chemo.”
He reached for her, but Cole moved forward, effectively blocking his access. “The only thing you’re letting go of is Sienna,” he said, all trace of civility gone from his tone. Sienna had a sudden twinge of sympathy for whatever bad guys were lurking around this section of the Rocky Mountains. Cole Bennett was clearly not a lawman to tangle with.
“This is none of your business, Sheriff.”
“Are you joking?” Cole threw up his hands. “You’re going to force me to use the ‘I’m making it my business’ line? I try not to veer into TV cop stereotypes, but if that’s what it takes...”
Sienna raised a hand to her mouth, stifling a giggle. The situation was no laughing matter and Kevin had the right of it with his implied threat about her parents. Both her mom and stepdad assumed her marriage to Kevin was a done deal, the engagement just a box to check off the official wedding to-do list.
Maybe she was light-headed from lack of oxygen at this altitude, but she realized she not only had other options in life but wanted to explore them. To see who she could have become without the rigid constraints of the life her mom had orchestrated. Her mother had gone through her own emotional journey during her battle with cancer, one that had culminated with reuniting with the son she’d left behind. But Sienna wasn’t on the path of reconciliation, and certainly not with Kevin.
She pointed at her ex-boyfriend. “You have a saggy butt.”
The valet snickered as Kevin’s mouth dropped open.
Cole turned to her, one corner of his gorgeous mouth twitching with amusement. His honey-brown gaze held hers for a moment. “You went there,” he muttered. “Really?”
“I deserve better than you,” she continued, moving around Cole to go toe-to-toe with Kevin. “I deserve better than how you treated me.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” he said, and she wondered why she’d never noticed that when he smiled it looked more like a sneer. “If you weren’t such a stuffy prude, I wouldn’t have had to find another woman to warm the bed. This is your—”
His head snapped back as her fist connected with his nose. She yelped, as surprised by the fact that she’d punched him as she was by the pain in her knuckles. Kevin cried out, covering his face with his hands.
“You saw her. Assault and battery,” he shouted through his fingers.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Cole promised. He gestured to the valet. “Get him a towel and some ice.” Then he grabbed Sienna’s arm. “I think you’re done here.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“No more talking,” he told her, half leading and half dragging her across the street to his Jeep. “Let’s just get out of this town before you cause an even bigger scene.”
She stopped a few feet from the car. “Are you going to make me sit in the back seat?”
“I should after that stunt,” Cole said but opened the passenger door for her. “Get in. Your saggy bottomed ex has gone into the hotel. We should be gone by the time he comes out again.”
Neither of them spoke as Cole drove out of Aspen. The upscale shops and restaurants housed in historic brick buildings gave way to apartment complexes and other, newer structures and finally changed to open meadows as he took the turn onto the highway that led to Crimson. It was the third time today she’d driven this stretch of road.
As they passed a herd of cattle grazing in a field behind a split-rail fence, Sienna searched for the mama and baby she’d spotted earlier this morning. The young calf, which couldn’t have been more than a few weeks or months old, had been glued to its mother’s side as if that was the safest place in the world to be.
Sienna wished she could relate to that feeling.
“I don’t make scenes,” she said, finally breaking the silence.
Cole’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “Then you do a great imitation of someone who does.”
“It’s not my fault he cheated,” she whispered.
Cole glanced over at her. “Say it like you mean it, sweetheart.”
“I do. I want to.” She clasped her hands tight in her lap. “He was right about one thing. My mother is going to be irked by this situation.”
“The part where he cheated or the part where you broke up with him because of it?”
“We were supposed to get engaged on this trip,” she said because she wasn’t ready to answer his question out loud.
“Then I’d say you dodged a bullet.”
She held on to that comment for a moment, cupped it between her hands—like a kid would with a firefly late on a summer night—and found she liked the light shining from it. So she tucked that light inside herself, the way she’d learned to do with anything that made her happy but would have disappointed her mother.
Sienna had learned early how to pick her battles with Dana Crenshaw Pierce, and most of them weren’t worth waging.
“Did you grow up in Crimson?” she asked, needing a break from talking about her own messed-up life.
It was a simple enough question but Cole tensed like she’d just requested he recount his first sexual encounter in graphic detail, then broadcast the story across his cruiser’s radio.
“No.”
“Somewhere in Colorado?”
“No.”
“Okay then.” When he didn’t add anything more, she threw up her hands. “I’m going to assume you’re some sort of super secret law enforcement guy and you’ve had your past wiped out by the covert government agency that basically owns you and if you breathe one word of where you came from or who you used to be, everyone in your family will die.”
“They’re already dead,” he said quietly.
“Oh.” She reached out a hand, placed it on his arm. “I’m sorry.”
He swerved off the highway to the shoulder, braking hard. The Jeep’s tires crunched in the dirt and gravel. Sienna tried to catch her breath as she was jostled in her seat.
“Let’s get a few things straight.” Cole’s voice was as jarring as fingernails on a chalkboard. “I don’t need or want your pity.”
“I wasn’t—” she began, but he held up a hand.
“We’re not friends,” he continued. “We’re not going to be friends. You were a mess this morning and I was taking care of my friend by taking care of you. If the ex-boyfriend is any indication, you need serious help with your taste in men. Maybe you need help in general.” He jabbed a finger toward her, then back at himself. “I’m not going to be the one to give it. I’m dropping you off at the rental car agency, and we’re done. Is that clear?”
“Crystal,” she said, feeling as if she had ice forming inside her veins. She
