AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Me too.” Maisie takes my hand in hers and rests her chin on my shoulder as the gun goes off and all the men take the strain.
Garrett adds the latest trophy to the shelf in the office, beside the other ones, then dusting off his hands, and proudly admiring it, he takes a seat behind his desk. Me and Cole both stay standing, waiting patiently for him to let us know why he called us in here.
“I got a call while we were at the show, from Alan Durston,” he reveals, while I do what I usually do and pour us all a drink, tryin’ really hard to keep my cool.
“What the fuck is he wantin’ now?” Cole touches his fingers to his split lip to check if it’s still bleeding.
Garrett’s idea of us not fightin’ went to shit as soon as we won that tug-of-war contest. Those assholes are poor losers, and Leonard just had to get a stupid, sly comment in while we were celebrating our glory. A stupid-ass comment that sent everything into chaos.
Fists were thrown, boots got scuffed, and once again, the Carson ranch came out on top. Guess some people will never learn.
“Actually, this time he doesn’t want anythin’, he called to give us a heads up,” Garrett continues.
“Make’s a change.” I slam a glass of bourbon in front of him, then take the other two glasses and hand one over to Cole before I sit beside him.
Alan Durston owns a ranch a few towns over, he and our dad were good buddies, and he ain’t ever gonna let us forget that. The man’s always calling in favors, and them favors are rarely returned.
“What kinda heads up?” Cole gets us on point, knocking back his drink and holding the bag of frozen peas, Maisie gave him before we came in here, to his cheek.
“He took on a few wranglers to help out with the summer, turns out they were a bad sort. A few young women in Rushville paid the price for his bad judgment.” Garrett stares at his desk with his jaw clenched.
“You mean they—”
“They raped them, Wade,” he looks up and tells me sternly.
“He just wanted to give us the warnin’ in case they show up here lookin’ for work. We’re nearby, and four men travelin’ together would be lookin’ for a big ranch.”
“Was that all?” Cole drains the last of his drink and slams it on the desk before he stands up.
“Yeah, that’s all.” Garrett frowns.
“Well then, I best get back to work.” He tosses the frozen peas at Garrett before heading out the door and when I move to get up and go after him, Garrett shakes his head at me.
“You better say what ya wanna say to me before ya go chasin’ after him.” He proves that he’s figured out how pissed I am at him, and we sit in silence for a few moments before the words blurt out.
“Okay, tell me why ya did that today when the fight broke out? You know that hit on Caleb should’ve been mine.” I’m fuckin’ furious at him for going straight in for Caleb Mason when things turned ugly. The Mason bunkhouse boys all immediately abandoned whatever scuffle they were in and jumped to their boss's son’s defense, and I ended up having to fight my way through ‘em all when their main target became Garrett. As usual, the little weasel managed to wriggle himself outta the fight and by the time it had turned into a full-on brawl, he’d gotten himself away.
“You know exactly why I did that, Wade.” Garrett throws the peas across the desk for me to hold against my eye. One of Leonard Mason’s rings has made a gash in my brow that I’m pretty sure is gonna scar, but he came out a lot worse. Mason men were clearly never taught to fight.
“You know how frustrated I’ve been and how much I wanna make him hurt, that was my chance to let a little of it go.”
“And would ya have stopped?” My brother raises his eyebrows at me over the top of his glass as he takes another sip. “You’re not a fool, so don’t ask foolish questions. I hit him first, and before you had the chance to, because I knew the others would bundle in on me, and I knew you would put gettin’ me outta that over hurtin’ him. I stopped ya from killin’ Caleb Mason in front of the whole damn town, today. You may not thank me for that right now, but when you get to make him pay, in the way youreallywant him to, I’ll be ready to hear that thank you that you owe me.” He stands up from his desk and leaves me with that thought.
And although I know he’s right, it don’t take none of the rage outta me.
It’s a damn good job that the second part of my plan for today means I got an outlet for it.
* * *
It’s later than usual when I get to the spot in the woods where I watch Leia’s house from. But I know the reason why is gonna make things a little easier for her. I’ve never been one to condone hurting a man without a good reason, but for Leia, there ain’t a level I won’t stoop to. Morally, Stan Finchley ain’t exactly agoodman, anyway. Just last summer he charged Shelby way over the odds to put one of her horses out of its misery.
There’s one light left on in the house, the bedroom one, and as I light myself a smoke I torture myself by looking in through the window. I can see Leia standing in front of the mirror taking off her makeup and I watch Caleb step up behind her and wrap his hands around her middle so he can kiss her cheek. To anyone else looking in, they look like a happily married couple, but I know different. Leia remains static and when his hand lifts to tenderly stroke that cheek he fuckin’ marked, it makes my fists clench.
I deserve the pain it causes me to watch ‘em, and so I keep on observing as he spins her around and kisses her lips. Her body stiffens, and I think about how it felt to have them pressed up against mine earlier today.
I don’t know what I expected her to do when I kissed her, it wasn’t even part of the plan. I’m just relieved that she kissed me back, it gives me a little hope that maybe she doesn’t hate me after all. But as I watch ‘em disappear outta view from the window, there is one thing I can be sure of. And that is that there’s no one out there that hates me more than I do myself, right now. I stare at the empty window feeling numb of anything other than anger. Caleb’s probably on top of her, doing what a husband does to a wife, and knowing that she’s suffering it, makes me want to barge in there and tear him off her. I wanna drown that fucker in his own blood and take my girl home where she belongs. But I can't. I'm stuck between a rock and a fuckin’ hard place, where the only thing I can do that seems any kinda decent, is stand here and suffer it with her.
When I realize I can just about see the reflection of them on the bed from the mirror it’s another torture for me to condemn myself to.
