Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
He wasn’t sure how long it would take for this overwhelming need to claim her constantly to cease. It was just her brothers and the fucking mountains in the distance, but the persistent drive to beat his chest like a fucking caveman overpowered him. He wanted to hole up with Skylar for a month until he was as under her skin as she was to him. Wanted to be at the bar every second so he could stand between her and danger. Wanted to put a ring on her finger and his kid in her belly before they were even ready, just to prove to the world who she belonged to. He knew he needed to come to grips with the intense need to keep her in his sights at all times. To calm the voice in his head that said if he turned his back for one second, she’d be gone. Vanish. Just like his brothers.
Ripping his mouth for hers, Logan pinned her to his body while he tried to collect his rambling thoughts. Tried to figure out why the hair on the back of his neck seemed to be standing on end suddenly. Why his radar was on high alert at that very moment. Everything in him said to stalk to his truck and pull out his M40. To scan the area for intruders. And when Max growled beside him, putting Logan on alert, just as he’d been trained, he knew his instincts were right. His attention darted from scanning the area for the enemy to his war dog. He followed Max’s line of sight up, up, up until he saw a dark figure on the rocky outcropping just below Chance’s monstrosity of a home.
Then he was running to his truck.
Twenty-One
Puzzle Pieces
WHILE PINNED TO Logan’s chest—his arms wrapped so tightly around me I could barely breathe—you’d think my whole being would be centered on the man holding me. But a dark figure of a man weaving and stumbling on the outcropping above our land held my attention instead. Focusing on the distant figure, I was certain it wasn’t Chance. The man had shorter hair and a stockier build than my older brother. I’d seen ranch hands near the edge before, but never this close. Why Justice never put a guard rail up when Chance was a baby, I’ll never know. Hell, why he built his house so close to the edge I’ll never understand. I always figured it was some perverted way of looking down on the rest of us. On all of Madison County. The proverbial king on his throne, watching the peasants as they spent their days in pursuit of a fraction of what he’d attained in his life.
The man seemed to stumble then right himself as he grew closer to the edge. I opened my mouth to shout a warning I knew he wouldn’t hear, but Logan must have seen him too because he let go of me suddenly, running for his truck with a barking Max close at his heel. But there was nothing Logan could do. I watched in horror as the man stumbled again, then pitched forward and walked right off the side of the ridge in a free fall. I spun around, unable to watch him fall to his death, and clenched my eyes shut as a scream spilled from my throat. Jake and Josh both rushed to my side, shouting, “What’s wrong?” so I pointed behind me, pulling air deep into my lungs to keep from passing out at the thought of what the fall had done to his body.
“A man just walked off the ridge,” I finally choked out.
Both turned instantly when Logan’s truck revved—breaking the eerie silence—and took off. I followed them with my eyes to keep from searching for the body I knew was no more than fifty yards from the back of our home. I didn’t need to see the snow tarnished with crimson to know the man hadn’t survived the fall. Not from the height of an eight-story building.
My brothers dove into the back of Logan’s truck, where Max stood barking, and held on as the tires spun briefly in the snow then it darted forward, covering the distance to where the man had fallen in a matter of moments. When they bailed out of the back of the truck, I ran into the house for my cell phone and dialed 911.
_______________
Twilight faded into darkness as Logan pulled in front of Bear Claw Ranch. In the distance he could see the bunkhouse was lit from within, but the main house was dark. The commotion below, when Ennis paramedics came to take away the body of Butch Johnson, clearly hadn’t alerted the ranch to the accident.
Logan scanned the massive log structure in front of him and searched for any sign of life. He still had no proof Chance Bear was responsible for the recent deaths in Ennis, but his gut told him he was on the right track, even though he’d watched Butch Johnson take a nosedive off the ridge under his own power. He hadn’t seen another soul on the cliff at the time the man fell, so he had no cause to question Chance Bear in an apparent accident. He was here only in an official capacity to notify the owner of the property. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t take the opportunity to take the man’s pulse. He needed to be sure Butch Johnson’s death had been an accident. Just as Frank Wells’s death appeared to be an accident.