Page 23 of Property of Legend

Maybe I hired the Kings partly out of desperation.Maybe...maybe I just wanted to shake things up.See if that would spark something in him again.Or maybe I wanted to see if Legend would look at me like he used to, like I wasn’t just a rich girl with dirty boots and a horse farm dynasty to rule one day.

He walks over now, sweat glistening on his chest from the fight.

"You win?"

"Always."He slides into the stool beside me."You think I’m just a brute in a ring?"

I study him."No.I think you’re a man used to fighting for what he wants."

"Damn straight."

I take a sip, and say under my breath, "Maybe you should start fighting for something more."

“Speaking of wrestlin’.They got a micro league might be interested in ya,” he says, chuckling.

“I wondered when you’d start teasing me.”

“It’s just like ol’ times.”He glances at my drink and the bottle beside it.

“I brought it over.We can celebrate your win,” I explain, fighting a smile.

“The good stuff…”

“Not stolen this time,” I say, fixin’ to pour into his empty glass.

Legend finishes his drink first and takes my offer of Pappy with a grin.

That smile tugs at the corner of his mouth as he lifts the glass and inhales, but it fades fast.“I should’ve said something.About your mom.”

His words knock the breath out of me.Of course, he thinks of her too, sipping her favorite drink.After all, my mama was so good to him when his mom ran off.

“I didn’t think it would matter if I did,” he adds.

I nod, throat tight.“Thanks.”

There’s a beat between us.He doesn’t say he’s sorry about my dad.Doesn’t have to.We both know that storm’s still hovering.

“You think he’d approve of you hiring us?”he asks, like he can read my damn mind.

I laugh bitterly.“No.That was part of the reason I called on y’all.Just to see if it’d piss him off enough to sit up and yell at me.”

Legend’s brows twitch.“He always had to approve of your men.”It was a fact.

“Every single one,” I say, tracing the rim of my glass.“Didn’t matter if they were harmless.If Daddy didn’t give his blessing, they didn’t stand a chance.”

“Even Sam?”

I look up sharply.“How do you know about Sam?”

He shrugs, leans against the bar beside me, arms crossed.“I hear things.Town talks.”

I narrow my eyes.“Then you know he’d approve of Sam… I hear things too.Like how you’ve got yourself a woman here.”

His smirk doesn’t reach his eyes.“I don’t.”

“Oh?”

"Nah," he mumbled.“Not one woman.”

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