From Ashes (29 page)

“Outside,” Gage barked. “Now.”

“Gage, no, no! Please don’t!” Amanda pleaded, and looked toward me for help.

Jesse just looked like a man who was about to face his executioner.

“Gage,” I whispered, but he pushed Jesse out of the bedroom door and shut it behind them.

“No!” Amanda whispered loudly. “Cassidy, please don’t let him do anything to Jesse!” She was struggling with her comforter, trying to get out from underneath it so she could follow them, but I stopped her.

“Stay here, Amanda, I got it.”

“Please, Cassidy, we were just kissing, I swear.”

“I know.” I smiled and left the room. Not like Gage could say much anyway. Amanda was a month older than me, and we were obviously doing much more than kissing. Looking down the hall and listening for raised voices, I tiptoed down the stairs and walked outside until I found the boys and sighed.

“ . . .
my
girl, and then you go for my sister? Are you insane? I don’t like you and I sure as hell don’t want you touching her.”

“Gage, man, just listen to me, it’s not like that with her—”

“No. You’ll stay away, get it?”

“I can’t,” Jesse said with an exasperated sigh.

“You can, and you will. Cassidy and my sisters are off-limits, Jesse.”

“Babe,” I said softly, and shook my head.

“Cass, no. He had his hands all over her and was in bed with her.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “And you happened to see that because you were coming to get in bed with me.”

“Whose side are you on, Cass?”

“Yours, Gage, of course,” I answered honestly, and took a few steps toward him so I could touch his arm. “But, Gage, I talked to Isabella.”

“So?” His eyebrows were drawn down, and I knew he wasn’t getting it.

“No, I mean . . . I talked. To. Isabella,” I said with a jerk of my head toward Jesse, both eyebrows raised this time.

Gage was shaking his head like I’d lost my mind, and then he stopped and he hissed, “No, no way. Not my sister. Not with him.”

I just smiled at him and nodded.

“Seriously?” He made an annoyed grunt and looked at Jesse like he wanted him gone. “Him and my sister?”

Jesse’s eyes and smile were huge when he looked at me. “You asked Ma?”

“Like you needed to know what your mom said for you to know your feelings for Amanda.”

Jesse’s smile widened even further until he looked at Gage.

“Damn it.” Gage sighed and glared at Jesse. “You hurt my sister, I’ll kill you.” And with that he grabbed my hand and led me back into the main house, up the stairs, and into Amanda’s room.

She was sitting on the edge of her bed with a worried expression, and when she saw me grin mischievously at her, it vanished.

“He keeps his hands to himself, all right?” Gage clarified while pointing his finger at Amanda.

Amanda nodded and rushed toward the door.

“Whoa, where are you going?”

“Gage, he’s leaving in the morning. I’m gonna spend as much time with him as possible. We’ll be good, I promise.”

Gage started to protest, but I put one hand flat on his chest and squeezed his hand with the other. “They’ll be fine, Gage. Come on, let’s go to bed.”

He grumbled to himself as we crawled under the covers. “I don’t trust him at night with her.”

“Well, the way I see it, they’re doing us a favor.”

“How so?” he scoffed, still burning holes through the bedroom door.

I sat up and tore my shirt off. “Because now we have the room to ourselves.”

His eyes snapped to mine, then down to my bare chest, and his face lit up. “Be a shame to waste that.”

M
Y CHEEKS BURNED
as I remembered that night, and I was really glad Tessa was facing the other way. I felt bad for going against her, and I’d vowed after that night to respect her wishes until Gage and I got married, whenever that would be. It would definitely be easier at night now, seeing as we’d gone into town yesterday and bought absolutely everything that we needed for our new place. What we couldn’t haul back had been delivered that morning and, with everyone’s help, everything was already set up. Gage had officially moved into our home today and would be sleeping there, while I slept here, a good five-minute drive away. During the day, however, I’d need to keep myself around Tessa so I wouldn’t find myself wandering over to break in our new bed, and the shower, bathtub, dining room table, couches, and every other surface. The blush came back full force just as Gage and Tyler came into the kitchen.

Gage took one look at my cheeks and smiled wickedly. “Gonna go to town, darlin’, we’ll be back.”

“Oh! Don’t forget I need a new phone charger. Did we forget something else?”

“Gotta get stuff for the TV: surround sound, gaming systems . . . stuff like that,” Tyler answered, looking bored, and Gage just stared at me.

All that stuff sounded more like Ty, not Gage, and I was pretty sure Ty wouldn’t be bored with it. But what did I know? “All right, have fun.”

G
AGE

“
G
AMING SYSTEMS,
T
Y?
Really? Do you not know me at all?”

“Well, I knew you weren’t going to want to lie to her, so I stepped in for you!”

“True.” I pushed his shoulder and climbed into the truck, waiting for him to get into the passenger side before I continued. “Guess I can thank you for that.”

“Uh, yeah. That’s what I thought.” Ty smirked. “You get that ring-size thing you did?”

Grinning, I held up the piece of fishing line I’d tied around Cassidy’s ring finger last night in her sleep. I’d been so damn nervous that she was going to wake up, but I couldn’t think of another way to figure out the size without being obvious. Not like she didn’t know I planned on marrying her as soon as freakin’ possible, but still. I needed to be able to surprise her even with her expecting it.

“So are we getting the whole thing done today?”

“Only if they don’t need to resize the ring; if they do, the rest of the surprise has to wait until it’s done too.”

“And you called the people about it?”

“Did it this morning. No matter what, we’re gonna go pick one out today and pay for it, but they know we’ll be taking it either today or whenever the ring’s ready.”

“Not gonna lie, bro, I’m jealous. I might have to use this one day. It’s the ultimate
aww
moment.” He snickered.

“Yeah, I hope so. I want her to like it.”

“Hey,” he said, and waited until I glanced at him. “She loves you, she won’t care how you ask her. She just wants to be with you. But this? She’s absolutely going to love it, trust me.”

I couldn’t help but smile. I was pretty sure he was right. I still wanted it perfect though. “Weird, people aren’t usually on this road,” I said as we passed a dark Charger headed the opposite way from us.

“Guy looks familiar.” Tyler said quietly, “He’s not from one of the neighboring ranches?”

I shook my head and looked in the side-view mirror to look at the back of the car until it was out of sight. “No, don’t think I’ve ever seen him before.”

“Huh. Didn’t go to school with us?”

“No.” I drew out the word, trying to put the face to a name. But I was positive I didn’t know that guy.

“Swear he looked familiar,” Ty said, more to himself. “Sweet car.”

I grunted in agreement and turned on the radio. We had a good half hour before we got to the jewelry store, and I honestly couldn’t have cared less whether Tyler thought he knew the guy. All I could think about was the fact that I was going to buy a ring for Cassidy.

“Stop the truck!” Tyler yelled a little over a song later. “Stop the truck, go back!”

“What the hell?”

“Gage, turn the truck around!” He actually leaned over and tried to grab for the steering wheel as I slammed on the brakes.

My truck fishtailed and dirt rose up around it for a few seconds before settling.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

“Dude! That’s Green! That was Detective Green! Go back to the ranch!”

“Are you shitting me, Ty?” I’d just told him that morning as he helped me move the heavy stuff into the house about what Cassidy had said about Connor. This was a new low, even for Tyler.

“Swear to God, Gage, that was him. Go back now.”

With a curse I flipped the truck the rest of the way around and peeled out. “If you’re messing with me, Ty—”

“I’m not!” he snapped. “I told you I didn’t like that jackass from the second I met him. He challenged me in my house. I didn’t like him then, definitely didn’t like him this morning, hate him right now. Get back to the ranch.”

I grabbed my cell out of my pocket and called Cassidy twice before calling the main house line.

“Hello?”

“Manda!”

“What’d you forget?”

“Nothing, where’s Cass and why isn’t she answering her phone?”

“Well, I don’t know why she isn’t answering her phone but she and Mama went out to the side of the house to pick something that they needed for dinner.”

“I’m on my way back, but I need you to get them inside. Someone’s coming by to see Cassidy. I don’t want him near her, you understand?”

Amanda gasped. “Oh God, Gage, is she in danger?”

“No, but if he goes near her I’ll be in a hell of a lot of trouble, Amanda. Get her inside. Mama too.”

“Okay, all right I’ll—oh, Gage . . . is he in a black Dodge?”

I pulled the phone away from my ear and cursed loudly. “Yes, Amanda, he is. I’m flooring it, but get Cassidy away from him. Where are the little girls? I don’t want them around when I come face-to-face with him.”

“They’re taking naps,” she said distractedly.

“Good.”

“Oh, shit,” Amanda mumbled, then yelled Cassidy’s name away from the phone and the line disconnected.

“Shit, I think she’s already talking to him.” I gripped the steering wheel and pressed the gas down farther. “I don’t want her near him, Ty. I didn’t want her to think of him again, and I thought if he never called her again it would be too damn soon. I didn’t think he’d fuckin’ show up here! How did he even know where she was?”

“I don’t know, bro, I’m sorry I didn’t recognize who he was sooner. Just try to keep calm. I don’t think it’d be a good idea to fight someone else in front of Cassi, especially a detective. You don’t need to go to jail, Gage.”

I didn’t respond, I just gritted my teeth and focused on not losing control of my truck on the country road as I raced back to the ranch. As soon as I was in the driveway, I made it a point to pull up next to his car rather than block him in; no need to give him a reason to stay longer than he already had.

Cassidy looked up with wide, scared eyes, Amanda looked sorry, and Mama just looked confused. Detective Green didn’t even turn around as I slammed on the brakes, threw the truck in park, and jumped out.

“Guess you didn’t understand the first time, but I don’t want you talking to her. Which sure as hell means I didn’t want you showing up here either.” I didn’t stop walking until I was in front of Cassidy, facing her with my back to him. “Darlin’, go inside. Please,” I begged softly.

“I’m here to make sure she’s all right—you know, what you should have been doing when she was in California.”

I turned to glare at him and was extremely happy I got to look down at him. Cassidy hadn’t moved, and her wide eyes still looked terrified as she obsessively spun her dad’s ring around on her finger. “Cass, baby,
please
go inside.”

“You always telling her what to do too? You’re the one who called to tell me to stay away, even after what she told you about us. What about what she wanted? I find it hard to believe that she wanted no contact with me after everything she went through with me. So now, if you’d step aside, I’d rather just talk to her.”

“Man, what the hell aren’t you getting? I don’t want you near my girl! Get the fuck off my property and go back to California!”

“Gage Michael Carson,” Mama mumbled under her breath, and I knew I was gonna get hit over the head when all this was over.

“Cassidy, are you sure this is what you want? Don’t you see what he’s like?” Connor asked, leaning around me to look at her, and my body went rigid.

“What I’m like? What
I’m
like? I’m a guy who’s trying to keep his girl from the prick who’s trying to take her from him! I have every right to hate you right now, and swear to God if you weren’t carrying that damn badge I would beat the ever-living shit out of you.”

“Gage Michael Car—” Mama had begun again.

“You do not,” I said, and turned my body so I was facing him and staring down at him, “
do not
kiss another man’s girl repeatedly, especially if you already know she’s taken. You do not beg her to leave her man and stay with you. You do
not
keep her pinned to a wall until she promises to come back to you if it doesn’t work out with her guy. And you. Do. Not. Fly halfway across the U.S. to talk to her after her man has already warned you to stay away. And while I’m mentioning that, you wanna share how you knew where to find her? If you’re stalking Cassidy, I promise you I’ll act like I don’t know about the badge.” Cassidy’s body went solid behind me and I worked at reining in my anger. I’d almost lost her once because of it; I wasn’t about to go through that again.

Connor had the balls to smirk at me and look around me to smile at Cassidy. “I knew your name, knew you had a ranch in Texas. Your ranch is on Google, dumbass; I’m not stalking her. After what Cassidy’s been through, I don’t trust a phone call from a pissed-off boyfriend that I already know has given her a black eye to tell me that she’s okay. And warning or not, she means something to me, so I need to know she’s all right, and since she’s not answering my calls, I took the only other option.”

Looking over my shoulder, I asked Cassidy, “He’s been calling?”

Her head shook and she shrugged. “My phone died my first day here. I lost my charger.”

God, I felt stupid. I’d already known that, seeing how her phone was currently in our house being charged with
my
charger. Which would be why she hadn’t answered her phone when I called on my way back.