"Mercer is going to know the minute she's seen with Hart. He's going to know she talked."
"He's going to know before that," Nathan said. "Someone will have seen us ride in with her today. He'll know by morning."
She thought about that. "He'll do something drastic."
"Men like Mercer always do," Nathan said. "When the walls start closing... they've been in control so long, they don't have a strategy for losing. They just escalate."
"What does escalate look like for him?"
Nathan was quiet for a moment. "I don't know exactly, but I don't think it looks like lawyers anymore."
She looked at him. His face was serious in the way it got when he was working through a real problem—not managing her nerves about it, but actually thinking.
"You're going to stay close to the ranch," she said.
"I wasn't planning to go anywhere."
"I mean, more than usual. I mean, armed and ready."
He met her eyes. "I know what you mean, Margaret."