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“If the ranch goes under, then we’re going to buy it. End of story. It’s what’s best for Wild Spur. Nora and her dad are… good people,” he manages to grit out. “They’ll understand if we do end up going for the sale.”
My eyebrows raise. “Will they? Seems to me like they’re spending most of their time and effort trying to save the ranch, and they won’t take kindly to us waiting to swoop on it like vultures.”
“It’s just business,” Clint says harshly. But I can tell that there’s less conviction behind his words than normal.
I stand. “Just business. Right. Whatever you tell yourself to help you sleep at night.”
“Well then, you fuckin’ tell her!” he snarls.
I shake my head. “No way, man. This is something we all do. We’re all here for her. We’re doing this together, and she knows that. She likes that,” I add, my eyebrows pushing up my forehead. “She told us that she wanted all of us. So, if we’re going to let her down, we’re going to do it together.”
Clint stares at me. I can see his eyes searching mine, the starlight bright and luminous, but he won’t find any trace of my usual jokes there. I’m not fucking joking.
Finally, he sighs. “Go rest,” he murmurs. “She’s in her bed.”
I walk out from the porch, practically sprinting up the stairs after I set my shotgun next to the door. I poke my head into a couple of rooms, waiting until I find Nora’s.
She’s fast asleep in bed. Naked. Which is cool.
I strip, aware that I’m dirty but too tired to care. I slide in next to Nora. She makes a little noise in her sleep before she leans back against me, her ass tucking against my side.
I wrap my arms around her, breathing the smell of her hair.
I need to get Shane and Clint on board with telling her. She deserves to know that, while our motivations might have changed, initially, we wanted to buy the ranch. She needs to know.
But what I told Clint is also true. We’re doing this, the three of us, together.
The least that we can do is disappoint her together as well.
In the morning, Richard returns to the ranch. Nora and I are long out of bed, and Shane’s installing the security cameras that he apparently had lying around our barn on her house.
I choose not to ask questions about that. I have a feeling that he has far more security than even Clint and I realize, but in this situation, I’m kind of okay with it.
Nora looks up as her dad walks in the door. “Dad!” she cries, her voice very pleased. “How are you? What did the doctor say?”
Richard casts me a meaningful look, and I bow out. “I’ll be outside if you need me.”
I let them catch up, choosing to help Shane with the security instead.
“Yo,” I call up to him. He’s on a ladder at the edge of the farmhouse. “Need any help?”
“Yeah. Toss me up those wires,” he says, gesturing to the pile of wires on the ground.
I oblige, squinting. “How good are these things?”
“You could take a high-resolution still picture from sixty yards.”
“Cool,” I say, nodding my approval.
“Her dad back?”
I nod again. Shane finally comes down, wiping his hands as he does. I look up at him. “So, where does the feed from all of these go?”
“My computer. And an app that I’ll install on Nora’s and her dad’s phones.”
“They work without cell signal?”
“Connected to satellite internet,” he says, nodding at the sky. “Basically, have coverage twenty-four hours a day, except for a couple of hours when the comms are down.”
