Deep down, he could feel something unfamiliar taking root. A soft, warm feeling. Pride, he supposed, that someone like her would so instantly trust him.
Want him, even if only for a favor.
“Wait!” he called out, jogging to catch up to her as she paused and turned around. Her eyes were wide, confused.
“Yes?” She blinked, clearly still trying to hide her emotion from him.
“Why are you upset? Look, someone else at the ranch could help if you need somethin’.”
She tried to smile, but it only made her look more worried. “That’s all right. I’ll take care of myself.”
So she only wanted to ask him? Beck couldn’t help being flattered. He felt his neck heat and hoped it didn’t show with a blush.
“If you’re in trouble—”
“It’s fine,” she said tightly, folding her arms in a protective posture as if to keep herself from him as much as possible. “Seriously. You were the only person I would ask, and—”
“What is it?” Beck asked sharply, taking another step forward. Damn, she was small compared to him. Small, beautiful, curvy…
“I’m not asking now,” she said. “I couldn’t possibly. I respect that you don’t want to, and—”
“It ain’t that I don’t want to, lady. It’s just—”
“I get it,” she said faintly. “You should go, shouldn’t you? They’ll be expecting you down at the ranch.”
Beck cursed under his breath. He’d ruined everything well and good. If this lady needed help and now wasn’t going to get it because of Beck’s stubbornness, he wouldn’t forgive himself.
He might be a monster, but he wasn’t someone who could turn away from a damsel in distress.
Hell, he kind of liked the idea.
“Just tell me what you need,” he said sharply.
But she just shook her head, giving him a warmer smile that nonetheless still showed the stress around her beautiful blue eyes. “I swear I’ll be fine. Probably.” She flinched. “Anyway, I need to be going. Good-bye, Beck. Best of luck to you.”
And then she stepped inside, and the door swung shut.
“Well, shit,” Beck said, turning around to look at her land and the long, dusty drive that led up to her place where his truck was parked.
He’d move it out of sight so she thought he was gone.
But the lady was in trouble. That much was certain.
And Beck planned to stay around until he found out what was putting that fear in her gorgeous eyes.
It had nothing to do with being close to the lady or the way his dragon kept practically purring whenever she was close.
No, he was a monster, and he wouldn’t forget it.
He got in his truck and drove it around the back of the property, parking behind a line of thick trees where she wouldn’t see him.
Then he grabbed his camping supplies out of the back of his truck and walked over to a grassy area on the border between her land and Dragonclaw Ranch.
As he set up his camp, he still felt slightly guilty for putting her in the proximity of a monster.
But if she really was in danger, perhaps a monster could be exactly the man for the job.
5
That night, as she sat at a campfire with Lasso, watching the flames dance, Sierra allowed herself some time to mope.
It might be the last night it’d be safe to sit out by her fire pit.
Ross tended to leave her alone for a few days every time he made a threat. Then again, he’d never had that crazy look in his eyes before.
She wasn’t sure what she was going to do now. How she would handle protecting her property.
She supposed Beck was right. She could ask another of the men at the ranch. However, she could never bother Harrison or Marian, and she didn’t trust anyone she hadn’t met.
Plus, the whole situation was embarrassing. No one else should have to deal with her problems.
She wished she hadn’t even thought of asking Beck for help.
Then it wouldn’t have hurt so much when he prematurely rejected her.
Sierra lifted her chin, watching the embers rise on the night air, sparking like tiny pieces of flame. She was Texas stock. She wouldn’t let Ross scare her.
She’d find a way to fight. Somehow.
“I’ll never marry that piece of trash,” she muttered. “That son of a bee sting. That shitake mushroom!”
But then she was distracted by movement in the darkness down by the end of her drive. Dust was moving in a cloud, indicating a vehicle was coming. The ground rumbled, and she could hear the engine of a truck.
Please be Beck, she thought.
But as the dust cleared, the overhead lights around her drive shone on a beat-up pickup coming down the road. The back was full of men who were yelling and hollering.
As they got closer, she saw their rough clothing. Their bandanas. Their disheveled, dirty appearance.
Copperheads.
A dirty, disgraceful gang from a nearby ranch that made their living mostly harassing peaceful neighbors and stealing cattle and other such things.
But they’d left her alone before due to her association with Ross. For better or worse, he’d told everyone in town that she belonged to him.
And Ross’s father ran the whole town. There was no one that didn’t answer to him in some way.
So it made sense that he scared away even the Copperheads.
Not anymore, though, apparently.
Heck in a handbasket, maybe Ross had sent them.
Sierra’s fears were confirmed when one of the Copperheads, a younger man with stubble and wild hair pulled back by a bandana, hopped out of the back of the truck and opened the bed so the others could pile out.
He grinned at her with crooked yellow teeth. “Gotta make a living somehow, right, lady?”
She just sat there frozen as the men made a semicircle and approached. Their lips were pulled back, baring rictus grins. Excitement and sadism radiated off them in the darkness. Or perhaps that was just the firelight casting an evil glow.
Lasso barked, running forward, but she snapped her fingers, and he instantly came back to her side where she pointed for him to sit.
She
