Page 22 of Shattered Oaths

His brows are dipped low beneath the brim of his cowboy hat as he brings Luna to a halt and completes the same scan I did just moments ago.

“What the fuck, Noah?” His voice is incredulous yet horrified.

I look back toward the posts and then back at my brother and scratch my head. “I don’t know what happened, man.”

“Well, it looks like you’ve hammered in a bunch of uneven fence posts to me.”

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

“Yes,” I say slowly. “But I don’t understand how they’ve all ended up uneven. I hammered every single one of them five times, just like I’ve always done,” I snap the words at him and instantly regret it when he trains his angry stare on me.

“Who pissed on your pancakes this morning?” Hunter snaps back, his arms folded across his chest.

If I weren’t so riled up, I’d have laughed at that question.

“No one,” I lie.

Isabella Ashby, that’s who.

I’ve been trying to speak to her since last night and she’s been ignoring every single one of my text messages and calls.

And I know she’s ignoring them because I can blatantly see that she has read them.

I’ve been replaying the smug look on Justin’s face as he watched my brothers practically carry me out of the bar last night. Been consumed with the images of him going home to Bella. Of him touching her, climbing into bed beside her and telling her that he loves her all while he has the residue of another woman on his little dick.

The thought makes me sick.

No, scratch that, it makes me boil with a rage like nothing I’ve ever felt.

“You’re still pissed about what we saw last night,” Hunter states, breaking through my dark thoughts and causing my eyes to snap up to his.

“Of course I’m fucking pissed about what we saw last night. How are younotpissed about it? Bella is like family to you.”

“She’s like family to you, too,” he responds and although Bella is anything but familial to me and just hearing him refer to her as such makes my insides cringe, I don’t correct him.

Hunter takes a step toward me, placing a hand on my shoulder and giving it a squeeze. “Look, man. I know you care about her and seeing Justin publicly disrespect her like that makes you angry, but you can’t bring that shit to work. Bella is like a little sister to me. She’s one of Savannah’s closest friends. And I’m furious that that slimy little prick thinks he has the right to cheat on her, but it’s none of my business.”

“So, we’re supposed to what? Just say nothing? To let her continue living with him and believing that he loves her when he’s fucking someone else before he goes home to her every night?” I spit, angry and utterly bewildered at how he can just carry on like everything is normal.

There is not a chance in hell I could go on living my life like I didn’t see what I saw.

I knew from day fucking one that there was something not right about that asshole.

“I’m not saying we do nothing, Noah. I’m just saying, it’s a sensitive subject. This type of thing needs to be handled with care. If you go to Bella all guns blazing and shouting from the rooftops that Justin is cheating on her, all you’re going to do is humiliate her and make her hate you.”

Yeah, well she already hates me so telling her won’t make that much of a difference.

I stay quiet while I silently fume, but Hunter continues. “I say we let one of the girls handle it. I could tell Savannah and she could be the one to tell Bella. It might sound better coming from her.”

“No,” I snap. “You think me telling her would humiliate her? No. Her friends being the one to tell her would humiliate her.”

Hunter shakes his head. “You’re wrong, man.”

“No. I’m not. I know Bella. She wouldn’t want her friends knowing this about her. She wouldn’t want the pity.”

He narrows his eyes at me, and I worry I might have said too much so I turn his attention back to the uneven posts. “So, what do you want me to do about this?”

With a long, heavy sigh he focuses back on the real reason he came out here. “Make them all the same height. We’ll have to deal with a shorter fence.”