could have her.
“You can’t just declare someone is yours. They have to agree.”
“Don’t see why.”
“Free will?”
He snorted. “She wants me.”
“So many red flags,” Linc muttered. “You know I’m sworn to protect the people in this town, right?”
Tanner folded his arms over his chest. “Yeah. I’m one of them. Remember?”
“You can protect yourself.”
Damn right, he could.
“You don’t need to protect Lilac from me,” he said, knowing where Linc was going with this.
“I better not, Tanner. Because, believe me, I’ll pick her over you. Not because I don’t like you, but because she needs help. You have a whole fucking huge family behind you. As far as I can tell, those women have nothing.” He nodded over to the guesthouse. “Nothing but the clothes on their backs and a shitty RV that’s probably going to cost more than it’s worth to fix. So, you give her any grief and I will protect her. That’s my job as her guardian.”
“You are not her guardian.”
Linc was right, though. She needed someone to protect her.
Him.
“Not yet,” Linc replied. “But she’s living on my property. I put a roof over her head. She knows it’s Jake or me, and she trusts me more. So, guess who it is going to be.”
Linc knew just how to push his buttons.
If it wasn’t for the fact that he did not have time to spend in fucking jail, he’d lay him out flat.
“I’m the only person who is going to be her guardian,” he said through gritted teeth.
Linc narrowed his gaze. “We’ll see. But if I ask her and she tells me that you’re annoying her or trying to push her into something she doesn’t want, I won’t be happy. Nor will I allow that to happen.”
Fuck. He was furious at Linc. Yet, at the same time, he knew that the other man was just trying to look out for Lilac. And it sounded like she had little of that.
Which made him wonder what her life had been like up until now.
“I won’t pressure her into anything. I’m not an asshole. But I . . . I want her, and I’m gonna make that clear. She ran from me before, but I’m not gonna let that happen again. I can’t.”
Linc eyed him for a long moment. “As long as she gives consent, I’ll back you. You’re a good guy. Crazy and wild, but I know you’d look after her. After them.”
