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Ryker gets me into his truck and shuts the door. My head lays against the headrest, my mind lost to fear. I don’t even hear Ryker get in his truck, but I feel his warm hands on me as he reaches over and buckles me in. His thumb and finger find my chin, and he pulls my face towards his. His thumb runs along my bottom lip, sending shivers through me.
“Zo, looks at me,” he commands. “I want you to listen to me. I won’t let anything happen to you. Do you understand? I promise, I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe.” Ryker leans his forehead against mine, and he seals his promise with a kiss.
It’s too late. As much as he wants to, he won’t be able to keep me safe all the time. He can’t be with me every second of the day. The minute I’m alone, that’s when he will strike. That’s when Mitch will grab me.
I’m a sitting duck.
Chapter 11
Ryker
It’s beenthree days since the incident at the diner. Zoey’s been an absolute wreck about it, and I don’t fault her one bit. With every bang or loud noise, she jumps, scared out of her fucking mind. The confident woman I knew is lost somewhere in that scared shell she walks around in now.
What’s worse is that Zoey’s having nightmares. I wake up to her screaming and her face wet with tears, her sweaty body shaking with fear. After what she shared with me the other night, I completely understand the nightmares. This guy’s a fucking piece of shit. Her parents are just as bad for not protecting her. Zoey’s entire life was taken away from her because the people she loved and trusted gave zero fucks about her.
But now she has me. I won’t let anything happen to her. Zoey will know that she’s safe with me. She may be pissed when she finds out my little secret, but I reached out to a friend of mine over at the FBI to look into this Mitch guy. Agent Dean Fuller. He’s a good guy, and I trust him with my life.
If what she’s telling me is true, that he seemed to change overnight and turned into an asshole, abusing her, then he’s extremely dangerous. My instincts are telling me that something triggered him to become the monster that Zoey says he became. What would cause such a drastic personality change?
The next thing I asked Fuller to do makes me hate myself. I also wanted him to dig into her background. I trust her to tell me things, but I need to know who and what I’m dealing with. It took her so long to tell me what was going on, and I don’t know how long I have until this Mitch asshole shows up.
I may have fucked everything we have up by simply sending him a few strands of her hair to run. Honestly, I hate myself for it.
But I can’t protect Zoey if I don’t know everything about her.
As I sit here in my office, I stare out the window thinking about the things that led me to this point in my life. Everything I’ve done brought me here to protect Zoey from her demons. In a way, she has breathed new life into me.
My phone rings and jostles me from my thoughts. Reaching into my back pocket, I take my cell and see ‘Dad’flashing on the screen. He doesn’t normally call unless there’s something urgent he needs to talk about.
My brows pull together with concern. “Hey, Dad. What’s up?”
“Ry, we have a situation at the ranch,” he says, breathlessly. “Any chance you can swing by real quick?” My father sounds upset, which isn’t like him. The man’s an upbeat guy, always happy and full of love and life.
“Is everyone okay? What’s going on?” I stand and grab my keys before walking towards the door of my office.
“Some of the cattle have escaped the northern grounds. We need to round them all up and get them back to the east pasture.” My dad groans. “Fuck.”
Shit. “Okay, I’m on my way. Did any get out into the road?”
“No, I don’t think so. Just get here when you can, Ry. We could use your help with this mess.”
“On my way, Dad.” I hang up the phone and walk out of my office and over to Deputy Dalton, who is sitting at her desk doing reports.
She looks up from her computer when she hears me coming over. “Hey, Sheriff. What’s going on?” Dalton unscrews her water and takes a sip, then focuses her attention on me.
“I need to head to the ranch for a couple of hours. Cattle got loose. Need to round them up. Call me if there’s an emergency.”
She smiles. “Go help your family. I got it from here. If anything happens, you’ll be the first to know. Go get them cattle, cowboy.” I narrow my eyes at her and shake my head. Dalton simply laughs and turns away.
She always jokes that I lead a double life, Sheriff by day and cowboy at night. Dalton says I’m most women’s fantasy. I don’t buy it.
When I finally pull up to the ranch, I park by the main house and jump out. I see my parents and Zoey huddled around each other in a heated discussion. Zoey looks like she’s been crying. Her arms are flailing all around as she talks to my parents. Finally, I see her shake her head and throw up her hands.
I come up next to Zoey and can see her eyes are puffy and red. “What the hell is going on?” I turn and face my parents, one hand on my duty belt and the other wrapped around Zoey.
“It’s my fault the cattle escaped,” she cries. I turn and look at her in surprise as she continues to talk. “I fixed the fence, or at least I thought I did. Maybe I didn’t do it right. But I mean, I know I did it. I’m not crazy. I remember fixing it a couple days ago. Nails, hammer, all that jazz,” Zoey rambles on, and eventually she starts full-blown crying.
I pull her closer to me as she sobs into my shirt. “Dad, what’s happened?”