So they ordered their food, Wyatt a steak and French fries, Jess a chicken pie with veg. What followed was a conversation that Jess only understood part of, the money part of anyway. To get the ranch working properly was going to take more money than she had. She told Wyatt this, who then adjusted his estimate and came up with the bargain basement version of how to save a cattle ranch from liquidation.
“What if we ran the place as a sort of resort? You know, come to our ranch and learn to do things with cattle,” Jess said vaguely, not sure where she was going with this. “I could always set the house up as a B&B, and then people could come and you could teach them about roping cattle and how to be a cowboy. Or something like that.”
“Sounds interesting,” he said. The food arrived then and they spoke more about Jess’s idea as they ate.
“It might bring in some cash for now,” Jess said. “The house is in pretty good repair, I could cash in another investment and see what else could be done.”
“Okay, before you go doing anything let’s speak to Old Charlie. He’s been at the ranch forever, and he always has his ear to the ground.” Wyatt suggested.
And that was it. The work talk ended as Wyatt and Jess pushed their plates away.
Wyatt ordered another beer and Jess switched to the house red which turned out to be a fine shiraz. Suddenly there was a commotion as all the patrons of Honey’s stood up as one and began to move the tables, chairs and sofas out from the grass patch under the sky. The moon was rising, an almost full moon, Jess realized.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
Wyatt smiled as a group of musicians walked in a kind of parade around the central fire pit. They carried their instruments, all except the drummer who tapped his sticks together in a rhythm. The musicians were speaking a language that Jess couldn’t understand. It sounded like a poem though, or perhaps the lyrics of a song. They went round and round the fire pit until the leader struck a match and the wood piled in it caught and flames shot up into the air.
Everyone cheered then, Jess too, though she had no idea why. Then the musicians moved to a corner that had the drum kit in it, and next moment they were playing music. It was good country music. It didn’t surprise Jess at all to see that Jesse and his date, along with Ryan and his, were the first on the dance floor, moving around the fire pit with grace and purpose.
“Does this always happen?” she asked Wyatt, leaning towards him to be heard.
“Pretty much,” he said. Then he stood up and offered her his hand. “Would you care to dance?”
“Oh, why not?” Jess said and they joined the others.
It was a line dance, and Jess had never done anything like it before, so she trod on a few toes, and felt silly, but it was a lot of fun. And then the song ended. Breathless, she stood panting waiting for another song to begin. It did in the way that these things do, and it was a slow song. People paired off into couples. Wyatt took her gently in his arms and steered her around the floor. He was way too close now. There was no getting a clear thought in her head. Not when she could smell him, and feel his hands very chastely on her back and in her hair. Jess bit her lip, swallowing the urge to reach up and pull Wyatt’s lips to meet hers.
He looked down at her, his lips parted slightly, his golden eyes shining in the moon light. He inclined his head to her, his brown hair falling across his eyes. She reached up without thinking and brushed it aside. As she did he caught her small hand in his huge one and held it to his chest.
“Jess I…” he began. But then stopped.
Dimly Jess became aware of something going on at the door. A group of men had entered Honey’s. They were standing in a knot and a big, burly man with grey hair was clearly trying to get them to leave.
Wyatt let go of her and before striding to the door he barked, “Stay here!”
Jess never listened to anyone unless she meant to, so she marched after him. Anyway one of the men looked horribly, terribly familiar. As she approached the door she became more and more convinced. Then she heard his voice and there was no more doubt in her mind. It was Conrad.
“What the hell are you doing here!?” she yelled, pushing through the throng until she was inches from Conrad’s smug face.
Being this close to Conrad again filled Jess with rage. How dare he come and pollute her corner of the world? Wasn’t it bad enough that he had taken New York from her, but now he had to invade her patch of Colorado too!
“What are you doing here?” she demanded again.
Conrad smiled at her. It was that infuriating, self-satisfied grin, that Jess had wanted to slap off his face every day during the divorce discussions.
“Jess what’s going on?” Wyatt asked trying to grab her wrist and pull her back. She shook him off.
She opened her mouth to speak but Conrad brushed passed her and stood in front of Wyatt. He was much smaller and it would have been comical if Jess hadn’t known what strength lay in that small frame.
“I’m Conrad,” he said extending his hand, “Her husband, and you are?”
“Ex! Conrad, you are my EX!” Jess roared at him, “And this is none of your business.”
Conrad looked from Jess to Wyatt. Then he leaned over to the big man and said in a not too soft whisper, “Well at least she’s playing to her strengths, she was always a good lay.”
“What are you trying to say little man?” Wyatt asked looming over Conrad.
“Oh just that I hope you’re paying her for her company properly. A girl like this is worth…”
Wyatt punched him.
It seemed that everyone had simply been waiting for an excuse to rip into each other, and Jess found herself in a world of brawling men. She tried to make her way out of it, but suddenly someone grabbed her by the arm and rammed her against the wall. Pain shot up her back and for a moment she wondered what was happening. Conrad held her firmly. He must escaped Wyatt somehow. His lip was bleeding but he didn’t seem to notice.
Jess struggled and writhed trying to get free, while inside fear built, the same fear that had made her leave him.
He’s going to kill me.
Then Conrad hit her. This wasn’t the first time but it was still a shock. The stinging, ringing in her ears made her eyes roll and water. She felt something trickle over her lip. He hit her again, and again, this time in the stomach and she bent over vomiting up her wine and dinner.
“Why can’t you leave me alone?” she gasped and sagged to the floor.
Conrad lifted her chin as he hunkered down in front of her. “You don’t deserve happiness Jess. You left me and no one does that! You hear me? No one! I will hunt you down wherever you go! I will find you and I will take everything from you!”
Suddenly hands gripped Conrad’s shoulders and pulled him off her. It was one of his pack.
“We gotta go Conrad,” the pack member said hurriedly. “We’re in deep for this,” and he pulled Conrad back again.
“I’m not finished!” Conrad roared but a wall of big burly men was closing around Conrad and his friends, pushing them out of the door.
“This isn’t over Jess!” Conrad yelled at her. “It will never be over!”
Suddenly Wyatt was by her side. He looked so worried that Jess tried to smile to tell him it was okay, but all she could do was cry. Jess realized that she would never be free of Conrad. Never. He would haunt her steps for the rest of her days, sucking the life out her slowly, painfully. She would always be looking over her shoulder, and he would always be there, forever.
Wyatt drove her home. He didn’t speak, only put his arm around her shoulders and drew her to him. The heat off his body melted her frozen, aching muscles and Jess felt herself turn into a limp rag doll. She was so tired. Conrad had sapped the life out of her.
When they reached the ranch, Wyatt got out and opened the door for her. Then he picked her up in his strong arms.
“I can walk,” she said softly.
He ignored her and carried her inside. Then he took her
up to her bedroom, and laid her on her bed and helped her get her boots off. Jess was aching all over. Wyatt examined her face and her stomach. Then he produced a tub of ointment and began to rub it on her bruises. He was so gentle she could hardly feel his fingers on her skin.
“It’s a special mixture,” he said, “Works like a charm for bruises. I keep it in my truck just in case you know? You just get some sleep and you’ll see, tomorrow will be better.” He kissed her forehead gently, brushed a strand of dark hair from her face and left.
Jess slept in fits and bursts. She woke often and at one point in the night thought she heard an animal howl. She hoped it was just a wolf, a normal wolf, but her gut told her not to be naïve. Conrad was here. Her footsteps would be hounded by wolves until he made her crazy or she died.
By morning Jess was a more composed person. She looked in the mirror at her bloodshot blue eyes and pale cheeks, but apart from a slight swelling under one eye, she looked perfectly normal. What was in that crème?
Throwing on jeans and a blue Tee she went out into the yard as Wyatt’s truck pulled up, brimming with workers. He had organized extra help for the day, including as it turned out, his sister, Donna.
Donna was lovely in daylight too. She bounced into Jess’s house, and in no time at all, was elbows deep in boxes pulling things out and finding places for them.
“Wyatt told me about your ex,” she said.
Jess didn’t say anything.
“Sounds like a right turd to me,” Donna said. “But you know what? I believe that nasty people get their payback in the end. Just you wait and see, this Conrad will get his. Especially if my brother has any say in it.”
“Really?” Jess asked, interested despite her feelings of dread.
“Oh sure, no one messes with a girl my brother has his eye on,” Donna said. She went on to explain how strong and brave her brother was. How there wasn’t a man who could beat him.
Jess smiled, “He’s not a man. Conrad is a werewolf, Donna. So I don’t know if your brother can beat that.”
Donna didn’t seem concerned at all. She just smiled and carried on working.
That night a cow died.
Something broke in and hauled it halfway across an open field, leaving bits as it went. The next night brought the same thing, only with two cows this time. Jess fretted and spent half the night awake listening, not daring to go outside because what could she do against a werewolf?
Wyatt did his best, he fortified the fences, tried every trick he knew, but still those crafty wolves were getting in.
“I’ll have to speak to him,” Jess said six days later and five cows down. Wyatt and Charlie were seated at her new kitchen table holding mugs of coffee.
“You can’t,” Wyatt said flatly.
“Actually I can,” Jess said with more vehemence than she had meant. “This has to stop. It just has to.”
“Do you think talkin’ will do any good, deep down in your soul?” Charlie asked.
Jess sighed and shook her head, “Probably not. But what can I do? I haven’t slept in forever, and each night more of my cattle are slaughtered and mutilated. Conrad has to stop or be stopped. We have to have a plan.”
Charlie looked at Wyatt who shrugged. “There might be something,” he said.
“What?”
Charlie shrugged, “There is a man, he makes things. Things that work on werewolves.”
“You’ll have to use it though,” Wyatt said.
Charlie nodded. “I will. I’ll take her there.”
There turned out to be a little shed in the middle of nowhere. The man was small, greying and owlish with huge eye glasses. He grunted and spoke only to Charlie even though he accepted cash from Jess happily enough. And then with a package under Charlie’s arm they left and returned to the farm.
The package turned out to be a gun, and silver bullets. Jess nodded.
“Okay, so do you know how to shoot? Oddly it never came up as something I needed to know,” she said.
Wyatt smiled. He and Charlie showed her how to load the gun with normal bullets, and then spent the afternoon teaching her to shoot. It was a rifle and took some getting used to. Jess kept closing her eyes when she pulled the trigger. In the end she hit the target three out of five times and that would have to do.
Wyatt sat with her in her sitting room. They had taken to spending silent hours together. He had practically moved into the house now, sleeping downstairs on the sofa, at his insistence. Some nights Jess tiptoed downstairs to find him gone, she suspected to walk the grounds, but he was always back in the morning looking tired.
This had to end. So when Conrad came sniffing around this time, he would meet his maker in the barrel of a loaded gun. And she would be the one pulling the trigger.
Night settled over the valley. Clouds rolled up dark and forbidding. Jess watched them from her back porch, a cup of tea in her hand. She was sitting on a swing chair, gently rocking back and forth. Wyatt came outside. He had been sleeping in Jess’s bed. At her insistence. After all, she needed him fresh so that they could deal with Conrad once and for all. With his feet and chest bare, his hair tousled, Jess found herself wishing that her life was different.
How wonderful it would be to wake up to Wyatt every morning, looking as he did now. She longed to stand up and wrap her arms around him, holding him close and smelling me, touching him. But she had to get rid of Conrad first. Legally he had no hold on her, but he just wouldn’t let her go. And so long as he drew breath, there was no way she could be happy, with anyone. So she sat in her chair and clutched her tea a little harder than she meant to.
Wyatt stared off into the distance. “The clouds look promising,” he said. “Maybe we’ll get lucky tonight.”
“Sorry?” Jess asked, flustered.
“Rain, maybe it’ll finally rain,” he said smiling. “Pull your mind out of the gutter, girl!”
Jess shook her head at him, a naughty smile she couldn’t stop any more than she could still her heart, playing on her lips. That’s it, Jess, kill Conrad and then…then…
Wyatt seemed to know what she was thinking. He stood in front of her, his flat stomach right there. She wanted to touch him so badly. He went down on his knees so that his face was level with hers. “We’re gonna get him and this will be over. Then…” he kissed her.
Jess felt awkward and strange, her thoughts melting into whispers. After too a short a time Wyatt pulled back. She hung in the air, floating and ran her fingers through his hair, only then noticing that somehow her tea cup was on the floor.
“Thought we should have something to fight for,” Wyatt said. This time when he kissed her she threw her heart and soul into it. Conrad had never kissed her like this. Hell, no one had. All other kisses were epic fails compared to this one.
And when they surfaced for air, Jess was straddling Wyatt, her hands running down his tight abdomen as he fondled her breasts. “I want you so badly,” she gasped.
Wyatt stopped kissing her. His hands withdrew from her Tee. Jess slid off his lap feeling terribly foolish.
“No,” Wyatt said gently. “We can’t do this, not yet. Not with your ex hanging around like a rabid dog. I want you, I want you in my life, in my bed…but not looking over your shoulder to see when he’ll come and ruin everything. Also, there is something I must tell you.”
“What?” Jess asked still breathless.
“Remember what you asked me the first day, how I was so good with the cattle?”
Ian (BBW Bear Shifter Wedding Romance) (Grizzly Groomsmen Book 4) Page 133
