The Unbreakable Trio by Sam Crescent Page B

we’d originally bargained?”
    “Some shit we can’t change. She should have bailed us out. It wasn’t our fucking fault we got into a fight in the first place.”
    Sometimes his friend did have double standards.
    Their bargains had been ridiculous, like sleeping together on prom night if they hadn’t lost their virginity. Liam had lost his the day after to the high school darling before she left for college. Shane had lost his in the back of a car not long after he turned eighteen. Claire had lost hers…he couldn’t recall if she had. Liam frowned. Thinking about his past brought up so many questions and memories.
    Being in the cell didn’t feel great at all.
    Closing his eyes, he willed himself to fall asleep.
     
    * * * *
     
    Shane watched his friend fall asleep. Most of the men around him were in some stage of slumber. Cursing his situation, he stormed to the other side of the cell.
    “I never thought I’d see the day I’d be on the inside of these bars,” Michael said.
    “Don’t talk to me. I’m pissed at you,” he told the man. Shane sat on the floor with his back to the bars. There was a single window, and he could see the outline of the full moon outside. Not letting himself look at the metal surrounding him, Shane calmed his racing heart.
    He was at home in a warm bed. The noise of the ranch told him it was settling for the night.
    “I love Cassidy.” Michael broke the silence and Shane’s exercise in self-restraint. “I know Gary and the others love her, too.”
    “I don’t want to hear this,” Shane said.
    “You’re in love with Claire.”
    He didn’t dispute the claim. He’d loved Claire for all of his life. It was what made being stuck in the cell all the more hurtful.
    His father had been stuck in one of these cells, and he’d taken him out. Shit, his dad used to lock him in the closet as punishment for breaking a plate. The walls were caving in on him, and he closed his eyes, trying to imagine the outside world.
    “I’m sorry for dragging you into this mess.”
    Shane didn’t respond. Michael had started the fight, but Claire had left him.
    Would he ever be able to forgive her?
    The night wore on, and soon he was the only one awake. Liam snored on the makeshift bed. As the hours passed, Shane felt the anger and resentment rise up inside him. By the time the cell doors began opening, he was ready to spill blood.
    When Claire and Cassidy stood side by side, smiles on their faces, Shane ignored her and moved out to the truck. Opening the door, he waited for his friends to come out to the truck.
    Claire tried to speak to him, but he cut her off. The pain in his chest was unbearable against her abandonment. That was what he felt, abandoned.
    At home, he ignored her and took a shower before working on the ranch. Shane hated himself for the way he was treating her, but he couldn’t find a reason to stop.

Chapter Eleven
     
    Shane ignored Claire for the rest of the day and all of the weekend. When she entered a room, he walked straight out. The tension between them mounted as he continued to ignore her through to the following week.
    All of the ranch hands had heard about the brawl in the bar and Claire leaving Liam and Shane in the cells overnight. No one voiced an opinion. Shane would walk into the kitchen, get his plate, fill it with some food, and leave, eating outside.
    At night he stayed in his room, and no matter what she did, he wouldn’t give her the time of day.
    Late the following Friday, she baked a cinnamon-and-apple pie, his favorite . Liam was working out in the fields, and the ranch hands were spread around the fields with the cattle.
    Shane was in his study doing the end-of-month spreadsheets and sorting out workers’ pay.
    Without bothering to knock—every other time he’d refused to let her in—Claire walked into the room and stopped by his desk. Shane didn’t look up. She placed a plate with the piece of pie on top.
    “What’s this?” he asked. There was no