Page 145 of The Wrong Ride Home

Maybe wait until you’re not in a life-and-death situation with a murderous bitch before diving headfirst into an existential crisis,yeah?

I forced myself to pull it together—because I actually fucking needed to. Me. The guy who never lost focus, who always had a plan, who prided himself on control. And yet, here I was, floundering because what I was learning about myself disgusted me.

“But that’s not it,” I continued wearily. “Then we had a fire.”

“That’s unfortunate,” she murmured, not meeting my eyes.

“Look, I know how Piper Novak works. I know she’s behind it, trying to put pressure on me to sell.”

Fiona’s eyes widened.

I shrugged. “I get it. I’d do the same thing.” To my shame, I knew I would, maybe not cross the line to illegal, but I’d straddle it. “So, I need your help in getting Piper off my back and making us a hell of a lot of money in the process.”

Fiona picked up her glass of wine in a toast. “Welcome back, Duke Wilder. For a while there, I thought I’d lost you to fucking ranch country.”

I clinked my glass with hers. She drank some more, and I didn’t, but I made sure her glass was always full. When her eyes were just this side of glassy, I knew her tongue would now be loose. However, I had to be careful, and that meant I needed to sound careless.

“Was I the shooter's target or Elena?” I asked, my tone nonchalant, as I refilled her wine glass. “’Cause that wasnotcool. I was right there. I could’ve been hurt, doll.”

Fiona put her hand on mine.“I found out after thefact. I was furious with Piper,” Fiona revealed. “I’dneverhurt you, you know that. Don’t you?”

Just the love of my life, then?

She drank some more wine; I stuck to water.

Fiona smiled uneasily. “Look, I’m going to tell you the way this will play out, and you need to know this because you’re going to have to help it play out.”

“I am?”

Fiona sighed. “Now is not the time to be all alpha male. Listen to me. Piper has set it up so that Gloria will be implicated.”

I raised both my eyebrows. I didn’t have to pretend this time. Iwassurprised as fuck.

Fiona looked around as if worried someone might overhear us.

No fear there, darlin’, the wire I’m wearing is state-of-the-art.

She dropped her voice. “Gloria reached out to Piper when she found out you weren’t going to selland…look, Duke, I know you love your mama, but she’s…it washeridea and Piper said....” She suddenly looked around concerned. “I don’t know if we should talk about this here.”

I shrugged. “Why? We’ve had meetings in places like this that were far moreincendiary,” I joked.

She slapped my hand flirtatiously. “My Dukeisback.”

“Sure is, doll.”

“Piper only gave Gloria a contact, but she was the one who…you know, had to do the rest.” Fiona shook her head. “I couldn’t believe it when Piper told me. Just couldn’t.”

I think that would be an accessory before and after the fact.I was sure Kaz and his fed buddies were doing a happy dance right about now.

“Well, it’s all moot now, isn’t it?” I finished my coffee. “I want out of that ranch. The fire…was a wake-up call. The place doesn’t make a lot of money, not like Ironwood does, so…best to unload it.”

This was how I’d typically do business—get rid of what wasn’t profitable and move the fuck on. But never before had I owned my legacy, one that I would pass on to Elena and my children.

Fiona smirked. She recognized the man I was pretending to be—and so did I. He was an unethical, immoral son of a bitch, and I would’ve kept on being him if I hadn’t gone home to Wildflower Canyon. And truth was, it was a close call that I even did.

The thought of not being with Elena after the weeks we’d had together nearly brought me to my knees. I would’ve lost her. And I never would’ve found myself.

“And the fire? Was that necessary?” I demanded.

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