Page 114 of For Cowgirls and Kings

“Oh fuck,” I growl, gently picking up Dale, and putting her back into the chair before walking towards the sounds. Gus cusses a string of colorful slurs even for him, but I barely notice.

What the fuck is she doing here? And why?

I walk through the screen door, Gus catching it with his hand before it slams shut, alerting the girls still asleep inside. His gun glitters in the moon light—silver and full of ominous promise—and even though I know who it is, I’m not against him carrying the fucking thing out here.

She did show up to his house unannounced, in the middle of the night.

“Valentina, what the fuck?”

“Who—” Gus starts, when V huffs loudly, her conversation with who I now recognize is McCrae cut off. She whirls towards me, a red jacket of some kind fluttering in the moonlight.

“Are you going to let this brute threaten your sister with a fucking gun Mateo? Really?” Her voice is shrill, slicing through the night, and Gus and I shush her in the same breath. If we can keep the girls safe inside, this’ll go smoother.

“I don’t know who the fuck you are, seeing as I’ve never met you. Besides, you’re here in the middle of the fucking night, with a man I do not trust.” Gus’s words are hushed, each word laced with venom.

Valentina flashes her teeth in the darkness, herstance squaring to a challenge. Like she’s daring him to shoot her. And as much as I don’t like my sister right now, I don’t want my friend to go to jail for murdering her, on his wedding night of all things. There has to be a better ending to this madness besides that.

I stomp forward, putting my own body between them. I’m still not sure Gus won’t shoot—I know he’s slightly unhinged when it comes to protecting Stetson. But I have to dosomething.

“McCrae, care to jump in here?” I growl, grabbing V’s arm and twisting her rigid form away from Gus. McCrae makes no move to intervene, as if frozen by some invisible wall, and that terrifies me more than anything.

I turn back to V. “You can’t answer any of my phone calls for weeks, and then you show up here in the middle of the night? You couldn’t even be bothered to show up when Dale was missing, but now the drive isn’t too far? What the fuck is going on V?”

Her eyes flick to mine, pleading in her gaze—a momentary slip in her venomous expression—before looking at Gus, and the house behind him. She takes a step back, her eyes burning into mine once more. “What are you doing here, Mateo? You don’t fucking belong.”

My nose scrunches as I tip my head to the sky with an exasperated sigh. “This is ridiculous.”

“I agree,” McCrae grumbles, his feet shuffling in the sand.

“Why haven’t you answered my phone calls?” I ask, irritation causing my voice to tremble.

“I had nothing to say,” she spits, her arms crossing.

“Well, I had plenty to say. Starting with several questions, including why the fuck you knew where to start looking for her. What does that have to do with anything?” I pause, sucking in a breath, before asking the question that haunts memost of all. “Did Dale get kidnapped because of something you did?”

Her eyes narrow slightly, before she shrugs. “She’s not a part of our world. She never was supposed to be. What happened to her was because of your misplaced interest, because you made her your weakness. Because, make no mistake Mateo”—she takes a step toward me, glittering red nail punching into my chest—“she’s nothing more than that. A weakness.”

“Do you fucking hear yourself? Are you really that much of a monster?” I bite out, my voice rising in volume.

“I am what they made me. I won’t apologize for that because someone in our family has to be strong, and lord knows it isn’t you.”

“How did you know where she was?” I ask again, pressing into her finger. She pulls it back.

“That’s not the question you should be asking.”

“That’s enough, Valentina. This isn’t the right time.” McCrae makes a move to step between us, and I hear Gus advance closer. He still might not like me, but he’d protect me, just like he’d protect Stetson and the girls. And something about that is a balm to the wound my own sister loves to pour salt into.

It’s not a relationship kind of devotion, or a lover kind of protection—it’s a familial love. The kind that comes without restraint or rules, that comes even when you’re mad at each other.

McCrae’s eyes widen a fraction at Gus’s advance and he raises a hand. “I’d never hurt Mateo, brother.”

“You hurt me plenty,” Gus growls, his voice thick with emotion and my heart cracks for him.

“Do you really think you’re helping her?” Valentina hisses, her voice bordering on panic. She’s frantic, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.

“Yes,” I state, feeling it inmy bones.

Her face contorts into a look of disgust. “You’re crippling her, Mateo. You think I’m strong and powerful because nothing bad ever happened to me, because you somehow protected me from the worst?” She steps closer, her voice barely above a whisper. “You have no idea what I’ve been through. But I can tell you I’m strong because not one other person was there to fight my battles for me and I had to learn to do it for myself. You’re crippling her, ruining her chances of ever healing. I do regret what happened to her, no one should have to go through torture like that. But it was not my fault. Not really.”