“Savannah?”
“Yeah?”
“What did Jake mean about phone calls and a letter?”
***
Max paced back and forth across the living room. “I cannot believe this! And Atkinson poisoned three of our calves? What’s Jake doing to find him?”
He could hardly believe what Savannah had told him. How could so much have happened in the short time he’d been away? A threat in the mail? Dead calves? Strange phone calls?
“I should never have left.” He should have been here, protecting his family.
“Atkinson paid one of his ranch hands to do it. Jake is trying to track him down.”
Max clenched his jaw tightly. He glanced over as Logan entered the room. “You okay?”
Logan nodded stiffly. “All good.”
Yeah, he looked all good. “Savannah’s just been filling me in on everything that’s happened since I’ve been gone.”
“How are your hands?” Savannah jumped up and moved over to his brother, whose hands were wrapped in white bandages.
“They’re fine,” he told her. “That damn paramedic is just pissed at me. I don’t need all these bandages.” He went to push them off, and Savannah grabbed his wrists.
“Leave them,” she said sternly. “I’m sure he didn’t bandage them any more than necessary.”
Max wasn’t so certain. Logan’s hands looked like two massive snowballs sticking out of the ends of his arms.
“Everyone has left. Colin and Trace are taking all the horses back to their place. They said they can stay as long as necessary. Gonna take a while to rebuild the barn, but half the stables aren’t in too bad of shape.”
Fuck.
Max ran his hand over his face. “I don’t see how we can rebuild.” It hurt him to say the words. Actually physically hurt. Christ, he’d left his family, left his wife when she was vulnerable and needed him, and put himself in a dangerous situation all for nothing. The money he’d earned was good, but it wasn’t enough to rebuild all they’d lost.
“But we have insurance,” Logan said.
“Yes, but the money could take a while to come through, what do we do with the horses until then? Where do we store everything? Then there’s the deductible. On top of all the bills, this could be beyond us.”
Max sat in an armchair, resting his elbows on his thighs, his head dropping forward.
“That bitch!”
He looked up in shock at Savannah’s angry words. His wife looked ready to kill. Her pale cheeks were flushed with red, her hands clenched into fists. “How dare she!”
Max had no doubt that if Alicia Michaels was in the room she’d find herself deeply regretting her actions.
“She did this to us. She and her bastard boyfriend. And then there’s Atkinson. They’ve fucked with our lives enough, you hear me?” She pointed at Max and then Logan.
“We hear you just fine, darlin’,” Logan said dryly.
She turned her glare on Max. “And I don’t want to hear how you should have been here. Enough. From now on, we do everything as a family, got it?”
He didn’t dare smile. He didn’t want her to think he was laughing at her when she was so serious. But she was damn gorgeous when she was all heated up like this.
“You’re a great provider, you give me everything I need. Your love, your protection, and your time. I don’t want to hear any more crap about how you’ve failed. Understood?”
He just raised his eyebrows and looked over at Logan who shrugged. “Bossy.”