Page 19 of Rangers Last Promise

“You don’t want that answer yet.”

Anger snaps through me.

“You don’t get to decide what I’m ready to hear.”

“No.” His voice remains infuriatingly calm. “But I get to decide whether I tell you in a tavern filled with people while someone outside may still have a rifle trained on the windows.”

I cross the room until I stand a few feet from him.

“Did my mother ask you to stay away from me too?”

“Yes.”

“Did you agree?”

“No.”

The answer surprises me.

“Then why have I never seen you since the funeral?”

“Because I didn’t need her to tell me I had no right to be part of your life.”

“Why not?”

Something moves behind his eyes.

Pain.

Old, deep, and buried beneath fifteen years of silence.

“Because your brother died beneath my hands.”

The room goes still.

My anger falters.

“You were with him?”

“Yes.”

“When he died?”

Wolf shifts as though he intends to intervene.

Doc silences him with a glance.

“Yes,” he says again.

I grip the journal tighter.

“Was he alone?”

“No.”

“Was he afraid?”

Doc takes a step toward me.