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If he wanted to, he could have said she was lying right away and he hadn’t, which meant what he really wanted was for his sister to leave. And he was willing to do a lot to accomplish it.

“That’s...great,” Camilla said, smiling, even if slowly. “Levi, you really need somebody to help you get everything in order.”

She could have crowed in her victory. “I am helping him with that. I’m getting a good look at the ranch today to kind of see what’s going on, and to give more of a detailed overview.”

“He showed me your binder. It was very comprehensive,” said Camilla.

“Did he?” she asked, turning to look at Levi.

Levi’s expression was frozen, his teeth gritted together. “Yes, I figured I’d show her the plan so she wasn’t so worried.”

“Because you were so enthused about the plan yesterday?”

“The binder itself felt convenient,” he shot back.

Quinn nearly gasped, but didn’t. She nearly bent down and picked up one of the shoes from the pile by the door and lobbed it at his head, but she didn’t. Satisfaction had gone to rage in white-hot record time.

He’d been using her binder to placate Camilla, and he hadn’t been planning on using her expertise at all. He was just using her.

That dirty rat bastard.

Oh, she was mad now. And in work boots. She should go step on his foot while he was only wearing socks.

She wouldn’t, though, because she didn’t do that anymore.

She was Zen.

She was calm.

She was the sea.

Filled with monsters. That wanted to eat his head off.

The intensity of what she felt around Levi was too much. Much too much. Always too much.

“As you can see,” said Levi, “everything is under control.” He went over to the bench and started to put his boots on, easy as you please, and not acting at all like he had been caught being a duplicitous son of a bitch.

“I worry about Levi,” said Camilla. “I was thinking about dropping out so that I could come back and help manage the ranch.”

Quinn didn’t really hear all of it. What she heard was “dropping out.”

“Don’t drop out,” said Quinn. “Your education is the most important thing. I graduated a couple of years ago, and I’ve never regretted it. You have to finish college. It’s one thing that no one can ever take away from you. The things that you learn.”

“I tried to tell her that,” said Levi.

She stared at him, and this time it was her turn to be slow to speak.

“You tried to tell her that?” Quinn asked.

“Yeah,” said Levi, putting his boot down heavily. “I did.”

“It just doesn’t seem like you...”

“Doesn’t seem like what?” He looked at her with baiting eyes. She was smart enough to know there was a hook in there, and she didn’t want to bite down on it.

But that didn’t mean she had an easy time looking away.

She hadn’t noticed that his eyes were blue. But they were. Dark like sapphires, but they weren’t cool. Not really. Not when you looked deep enough. There was a spark there, and it looked dangerous.