But Clint refused to release it.
More than a little shaken, Liam took a step back.
The muscles in Clint’s arms bulged thicker and harder than I could believe, threatening to stretch the sleeves of his borrowed t-shirt.
The look on Clint’s face was a mask of pure anger, his brows drawn down, every line forming a latticework spurred on by pure adrenaline.
I’d never seen that expression on his face before.
He’d always been so sweet and gentle.
With me, at least.
Now I saw a new side of him, both dark and dangerous.
The face of a warrior.
I didn’t know why that word popped in my head, but it described him perfectly.
And it excited me.
I wanted his bulging muscles working hard on me.
I wanted his intense eyes, shimmering and golden like a wolf coiled before it sprung its attack, drilling into me as his cock did the same to my pussy.
I wanted to feel his heavy weight press on me, spearing me relentlessly.
And I knew he would be relentless.
That expression promised many things, and I wanted them all.
But directed at Liam, it spelled only terrible trouble.
He must have sensed it too as he rounded his shoulders, realizing his threats had failed.
He’d poked a nest only to find its inhabitants far more resolved than he bargained for.
He yanked once more and this time succeeded in tearing the timber free.
Clint’s hands sprang back.
He appraised his palms and the splinters that protruded from them.
Liam caught sight of me out the corner of his eye and gathered what little courage he had remaining.
He pulled the length of timber back for one last swing.
He wasn’t willing to give up on me so easily, I realized. That was what spurred him on now.
He hadn’t realized he’d lost any chance with me a long time ago and I would never be his again.
“No!” I screamed.
His weapon of choice swung, this time cutting across, horizontal to the ground.
Clint’s movements were so fast they were a blur.
He raised his forearm and met the timber in mid-air.
Its sharp edge bit into his flesh but he didn’t seem to notice.
He lurched forward and his enormous hand found Liam’s throat.
With seemingly no effort, he raised him off his feet, drove him backward, and slammed him into the barn door.
It rattled and set the cows outside to mooing frantically.
Liam let his weapon clatter to the floor.
His eyes bulged and he grabbed at Clint’s thick forearm but his strength was nowhere near enough to stop him.
He continued to squeeze.
A horrid choking gasp emanated from Liam’s throat and his eyes bulged dangerously from their sockets.
He scrabbled at Clint’s face but barely reached it.
Then some spark of survival issued from deep in the back of his mind, pushing him to reach for the holster at his waist.
He unclipped the firearm and raised it…
I crossed the space before I consciously gave the order and slapped it aside.
The movement tightened his grip and the pistol fired a single round into the barn’s back wall, emitting a small puff of sawdust where it struck.
The cows’ bells rattled as they maneuvered to release themselves from their outer pen, baying loudly.
Clint followed my lead and used his free hand to twist the pistol from Liam’s grasp.
“Clint,” I said, barely above a whisper. “Let him go.”
“Why?” Clint growled. “He wanted to kill me.”
“And he deserves punishment,” I agreed. “But not this. He’s a cop. We’ll get into a lot of trouble if he croaks.”
Liam’s legs shuddered, on the very fringes of losing consciousness.
Clint didn’t like it, but he released him.
He collapsed in a puddle on the floor, wheezing and struggling to breathe.
But he would survive.
Not that he deserves it.
“Let me see your hands,” I said to Clint.
He extended them to me.
He had so many splinters he was like a living pin cushion.
“Come to the farmhouse,” I said. “I need tweezers to get them all out.”
Liam struggled up onto his hands and knees.
“What...” he croaked.
He massaged his neck before speaking again.
“What about me?”
“What about you?” I sneered.
He looked between me and Clint.
“You choose him over me?”
I appraised him coldly.
“There was never any chance of us being together, Liam. There was, a long time ago. But never since then. And now that you tried this…”
I shook my head.
“Nothing can happen between us. Not now, not ever. I never want to see you again. Do you understand? You can never come to the farm. If you do, I’ll tell everyone what you did today.”
Liam struggled up onto his feet.
He wavered slightly but didn’t fall.
“No one would believe you over me. You’re nothing but a whore.”
Clint stiffened and his nostrils flared, and that terrifying glare returned to his eyes.
He stepped forward to finish the job.
“Don’t!” I snapped. “Don’t fall for his trap.”
I turned my attention back to the worm.
“Maybe they wouldn’t believe me but they would believe my parents. And who do you think the town is going to believe more? My parents, who have been the heart of the community for the past fifty years, or you, the troubled sheriff?”
That gave him pause for thought.
He motioned to his pistol in my hand.
“My gun.”
I felt its reassuring weight.
“I’ll get Pop to return it to the station.”
“If you think I’m leaving here without it, you’ve got another thing coming—”
I withdrew the magazine and ejected the single round.
Only then did I hand it to him.
He snagged my hand.
The fool even looked deep in my eyes.
“Don’t do this. We’re meant to be together.”
I yanked my hand away.
“I wouldn’t be with you for all the money in the world.”
“But you would choose a man without a memory? He doesn’t even have a name!”
I raised my chin.
“His name is Clint. And he’s ten times the man you will ever be. Memories or no.”
I turned on my heel.
As Clint and I headed back toward the farmhouse, I cast a look over my shoulder every two steps to ensure Liam wasn’t planning on attacking us from behind.
He didn’t, and shrank into the distance.
But the terrible feeling in the pit
