“Move all the tack into trailers, make sure we got enough supplements and vitamins in the big box that goes to the show barn.” The answer came swiftly and he knew the change of subject was a relief. It had been a hard conversation for each of them, and Duck was ready to put it behind him for now, too. “Then start mixing bottles for the calves.”
“Better get to it then, Eli.” He squeezed him again. “I want you to know I heard what you had to say this morning. I’m going to work hard to keep from hurting your mom again. My goal every day will be to make sure she knows she’s loved.”
Elias still had his arm around Duck’s waist and he squeezed him in response, then Duck heard him whisper, “All I can ask.”
“No, Eli. You can ask for more, but even if you won’t, I’ll give it to you.” Duck paused a moment, feeling Eli’s arm tense. “Here’s another goal, just as important as the last. Every day…every single day, I’m going to take care of you, too.”
***
Scowling, Duck walked down the drive to where the trailer sat, still hooked to the truck. He snapped, “Gill, what the hell is this?” and then continued without waiting for a response. “We buy stock we didn’t talk about?”
Without speaking, Gill stood and waited at the back of the trailer for Duck to reach him. Together, they worked to unlatch the locks and Duck heard an unmistakable squeal from inside the vehicle. He asked, “Stud colt?” and groaned when Gill nodded, eyes fixed on the shadows of the trailer’s interior. They had talked about acquiring a new stud for breeding, but none of the ones they had looked at were as young as this animal sounded.
They were pulling the chute wings up to fill the gap between the trailer and the fencing when he heard the ringing racket of hooves on the wooden trailer floor, then the single crash of a kick against the sidewall. Leaning sideways, Duck looked along the length of the trailer and snorted a laugh when he saw the results of the colt’s next hard kick, a bulging dent appearing in the metal.
He straightened up just in time to see movement in the shadows, and then a cautious sorrel head snaked out, eyes wideset and intelligent, panicky whites showing all around the edges as the frightened horse examined his new surroundings. The colt looked to be from old stock, the classic lines of his nose and jaw harkening back to the early days of Quarter Horse registration.
The animal jerked his head back into the shadows and Duck heard Gill curse softly under his breath. With a bend of his knees, Duck pushed off, grabbing the top of the rail and swinging his legs and hips over, landing in the middle of the alleyway leading from the trailer to the corral. Quickly, Gill said, “Boss, have a caution. He ain’t even green broke. Ain’t been around people much.”
Duck shook his head at his foreman’s advice, faced the ramp and backed into the trailer a couple of steps, hearing the horse behind him move away from the unwelcome intrusion. Duck just stood there patiently, plenty of room on either side for the horse to push past if he wanted out, but he didn’t expect that to happen. The colt was curious, his peek a few minutes ago attested to a bold attitude. He just needed to wait the horse out. If he were nosy, and he was, he wouldn’t be able to stand not knowing what Duck was doing just standing there.
Sure enough, within a couple of minutes, there were hot gusts of breath against his elbow, then his back, then his other elbow, then a nudge. The nose shoving at him swiftly removed, followed by a tug at his sleeve, teeth precariously near skin making him grin. Moving slowly, Duck took a single step forward, and stopped, waiting for the horse to step up behind him. When the colt moved and he felt the hot breaths against his back again, Duck strode forwards and out from the trailer into the sunshine. He kept walking, and even without looking back, he knew when the colt started moving because the trailer rocked and shifted, and then he heard Gill’s soft, “I’ll be damned.”
He was ready for it and stepped to one side when he heard the tentative hoof beats behind him pick up the pace, becoming a thundering rumble. The colt flashed past him and into the corral, head up, tail flagging high as it raced the wood fencing it in, containing it from running free. Duck watched as the colt’s muscles surged beneath the sorrel hide before it slid to a stop, hocks tucked far underneath its body. Ears attentively pointed forward, the horse froze in place for a moment before whirling on its haunches to launch itself in the other direction. Not afraid, not at all afraid. This was pure joy in movement, and instincts like that would make training him a pleasure.
“Pretty colt,” was all he said, reaching out to help Gill shut the gate.
“Yup.”
He grinned, knowing it would be all the response he would receive from the taciturn ranch foreman.
“Wow!” He heard the breathy exclamation from just outside the corral and turned to see Eli there. The boy’s eyes had locked on the eager colt still running circuits along the fence, sliding and turning, effortlessly changing leads on the fly, mane and tail streaming. “He’s gorgeous, Duck.”
He stood there a minute, studying the boy. Eli had picked up on the name change without anything being said, never questioning, just adapting. He was good around the place, had worked hard alongside Duck on a variety of jobs, but his joy, the one thing he loved more than anything else was the horseflesh he had access to on the ranch. Every time the boy had half a chance, he was on General, saddled or bareback, and Duck had seen the boy stick to the younger horses like a burr, while still handling them like glass. No horse on the place had heard his voice raised in anger, and none of them avoided the boy. Consistent and persistent, he had a natural way of handling the horses that they responded to.
Glancing over at Gill, he caught the man’s eye and tipped his head towards Eli, receiving a sideways grin and nod in response. Right on, he thought. Project horse. This would give Eli something he would not only be good at, but where he could see and measure the results as he excelled. Something to master, but the whole process would require a great deal of compromise, lending itself to good life lessons.
“He is pretty,” Duck said, turning back to watch the colt as he stretched out his legs for two or three strides, mane flying and snapping in the wind. “Gonna need gentling. Gill said he’s not halter broke yet, so that’d be your place to start, Eli.”
The boy turned to face him, eyes nearly as wide as the colt’s were a minute ago. He seemed to be waiting for something, and when Duck didn’t say anything more, he shook himself, like he was trying to wake up, then breathed the disbelieving question, “What?”
“Gill’s got the final say, but I’m thinking this is a good chance for you to put leather to your learning.” He shrugged, watching Eli’s face as his bright and excited gaze flicked between Gill and him.
“You got good ideas, boss,” Gill said laconically and Eli’s face lit up in a grin as he turned to watch the colt again.
***
“Tellin’ you, Mason, she’s got a strut that won’t quit. Doesn’t surprise me he’s holed up with that fender bunny.” Watcher chuckled. “Brenda works for him, but you can tell she means a fuckuva lot more. Climbed down from the cab of the truck and, Jesus, you could tell at a glance from a hundred yards away she was pissed right the fuck off at him. Still made her way to where we were standing. Fear pouring off her in waves at the boys between her and her old man even as she rocked that strut. Respectful, not pushy. Ignorance of club was clear, though. ‘Reuben’ her call instead of Duck.”
Mason shook his head, cutting his gaze to where Fury sat on the couch in the office, listening to the conversation on speaker. He would give a little here, and then wait to see where the man took the knowledge. How he handled it would be telling in the long run. Mason told Watcher, “Duck asked for time, then called and asked for more. His family’s business is there in town, and he didn’t go home after his brother took a dirt nap, so it is entirely reasonable he needs time.” Watcher started to say something, and Mason talked over him, “I’ll pull him home for a couple of days, see where his head’s at.”
Angl
ing his chin towards the door in a silent directive that got Fury on the move, Mason then reached out and picked up the handset, waiting until the door closed behind Fury to speak again. “Now, brother. Tell me the real reason you called me about my man.”
“Duck wasn’t wearing his colors.” Anger and an edge of suspicion trailed through his words, and Mason knew this right here was the trigger for the call today. “I sat on the info for a few days, thinking and stewing why you’d send a man my way without a call. Send him in without a patch.”
Watcher paused, and Mason waited, giving him ample time to say what he needed. Watcher growled, “Fucking anon, in my fucking town, walking towards me on my fucking lot at my fucking bar. Mason,”—he sucked in a breath—“I greeted him like a brother, no reserve. Found blank denim underneath my fist. Blind and empty, as if he owed no allegiance. Feels like I’m treading a fine line here, brother. You know that kind of shit looks disrespectful. Fuck, it is disrespectful. Makes men look at me, gives them something to gab about, takes their focus off what I need it to be, which is fucking Diamante. Wiping that goddamned club out of my territory. I don’t need my men thinking…fuck me, maybe even believing my strongest ally is looking to backstab me. Maybe think you’re the type to slide a man in under the radar until he’s found out. To be strong, you have to believe strong. That’s what I need right now. I need my men to believe strong.”
Silence bled into the airwaves lying between them for a few moments as Mason waited to see if Watcher was finished. Mason let it go on until the quiet was uncomfortable, then, his voice hard and rough, said, “You. Out of everyone in my life, you know what it means when I call you brother. I would not fuck you like that, Watch. No way. No how. You know how it is between us. Duck said West Texas. Digger said Midland. Fuck, man. I called and asked you if you carried a charter in Midland and you told me no. I did not know to ask Lamesa, but you could have volunteered that shit, knowing how close the two are. He was not anon as an insult, but rather out of respect. And you fucking know it, you know you do.
Without giving Watcher time to respond, he continued, “If you have shit in your house, brother, then you need to clean it out. Can’t nobody make that shit right but you, and it’s something else you fucking know. If a patch brother don’t trust you, don’t believe in you, then drop the motherfucker’s center. He don’t straighten his ass out, check himself, then you cut his fucking rockers. Wrecked himself. Let him go find a pussy outfit to ride at the back of instead of giving him a chance to start crap with you.
“Now, if my man…if Duck didn’t show you proper respect, then we can have a different conversation. But I know him, and Watch, dammit, you know him, and we both know he fucking did respect. Stopped as soon as he saw you, pulled in and pissed off his pussy so he could pay that respect. He’s a good man, been solid for years. One of my most trusted. You fucking know that, too.
“So here we have a decision. A fork in the road, and…fuck, man, I think everything depends on how you answer. Your answer is gonna drive our relationship from here out. What kind of man do you believe I am? Do you believe strong? Are you strong in what stands between us? Do you believe me? You’re my brother, my true brother, and you know it’s how I feel.
“But, if you believe for one second, one motherfucking, goddamned breath, if you really believed I was running one of my own down into your house without making it right, then it is crystal we have a burned bridge somewhere between us instead of what I thought we had. So what’ll it be, brother? Tell me what you believe.”
“Mason,” Watcher said instantly, “respect, brother. We’ve had us a misunderstanding. You called, that’s truth. I didn’t put two and two together. That shit’s on me. Saw Duck’s face, pleased me down to my bones. Felt it. Then when I felt that naked back? Fucked me up, brother. Felt that, too. Diamante keeps creeping along the edges, man, got me twisted inside out these days. I don’t know what Lalo’s got planned, but I know from chatter he’s got something churning. He’s playin’ and layin’ low, hiding his face. Laying along the edges of the wind, sure as I’m a bastard. Just can’t get a handle on what it is, but I know…know in my goddamned belly it is going to fuck. With. Me.”
Mason let the silence sit for a minute, but not as long as before, then he said, “Respect, brother. Belief, too. Know you didn’t track that shit, so it’s not on you. We’ll set this aside. Never happened.”
Watcher asked, his confident voice sounding certain of the answer, and Mason appreciated him asking just to make sure. “We good, brother?”
“Fuck, yeah. We’re good. I’ll pull Duck back up here, figure out what’s up about his old lady, make sure he’s not falling into a Diamante trap over pussy. That would be a shame. Never seen the brother with anyone more than once. He’s never struck me as the long-term type. Will be fun to ring his bell over this shit, seeing as he hasn’t come clean to me about it. So, thanks for that. I’ll let you know how the entertainment plays out, yeah?”
“Yeah, you do that, fucker,” Watcher said with a chuckle. “Shiny side, brother.”
“Shiny side, man.”
Have it sweet
“Brenda, you got a minute?” He called the question up the stairs to where she was getting dressed. Tonight was the final visit with the rodeo sponsors, reviewing the placement of banners and promotional material in and around the set-up at the fairgrounds. “Need to talk to you, honey.”
When he had come back into the house from working in the barn office and checked his phone, there had been a message from Mason asking him to phone in. The man himself wasn’t available when he made the call, but Red told him Mason wanted him back in Chicago for a day and Digger had already gotten him a ticket, leaving tonight. He had called and left a message for Digger, making sure the man knew the ticket needed to be round trip because he would not be staying in Chicago. It was sudden, but if the club needed him, he would go, no questions. He just wouldn’t stay.
Bee called, “Coming,” a moment before he heard her feet on the stairs. He shook his head. The woman managed to hit every squeaky board every single time she traversed the staircase. He watched as she used her grip on the post to swing around and head to the kitchen where he stood, grinning at the expression on her face. Equal parts pleasure and amusement, her smile stretched her lips, curving them up at the corners.
Opening his arms wide, there was a rush of satisfaction when she walked into them without pause, no questions in her eyes. Not yesterday. Not today. And, he prayed, not tomorrow. A gift, he thought, having her trust me like this. Wrapping himself around her, he held still for a moment just soaking in the feel of her, and then said, “There isn’t any way I can say this that won’t make you wonder for at least a minute, so let me say up front, the tickets are round trip and I’m back here tomorrow night.” She jerked, making a noise and trying to pull back, but he tightened his arms, holding her close. “I got a call a couple of minutes ago. My boss in Chicago needs me back there tonight. I fly out of Midland in about four hours. I’ll be right back here tomorrow night. Back in our bed tomorrow night. Home.” He kissed the side of her head. “Home, with you, my Bee.”
Slowly, she relaxed and her chest expanded with a long, soundless breath. Then, without argument or hesitation, simply giving him what he needed, she quietly said, “Okay.” With that single word, he knew he held her trust, fully and without question. She believed what he said, that he wasn’t leaving, that he would be back here with her just as soon as he could make it happen and he found himself again thinking, a gift. Softly, he pressed his mouth to the side of her head, kissing her temple. When she tipped her chin up, wordlessly asking for more, he dipped and captured her mouth with his. Duck worked hard to give her what she needed, kissing her deeply, tenderly stroking against her tongue with his.
***
Chicago, Illinois
Duck had worked his way into a very foul mood by the time he stalked into Jackson’s that evening. The flight into O’Hare on his one-fucking-way ticke
t had been unpleasant, his neighbors on the plane loud and obnoxious. That was followed by a trip from the airport to the bar that was less than pleasing.
Letting the door swing shut behind him, he looked around, seeing the typical group of patrons and members in the bar, with the exception of a clearly missing Mason. Dammit, he thought. Lifting his chin to his brothers, he acknowledged the welcoming chorus of greetings as he turned to where Merry stood behind the cash register. Catching sight of the look on his face, she laughed aloud and he frowned more deeply. “The fuck you laughin’ at, woman?”
“You look like somebody stole your last piece of candy, shit on it, and put it back in the box,” she responded, eyes on him but her hands in constant movement, making change for a customer. “Lookin’ for Mason?”
“Yeah, he called me up here for something, but now he isn’t answering his phone. Didn’t have a brother meet me, and he isn’t at the clubhouse. Took the train in because I was told he was here, but now I don’t fucking see him. You know where he is?” A woman’s laugh floated through the room and with a lightening of his mood, he recognized Mica. He watched as Merry’s eyes flicked over his shoulder, then back to his face. “Fucker’s right behind me, ain’t he?” She nodded with a grin.
A hand fell on his shoulder, pulling and swinging him around before Mason’s hand clasped his wrist, his grip in return an automatic response. “Duck,” Mason said warmly, tugging him forwards for a thumping one-shoulder clench. Not giving him a chance to respond, Mason said, “Come sit with us.” Motioning with his other hand, he indicated a crowded booth along the wall.
“Boss.” Duck shook his head and pulled back on the grip, feet firmly planted. “I didn’t come all the way back to Chicago in order to socialize with citizens.” Since he found her, since he took on the privilege of protecting her, spending time around Mica had always twisted a knife in his heart, and he waited for the pain to grip him. Waited for a pain that did not materialize. For the first time. He pushed back at what he was feeling, trying to decide the difference, realizing that for once, seeing her wasn’t tied to his shame and guilt, but circled around with pure pleasure at her happiness.
Duck (Rebel Wayfarers MC Book 8) Page 17
