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damn well we want the truth,” James added.
    Cole laughed at them all. It was a bitter, ugly sound, and he didn’t much care for it.
    Mac was staring at him hard.
    â€œWhat?” he demanded.
    â€œYou think I don’t want to know the truth about my best friend?”
    Her voice was clear and true, but the flash of pain-laced defiance made Cole falter. Made him wonder if he’d gone too far. Seems he was doing that quite a bit lately.
    Deacon released a weighty breath and played with the empty beer bottle beside his glass. “It’s just going to take a different plan of action. A new strategy. And while we’re working that out, we need to decide the fate of the Triple C.”
    â€œMy workplace, let’s not forget,” Mac added quietly, her eyes still heavy with all the talk of Cass.
    Deacon pulled her in close. “No one’s forgetting that, darlin’.”
    â€œI say, give it to the Cavanaugh bastard and be done with it,” Cole said without heat. He couldn’t care less about the C. Not right now anyway. He felt frustrated and mixed up about what was happening—what had been happening over the past month. He wanted the truth about what had happened to Cass, and yet there was a deep, dark place inside him that didn’t want to know. Didn’t want to face the fact that he hadn’t been there forhis twin, hadn’t protected her from the bastard who’d ripped her from his life . . .
    When he glanced up, he found the four of them staring at him.
    â€œI’m serious,” he said. “That brother of ours has been livin’ here for most of his life. None of us wants the place. Mac’ll stay on with him running things.”
    â€œWe can’t be sure of that,” Deacon said. “Besides, one of us does want it.”
    Cole stilled. “Who?”
    James looked first at Sheridan, then at Cole. “We do.”
    We!
Good fucking Christ. These women were changing everything. Messing shit up—messing with heads. First Deac was going to destroy the Triple C. Then Mac stepped in, and now he had a new ranch built and was sticking around town. James hadn’t given a shit about the Triple, and now with Sheridan wearing his ring, he wanted to stay here in River Black and—what, make it their home? Damn lovebirds. Hadn’t they all silently agreed to keep away from this town? This goddamned town that had destroyed them all? They didn’t belong here . . . not anymore. At least Cole still believed that.
    â€œThe horses . . .” James began. “They need to be looked after.”
    â€œSo visit them,” Cole ground out. His appetite was gone. “You don’t have to live there.”
    â€œDon’t have to, true,” James agreed with a nod.“But I think I want to.
We
want to. Split time between here and Dallas, like Deac does.”
    Heat vibrated through Cole’s body. He looked at James, then Deacon. “I feel like I don’t even know the two of you anymore.”
    â€œYou’re overreacting,” Deacon began.
    Cole’s phone vibrated and he glanced down at the readout. His jaw clenched as his eyes moved over the name. Jesus, the day was just getting better and better. What did she want? To tell him that she was coming into town tonight and he’d better stay thirty feet away from her at all times?
    This is Grace Hunter. I don’t know if you’re in River Black, but I’d like to meet w/you ASAP.
    The vet’s face popped into his mind. She had a real pretty face. The kind a man could stare at for hours and not get bored. Too bad she was a giant pain in the ass. He typed.
    I’m in RB.
    What was this? he wondered. Contacted by Grace Hunter out of the blue. The woman had wanted him nowhere near her after his little breaking and entering at her office, followed up by the visit to her dad. And then there was that little matter of the