your price.”
Dillon shook his head, disbelieving. “My price?” he asked, closing the distance between them. This was the man who had destroyed his family, stolen his ranch and now thought he could buy him as well.
Dillon reached out and grabbed the man’s throat so quickly Waters didn’t have a chance to react. He shoved the rancher against the side of the barn. “My price?”
“Dillon,” Jacklyn said calmly, from behind him.
Waters’s face had turned beet-red and he was making a choking sound.
“Dillon,” Jacklyn repeated, still sounding calm and not overly concerned.
Dillon shot a look over his shoulder at her, saw her expression and let go of the rancher’s throat.
Waters slumped against the side of the barn, gasping for air. “I’ll have you back in prison for assault,” he managed to wheeze as he clutched his throat.
“No, you won’t,” Dillon said to him quietly. “Or I’ll tell your son what you just tried to do. Better yet, I’ll tell Morgan.”
Waters glared at him. “Get him the hell off my property,” he growled to Jacklyn.
“We were just leaving,” she said.
Next to her, Dillon walked toward the pickup, neither looking back.
“What was that about?” she asked under her breath, sounding furious.
“The bastard offered to give me back my ranch.”
She shot him a look.
“And the old Hanson place thrown in.”
“He admitted he’d stolen your ranch?” she said, once they were at the pickup and out of earshot.
“Yeah, right.” Dillon glanced back. Waters was still standing beside the barn, glaring in their direction. “It was a business deal. He wanted me to take Morgan Landers off his hands.”
As Jack opened her door, she glanced toward him in surprise. “You aren’t serious.”
“Dead-on,” Dillon said as he joined her in the cab. He was still shaking, his heart pounding, at how close he’d come to going back to prison for good.
“He wants her out of his son’s life that badly?”
Dillon laughed and leaned back in his seat as she started the engine and got rolling. “Waters is one manipulative son of a bitch. But I’d say he’s met his match with Morgan Landers.”
JACKLYN WATCHED Dillon’s face as he glanced out in the direction of what had once been his family’s ranch. “Tempted?” she asked.
He smiled but didn’t look at her. “That train has already left the station.”
She thought about the lovely Morgan Landers, heard the bitterness in his voice. Jacklyn had little doubt that Dillon could get the woman back if he wanted. Nate was no match for Dillon Savage.
“The sooner we catch these guys, the sooner you can get your life back,” she said.
“What life?” He looked over at her and sighed. “I guess I do need to start thinking about the future.”
She nodded. “Have you thought about what you want to do?”
“Sure.” He looked out at the rolling grasslands they were passing. “I thought about leaving Montana, starting over.”
“Using one of your degrees?”
He nodded, his expression solemn.
“But you can’t leave here, can you?”
He turned to her again, then smiled slowly. “I don’t think so.”
But he couldn’t stay here unless he let go of the past, and they both knew it.
Ahead, Jacklyn spotted the turnoff to the Old Mill Road. She slowed the truck. “You wouldn’t have killed him.”
Dillon laughed. “Don’t bet the farm on it.”
She shook her head. “You’re not a killer, Dillon Savage.”
He looked over at her and felt a rush of warmth that surprised him. Whether true or not, he liked that she seemed to believe it. He reminded himself that while she might not consider him capable of murder, she did believe he was behind the rustling ring. Or did she really?
Jacklyn turned down the road, amazed by the lengths Shade Waters would go to get what he wanted. Was it possible Dillon had been right about him all along?
The road was rutted and rough, and obviously didn’t get much use. But clearly, a vehicle had been down here recently. There were fresh tire tread patterns visible in the dust.
As she topped a small rise, the huge old windmill, with only a few of the blades still intact, stood stark against the horizon. Near it, she spotted two vehicles parked in the shade of a grove of trees.
She swore under her breath as she recognized both of the people standing beside the vehicles, having what appeared to be an intimate conversation.
“And what do we have here?” Dillon said, as Sheriff McCray turned at the sound of the truck coming over the hill.
Jacklyn saw the sheriff’s angry expression. He left Morgan and walked over