Page 31 of Wild and Unruly (Three Rivers Trevors Ranch #3)

She reaches out with her rope, and I feel myself holding my breath, my arm already up in the air swinging my rope, and the minute I see she’s hit her mark, I throw my rope, wrapping it around the back leg and pulling taut, watching as Bonnie does the same.

I whoop as I throw my rope and gallop to where she lets her own rope loose. A bright smile stretches across her lips, and I lean over, closing in on her and meeting her halfway for a kiss.

The crowd is whooping and hollering. My hat comes off from the force of our kiss, and I smile as I hop off my horse to grab it.

“That was Stetson Cash and Bonnie Helix with a time of…” The announcer pauses and I squint at the screen, the sun blinding me from seeing it.

“Stetson!” Bonnie yells excitedly, covering her mouth with one hand when the announcer finishes his statement.

“Eight point eight seconds! Putting them at the top of the leaderboard!” The crowd cheers around us, and I turn to Bonnie, whose arm is in the air in victory. I do the same and run toward her. I take her foot out of her stirrup and step into it, bringing me to her height and kissing her again.

“Fuck yeah, baby!”

She smiles and hands me my reins, a blush working over her cheeks from so much PDA, and I can’t help but be glad for it, loving that sweet color on her cheeks and knowing that everyone in the vicinity knows that this woman is mine.

We leave the arena, and just then my phone rings. I dig into my pocket, pulling it out and seeing Dani’s name on the receiver.

“Dani! Hey! We just killed it out there.” Since this show was so far away from the ranch, it wasn’t conducive to have everyone come out and leave the ranch empty-handed, so she and CT stayed back today.

“Stets, that’s great.” Her voice is subdued, and I frown.

“Everything okay?”

“Bonnie near you?” she asks instead of answering me, and I glance at my girlfriend, who’s walking next to me on her horse, letting them cool. She bites her lip in concern, obviously reading the concern on my face.

“Yeah,” I answer warily. “What’s going on? ”

“The article…um…” Dani pauses, and I can hear CT talk in the background, saying home. “Yeah, okay. Hey, can you guys get home soon?”

I purse my lips in irritation, realizing that my dreams of trailer time is slowly slipping out of my hands. “Yeah, okay, we’ll get headed out.”

“Okay, see you soon.”

“Everything okay?” Bonnie asks when I hang up, and I angle my horse toward the exit of the warm-up arena and head toward the trailer.

“I don’t know. She didn’t really say, just that we needed to get home.”

“Well, we should hurry then, in case someone is hurt or something,” she says, swinging off her horse the minute we’re by the trailers.

Unease follows me as I move around my horse, patting him on the neck and giving him a treat. I take care of our tack, and Bonnie moves around me, doing the same for her horse. While they continue to dry, we make sure there’s hay in the trailer hay bags and pack our trailer full of tack.

Even as we drive home, the horses safely tucked away in the trailer and Bonnie tucked under my arm in my truck, I feel something unfamiliar. Dread, I think. Dread that when I get home, that other shoe I was so worried about is going to drop.

Fuck. Dani mentioned the article. I read the article. It was amazing. I don’t know what could have been in it that would make Dani worry.

I frown and look at the woman who is dozing now on my shoulder and squeeze her tighter to my side. She didn’t say the article was for this next issue, plus I think she mentioned editing. So, how did Dani see it already ?

Worry and questions plague me until we’re pulling into the dirt drive that leads down to the barn. CT and Dani step out of the barn as we park, and we head to get our horses.

Mav and another hand come and take our horses, making my concern amp up even higher and I take a deep breath, reaching for Bonnie’s hand and pulling her to my family.

“What’s going on?” I direct my question to my cousin, and she looks at Bonnie.

I feel Bonnie’s hand sweating and squeeze it reassuringly.

“Bonnie, your article was published in the digital journal this morning.”

Bonnie frowns and shakes her head. “Shoot. That was supposed to be for next month’s issue.” She reaches for her pocket, probably looking for her phone and then realizes it’s been in her bag in the back of my truck this whole time and runs to get it.

I turn to Dani and shrug. “What’s the problem? You don’t like the article?” I feel my hackles rise, something protective coming to the surface, because I don’t want Dani to say anything negative to Bonnie. There isn’t anything negative to say. “I thought it was amazing.”

Dani shakes her head and CT sighs, worry marring his brows. “It’s not that article, Stets.”

Worry and anxiety crush my chest as Bonnie returns, her face white with worry and her gaze on me.

“What?” I ask, looking from her to my family and lifting my hands out to the side. “What’s going on?”

Bonnie looks like she’s about to cry, so I turn to her, grabbing her hands and realizing one is holding her phone. “Baby, what’s wrong? What happened?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispers to me and then hands me the phone. On the front page is a picture and not of what I thought. It’s of Tommy Smith.

I look back to her and frown. “What is this?”

“Stets, it’s an article exposing Tommy’s actions,” Dani says, just loud enough for me to hear.

I snap my gaze over to my cousin then back to Bonnie. “What?”

“I’m sorry, I know?—”

“I told you to stay away from him.”

Something rises in Bonnie’s expression then, and I brace myself for her comeback.