Cassian Wolfe?

Fuck, no.

My body froze. I was barely holding myself together from the shock when the overlook door creaked open behind me.

He stepped in.

The bastard had been here all along.

Footsteps followed. Hard leather on granite. Confident. The sound of someone who didn’t ask permission before walking into your fucking life.

Or ruining it.

“Hope I’m not interrupting,” he said.

I didn’t move.

His voice nauseated me. “But we were scheduled for fifteen minutes ago. And I don’t do late.”

I didn’t turn.

My heart was pounding so hard. My fists clenched. My breath hitched. My eyes didn’t leave my father.

He was still trying to stand.

Still trying to pull himself upright for him.

Again, he failed.

And I just stood there, watching him betray me with every pathetic, desperate movement.

Cassian Wolfe’s name meant something. He’d been killing it in the horse business for years, always ruthless, always one step ahead. He didn’t care who he crushed or what he had to burn to get what he wanted. People talked about him like he was a legend, but everyone knew he left a trail of broken lives behind.

If I hated him for what he did to me, the whole world hated him for what he’d become, a man who won by tearing everything down.

Years had gone by.

I still remembered.

He had dragged my name through every inch of the boys' locker room. Told them all I was easy. That I cried when I came. That I was just another spoiled stable girl moping over a mother who had died before I even took my first steps.

Then laughed when I found out, even harder when I slapped him in front of everyone and got suspended for it.

I bit the inside of my cheek till it bled.

My father was still gasping for air.

I wanted to scream, shake him until something in his sick, tired brain realized what he’d done. He hadn’t just picked a buyer. He’d picked a fucking monster.

“Still quiet?” Cassian said behind me. His voice was almost… soft. “That’s new.”

It took guts to face him.

I couldn’t.

So I braced myself for when I would.

“Say something,” Cassian said, closer now. I heard the amusement in his tone, because he wanted me to. “Go on. Let it out. You always were loud when you broke.”

“Fuck you.”

I said it low.

I heard the hitch in his breath. A pause. “That's all you got after ten years?”

I gritted my teeth. “You’re lucky I’m not carving my keys into your goddamn face.”

“Sadie,” my father wheezed. “Please. This isn’t helping.”

“Helping?” I spun half an inch toward him, eyes wide, nostrils flared. “Out of all the buyers in the world. Him?”

Cassian took another step, voice lower now. “I’m not here to fight. I’m here to make an offer.”

I turned.

Finally.

He looked older than the last time I had seen him. Taller. Gray eyes. Dark hair. Arrogant plump lips. Crisp suit. Too fucking beautiful for the demon he was.

My stomach dipped with nausea. Because all I could see was bruises.

Years of it.

The time he slammed my head into my high school locker and called it an accident.

The scar above my hip from where he shoved me onto a rusted nail and didn’t stop to help. Just laughed.

The way he used to yank my backpack so hard it bruised my spine. The way he’d pulled my hair so hard during sophomore year, I had bald patches for a month.

“You don’t get to be here,” I said. “You don’t get to stand there and pretend this is a fucking deal. You tortured me.”

He smiled.

“High school drama. Don’t tell me you’re still carrying that around.”

“You shoved me into lockers so hard I suffered a concussion.”

“You were in my way.”

“You locked me in the fucking shed during a thunderstorm, I almost died from panic.”

“No,” He shook his head. “You lived.”

“You stole my sketchbook. You stepped on it. Spat on it. Ripped the drawing of my mare in half.”

“It was bad art.”

“You mocked my dead mother.”

“You needed thicker skin.”

“You’re fucking insane.”

My father gasped again. The sound was worse now. Wet. Ugly. A wheeze that rattled all the way down to his gut.

“Sadie...”

“I want to know,” I said, eyes locked on Cassian. “Why this stable?”

Cassian’s expression didn’t change. He just looked at me like I was a puzzle he’d already solved.

“Your father called me,” he said. “I didn’t show up on my own.”

“You’re a goddamn liar,” I growled.

He didn’t flinch. “You think I walked in here because I need another project? You think I’ve got time to chase ghosts?”

“I’ve heard the stories,” I said, fists shaking. “You’ve been eating your way through every other stable in LA. Santa Cordia. Brightwood. Westfield Oaks. Even Cortez Ranch. They all fell one by one. Some sold out. Some went bankrupt. One caught fire.”

“Coincidence,” he said dryly.

“Bullshit.”

He tilted his head. “If I wanted this one, Sadie, I would’ve started with it.”

He let that sink, and then continued. “But I didn’t. Because I know something you won’t admit.”

He shifted back on his heels, gaze sliding over my shoulder to my father.

“You need this place more than I ever will.”

His voice dropped. “This stable should’ve been the crown of the west coast. The best in the entire city. And now?” His eyes cut into me. “It’s dying. Just like your father.”

Right behind me, I heard it.

The slump.

“Sadie,” my father gasped.

“Please... stop... fighting...”

He collapsed.

The sound of his body hitting the granite was something I would never forget.

“Dad?” I dropped to my knees beside him, my hands flying to his chest, his face, his arms. “Dad. No. No, no, no, you stupid old man, don’t you dare.”

His lips were pale. Hands twitching. Skin cold and slick with sweat. Each breath came wet and raggedy. Drowning. That’s what it sounded like.

Late-stage cancer.

Wasting. Breathlessness. The end.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I whispered, panicking, choking on the sobs in my throat. “You should be in a hospital. You should be getting your meds. Not selling me out like this. Not…”

He blinked, slow.

He looked scared.

I pulled him upright, cradling him against my chest. His ribs felt like sticks ready to snap.

I looked up.

Cassian was still there.

Still watching.

Unmoving.

Unbothered.

Smiling.

My blood boiled.

“I’d rather set this whole fucking stable on fire,” I said, my voice trembling, “than sell it to you.”

I got to my feet, dragging my father with me.

Every step toward the door was agony.

Cassian didn’t move. Didn’t offer help. Didn’t say a word. He just smiled, like he was savoring the moment. “Go ahead. Burn it all down, Sadie Sinclair. I’d pay good money to watch that fire swallow everything you think you own.”

I clutched at my father’s trembling frame.

Cassian stepped in my way, “Funny thing is, your dear old dad forgot to mention something. He owes me. Not just a little favor. Millions. A loan he begged for when this place was bleeding out. Guess desperation makes liars of us all.”

My eyes widened.

He let that sink before he continued. “Sell this place, and after the debt is covered, you’d still walk away with a couple million. Enough to start fresh somewhere else, maybe.”

He wasn’t done yet.

“But keep it, and you’re on the hook for everything he never paid.”

Then, a step closer, a whisper. “So, what’s it going to be, Sadie? Burn it all down and walk away with nothing? Or sell me the stable and finally pay the price your father ran from?”