She paused for a moment, hand on the door, gathering her courage. Then, with a deep breath, she flung open the door, the knife raised high. Her gaze swung around the room, and her held breath left her lungs with a swoosh. She lowered the knife down to her side and let it slide onto the floor with a dull thump.
The room was empty, but it hadn’t been left alone. Someone had gone through her belongings. Her clothes were strewn about the room, lying in heaps upon the floor. The mattress had been cut, exposing the horsehair-and-cotton padding, and pushed off the rope frame. And her book, her precious, dirty little secret, lay open. A knife stuck out of the center of it.
The smell of cigar fumes made her sick to her stomach.
Scharlie
turned and ran from the house, holding a hand to her mouth. Once outside, she fell to her knees as dry heaves took over her body. Since she hadn’t had anything to eat, only clear bile burned her mouth as she spit it out. Shivers took hold of her, and she curled her arms around herself in an effort to ward off the chill that had settled in her bones.
Someone had been in her home. Someone had violated her in the most horrible, basic way.
Scharlie
felt exposed, rubbed raw. The day had darkened, and her home didn’t feel safe anymore. Suddenly the world around her had an air of sinister threat that hadn’t existed only moments before.
The sound of thundering horses trickled to her, making her stand. Her heartbeat matched the sound, and she ran to a nearby tree to hide as she watched to see who the riders were.
She saw Cassidy and Garrett and flew from behind the tree. Now that a semblance of safety had shown up, terror completely engulfed her. The stress of the past few minutes left her light-headed as tears welled in her eyes and poured over her cheek.
The horses came to a skid in the yard, and Cassidy and Garrett practically flew off them to grab her.
“
Scharlie
! What happened?” Cassidy asked as he pulled her into his arms.
“Someone…someone in the house,” she managed to say.
Garrett pulled his gun out of his holster and immediately headed for the house. Cassidy remained, holding her, though he pulled out his gun as well and shielded her with his body.
They watched as Garrett circled around the house once, looking in the windows. He crept up the steps, onto the porch, and pushed open the door. He went inside.
“No one is in there now,” she whispered. “But someone had been while I was working in the garden.”
Cassidy’s arm tightened around her.
In a moment, Garrett came back out and walked toward them. A grim slash flattened his lips, and a frown marred his forehead.
“Cigar smoke,” he told Cassidy.
“Fuck!”
Scharlie
jumped from the venom in Cassidy’s voice.
“We have to tell her.”
“No,” Cassidy said.
“We don’t have a choice. He’s here.”
“What’s going on?” she cried. “Who’s here?”
Cassidy and Garrett stared at one another. They seemed to be speaking to each other without words, and their silence stretched all her nerves to the breaking point.
“What is it you’re not telling me?” she yelled, demanding, pulling out of Cassidy’s arm and glaring at them.
“
Scharlie
—” Cassidy began.
“No!” she interrupted. “My house has been violated! Someone came in and destroyed my things, so it’s time you told me everything.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his curls. “Breaux Cox smokes cigars.”
It took a moment for the words to sink in. “Oh my God. Is he the one who did this? Is he here, in Rock Ridge?”
They didn’t confirm her question, but then again, she wondered who else it could be.
“He killed
Harlow
. What does he want with me?”
“Shit,” Garrett swore, running a hand through his hair. “They must have followed us.”
She looked back and forth between them. “Who are ‘they’?”
“Cox rides with two men named Mitch
Cautling
and Lee Barnes,” Cassidy answered.
She blinked. Dread washed through her body. “What do you mean by that? And how do you know their names?”
When he hesitated, Garrett answered. “Because we rode with them.”
She shifted her attention. “Rode with them. You and Cassidy.”
“And
Harlow
.”
“No!”
Garrett grabbed her shoulders, but she shook him off and backed away.
“Outlaws,” she whispered, eyes wide. “You’re telling me all of you…you’re outlaws.”
“
Scharlie
—”
“Yes,” Cassidy answered.
“Cass!” Garrett protested.
Cassidy pinned him with a hard glare but answered her. “It’s complicated,
Scharlie
. Harlow, Garrett, and I met up with Breaux Cox and his men, and we all figured six was a good round number.”
“You make it sound so ordinary,” she replied bitterly. Tears welled up in her eyes. “Why did you come here? Why did you let me know about
Harlow
? Why did you make me—”
She stopped and abruptly turned away. She wouldn’t, couldn’t, reveal that she had fallen in love with them because they didn’t deserve that type of respect.
“You’re bad men,” she said sadly.
“Breaux Cox is a bad man,” Cassidy told her.
She spun, angry. “You’ve killed people, haven’t you?”
“I told you, it’s complicated.”
“The truth, Cassidy! You’ve killed people. You’ve hurt people.”
It seemed to take forever for him to answer. “Yes.”
Scharlie
felt her heart crumble. Tears coursed down her face. “And what was I? Did you like hurting me? Taking advantage of me?”
She saw his jaw lock as he turned away.
“No,” Garrett answered for him. “It’s not like that.”
“Garrett!” Cassidy replied in a warning tone.
“I won’t have her thinking we used her, Cass!” Garrett reached out and grabbed her hand and pulled her away from Cassidy. She stumbled after him, trying to keep her footing. Finally they came to the new barn, and he let go of her hand, only to spin around and pin her with his dark, turbulent eyes.
“I can’t speak for Cassidy, even though I know he feels the same as I do. I can only tell you what’s in my heart.” He touched his chest. “But I’ve known you for so long. Harlow would tell us stories about you, share the letters you wrote to him when they caught up with us, and every time he said your name, I fell more and more in love with you.”
“How can I believe you? Everything you’ve told me so far has—”
“Been to protect you,” he finished. “
Scharlie
, I knew all about what happened between your stepfather and Harlow. How you were hurt, badly, and how he defended you. Is it so hard to believe now that Cassidy and I wouldn’t continue to protect you as much as possible?”
She shook her head as her tears spilled down her cheeks. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”
He cupped her face and wiped the tears away with his thumbs. “All you need to think about is this.”
His mouth swooped down and landed on hers. His kiss was gentle, yet firm. As his lips moved over hers enticingly, she seduced with her own, inviting him in. Her body came to life as he mastered her with only a kiss. And even though she wanted to throw away her doubts, the truth burned its way into her brain, forcing her to remember that this man was no good.
When he pulled away, he rested his forehead against hers. “I love you,
Scharlie
Thorn.”
She broke away and looked up at him with very sad eyes.
“Get out of here.”
She saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. “What?”
“I said, get out of here. I don’t want to see you again. You or Cassidy.”
And then she turned and walked away from him, trying to ignore how her heart was breaking.
Chapter Eleven
Scharlie
lay in bed that night, unable to sleep. She had patched up the mattress as best as she could and turned it over, since the bottom side hadn’t been damaged. Once she had heard Cassidy and Garrett leave, she had cleaned up the mess in her house, refusing to cry. She refused to let the image of some horrible, faceless man immobilize her. She may not know what Breaux Cox looked like, but did it matter? A monster was a monster.
Now she stared at the ceiling, though she couldn’t see anything in the darkness. She hadn’t been able to watch Cassidy and Garrett ride away, to gather their belongings and disappear. Forever.
Forever?
Of course it had to be forever. They had desecrated her memories. They had taken
Harlow
away from her. She could never forgive them.
She sighed and rolled to her side, tucking her hands under her chin and bringing her knees up. Every part of her hurt, as if she had fallen off a cliff and every bone in her body had broken.
And now she couldn’t sleep. All she kept thinking about was Garrett’s eyes when he’d begged her to understand and the devastation she saw in them when she told him to leave. If truth be told, she really believed him in that moment.
But still, the facts were clear. Cassidy had even admitted it. They were outlaws.
Harlow
was an outlaw.
Damn them.
* * * *
She was awoken by the pounding on her front door.
Scharlie
opened her eyes and sat up, unfolding her cramped limbs that had gone stiff in the middle of the night. She still wore the same clothes as yesterday. Her hair was hanging limply on her shoulders. She rubbed a hand over her face, trying to wipe the last vestiges of sleep away. The pounding on her door came again, and
Scharlie
hurried from the bedroom.
“Who is it?” she called through the wooden door.
“Cassidy. And Garrett.
Scharlie
, can you open up?”
She leaned her forehead against the door. “Why should I?”
“Please,
Scharlie
, just listen to us.”
“Why should I? For all I know, you’re still working with Cox!”
He was silent for a moment. “Do you really think that after what we shared?” he asked in a quiet, subdued tone.
“I don’t know what to think,” she admitted. “You’ve completely shattered my world. I was so scared last night, so angry.”
“Did you think we wouldn’t stay around to protect you?” Garrett asked through the door. “
Scharlie
, please, you’re in danger.”
“Am I really? From my point of view, you’re just as dangerous as Breaux Cox.”
“We’d never hurt you,” Cassidy said.
Anger rose quickly and sharply inside her. She unlocked the door and yanked it open, staring at Cassidy with every ounce of fury she felt.
“You’ve already hurt me, Cassidy!” she yelled, poking her finger into his chest. “You made me believe in you, made me believe that I could depend on you. That somehow I managed to find not one man but two who could look past this scar on my face and see the woman under it. See the person I really am and love her. But instead you’ve ruined the one thing I had left. My brother.”
She went to slam the door in his face, but his left hand stopped it. With his right hand, he grabbed her upper arm and forced her back so that they could enter, Garrett right behind Cassidy. He closed the door, and suddenly she found herself alone in the house with them.
“Get out,” she ordered, trying to sound firm. But the demand came out breathless and just a tad desperate.
“No,” he said. “We gave you space last night to calm down, but Breaux Cox is here,
Scharlie
. And we’re out of time. We need to leave.”
Scharlie
stared into his eyes, trying to see the truth, before turning to look at Garrett. All she saw was resolution.
“I’m not running away from my home,” she vowed.
Cassidy swore under his breath and turned away, running his hands through his hair. Garrett stepped past him and took
Scharlie
by the arms. “Nothing is more important than your safety,
Scharlie
. No matter what you think of us, no matter what you think of this situation, you got to understand it’s not worth your life. We’re too vulnerable here. If you’re safe, then Cassidy and I can hunt Cox and his men down.”
“You mean you can kill them.”
He nodded.
She sighed and pulled out of his hands. She turned her back and wrapped her arms around her as her mind quickly raced through the past twenty-four hours. Did she have a choice but to trust Cassidy and Garrett now? Breaux Cox had invaded her sanctuary, had broken the illusion of safety and privacy. And if she was really honest with herself, she would admit that Cassidy and Garrett had made her feel secure.