𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 | 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐬.

Chapter twenty five.

Hardin

"What crawled up your ass, dude?"

I rode next to Ace on the horse my parents had bought me for graduation. I had never even ridden her before I left town. Now, I tried to ride her every day. She was a beautiful red and white paint that would do anything I asked her to do. Ace broke her and trained her. I swear the boy missed his calling.

"Nothing's crawled up my ass. What's crawled up your ass, asshole?"

He laughed. "I ask a question, and you're either so deep in thought you don't hear me or you snap at me. Dude, if you don't get laid soon I swear you're gonna burst."

"Fuck off, Ace."

"See!"

I groaned. "Shit. I don't know what to do. Emme gave me her thoughts, but I'm not sure."

"Well, she's a woman, so she would probably know better than us."

We walked our horses side by side through the pasture. "Damn, I missed this place. Missed riding next to you, Harry, Nate, and Carson."

"This place missed you."

I smiled. That was Ace's way of saying he missed me. "You still friends with Dallin Hester?"

Ace brought his horse to a stop. "Why?"

Shrugging, I replied, "Just wondering."

"I haven't talked to him since I beat his ass one night. I caught him feeling Meli up behind his car at a party."

Laughing, I shook my head.

"I was positive Harry would find some reason to arrest him, and Carson probably threatened him with how he knew someone who knew someone who would break his leg and arm."

Damn, we all think the same.

I chuckled, and we rode the next few minutes in silence. "So listen, I went over the books. Fred's been stealing from Dad."

"No shit," Ace said, kicking his horse, picking up her pace to keep up with mine.

"Yeah. Dad didn't seem surprised. In fact, I think he knew. He just didn't want to admit it."

"That's why he's been pushing you to look at the books since you scared Mike away."

"I didn't scare him away."

"Keep telling yourself that."

I didn't want to let Ace know how much Fred had taken. It wasn't small change. It was thousands of dollars. When I told my father Fred had taken close to three hundred thousand, I thought he was going to have a heart attack. After he let out a string of curses, some I'd never heard of before, he got up, went to his gun safe and said he would be back later. I didn't even bother trying to stop him. I knew he wouldn't do something stupid, but he sure as shit would scare the piss out of good ole Fred.

"Was it a lot of money?"

Glancing over to him, I nodded. "Yeah. It was a lot of money."