Ambush Before Sunrise: Bonus Story (Cardwell Ranch Book12; Montana Legacy

damn well go see her if I want to.”
“What about the restraining order? You go near her and she’s going to call the sheriff.”
“Let her. She already went whining to him, but there isn’t a thing he can do to me. Anyway, I’m not afraid of Harvey Bessler.”
“He’s the law, T.D. You better watch yourself or he’ll trump something up and lock you behind bars. Have you forgotten that he was her father’s best friend? He would love nothing better than to put you in one of his cells.”
He scoffed, more than aware how tight Ray McCallahan had been with the sheriff. But Ray was dead and gone and if Harvey kept harassing him, he’d get the old fart fired. “Let him try.”
“You think he won’t arrest you? Well, I’m not getting you out of jail this time. You hear me? Let Jinx go. She sure didn’t have any trouble letting you go.”
Her words were like a gut punch. He wanted to slap her mouth. “Watch it,” he warned. He wouldn’t put up with her saying anything bad about Jinx, whether the woman was his almost-ex-wife or not.
He looked around for his boots, knowing that if he didn’t get out of this apartment and soon, they were going to fight. He was already fighting with Jinx. He didn’t need another woman on his case.
“Why do you need to talk to her tonight? Anyway, shouldn’t your lawyer be handling this?”
He didn’t answer, knowing better. He wished he hadn’t brought the subject up about his soon-to-be ex to start with. But she’d been on his mind. Nothing new there. Jinx had caught his eye and he’d fallen for the woman. Fallen hard. When she’d told him it was over and sent him packing, he’d been in shock. The woman needed him. How was she going to run that ranch without him?
But somehow she’d managed in the months since he’d been booted out. He’d put the word out that no one he knew had better go to work for her if they knew what was good for them. He chuckled to himself since he’d heard she was having trouble hiring wranglers to take her cattle up to summer range.
That would teach her to kick him to the curb. He’d thought for sure that after a week or two she’d realize the mistake she’d made and beg him to come back. So he’d made a few mistakes. Like hooking up with Patty.
But Patty wasn’t even the reason that Jinx had thrown him out. She’d said she didn’t care about his girlfriend, his drinking, his not working the ranch like he should have. She said she was just over him and wanted him gone.
Maybe as his friends said, the only reason he wanted her back was because of his bruised and battered ego. But he knew in his heart that wasn’t all of it. He still wanted Jinx. She was the sexiest woman he knew. He was crazy about her.
If she hadn’t made him feel like he was a hired hand, he wouldn’t have needed Patty. But from the day they married, he’d been too aware that it was her ranch. Not that she didn’t always tell him that it was their ranch and that was why she wanted him more involved. But he knew better.
Once she threw him out, though, he threw her words back at her. Our ranch, huh? Well, then I want half of it. Not that it was even about the ranch and the property settlement anymore. He couldn’t stand that he’d let a woman like her get away. Just the thought of another man touching her drove him insane.
He told himself he could change. He could be the man she needed. She had to give him another chance. He figured if the two of them could just talk—or even better, hit the sack together—they could work this out. Once he got her in bed, she’d listen to reason.
“You’re bound and determined to go out there, aren’t you?” Patty said behind him, sounding close to tears. She was wasting her time. Her tears no longer moved him. For months she’d been trying to get him to divorce Jinx and marry her. The woman was delusional.
“Maybe I should drive out to that ranch myself,” she said, sniffing dramatically. He heard the threat, the anger, the spite, dripping with jealousy. “I’d like to tell her what I think of her.”
T.D. refused to take the bait as he found his boots and began to tug them on. Now, if he could just find his shirt...
“I think it would do her good to know that you’ve been sneaking over to my place the whole time you’ve been married to her. Her lawyer might want to hear about it, too.”
The words swung at him like a baseball bat to the back of his head. He spun around, going for her throat before he could call back his fury. The woman was threatening to ruin everything. Before she could move he was on her. He saw the shock and fear in her eyes as his large hands clamped around her scrawny neck. She opened her mouth, gasping like a fish tossed up on the bank, but no sound came out.
He’d known about the bad blood between Jinx and Patty. Apparently, they’d gone to school together. Jinx had dated Patty’s brother in high school. When the fool had gotten drunk and driven off the switchbacks on the highway west of Jackson Hole, Patty was convinced that he’d done it on purpose because of his breakup with Jinx.
T.D. had known how jealous Patty was of Jinx. He’d always suspected that was the reason she’d come after him, determined to get him into her bed not long after his marriage to Jinx. As if it took a lot of effort on her part. Patty was a nice-enough-looking woman with willing ways.
But tonight she seemed to have forgotten her place in the scheme of things. Leaning closer, he tightened his hold