Page 135 of Bad Cowboy, Tennessee

“I made only one post,” I said, realizing how stupid it had been already. “Late last night. When I couldn’t sleep, after you’d gone to bed. It was just a picture of one of the mountain snow caps, the view from your bedroom.”

“Fuck,” Draven said.

“I forgot to turn off the locations like you told me to,” I said. “It’s my fault.Shit.”

“Youare going to be okay. Christ, Max, it all makes sense. Sandlefield had priors in Tennessee. He didn’t want to find you in Tennessee, like the other guy last night. He wanted you to be in any other state… the motherfucker must havehopped on a plane. How crazy is he?”

I shook my head. “No one cares about stalking me that much. There’s no shot.”

“Trust me,” Draven said. “People will surprise you. In good ways or terrible ways. I’m going. Now.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Didn’t your security team stop him, or something?”

“They aren’t here yet,” he said. “They survey every acre of land, and they’re on their way, but it could be two, four, maybe evenfiveminutes. They just caught it on the live camera feed.”

“You can’t go,” I said, reaching out to try to grab his arm, but he was already walking off.

“Eventwo minutesis time we don’t have,” Draven roared. “I need to go get him at the gate. Now. You stay here.”

“No fucking chance I’m staying here.”

“Yes, you are.”

The bottom dropped out from my stomach as I watched Draven take off to go hop in one of the trucks that was parked alongside his property.

Nothing felt right, but then again, nothing had felt right for a while, now.

I thought of every creepy comment thatRex67had left on my page, and even worse ones in my private messages.

He’d posted the address of the Hard Spot so many times. Eventually, he started posting my home address, too. He sent all sorts of lewd photos that I never opened.

There were some messages I never showed Draven, because I didn’t want him to worry.

Ones where the guy was trying to scare me:

I will find you.

Pretty boys like you always have pretty screams, too.

I need YOU with ME. Why don’t you reply to me, Max? I know you see me…

My blood went cold as I watched Draven take off in a silver truck toward the front of the property.

I had nothing else left to do butrun.

I took off in a sprint toward the front gate. It had been a long walk, but I wasn’t going to stand here and wait as Draven went to confront a person who could be dangerous.

And most likely actuallywasdangerous, after Draven had told me about his past minor assault crimes.

As I ran, the wind picked up, blowing hard against my skin from the direction of the clouds. The sky had been beautiful and blue even just half an hour ago, but the low, dark clouds were rolling in over the valley on the wind.

My muscles started to burn as I ran, but I liked running.

I would run after Draven, no matter the reason. And if he was going to get an ego about protecting me, I was allowed to care about protectinghim, too.

As I ran in the direction of the front gate, I went over a crest in the path that dipped down low into a long slope that led to the gate. I finally spotted the truck again, parked by the front.

The driver’s side door was open.

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