Quickdraw Slow Burn (Battle of the Bulls #3) - T. S. Joyce Page 0,57

bring him in. Dead, you’re kicked out of the herd. Train Wreck is taking your place.”

“No one could ever replace me,” Dead muttered. “Who would make your friendship bracelets?”

“No one! Because you never made me a friendship bracelet!” Two Shots griped. “You made them for everyone but me. You even made one for Annabelle before you made me one.”

He was right. Annabelle was wearing her pink and purple wolf charm friendship bracelet right now.

Two Shots was on a roll, and his voice was getting louder and louder. “You probably have three made for Train Wreck already! You know what? Fuck this. I’m tired.” Two Shots marched off.

“Who says I didn’t make you one?” Dead asked calmly.

Two Shots halted, just on the inside of the ring of illumination created from the storage pen lights.

“Maybe I spent more time on yours than anyone’s,” Dead said. “Maybe I made it in your wife’s favorite color.” He pulled a yellow friendship bracelet from his pocket. “Maybe I put all of our initials in it.” As he held it up, sure enough, the light glinted off tiny beads with the herd’s first initials on it. “But if you don’t want it…” Dead moved to put it back into his pocket.

“No!” Two Shots yelled, then looked around at them with wide eyes. He lowered his voice. “I mean…no.” He cleared his throat and moseyed on over to Dead, hesitated in front of him to look at the others again, then snatched it out of his hand. He held it up in his clenched fist. “This is stupid.” But as he walked away, just before he hit the shadows, Annabelle saw him slide the bracelet onto his wrist.

Since Cheyenne and Raven wore matching mushy smiles, Annabelle took stock of herself. She was definitely smiling, too, and the stretch of her face felt so good after the last few days.

“I’ll take the first shift tonight,” Dead told them. “You ladies go get some sleep. Annabelle…” he said as she began to walk away.

“Yeah?”

“Especially you, okay? We can see you getting tired. See the stress on you. Quickdraw is okay. Take care of his boy.”

Annabelle nodded, but it took her a few moments to unclench her tightening throat enough to speak. “I just want him to come back. I want to tell him everything will be good no matter what. I want him to tell me the same.”

“I know.” He kissed Raven on the forehead and swatted her butt. “You girls go on. We’ll do Cheyenne’s traditional pancake breakfast in the morning and try to find some normalcy, okay?”

“Okay,” Annabelle murmured, linking her arm in Raven’s.

Normalcy? What was that? She didn’t even know anymore. She said goodnight to Raven and Cheyenne on the edge of the shadows, then turned to call out a last goodnight to Dead, but a soft, familiar sound perked up her oversensitive ears.

Last week, she had sent the sound of the baby’s heartbeat to the herd. They’d asked for it.

And right now? Dead was playing it for Quickdraw. Dead didn’t speak or move. Just rested against the fence while playing the whoosh-whoosh-whoosh of the baby’s heart.

Quickdraw wasn’t running or charging. He wasn’t pacing. He was standing near the fence near Dead, just quiet. Still. Muscles twitching and coat covered in sweat, but still. Finally still.

Annabelle clasped her hands over her mouth to stifle the emotion that was washing through her.

Never in her life would she forget the sight of Dead, that big, bearded behemoth leaned up against the panel, staring into the eyes of Quickdraw’s gnarly bull, them both still and silent, listening to the beating of her baby’s heart.

Never in her life…

Chapter Twenty

“Will you resent me?”

With a gasp, Annabelle sat up in bed in the dark. She blinked hard, praying this wasn’t another dream. “Quickdraw?”

Her eyes adjusted enough that she could see him sitting in the corner of the room in the small chair by the closet. “Will you resent me?” he repeated gruffly in a hoarse voice that said he hadn’t used it in a very long time.

“Come here,” she whispered.

Stiffly, he stood and then slipped under the covers she held up for him. His skin was cold and his muscles twitched, and he grunted with soreness as he pulled her against him, but he was back. Her Quickdraw was back.

She hugged him tight because hugging him kept her shattering pieces together. She wanted to make him warm.

“Will you resent me for getting you pregnant and taking your choices away from you?” he