Standing His Ground: Greer (Porter Brothers Trilogy 2)

“No. Can I watch cartoons?”

“Yes, I’ll watch them with you.”

She let go of his hand inside the door, worried about what was going on at their house. She was tempted to call Beth and ask if Logan could stay with her so that she could see what damage had been to her home.

She was so intent on thinking about going over there that she didn’t hear her cell phone ringing behind her.

“Holly, your phone is ringing.”

She turned from the doorway, taking the phone from Logan’s hand.

Seeing it was Greer, she answered it then wished she hadn’t.

“Get in the fucking house!” His yell had her holding the phone away from her ear.

“Okay!” she yelled back, hearing him end the call.

How had he known she was still standing outside?

Looking around, she didn’t notice anyone watching. However, upon going inside, she looked up to see a camera pointed at where she had been standing.

Before she could shut the door, the phone rang again. Knowing it was Greer because she wasn’t fast enough for him, she flicked off the camera before shutting the door. As soon as she did, her phone stopped ringing.

“Asshole,” she muttered.

“What did you say, Holly?” Logan was on his knees, leaning over the back of the couch, staring at her with childhood innocence.

“I asked what you wanted to watch?”

Holly changed the channel as she sat down next to Logan to watch the cartoon he had requested. She was still deep in thought about what was going on to make someone break into Greer’s home. She knew that Tate and Greer had safeguards in place, so no one could drive up the long, winding road to their house without alerting them. Whoever had broken into the house had to have been aware of that fact also.

The sooner she was home, the better. She had decided not to let the chance of being with Greer slip through her fingers the other night. It was why she had only put up a token of protest of waiting to get married.

Greer loved hunting. He would get ready to go hunting days before the date he had picked to go. When the date arrived, he would leave before the sun came up, then come home exhausted and filthy, bragging about whichever animal had been unlucky to be caught by him.

He thought by blackmailing her with Logan and the love of his family, he would catch himself a wife. Stupid man didn’t realize it was everything she could do not to drag him to the courthouse and marry him there.

She might tell him … after the wedding ceremony was over. Then again, thinking about how expensive the ceremony was going to be, she probably shouldn’t.

21

Greer stared at the chicken coop, sickened by what he saw. The gory scene could have been taken out of a horror movie. Greer’s stomach could take a lot, but the sickening sight had him biting back the bile that rose in his throat.

Not one chicken had been spared by the violent rage of whoever had killed the defenseless animals.

“The ones he caught were slammed against the coop. The ones he couldn’t, he kicked them to death.”

Tate raised up from studying the footprints that went through the now useless gate that had been torn off its hinges. “How did they get past the camera at the end of the driveway? We should have been alerted as soon as their car drove past.”

“They didn’t drive. Someone came in from the woods at the back of the house. I checked my traps. Every one of them have been sprung.”

“Son of a fucking bitch.”

Greer echoed Tate’s curse, adding more of his own as he went inside the house to get trash bags. Grabbing the whole box, he was coming out the door when Dustin’s car pulled up. His younger brother paled when he saw the sight that greeted him when he got out of the car.

“What in the fuck happened!”

Greer jumped off the side of the porch, not bothering to take the steps. “Apparently, some fucker decided to take their hatred out on our chickens instead of us.”

Dustin looked in dismay at the sickening message that had been left behind. “This is going to break Holly’s heart. She loves those chickens.”

Greer tore off three trash bags, handing one to each of his brothers. “She ain’t going to know. Dustin, go into the barn and get us some gloves.”

Tate opened the trash bag, waiting for Dustin to come back. “You really don’t think you’re going to fool her with other chickens, do you?”

“I’m going to try. She counts them. As long as she has eighteen, how will she know? It’s not like she’ll be able to tell one chicken from another.”

“Thank fuck I decided to take Logan out to the diner.” Dustin came back, handing the gloves out. “Did they get your dog, too?”