Page 19 of Claimed by the Cowboy (Havenstone: Mail Order Brides #3)

Tom

I sit beside Kitty’s hospital bed, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest.

It’s been more than twenty-four hours since she collapsed, and I’m feeling the strain. My eyes burn, gritty from lack of sleep, and every muscle in my body aches from dozing in this stiff plastic chair with her hand clutched in mine.

The chelation therapy is working—her color’s better, breathing easier—but seeing her hooked up to machines because someone poisoned her makes rage burn steady and cold in my gut.

I keep my expression calm for her, but inside, I’m at war.

Because while every bone in my body wants to plant myself in this chair until she’s well enough to leave, another voice—the harder, colder part of me—reminds me that three men are upstream still running heavy equipment into our water.

The same water that damn near killed my wife.

I can’t let them keep at it. Not for one more day.

I need to step away long enough to make sure those bastards never hurt her—or anyone—again.

Kitty’s fingers tighten around mine. “You’re thinking too loud, cowboy.”

I force a smile. “Am I?”

She nods faintly, her eyes still heavy with exhaustion but sharp enough to pin me. “You want to go.”

“Kitty—”

“I know you, Tom Sutton. You won’t sit here quietly while they’re still out there.” Her lips curve into a knowing smile. “And you shouldn’t. Not when our family needs you to fight.”

Emotion tears through me—pride, love, guilt, all tangled up. “The thought of leaving you here?—”

“—is killing you,” she finishes softly. “But I’ll be fine. Delaney’s here. She won’t let anything happen to me.”

My throat works as I lean closer, kissing her forehead. “You sure about this?”

“Go. Do what you need to do. Then get some sleep before you come back to me.” She smiles as she cups my face, brown eyes shining despite the fatigue. “By the time you get back, I’ll be up pole dancing around the IV with Delaney. Maybe even juggling bedpans if I get ambitious.”

A surprised laugh bursts out of me, relieving some of the ache in my chest. “God, woman, you’re impossible.”

“Lucky for you, I’m yours.” Her smile softens, her thumb brushing along my jaw. “Now go. Raise hell. Then bring your gorgeous ass back here so I can keep you in line.”

Delaney looks up from where she’s sitting in the corner, flipping through Kitty’s chart like she’s memorizing every line. “I’ll hold the line here, Tom. ”

I managed to convince Delaney to go back to the ranch with Luna so she could freshen up and grab a few hours’ sleep last night, so she’s sharper now, her protective instincts locked and loaded for her sister.

The knot in my chest eases a fraction. I nod. “Thank you.”

A knock sounds at the door a second before it opens, and Daniel enters the room. He takes one look at Kitty’s improved condition and nods with satisfaction.“You’re looking better.”

His gray eyes shift to me as he removes his worn Stetson and runs a hand through his dark hair. “Angus filled me in. Are we ready to move?”

I nod. “Almost.”

Daniel nods approvingly. “Good thing Delaney’s here to keep Kitty company while we handle those assholes.”

Delaney’s spine snaps straight, brown eyes going steel-cold. “While you men handle it, you mean?”

Daniel frowns, clearly not understanding why he’s suddenly in the crosshairs. “That’s not—I meant Kitty shouldn’t be left alone right now.”

Her chin tilts. “So you can do the real work?”

“Jesus Christ, I can’t say anything right with you,” Daniel mutters, dragging a hand down his face.

“Hey.” Kitty’s voice cuts through their standoff, weak but amused. “Could you two have your sexual tension crisis somewhere else? I’m trying to recover from being poisoned here.”

Both Daniel and Delaney whip around to stare at her, faces flushing red.

“Sexual tension?” Daniel sputters. “There’s no?—”

“We are not—” Delaney starts simultaneously.

“Right,” Kitty says dryly. “And I just have a really bad hangover.”

Delaney glances at her sister with immediate concern.

“You’re right. This isn’t the time or place.

” She blows out a shaky breath, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“I’m sorry, Daniel. I shouldn’t be snapping at you.

The last twenty-four hours have been… difficult, and I don’t know what to do with al l the emotions. ”

Daniel’s expression eases. “You don’t have to apologize for caring, Laney.”

Laney? My eyebrows rise at the nickname. Since when does anyone call her Laney?

Her eyes flick up to his, and something unspoken passes between them before she looks away quickly. “Still. I shouldn’t take it out on you.”

Kitty watches from the bed, a knowing little smile tugging at her lips. “Well, isn’t this cozy? Next thing you know, you two will be holding hands over my IV pole.”

Delaney mutters under her breath and turns away to hide the flush creeping up her neck.

Daniel huffs, though the corner of his mouth betrays the faintest twitch of a smile.

I stand and shrug into my coat. “Daniel, you’re with me and my brothers. We’re going to have a conversation with the men who poisoned my wife.” My hands clench into fists. “An educational conversation.”

“Ethan and Gabriel are waiting in the truck. Said they weren’t letting their cousins go into this without them,” Daniel says.

Grim satisfaction sparks in my chest. “Good. All the Suttons together. That’s how we end this.”

I lean down to kiss Kitty softly, breathing in her familiar scent. “I’ll be back soon, darlin’.”

“Be careful. And make sure they don’t hurt anyone else,” she whispers against my lips.

“Count on it.”

The drive to the contamination site takes twenty minutes through winding mountain roads. I sit in the passenger seat as Daniel drives, with Ethan and Gabriel in the back. The ranch truck is parked beside the creek when we arrive, telling me that Angus and Henry are already here.

The setup is exactly what I expected—heavy machinery positioned to dump industrial runoff directly into the water supply, three men in work clothes standing around looking guilty as hell. The kind of operation that requires willful ignorance about what you’re actually doing.

My brothers and cousins converge as I climb out of my truck, their faces grim with purpose.

“Situation?” I ask.

“Three locals,” Henry reports. “All been out of work since the lumber mill closed. Getting paid cash to run equipment and not ask questions.”

“Who’s paying them?”

“They claim they don’t know,” Angus says. “Cash payments, instructions left at a drop site. But the equipment rental traces back to a shell company.”

Ethan steps up beside me, steady as bedrock. “Shell companies don’t pay in cash unless they’ve got something ugly to hide.”

Gabriel lingers behind him, restless energy humming off him, jaw clenched tight. The black sheep of the Sutton cousins—quick to flare, quicker to act—but loyal to the bone when it comes to family. “Doesn’t matter,” he mutters. “They’re done here today. ”

I study the three men clustered beside their machinery. They look nervous, which is smart. They should be nervous.

“Tom,” Daniel says quietly as he joins us. “We should probably?—”

“Stay back unless I need you,” I cut him off, my voice taking on the command tone that’s been dormant since I left the SEALs. “This is my operation.”

I walk toward the three men with deliberate calm, letting them see exactly what’s coming their way. They huddle together like sheep sensing a wolf.

Behind me, the Sutton men fan out—Angus and Henry like immovable stone, Daniel sharp-eyed and calculating, Ethan measured and unshakable, Gabriel bristling with coiled aggression.

Six of us. One line. United.

I let the silence stretch long enough for the weight of that image to settle before I speak.

“Gentlemen,” I say, stopping about ten feet away. “I’m Tom Sutton. Which one of you wants to explain why you’ve been poisoning my water supply?”

The tallest one—a grizzled man in his fifties with calloused hands—steps forward with false bravado. “We ain’t done nothing illegal. Just following instructions for a legitimate environmental testing operation.”

“Environmental testing.” I let the words hang in the air. “That’s interesting. Because my wife is in the hospital with heavy metal poisoning.”

“We didn’t know anyone got hurt. We were told it was monitoring equipment,”the mustached man beside him pipes up.

“Monitoring equipment that dumps lead and cadmium into a creek that feeds ranch wells.” I step closer, and all three men instinctively back up. “You poisoned my wife.”

“Look, man, we’re just hired hands,” the youngest worker, a man with red hair and freckles, says quickly. “We don’t know nothing about what the equipment actually does.”

“Bullshit.” The word cracks like a whip. I take one slow step forward and grind my boot down on a plastic valve, crushing it flat with a snap that makes all three men jump.“You knew exactly what you were doing. You just didn’t care who got hurt as long as you got paid.”

Behind me, I hear my brothers and cousins spreading out, creating a loose circle around the group. We’re not threatening them—not yet—but we’re making it clear that running isn’t an option.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I continue, my voice deadly calm. “You’re going to shut down this operation. Right now. You’re going to remove every piece of equipment from this site. And you’re going to tell me who hired you.”

“We can’t do that,” the older man says, but his voice wavers. “We got contracts?—”

“You had contracts.” I take another step forward, letting them see the controlled violence in my eyes. “Now you have a choice. Cooperate, or explain to the sheriff why a young woman is fighting for her life because of your greed.”

“Jesus, I told you this felt wrong,” the redheaded man says to his colleague. “Some girl’s in the hospital?”

“Shut up,” the older man snaps.