Pretty Reckless (Entangled Ignite) by Jodi Linton

Gunner. “Ain’t that right, big guy?”
    I heard Gunner grit his teeth. His fists were firmly balled in his lap, and I knew he really wanted to clock Luke, but, to his credit, he said nothing.
    “So where’s the fiancé? He didn’t bail, did he?” Luke asked.
    “No. Nathan’s in Houston at a veterinarian conference,” I said with as much composure as I could muster.
    “So I guess he didn’t take the money this time?”
    “You didn’t,” I shouted.
    “Oh Laney, you give me too much credit.” He winked, then slumped back in his chair, smirking.
    “What money?” Gunner asked harshly.
    “Nothing.” I glared at Luke. Over the last three years, he’d periodically offered Nathan money to dump me. I’d been under the assumption he’d stopped. I should’ve known better.
    “You’d tell me if there was something going on here, right?” Gunner asked annoyed.
    I smiled, trying to lighting up the mood at the table. “No, since it’s none of your damn business,” I replied.
    Nodding acceptance, but not happy about it, Gunner tipped his hat back and propped his boots up on the edge of the wire picnic table. “Laney tells me you and Bosley had a confrontation the other day,” he told Luke.
    Smirking, Luke tilted his hat to shade his face. “I don’t know if you could exactly call it that. The old bastard shot at me with his god damn shotgun again.” He stretched his arms over his head and popped a couple of knuckles. “You know how that goes.”
    Gunner and I both ignored him this time.
    “So do you mind telling me what happened before Laney here showed up?” Gunner asked, sticking to the point.
    Luke rolled his eyes, stopping them on my chest. Annoyed by his constant childish efforts to bait Gunner, I said, “Just spit it out, Luke, before I take you in for obstruction of justice.”
    Luke drummed his fingers along his legs, cocked the toothpick out of his mouth with his tongue, and huffed. “Ah, hell, since y’all made the effort to come out this way…” He tipped the toothpick to the edge of his tongue, sat up, and rested his elbows on the table. “I was minding my own business when I heard Bosley outside the house here yelling for me. The old coot was ranting and raving about how half his cattle was dead, and he wanted the son of a bitch who did it.”
    He paused and pried the toothpick from his mouth, flicking it on the ground. “From his tone, I suspected he figured it was me. It wasn’t like I was going to let the old bastard accuse me of something I didn’t do. So I moseyed myself on over to his ranch. I pulled up his driveway, but before I could get a single word in, the son of a bitch shot at me.” Luke pulled off his white cowboy hat and ruffled his hair before returning it to his head. “I did what anybody would do. I shot back at the bastard.” He looked my way. “That’s when Laney here came out and found the dead body.”
    My bullshit detector was shooting off all kinds of red flags.
    “Why didn’t you just confront him when he was here instead of going all the way out to his place if you know nothing about the poison parsley?” I asked.
    Luke laughed instead of answering and kicked his legs down from the table. “Seriously, Laney, you believe I had something to do with killing that old fart’s cattle? I mean, if I wanted to, I could have found a much better way to stick Bosley where it hurts.”
    “You never know,” I snapped, “the Wagner’s are known to have a few tricks up their sleeves.”
    He snorted. “I suspected some accusation like that from Gunner, but not you, Laney. I thought you knew me better than that.”
    That garnered me a look from Gunner. He narrowed his eyes and rose. “Sorry for our little intrusion. Give my regards to your father.”
    He glanced at me, and I stood, too, nodding at Luke.
    “I’ll do that,” Luke said, smirking. “And next time you need to talk, feel obliged to contact my lawyer.”
    Gunner nodded, adjusting his hat. “Have