Grump’s City Girl (Boots and Heels #2)

22. Cassie

Chapter 22

Cassie

I didn’t care if someone saw us.

After all of that with Vigo, the message, and the worry about that video popping up online, I needed Beau to hold me. I lost myself to the feel of him, being here and being okay, holding me even after I had promised myself not to give him more hope.

A knock startled us, and a male voice—Rome’s—came through the door. “Hey guys, I know you need privacy and time, but Sutton needs us all back in the backyard for a briefing about this scavenger hunt.”

I knew I had limited mental power to focus on this damn competition when I had a real-life crisis possibly blooming in the shadows. Beau didn’t let me go, so we left for the backyard. Taking our seats, he held me tight to his side.

“Tonight, well tomorrow, we have a switch up, but you’ll be paired up now. Quentin, you have Cassie, Nelly, and Beau. Ryker, you have Amy, Alice, and Emory. And Rome, you’re with Danielle.”

The words went through one ear to another. I could only focus on Beau’s warmth while my mind ran in concentric circles of Dad, Vigo, Dad, Vigo. When we were released, I stayed put, not sure what to do next.

“Want to go back to your room?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“Something to eat?”

“I can’t stomach anything right now,” I said. “I don’t know what to do, what to feel… I’m all over the place now.”

His jaw worked, and then he stood and held out a hand. “C’mon. I think I know exactly where to take you.”

“Where’s that?”

“My favorite place.”

Dropping a hand to the small of my spine, he ushered me across the backyard, through the house, and to the truck parked under the twilight. We got in, and he turned the truck out in a direction I don’t believe I’d even been.

He took us on a rocky road, and by rocky, I meant a track with more potholes than a smooth road, and we headed up a hill. I made sure to keep a hand on the roof to stop my head from slamming into it, but I couldn’t say the same for my butt. It would be smarting for days as if I’d gotten a wallop on my backside.

“Jesus,” I ground out. “Did you say this is your favorite place?”

“It is,” he grinned.

“And you like giving yourself whiplash and a broken pelvis when you come here?” I asked through gritted teeth while simultaneously trying to catch my breath.

"I do,” he laughed, hair flying about his face. “That was just the fun part.”

I shook my head at him and settled back into the seat as the truck came to smoother ground and slowed. He jerked the handbrake and sat back. “We're here.”

“We’re where ?” I looked out the window and saw nothing but darkness on the other side of the glass.

“C’mon.” He opened his door, and I followed suit, then went around to the back of the truck. He pulled the tailgate down, hopped up, and pulled me with him. Seated beside him, I tilted my head up, and as soon as I settled, I knew why this was his favorite place.

The sky was like a big blue-black stretch of velvet, and the stars were diamonds scattered on them. In the middle of a field with no lights around us to dull the glow from the stars above us, the sky was bigger, darker, and brighter than I had ever seen it. It was so bright, clear, and goddamn close. It was like I could reach up and scoop it into my palm.

“I think I know why you come out here,” I said. “It’s gorgeous.”

His sigh was audible. “My grandad brought me out here when I was a kid and told me to come out here whenever I needed to clear my head. He said that I may think my problems are big, but the universe is a thousand times bigger and that somewhere in there was someone who knew exactly what I was going through.”

“And to find them?”

“Heck no,” Beau laughed. “It’s just a sort of reassurance that I’m not alone and that sometimes I have to let go. I come out here to think, to scream, to cry sometimes,” he tilted his head to the sky, and the night breeze ruffled his hair. “It's peaceful and so dark… even if somebody thought they knew where I was, they wouldn't be able to find me."

I leaned my head on his shoulder. “I can guess what you think about.”

“The ranch, my family, my life,” he admitted. “I’d thought to myself that by the age of thirty, I’d be married and have a couple of kids running around. I thought I’d have Mom here baking apple pies, and my brother would be backing me up when he listened to my side. Sadly, I never got any of them.”

“I'm sorry,” I said softly, feeling a stiff tug at my heart.

Beau wrapped his arm around me and kissed my temple. “It's all right.”

My gut clenched as we were hedging, dangerously, on the unspoken edge of the fact that Beau was falling in love with me, and I didn’t dare admit that I felt the same way. I swallowed, “What did you scream about?”

“There were no words,” he said, “It was just letting out frustration.”

“I think I need to try that,” I admitted, pressing a hand to my chest, where there was a thick knot of emotion. Hopping off the gate, I looked around and felt more than heard Beau joining me.

He gripped my hand. “Take a deep breath, sweetheart. Fill your lungs up till they feel like they’re going to burst, and then let it out.”

“Scream with me,” I said as I sucked in a breath, felt my chest burn, and then—dual shouts rang over the meadow, possibly scaring wildlife and probably sounding like someone was being murdered. But we did it again, and I let out my frustration and the sick sensation of betrayal Vigo had left me with.

How did I ever trust him?

How did I ever think I’d loved him?

What was I going to do when all this was over?

This time, I screamed until I doubled over, and Beau’s hand gripped mine. By the end, I felt drained—but the knot was gone, and I sagged back to the gate, listless. Beau tugged me into his side, and I soaked up his warmth.

“Feel better?”

“Mhm hmm,” I replied.

“Last year, I came here, and I was spinning in a cycle of frustration.” Beau looked over the landscape at the tall grass rippling in the wind. “I wished the rest of my family saw the ranch the same way I did. As the eldest son, my shoulders were the ones the responsibility dropped on, and so did my love for the ranch.

“It felt like I had gotten a double dose of love for this place because I saw what it could be: a place that held generations before me and one that should stay around for those to come after me and run it.”

I thought I saw a shooting star and wished for it.

“What would your grandfather tell you if he was still alive?” I asked.

“Pawpaw would probably tell me to take it easy, not to run myself into the ground, and to scoop you up over my shoulder and get you to a church before your head could stop spinning.” Beau grinned, slid his fingers through mine, and brushed his fingers along my skin, his touch sending a shiver of pleasure through me.

He sobered. “I know he would slap me upside the head because I’d made assumptions without considering everything that I should have,” Beau added. “I’ll be the first to admit that my tunnel vision is both my worst vice and great virtue.”

I rubbed my cheek on his shoulder. “Beau… if this was another life, you and I could become something. You are exactly the sort of man I like: honest, down-to-earth, self-aware, unpretentious.”

“Did you just call me husband material four times?” he quirked his brow at me.

“Yes,” I replied. “And in case you were thinking how I want those qualities with who I am, it’s like… if you’ve been dealing with smarmy, self-involved assholes for years, you get to understand that is exactly what you don’t need.”

“Cassie,” Beau sounded amused. “If you’re trying to lead up into why you and I cannot be together, don’t bother.”

“Why not?” I twisted my head, brows lowering. “It’s clear it bothers you.”

“Oh, it cuts me up inside like a sombitch' with a red-hot pitchfork, but it’s life,” Beau said, tilting his hat up. “If we can only be friends, we can only be friends.”

I felt like shit.

“Beau—”

His phone rang, and he cocked the device between his shoulder and ear. “Hello?”

Whoever was on the other end must have confused him. “Who is this?”

I sat up, concerned. This time, his voice was a wolf growl, “What the fuck do you mean? What about her?”

Heart pumping, I gestured for him to take the phone away and pressed speaker—and fucking Vigo’s voice came on, his calm French-accented voice, the one that used to make me shiver in delight, now made me want to break something. “…she’s not yours, no matter how you think she is?— ”

Oh my god.

“—and if you don’t stop this farce, you’ll pay for it,” Vigo said calmly.

“Really now,” Beau’s face had morphed into a slab of stone. “And how do you plan on doing that? If you want to come here and square up, I’ll happily shove your face in the dirt.”

Vigo’s laugh was soft and malicious. “Do you really think I’ll lower myself to your level? You probably stink of horse shit, manual labor, and paychecks. No, instead, I’ll make you suffer where you’ll never see it coming.”

Beau frowned, “What the hell did you mean by that?”

“When was the last time you saw your little nephew?” Vigo taunted. “Or have you ever laid eyes on him?”

“Now look here, you sonofabitch, if you?—"

Click.

The phone went dead.

Fury radiated from Beau, and he clenched the cell so hard I thought it would pop under his fist. He jumped off the tailgate and pulled me with him. “We’re going back to the ranch, and I don’t care what the producers want from us, we’re going to find this fucker and stop this. He will not lay a finger on my brother’s kid. Not over my dead body.”

I didn’t even notice the bumps going back down the hill with how tormented I was. This was all my fault… because I’d been dumb, trusting someone who shouldn’t have been trusted. And now, I’d roped Beau and his family into my mess.

“Cassie?” Beau’s hand grabbing mine made me jump, and I realized we were back at the ranch. Before I could say a word, he said, “I know you’re blaming yourself for this.”

“It is my fault,” I said, my tone hollow. “Now your family is in my mess.”

“I’ll clean it up,” Beau’s tone had turned into one I had never heard from him before. He sounded like a man hell-bent on finding his enemy and making him pay.

Nervously, I followed him as he strode right to Liliana’s trailer, banged on the door, stepped back, and gripped my hand tight. He waited two minutes, then banged on it again.

Liliana flung the door open, scowling, a face mask on, the green gunk still dripping from her fingers. “What?”

“We’re leaving,” Beau said strongly.

“What? No, you can’t go,” she scowled. “You’re in the middle of?—”

“Frankly, lady, I don’t give a rats furry ass if we were about to meet the president,” Beau said. “Someone threatened my family, and that same person is trying to harm Cassie. I am not asking you about leaving. I am telling you. Pause it, stop it, undo it, do whatever you need, but we’re not about to sit around here, sittin’ on our asses and twiddlin’ our thumbs when we’re needed out there.”

“But—” she looked lost. “I can’t?—”

“It’s okay, Liliana,” Sutton came down from his trailer. “I’ve got this one. Go on and finish your bedtime routine.”

When the PA returned to her trailer, he came forward. “It is that man who called in for Cassie. You don’t need to get into specifics, but is he the problem?”

I nodded.

“I figured,” Sutton said. “He had this smug air when he called in, and he just rubbed me the wrong way, but the higher-ups said to put him on, so we did. Pretentious French prick.”

Beau grunted. “You don’t know the half of it.”

“You have a week,” Sutton said, nodding to the gates, “Anything over that, I cannot guarantee, but I will take the heat for seven days. Go, take care of what you need to get done, and come back here for the semis and finale.”

“Thank you. Do us a favor. It’s clear there is some sort of snitch around here, and it has to be one of your people. Find out who it is and keep Cassie’s and my absences on the low until tomorrow afternoon. Use whatever excuse you have but make sure no one tips this douche off.”

Beau nodded curtly, then grabbed my hand, and I shot my own thanks before we hurried inside. “Go get packed; we’re leaving tonight. Oh, and she needs her phone from wherever you guys had stashed it, Sutton.”

“What about my driver?” I asked. “Porter can get us there by morning.”

“If he leaves, the person who is tipping your ex off will know something is up,” Beau said smartly. “We’ve taken the truck out before, and it didn’t ring any bells. Let’s hedge our bets on getting out without anyone suspecting anything odd.”

His logic struck me. I should have thought about that.

“I’m going to shower and change. If you want to do the same, sure, but get your phone, credit cards, a change of clothes and whatever cash you’ve got. We’ll get whatever we need on the road,” he said. “We’re leaving at midnight.”

Freshly showered, I had a change of clothes in a bag. I’d shoved my charger in my hoodie pocket and had my wallet with my Platinum AMEX and debit cards. The moon was shrouded in thick clouds, with only a bare rim of silver around the edges.

I reached for the truck’s handle, but Beau pulled me into him first, wrapping his arms around me and hugging me tight. “C’mere,” he said into my hair. “We’ll figure this out, okay? We’ll fix it.”

This was the point where I was supposed to let go of his shirt. I didn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, especially when I felt his nose brush the top of my ear, and I angled my lips to meet his. I was on my tiptoes and pressed my lips against his.

One hand was behind my head, and the other was holding my hip tight while I still gripped his shirt.

Beau tasted like coffee and whiskey and smelled spicy, musky, and male. When he deepened the kiss, I parted my lips to let him in, and his tongue swept through my mouth. I dug my fingertips into his side, and the kiss warmed me right down to my toes. Pressed against his chest, I felt his breath quicken, too.

“I’ve been wanting to do that all damn day.” He pressed his forehead to mine, and his mouth moved against mine.

“All damn day meaning the last six hours?” I laughed softly. “Yeah, I know.”

We got into the truck and headed out. His expression was grim. “When we are on the road to Sheridan, call your dad and ask him to get some people out to protect my brother. I don’t think the police will ever believe me when I ask them to do it. It will be better coming from a man with more power.”

I nodded. “And I hope his men have an eye on Vigo too.”

“Knowing Henry, he will,” I said. “That’s the PI who stopped Vigo from selling the video.”

“How did you meet this douchebag?” Beau asked as we left the main road and got on the highway.

“Corporate function in New York, Manhattan,” I replied tonelessly. “He was the guy who drew every eye in the room. Not to mention, his aunt had been appointed as the French ambassador, and he was given the same privileges. With his visa, he cannot be tried under US law for a crime, but his time is running out to get out. If we can’t prove he is behind this when he is on American soil, he will get away with it.”

“You’re tellin’ me the law can’t touch him,” Beau grunted, his eyes narrowing to slits. “Fine with me. My fists will do it for ‘em.’”

I startled. “Beau! No?—”

“You won’t stop me, Cassie.” His fists clenched the wheel. “He’s fucking with my family too. I have a right to. I’ve got a right to fuck with him back.”

“He’s got power, Beau,” I warned him, fear coiling in my belly like a cobra. “He’s got connections that I don’t even know about and friends in high places, higher than me and my dad can reach. Overseas too. He might dump you in a hole in Antarctica.”

“I’ll pack warm,” Beau said stubbornly. “But I am not going to let this asshole lay a finger on my blood.”

There was no way to dissuade him. I knew it, so I didn’t push. All I had to do was go about this smartly, find a way to hem Vigo and whatever henchman he was working with at the same time.

The radio was a soft hum in the background as we sped through cities and countryside while I stared off into the endless expanse of highway. Between worrying about what Vigo’s next move was and what we could do about it, I knew I had a sleepless night ahead of me.