Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 41621 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 166(@250wpm)___ 139(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41621 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 166(@250wpm)___ 139(@300wpm)
But there are luxury villas a few miles down in the valley. And that’s the direction he was heading.
I get there as the sun is setting, just in time to see a big shiny car the color of a ripe grape pull up to the front of the biggest, gaudiest house in the row.
There are two shapes moving behind the tinted window.
Tess. One of those shapes is Tess. I can feel her inside of me—I know this for a fact.
I wrench the wheel on my pickup around, block Patron’s car from the garage, and slam on the brake. I’m out and running by the time Patron yanks Tess out of the car. He’s got a Pacifico bottle in one hand and her arm clutched in his other.
Beautiful Tess. She’s still wearing one of the dresses, showing off her thick curvy legs. She’s all smooth skin and big hips. Just a glimpse of that copper hair floods me with the memory of her smells.
“Rutger!” she cries when she spots me.
I put myself between them and the door.
“Let. Her. Go.” I bite the words out one at a time, snapping my teeth so hard I’m surprised nothing bleeds.
Make him bleed. Hurt him. Kill him.
Patron is wary, looking at my axe. “Look, guy, if you think you can scare me—”
“Let her the fuck go!” I roar, lifting it in a half-swing.
He flinches and releases Tess’s arm.
But even though she’s free, she doesn’t immediately run to my side. Tears fill her beautiful eyes. All I wanna do is soothe my baby, kiss the moisture off her cheeks. “He’s going to take your land if I go,” Tess says. “I don’t want this for you. I’ll do anything to make sure you can keep your home.”
She’s got it all wrong.
The forest was my home.
It’s where I grew up, and it’s where I’ve lived my life. But now I know that it doesn’t matter. Not compared to her.
“Home is always with you,” I say. “Anywhere you are, that’s where I’m at home.”
“But…” She struggles with this idea. Tess still doesn’t know how good she is, how special she is.
I round on Patron. “I’ll sell you the land right now if you just leave her alone. Forever. Stop messing with her. You vanish out of her life completely.”
“I have your land. It’s mine. Just a matter of letting the time run out. But you don’t know that, do you?” He laughs. “The lawyers were right. They said it but I didn’t believe them. I mean, why would I? You can’t read.”
Cold washes over me.
My secret is out. Until now, it was my greatest fear that anyone would find out.
Now, I’m only afraid that Tess will realize how far out of my league she is. She’ll never want me now, period.
Running off with Patron must beat dealing with an adult man who can’t read.
Then I see her face.
It’s like she’s just realized something that answers every question she’s ever had.
“Rutger, Lindsay’s contract… I know scams and that’s not a scam. She’s being honest with you. You should sign and let her keep running her classes.” She licks her lips. “But these guys? They’re screwing with you. You take their contract to a lawyer tomorrow, and he or she will have them out of your hair by the end of the week. There’s still time to pay the taxes. You have a year before the courts can foreclose on the land. Every one of them has been lying to you. Even the people at the county. They are probaby taking bribes from--”
“Shut your fucking mouth, whore!” Patron roars.
Nobody talks to my woman like that.
He’s lucky I swing the other fist, not the one holding the axe.
Patron takes my fist in his jaw.
Bone cracks against bone. He stumbles across the lawn with a shout.
He swears at me, rolls up his sleeves. I take a step toward him with a snarl and he loses his footing, crashing down on his ass.
“What about the city?” I ask, turning to Tess.
She frowns. “What about it?”
“If I sell to him now, I can use the money to give you the life you want. I’ll follow you where you want to go, Tess, just don’t leave me. Please.”
“You… You think I want you to sell and move to the city?”
“My mother did, and—”
“I’m not her,” she says, smiling. “I love your mountain, and I love you, silly. What does the city have for me that the forest doesn’t?”
She turns and glares at Patron as he stumbles to get up, clearly three sheets to the wind.
“They’ve been conning you, Rutger. But it all goes away if you just take everything to a lawyer. They can settle the taxes legally. Trust me.”
I nod. “I do.”
“Good. And Lindsay needs you to sign her lease.” She grins, then cries out.