Page 66 of The Wrong Ride Home

“Piper will be there, so yeah, pretty sure.”

“Okay.” I let out a long sigh. I didn’t want to meet Piper or Kaz any longer and talk about selling this land, my father’s soul. The indecision inside me had been moving in one direction since I got here, and I knew deep down that there wasn’t going to be a sale, and I needed to be clear about that before the herd and horses were gone.

“Long day?” Kaz asked.

“Yeah.”

“Buy you a drink?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t bring Fiona,” he warned.

I laughed despite the tightness inside me. “Wasn’t going to.”

CHAPTER 21

elena

Hunt was waiting when I got back to the bunkhouse, arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe like he’d been there a while.

“You okay?”

I stopped in front of him, the scent of burnt paper and old regrets clinging to my skin.

I let out a slow breath. “No.”

His eyes softened just a fraction. “You wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

He studied me for a long moment, then nodded like he understood.

“You wanna get the fuck outta here?”

I murmured out a breath, my hands on my hips. “Yeah.”

“Good.” He pushed off the frame. “We’re goin’ to the Rusty Spur.”

I blinked. “We?”

That’s when I noticed the others. Ben, Jace, and Caleb were standing behind Hunt like a bunch of overgrown strays.

Ben grinned. “You look like you could use a drink.”

Jace slung an arm over my shoulder. “Or three.”

Caleb smirked. “And maybe a bad decision or two.”

The ache in my chest eased just a little.

"Y’all are idiots," I muttered.

Ben wiggled his eyebrows. "Idiots with truck keys."

Hunt grabbed his hat. “C’mon, Elena, we’re blowin’ off steam tonight. Ben is DD.”

Ben groaned. “Why am I always the DD?”