Free Cowboy's Pride (Welcome to Covendale Book 1) by Morgan Blaze

it, Thatcher. Step off.”
    Cam went still. Without looking away from Tommy, he reached back and grabbed the shot of whiskey. He tossed it down in one swallow, slammed the glass on the counter. Then he stepped forward. “Come outside and make me.”
    Some of Tommy’s bravado drained, but he held his ground. “Not a chance,” he said. “You’ll just shoot me.”
    “Backstabbing son of a bitch! I should shoot you.”
    The whole bar got quiet again with those ringing words. Tommy’s mouth opened and closed once. When he didn’t say anything more, Cam snarled and pushed past him—only to stop and look straight back at Sydney. “You have a nice life,” he said, his voice dripping with bitterness.
    He turned and kept going, and people practically dove out of his way as he stomped through the bar and into the night.
    Hot tears pricked Sydney’s eyes. She clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a sob, ignoring both Luka and Tommy’s calls as she pushed her way to the ladies’ room so she could fall apart in private.
    * * * *
    Cam pulled away from The Klinker as fast as the ancient farm truck would let him. Damn it, he knew he shouldn’t have gone in there. But he had unpleasant business in town, and he’d wanted a drink or two in him before he saw to it.
    How the hell did Sydney manage to be everywhere he went lately? Six years of nothing, and now he couldn’t avoid her if he tried. And he was definitely trying.
    Apparently he wasn’t going to convince her that Tommy was an evil rat bastard, either. She was deep in denial, making up excuses to herself. Determined to go through with this wedding and ruin her life—because she didn’t think there was a problem.
    Tommy had always been able to lie like a champ, though. It took Cam years to see through his bullshit.
    Right now, much as he wanted to, he couldn’t worry about Sydney. He’d spent most of the day researching and going over paperwork, looking for any way to keep the ranch—some overlooked asset he could sell, a job he could do, a favor he could call in. He came up with exactly jack shit.
    He’d also listed out all the businesses in town owned or sold by Boyd Lowell, and tested his theory by paying them a visit. Every single one had denied him service.
    The bastard worked fast.
    With all of his legal options exhausted, Cam had turned to a more dangerous solution: Eddie Verona, loan shark and ruthless hustler. He’d arranged to meet the man at the old rail yard across town to discuss what Eddie called a “business venture,” and what everyone else called a short trip to the hospital.
    Rather than a handshake, Eddie liked to seal his deals with a casual beating from his enforcer, Jonah Dawson. It was supposed to give them a taste of what to expect if they failed to make payments on time—weekly, at thirty percent interest. From what Cam had heard, every missed payment cost a broken bone. Eventually the price went up to a busted spine, and then a shallow grave.
    He expected to go home with ten grand and considerable pain. But it’d be worth it to keep Lowell from getting his hands on the ranch. He’d just have to hope he could manage the rest of the payments to Eddie.
    As tough as it was running the ranch now, it’d be impossible if he was dead.
     
     

Chapter 10
     
    “Well,” Luka said. “I guess the whole town’s got something to talk about for the rest of the year.”
    Sydney groaned and dropped her head on folded arms. They were sitting at a table in a bar that was a lot less crowded after the almost-bar-fight. Half the staff had gone home too, since the business had dried up. “Great,” she muttered. “I’m locking myself in my room until the wedding.”
    Tommy had apologized profusely to her for acting like a caveman. He said he was just worried about her, with Cam threatening to shoot people and all. She was still kind of mad at him, but figured she’d take tonight to sort through things in her head. They could sit down and talk