If you’re gonna break her heart, don’t bother riding back up this mountain.”
Rip doesn’t say much when he’s angry. He just looks at you like he’s sizing up a problem he already knows how to bury.
So when he pulled Kayce aside, hands on his belt, jaw tight— Kayce knew what was coming.
“Stay away from her.” Kayce didn’t blink. “Rip—” “No. I mean it.”
Roxanne had already lost too much. Miss Dutton. Her childhood. Herself for a while. And Rip had watched her claw her way back — from the barn to the arena, from silence to singing again.
“She doesn’t need another lone cowboy who’s gonna ride off for a wife again,” Rip said, voice low and cold. “Hell, I’d rather see her with Ryan or Travis. At least they’d stay.”
Then he stepped closer, voice dropping to a warning.
“But you? You break her heart, Kayce…” “You’ll be takin’ a ride to the train station. And I will be the one drivin’.”
Some threats are empty. Rip’s never are.
📌 A Yellowstone OC story full of tension, loyalty, and the kind of love people are willing to fight for — even if it’s not their own.