Chiseled and Cherished (Moon Ranch Book 3) by Em Petrova

Author:Em Petrova [Petrova, Em]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-19T23:00:00+00:00

* * * * *

“Oh my God! It’s Melody! My daughter!”

The black hair streaming across the pavement. So much blood.

Asher jerked awake and bolted upright. He swung his legs over the side of the sofa where he’d fallen asleep. A dream. Nothing but a dream.

Breathing hard, he dropped his head into his hands.

Hell, would these dreams ever leave him? He’d seen worse. Low-lifes hiding behind their women and children, houses crawling with vermin and dirty needles hanging out of people’s arms. And he’d seen enough bad shit in his own family—Zayden bleeding from a cut put there from their old man, needing stitches he’d never get.

Yeah, he’d seen some shit. What was one more horrific moment in the long list of memories?

But I never felt responsible before—not once.

A quiet creak of the floorboards made him lift his head. He knew that step.

“I’m all right, Mimi,” he rasped out.

She drifted into the living room in her white nightgown that swallowed up her small form. “I heard a cry and came to see what happened. I thought you might have finally caught that mouse I saw in my kitchen.”

He relaxed a bit at the normal talk she always had a way of providing when he needed it most. But here he sat, a grown man having nightmares. He wasn’t a child anymore, and he felt ashamed that she’d come looking to soothe him.

“Just a dream.”

She crossed the room on silent feet and sat next to him on the sofa. When she slipped an arm around his back, he leaned toward her. “Go on and tell me. You always feel better when you do.”

He heaved a sigh. “Too much to tell.”

“But something’s been eating at you. I’ve seen you carrying it like an armor on your shoulders.”

He compressed his lips. “Yes, something happened.”

“And you left a job you love.”

His heart beat heavily. “Not sure I love it anymore.”

She squeezed him. “That happens. People change. Our needs change.”

“Yours never seem to change.”

“It’s true I never stop wanting the best for my boys. And I’m content with a peaceful spot in my garden and some sun on my face.”

Silence descended between them for a moment. The tick of the wall clock and Mimi’s solid strength calmed his racing heart.

“A woman was killed,” he said at last.

She stiffened. “Who killed her?”

“Her own father. I went to arrest him and he pulled a gun. His bullet had my name on it, but he shot his daughter accidentally. She didn’t make it.”

Mimi rubbed his back. “Sounds like that black mark is on his soul.”

He nodded and scrubbed his hands over his face again. “It is, but I can’t stop seeing it. Since then, I don’t want to even touch a weapon.”

“And those ranchers put one back in your hands when they asked you to hunt the coyotes.”

He nodded.

“You’ve got a heavy burden on your shoulders, Ash. But you’re strong and you’ll find a way out of it.”

The trill of the telephone made them both jerk. She jumped to her feet and hurried to grab the phone on the side table.

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