Best Friend's Ex Box Set

“Well, by the looks of it, I’d say you’ve finally gotten a taste of what you put your horses through, Mr. Coates.”

“You listen here, you little bitch. I know what you’ve been doing around my farm. Sabotaging things and letting my horses out of their stalls. I’ll have you arrested and taken away in chains! You’ve ruined me!”

I had absolutely no idea why he was acting this way. Letting out his horses? Pranks? It sounded like those damn teenagers no one ever arrested had gotten onto his property. But even if he was talking about the horse he’d killed when he set my barn on fire, it didn’t quite make sense. Yes, the horse brought him money, but it was most certainly not his only money-making horse, nor anywhere near the horse that brought him the greatest income. The part that bothered me was that he had never even told the sheriff, which made me believe they were in cahoots more than I thought before this point.

While it was a big deal to me that I lost that horse, I had no idea why it had become such a big deal to him. To Bill, everything was about the bottom line, bringing in money and getting the greatest return he could. That horse lost him maybe four hundred a month, if even that. To a man like Bill, who was bringing in enough money to soup up his farm the way he had, what the hell was he complaining about?

“Bill, I’m honestly not sure what you’re—”

“Stop with your lies!” he roared.

He was screaming like a madman. His finger was in my face, and his neck was turning red with anger, and before I could ask him what the hell he was talking about, he reached out and grabbed my arm. I squealed at how tight his grip was, digging into my flesh while his nails broke my skin into bloodied crescents. I tried to wrench away from him, but all he did was follow me into my home. Then, all at once, I felt something inside me snap.

I stomped my heel down on his foot, and he reeled back in pain. His hand dropped my arm, and I could feel blood rising to the surface of the skin. Before I knew it, the shotgun was propped up onto my shoulder and leveled between his eyes.

“Get the hell off my property, Coates,” I said.

“Or what? You gonna shoot me?”

I fired a warning shot by his feet, and he jumped all the way out to the middle of my porch.

“You crazy coot! You come onto my property and wreak havoc on my finances and my horses, and then you get to shoot me when I confront you on your property?”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, and I don’t care. Get off my property right now, and I won’t call the sheriff and tell him how I got these marks on my arm. Take another step into my home, and we won’t need the sheriff. We’ll need the coroner.”

“Tough words from a little lady,” he said.

“Rough look for a horse killer,” I said.

“I didn’t set your barn on fire, and I didn’t kill that horse! You did, and you know it! We all know you set your own damn barn on fire just to get the insurance money!”

“I did no such thing, and you know it. Now, you’ve got one more chance to get off my property.”

“Or what?”

I cocked my gun, and he involuntarily took a step back. I walked all the way to the doorframe, and he backed down the steps of my porch. I was done with him; I was done with his intimidation tactics. My next problem was to figure out how in the world I was going to cover up my arm so Colt didn’t see it.

God help this man if Colt figured out he had made me bleed.

“If I ever see you on my property again, for any reason, I’ll come out gun first. We don’t do business, we don’t trade transactions, and we aren’t helpful neighbors. Get out.”

I could see the anger bubbling behind his eyes, but he finally turned and headed for his truck. I kept Colt’s gun trained on him all the way back to his truck. I wasn’t taking any chances that he’d double back and take me by surprise. When his truck finally disappeared in the distance, I felt comfortable lowering the gun.

The bleeding on my arm had stopped, but now I had to figure out what I was going to tell Colt whenever he saw it. It obviously looked like someone had gripped right down into my arm, and part of me honestly wasn’t sure I wanted to hide it. I told Bill I wouldn’t take it to the sheriff, but if Colt saw it and reported it, maybe it would force the sheriff off his ass to do some investigating into Bill Coates anyway.

Another problem I had was what to do with the damage I’d done to my floor by firing a shotgun in the house.

I went back upstairs and grabbed my suitcase before I put the shotgun back in the closet. I’m sure Colt wouldn’t mind if I kept it around a bit longer, just until things calmed down. I stepped over to my kitchen sink and cleaned out the crescent-shaped wounds Bill left on my arm and saw that the bruise outlining his harsh grip was already starting to form on my skin.

There was no way I’d be able to hide this from Co

lt, and I had no idea how I was going to manage the situation once he saw it.

I decided to grab a light jacket for my arms. The fall air was crisp enough for a jacket and smelled of blooming apples and fresh hay, which helped me settle down. I locked everything up behind me before I went out to my barn, and I checked out everything just to make sure nothing was there that shouldn’t be. I didn’t want spiders or snakes or anything else popping up on me before I brought these horses home, and I was excited when I saw the builders were almost done building and painting the barn.

I didn’t want to bring any of my horses back over from Colt’s ranch until I knew they would be safe with me, and that meant catching whoever was doing all of this.

I threw my suitcase into the back of my truck and climbed on in. I rolled the windows down and let the air blow through my hair. For the entire drive to Colt’s, the only thing I could think about was how adamant Bill had been about not burning down my barn. While he still had a very serious motive—and I wouldn’t put it past him with his temper—highly emotional situations like our encounter always brought out the brutal honesty in everyone.