Page 77 of Bad Cowboy, Tennessee

How the fuck do you care about anything that much, let alone me?

I didn’t know how much he’d heard of my conversation.

“Don’t worry about it,” I told him.

The soft, earnest way he was looking at me only reminded me why I shouldn’t be associating with him at all. Max needed me to protect him from bad people.

I couldn’tbethe bad person in his life.

I knew Max wanted more from me. I could see it in his expression, every time he looked at my eyes or at my lips.

He wanted to know my secrets. Wanted to know what I’d just talked about on the phone. Probably wanted to know my favorite color and my pizza topping preferences and my damn star sign, too.

Or maybe I just want to know all of those things about him.

The temptation to give in to him was getting greater and greater, but I knew better by now.

The less he knew about me, the better.

Much later,when I was home alone at night, my phone rang again.

Max’s name came up on the screen, and I sat upright in bed, reaching to answer his call.

“Max,” I said. “You okay?”

“Um, I think so,” he said, uncertainty in his voice.

Adrenaline hit my veins all at once. “Doesn’t sound like you think so. What’s going on?”

He sighed audibly. “That guy who messaged me earlier. The one I said was a creep that I ignore?—”

“What the fuck did he do?”

“Well, he sent me a video of himself. It was lewd—of him taking out his cock, shaking it in his fist. Fuckinguglycock, too?—”

“I don’t like that.”

“But that’s not the problem. I’ve gotten more than a few dick pics. The issue was that the background of the video was the front of the Hard Spot. And his message saidI’m in Tennessee, sweetie. Waiting for you.”

I stood up out of bed, pacing around my bedroom. “He had his cock out in front of the Hard Spot? On a busy street?”

“Looked like he took it out really quick, just for a second, to flash me in the video. I could hear the sounds of the street in the background.”

My chest tightened. “Your security cameras are both on, right?”

“Um… if you left them on, then they’re on, I guess.”

A wave of urgency rolled through me. “Take this seriously, Max. Have you been checking the cameras at all?”

“I kind of forgot about them.”

I clenched my jaw.

“Drive over to my house. Right now.”

“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal?—”

“Do it. Get in your truck, now.”

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