Page 18 of Rust and Bloom

That's a whole other category of evil right there.

Badlands, in my mind, at least, died the day I found out Brick was on the take.

There was never no comin' back from that.

Not ever.

So yeah. I picked a side.

And the outlaws have to go.

Savannah ends her call in the closet and glances in my direction. "We're all set. They're gonna freshen up the place. What time are we leavin’?”

"The pilot said he'd be ready in two hours." I glance at the time on my phone. "So a little over an hour."

"Did you tell Destiny we're comin'?"

"No, baby. I told you. That's it."

Savannah smiles as she removes a dress from the rack and starts puttin' it into a garment bag. "Well, then I will call Colt and let him know." Her eyebrows scrunch together. "Hopefully he's not workin'. I would like the two of you to go fishing tomorrow and work things out."

"Fishin'?" I laugh.

"Fly fishing. The Jackson estate—" She actually stops here to sigh. "Oh, Legion. You will never want to leave that place once you see it."

"Not only do I not fish, Savannah. I especially do not fly fish."

She waves a hand. "Oh, we're all terrible at it too. It's all pretend. Like golf. You go, drink a little, throw that line about a bit, maybe get lucky and hook somethin'. But mostly, it's chit-chattin' time, men's style. You and Colt need to chit-chat. And the river is the right place to do it. Anyway, like I said, it's so damn beautiful, you won't be thinkin' about fish or Colt. You'll be too busy catchin' your breath."

I'm actually looking forward to it.

It's one thing to roll into Jackson, Wyoming, as a tourist and see it from the street. It's somethin' else entirely to see it from inside an Ashby estate.

And I can't wait.

I load Savannah's luggage into the bed of my new ranch truck, then get in. Savannah has slid all the way over to the middle of the bench and is lookin' quite pleased with this option.

She notices me noticin'. "Sittin' in the middle is fun, isn't it?"

I reach for the stick and wink. "It will be the pleasure of my lifetime to shift gears between your legs."

Her cheeks go a little pink and then she says, "I feel like we're about to get the high school years we never had."

"Mmmm," I say. Then shove the key in and turn it over. Eight cylinders roar to life and the whole fuckin' thing rumbles. I look over at Savannah. "Have you ever seen this truck before?"

She shrugs. "Maybe? I dunno. We've got several dozen trucks registered to this ranch. Why?"

"It looks like it's been in the family, that's all."

She wraps her hands around my upper arm and leans in to kiss my cheek. "And looks like that's where it's gonna stay, too."

I let out a breath thinkin'… man, I hope so. But don't say it out loud. Instead, I say, "OK, where is this airstrip?"

"Oh, hell. I don't know."

This actually makes me laugh. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"Well, I've never driven there myself. I really don't use that jet. I could not even tell you the last time I was on it. Going on a decade now, I guess."