your statement and a picture of your injury.” First, the officer and Drake helped Clint sit up. Drake muscled Clint up with his hand hooked under Clint’s armpit and practically plopped him on his feet with a thud. Clint wobbled, spotted her again, and tried to come after her. Drake held him in place and frowned at the sad, drunken attempt Clint failed to pull off without looking stupid and weak.
And it made him even more dangerous.
“This is all your fault. You’re going to pay for this.” The slurred words didn’t erase the veracity of the threat.
The officer tugged Clint away from her with a “Keep tacking on the charges, buddy.”
It took ten minutes for all of them to give their statements separately. The officer laid out the charges—trespassing and assault the only ones that carried any weight—Clint would be in and out of jail in a day. If that. Especially if Clint did the smart thing and got a lawyer.
Drake and Declan offered to finish off the three horse stalls she hadn’t done.
Lost in her swirling thoughts, she headed for the house.
Tate caught up to her in the driveway. “Hey, where are you going?”
“I’m going to shower and head over to my place to get some clothes and other things I need.”
“I’ll drive you.”
She shook her head. “You don’t need to do that.”
“I want to.”
Frustration got the better of her. “He’s in jail. I can drive myself.”
Tate’s lips tilted in a dejected half frown that made her feel guilty for snapping at him. “I’m sorry.” She raked her fingers through her messy hair and tucked it behind her ear. “I’m tired of not being able to do what I want, when I want. I can’t even do chores on the ranch without him mucking that up. He ruined a perfectly great morning.”
Tate reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. “I know, sweetheart, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. He’s the shithead who can’t take no for an answer. And he blames me! I’m supposed to pay because he’s a jerk. What the hell did I do?”
“Nothing.” Tate’s even tone only irritated her more because it proved she’d lost her mind and was yelling for no reason.
She sighed out a huge breath. “Sorry. I’m doing exactly what he does—taking out my anger on someone who doesn’t deserve it.”
“I’m pissed, too. I can’t even protect you on my own property. He got close enough to hurt you.” Tate brushed his thumb over the barely anything scratch. “What if he’d done worse? Or he took you. Hell, he had enough time to shoot you.” Luckily, only Drake brought a gun, just in case.
She put both hands on his chest. “Tate, I’m fine.”
“He took Aubrey without anyone seeing him. He got her up to that bridge and pushed her off.”
The nightmare image that evoked sent a chill through her.
Her first instinct was to soothe Tate by telling him they didn’t know that for sure, but in her heart, she knew. Clint was capable of much worse violence. She saw it in his flat eyes and heard it in his heartless words. He didn’t express any sympathy or remorse for what happened to Aubrey or what he did to her and others.
He never apologized for accosting her in her condo.
Everything was someone else’s fault.
“It’s not your sole responsibility to guard me. I know you want to—”
“I want to lock you in a room until he’s behind bars for life or dead.” Tate glanced down to the stables. “If Adria hadn’t seen him coming . . .”
“I had a shovel at hand and a bunch of tools. Like the one you used,” she pointed out. “I’d have screamed for you. I’d have run.”
Tate’s eyes filled with a plea and dread. “And what if none of that was enough?”
“I don’t know. But I can’t spend my whole life worrying about what if and not living my life.” She patted his chest before he went off again. “I’m not saying I won’t be careful. More so now that I don’t even feel safe here.”
Tate’s head fell back before he looked at her again. “I hate that.”
“Me too, but I’m going to take Detective Valdez’s advice and press charges. Hopefully, I can get a restraining order.”
Tate waved that off. “A piece of paper isn’t going to stop him.”
“I don’t think so either, but I want to have everything in place for the next time he comes after me.”
“He’s not going to stop.” Tate’s obvious statement held all the