“Can I help you with something?” I asked sternly when I made it to the top of the steps. I crossed my arms over my chest in a display of ‘pissed the fuck off’ and glared at him. He took a step back when I felt Austin and Braxton flank either side of me.

“I’m looking for Amelia,” he snipped, looking me up and down like I was a bug he needed to swat with a newspaper.

“Clearly. What’s your business with her?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

“Amelia!” he yelled, craning his neck to see past the solid wall of cowboy barricading the front door. “Amelia!”

“You deaf?” I asked, taking the few steps down onto the cracker-dust driveway and stopping a few paces in front of him and his hoity toity sports coat. “What is your Goddamn problem?”

“My GD problem, as you so eloquently put it, is none of your business, but if you must know, I’m looking for my fiancée.” He put his hands on his hips and his words registered. My stomach dropped and my chest tightened up.

“Come again?” Austin barked from my left.

“My fiancée, Amelia. I’m looking for her. The private investigator I hired told me she was being kept here.” He looked around in disgust. My tongue seemed to be stuck to the roof of my mouth and a lump formed in my throat. She was engaged. To a guy I didn’t know existed. She wasn’t mine at all… she was his.

“Nobody was being kept here, needle dick,” Austin growled. My heart was close to beating right out of my chest and falling broken to the ground.

“She never mentioned you, not once in two weeks did she mention you,” Austin kept going. I put my hand up and silenced him without taking my eyes off this guy.

“What’s your name?” I asked in a gruff voice.

“Wesley Longstone Junior,” he said with his nose in the air.

Austin snickered but I pushed on. “How long have you been with Amelia?” I asked through gritted teeth, dreading the next words that came from his mouth. She’d lied to me; she had a fucking fiancée!

“Eight years or so,” he said smugly, taking a stance that under normal circumstances would have been threatening, but this guy was as skinny as a twig and didn’t look like the type to get his suit dirty trading blows.

“Fuckin’ kidding me,” Austin roared. Braxton had stayed silent through the entire exchange, simply standing by me in the event I needed him. I dropped my arms by my side and clenched my fists. Not one to show weakness, I turned to my right and walked off toward the barn without a sound. I could hear their voices as I went, but I didn’t care enough to stop. The boys would deal with the jackass. I needed to find a way to break through the searing pain in my chest.

I pushed into Gypsy’s stall and sunk down onto the straw that lined the floor. I dropped my head into my hands and pulled my knee up leaning my elbow on it.

What felt like a few moments later, Gypsy came over and nudged me with her head. She huffed at me so I rubbed her nose and pulled myself up. Being completely comfortable with each other, I passed up the saddle, threw my leg over her and took the reins. Before I knew it, we were flying across the green grass with the wind blowing past us, her muscles stretching out as we rode for nowhere.

Why didn't I realize this? She’d never spoken of her past; she never admitted anything about where she had come from? Why the fuck hadn't I been suspicious about how easily she just agreed to stay? Who does that? Someone with a fucked up secret, that's who.

“I’m such a fucking dumbass!” I cursed out loud, my voice lost in the wind. Gypsy knew what I needed and kept on pushing.

I had never felt this way about anyone before, not even with my ex. I saw a life with her. I saw us together for as long as I could imagine. I saw her completely owning the heart that she had now completely destroyed. I pulled back on the reigns and slowed Gypsy down, eventually bringing her to a stop by the water. After I hopped down off her, I tied her to the closest tree and paced back and forth, finally letting my rage and hurt get the better of me. I punched the tree I had stopped near.

“Fuck! Mother of fuck!” I yelled when I realized I’d just done some damage to my hand. “Fucking why?” I sunk down against the old elm “Why her? Of all the girls, why’d I have to go and fall for a lying city girl? Again.”

“Because you’re a glutton for punishment and you didn’t have the good sense to fucking learn a lesson the first time.”

I pulled my car into my street after hours of non-stop driving; I wanted this over with as quickly as possible. I knew it was going to take a good few days to have everything taken care of, but I wanted to get it all moving so I could get back to Luling and my cowboy. I checked my phone again as I pulled into the drive of the oppressive house I had once called home, still nothing; I hadn’t heard from Destry for hours.

I turned the car off and shot out a quick message letting him know I’d made it okay. I pushed out of the car and walked up the pathway toward the front door, noticing not a flower was out of place. Stepping through the front door, I could feel it almost instantly: the suffocating feeling I’d been living with all my life. I’d left that feeling behind two weeks ago and I intended to leave it behind for good this time. I wasn’t ever coming back here once my finances were sorted out.

I slipped the house keys off my keyring and put them in the basket by the door. I then climbed the stairs and packed all my belongings into three suitcases and a box before lugging them down to my car. I wasn’t at all surprised to find Wesley wasn’t there, seeing as he would be at the office until almost dusk. I was glad I’d been able to get all of that done while he wasn’t there. I didn’t have anything I wanted to say to the piece-of-shit scumbag. I picked up my phone again to check for a reply. When I had gone to town to get my car, I had picked up a new cell phone but kept my old number. Just as I was about to pocket it, it started to ring.