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CHAPTER
1
The Woman
I had been with Vanceand Brice for a week now, but I still woke up every day not knowing anymore about myself than the day before. The only thing that I had come to trust was, that these two men who had taken me in, were trying to help me discover just who I really was. The ranch they took me to was beautiful and huge. It was what I can only imagine would be your typical picture-perfect two-story ranch style house with a wrap around porch and land for miles around us. The inside was all dark woods, dark brown colors, and stainless-steel appliances. The whole lower level of the house was surrounded by large windows on the back side, that looked out to the barns and horses that grazed in the fields. The furniture was much more stylish than what I would have thought men would like, but what did I know, right? I didn't even know what I liked, let alone anyone else. There was three bedrooms on the second floor, Vance stayed in one, and Brice in the other. Their two bedrooms were polar opposites in decoration. Where Brice seemed to like the color black a lot, Vance added a little more color with white's, gray’s, and a bit of red as an accent. But in the middle of them was the room I stayed in, and for whatever reason everything in the room I used was much bigger than the other two rooms. The ones they stayed in had king sized beds, but this bedroom had a bed so big it should have been called an emperor sized bed. The decorations were all dark wood with whites, blacks, and deep teal accent colors, it was beautiful. When I asked them why it was so much larger than the other two bedrooms they just said it was because it was the master bedroom and it was too much for either one of them, so they left it as a guest bedroom.
Brice and Vance always made sure to keep me safe, and whenever they had to go into the office during the day, they had a ranch hand who lived on the property, Mack, that checked in on me from time to time. He was an older gentleman; maybe mid fifties or so but he was genuinely nice. It took me a few days to get used to the idea that he wasn't going to harm me after what I had been through, but now I looked forward to his company.
Dressed in jean shorts and a blue tank top, I headed downstairs, where I could hear him stirring about in the kitchen. Even though Mack was older, he was still a strong looking man, that stood much taller than my petite frame, about six feet tall if I had to guess. He had salt and pepper colored hair and a goatee the same color. When I made it down the stairs, I found him in his usual attire of t-shirt, jeans, and boots.
“Good morning, Mack.” I called out, walking into the kitchen.
“Well good morning yourself, little lady. Sleep well last night?”
Did I sleep well? Well, in between all the nightmares of being sold into slavery yeah sure.
I wanted to say to him but didn't. “Yeah, I slept pretty good, you?”
“I always sleep like a log,” he chuckled. “Would you like some coffee? I just made a fresh pot.”
“Yes, thank you.” Grabbing my coffee, I fixed it up and sat down at the breakfast nook, watching him move about the kitchen. “So, what are you going to be doing today?”
“I have to take some of the horses out for a bit to get some exercise, so I was going to call my buddy Greg down the road to come over and help me out.”
“Can I help you? I'm growing tired of just hanging out in here all day long, doing nothing but watching TV and staring at the walls.”
“Well, do you know how to...” Shaking his head, he said. “I'm sorry. It's just a habit to ask people if they know how to ride.”
I dropped my eyes down to my hands, then brought them back up to look at him. “Well if I don't know how, can you teach me?”
Watching me for a moment, a smile broke over his face. “All right, but I want you to do everything I tell you to do, don't need those two boys all over my ass because you get hurt.”
Knowing just how protective Vance and Brice had been over me since we'd arrived here, I smiled with relief that he was going to let me go with him. “Even if I fall off, I swear I won't say anything because I don't want to get into trouble either.”
Well then, get on upstairs and get yourself some jeans and shoes on, I'll meet you out by the barn in ten, he called out before he refilled his coffee cup and headed out the back door.
“Okay!” I yelled, racing up the stairs with excitement nipping at my heals, quickly changing and heading out to the barn.
