Page 102 of Filthy Fae

“Yeah, you probably don’t want to trust me with that,” I said. “I’m kinda prone to accidents. This isn’t the first time I’ve driven something off the road. Last summer, I drove the tractor into a pond.”

“You don’t know how to drive?” Cody asked, looking as shocked as apparently everyone outside New York was to learn that information.

“I’m from New York,” I said. “We don’t really drive there. I’m still pretty new at it.”

“Ah,” he said, nodding. “My dad lives there.”

“I know,” I said. “That’s why I’m out here. Our parents sent me out here to straighten up.”

“Our parents?”

I gulped. It struck me then that he might not know who I was. In fact, he definitely didn’t know who I was. And I didn’t want to give him anything to blackmail my Westling boys. If he knew I was their stepsister, he might blackmail them to get his part of the ranch from them. And I knew the guys would never forgive me if I lost part of their ranch. That would be worse than running off with Cody.

“Uh…yeah,” I said. “See, my mom wasn’t very happy about my party-girl ways, and your dad mentioned that he had this place, and they thought maybe it would straighten me out to come out here to escape all that.” There. I had told the truth without mentioning that our parents were married. I could be the daughter of anyone his dad knew.

“Is that right?” he said, studying me in a way that made me squirm. Maybe he already knew more than he was letting on.

“Yep.”

We studied each other for a minute. I refused to drop his gaze. I wasn’t ashamed of my love for any of his brothers. Then the corner of Cody’s mouth quirked into a smile. “Then I guess Sawyer’s still Sawyer,” he said. “Lucky guy.”

With that, he turned and headed for his Jeep. As it crept along the road toward the house, I tried to collect my thoughts. I didn’t think Cody was hitting on me—his comments didn’t carry the weight of extra meaning, and he didn’t give them in a flirty way. But he’d definitely said a few things that told me he was jealous of Sawyer’s relationship with me. It was disconcerting, but I couldn’t deny that it was flattering, too.

After a minute, I climbed into the side-by-side and started toward the house after him. I would never betray the guys, but I was starting to see what a girl might find appealing about Cody. He had a simple, straightforward manner, and he seemed all kind and decent if you didn’t know he’d screwed over his own brother. Plus, he was almost as easy on the eyes as his brothers.

Still, I wouldn’t blame Waylon if he was waiting on the front porch with a rifle.

5

Holden

When we got the text, we headed back to the house. But the minute we walked in, I could tell it was empty.

“Where the fuck is Amber?” Waylon asked, storming into the kitchen.

“She’s probably out with the horses,” Sawyer said.

“You don’t think…” I started, but I couldn’t finish. I didn’t want to think about something bad happening to Amber.

“That she ran off with that son of a bitch?” Waylon asked, taking off his hat and slapping it on his thigh.

“She didn’t,” Sawyer said. “She doesn’t even know him.”

“But we know him,” Waylon said, his voice hard.

That much was true. Cody could turn on the charm as well as Sawyer and make all the promises a woman wanted to hear, too. Sawyer had a way with women, but he was still himself around them. He didn’t make promises he couldn’t keep.

“Not this time,” I said, heading for the door.

“Now y’all hold up just a minute,” Sawyer said, raising a hand to stop us. “Amber wouldn’t do that.”

I stopped dead in my tracks. He was right. Suddenly, I felt like shit for not trusting her, for letting the past threaten what we had. We couldn’t go on like we had with Maria, never knowing what she was up to or if we could trust her or each other. This was different. No secrets, no lies. Amber knew that. It was hard not to let paranoia get the better of us, though. It took Waylon another minute to stop pacing.

Finally, he did, though. He shoved his hat on his head and headed for the door. “Let’s go find her,” he said. “If she’s not out there with Cody, and she’s not in the barn, she’s probably in trouble. Knowing her, we’ll find her out there treed by a coyote.”

When we walked outside, though, she wasn’t in a tree. She was bumping up the drive in the side-by-side, right behind Cody’s Jeep.

Waylon cursed under his breath as they both pulled up in front of the house.