by Marla Monroe
Sierra entered the back door to the washroom, taking off her boots and stuffing the gloves she wore into the shaft of one of the boots. Then she continued into the kitchen where three hired hands stood around waiting for Sedona to give them an idea of what was for lunch and if they should serve themselves or sit down.
“Have a seat, guys,” Sierra said as she noticed that Sedona was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is Sedona?” she asked.
“Don’t know. The phone rang and she grabbed it and left,” one of her hands said.
“Help yourselves then, and I’ll go see where she is.” Sierra strode out of the room in search of her sister.
She found her in the office, staring out the window with the phone in her hand at her side. By the stoop of her posture, she wasn’t thrilled about whatever had been said in the phone conversation. Sierra felt her stomach turn, and a chill ran down her spine. Had she already talked to Dexter?
“Sedona? Is something wrong?” she asked, walking over to the window to stand next to her sister.
The young woman jerked, but didn’t say anything. It was worse than she thought. She lifted her hand and squeezed her sister’s shoulder, hoping she would talk to her. They needed to talk because Sierra was sure Sedona knew exactly what had been in that contract now.
“Why?” was all she said without moving her gaze from the window.
Sierra doubted she saw anything on the other side. Her eyes appeared too unfocused. Once again, Sierra’s heart squeezed. She was hurting her sister by trying to do the right thing.
“Why what?” Sierra took the coward’s way out. Sedona would have to spell it out for her. She just couldn’t force the words out of her mouth.
Her sister surprised her with her vehemence when she turned and almost screamed at her.
“Don’t you dare play dumb with me! You’re signing away your life to that bastard that you’ve been fighting since high school. What does he have over you?” Sedona asked, her eyes bright with angry tears.
“It’s only five years, not my life,” she said. “I—”
“Five years of pure hell followed by the rest of your life hating what you did. I want no part of it! I’m not going to school. I wouldn’t be able to sit in class knowing that I was there because you let someone you hate screw you. No. Fucking. Way!” She turned and ran from the room before Sierra could stop her.
Something inside of her broke, and she sank to the floor and sobbed. Everything she’d ever done to protect them and make sure they had what they needed exploded over her in a wash of pain and anger. Now her little sister was throwing all of that out the window. It had all been for nothing. She’d tell Bethany and even Buddy. Hell, he already thought she was worthless and evil. What did it matter that he added whorish to the mix?
* * * *
“So what do you think?” Rollan asked as Thorne leaned against the stall.
“I’m fine with it if you are. It means putting off the cutting horses for a year, but having the extra land, especially the added access to water, would help a lot in the long run,” he said. They had been running through possible scenarios off and on all day now.
Since they planned to make Sierra their wife, adding her land to theirs wasn’t an issue. Neither was it an issue to use any means possible to get her under their care and protection. Taking advantage of the problem she’d created in an attempt to care for her family didn’t settle well with either of them, but getting her out of the mess did.
“When I talked to Sedona a few minutes ago, she didn’t sound good. This is eating her up inside. Not just what Sierra was willing to do for them, but going behind her back to us is tearing her up,” Rollan said.
“We need to go over there and put this into motion. Leaving Sedona in that position will only make matters worse. Plus, Sierra is going to find out that the contract is missing soon.”
Rollan nodded. “I agree. Go on to the house and get cleaned up. As soon as I get the latch fixed, I’ll come in and change, as well.”
An hour later, they climbed into the truck and drove over to Sierra’s place. The only thing they needed to figure out was who to get to draw up the papers. It was obvious that Sierra hadn’t trusted anyone in the area since she’d gone out of town with the contract. He was glad she’d been able to think straight enough to get a lawyer to look it over so she didn’t end up still losing everything.
When they pulled up in front of the house, Thorne steeled himself for her horror that they knew what she’d been going to do. Then he straightened his shoulders to withstand her pain and distress as well. She was going to fight them, but they would fight back. She was well worth it, and there was no way they could ever leave a woman in that situation even if she wasn’t someone they wanted to make theirs in every sense of the word.
“Come on, Thorne. We can’t sit here all day. She’s going to see us at some point,” Rollan said with a half smile.
“I don’t want her to hate us for taking advantage of her, Rollan. That’s going to be one of the things she’s going to think about.”
“Once she’s under our roof, we can work on what she thinks about us. We’ll show her how much she means to us. Once she realizes that we love her, she’ll begin to change her mind.” Rollan squeezed his shoulder in a show of confidence.
“I guess we better go in.” Thorne opened the passenger door and climbed down.
Rollan made it to the door first and knocked as Thorne stepped up on the porch. No one answered the door, so after a full minute, he knocked on the door again. They exchanged worried looks as they waited. They were just about to go around to see if there was someone out back when the door opened just enough for a red-eyed Sedona to peek out.
“Hey, honey. Are you okay?” Thorne asked.
“Yeah, I guess. Sierra isn’t here. She rode off on Diablo almost an hour ago. I tried to stop her, but she said she needed some time alone. “She knows that I know,” Sedona said with a sniff.
“Does she know yet that you came to us?” Rollan asked.
Sedona shook her head.
“Don’t worry anymore, Sedona. We’re going to take care of this. I promise,” Thorne told her.
“No offence, but she’ll just be trading Dexter for you. I know you’ll be good to her, but it’s the same thing,” the young woman said, a lone tear escaping as she sniffed again.
“That’s not true, Sedona. We’re not going to take advantage of her. We love your sister and would never force her into anything,” Rollan spoke up.
“You promise?” Hope filled her eyes.
“Yes. We promise. Now go wash your face and rest. We’ll find your sister. Is it okay if we saddle your horses and ride?” Rollan asked.
She nodded. “Thank you. Please don’t hurt her.”
Before they could reassure her about that, she’d closed the door. They exchanged worried looks then jumped from the porch and strode to the barn. They knew enough about her land from the maps they’d been going over to have an idea of some spots she might have gone to think.
Once they had the horses saddled, he and Rollan mounted up and walked the horses out into the field behind the house. Once they’d walked for a few minutes, they urged the horses into a trot then a canter.
The first two places they searched didn’t pan out. Neither did the second. They found her well into the end of the first hour, but not at one of the spots they’d picked out. She stood next to a fence post twisting barbed wire around it, mending a broken patch.
Thorne couldn’t believe it. Even after the obvious blow up between her and her sister and with everything weighing on her shoulders, she was still working the ranch like nothing at all was hanging over her head. Then he thought about how he handled problems and realized this was what he did, mend fences or brush his horse down or even muck stalls. Why would it be any different for Sierra just because she was a woman? She was a rancher after all. It was in her blood just like it was in theirs.
They climbed down off the ho
rses and walked them to where she continued to work on the fence. They waited until she turned and gave them a surprised look. Then they tied their horses to a fence post and strode over to where she watched them much like a mouse watched a cat that stalked them.
“What are you doing out here on my horses?” she asked.
“Looking for you. We came over to talk to you, but Sedona said you’d come out here somewhere,” Rollan said.
She eyed them with distrust. She knew something was up. It would be better if they just told her what they wanted to and avoided the subtle avoidance of the huge elephant in the room.
“Sierra, we want to talk to you. It’s about that contract you signed,” Thorne said.
To say that she grew pale would be an understatement. Her face drained of all color, even paleness. It made her already dark-circled eyes sink even deeper into her face. He started to step forward to catch her if she fainted, but she put out a hand to stop him and took a step back, putting her back against the fence post. She didn’t even seem to feel the barbed wire that had to be digging into her tender skin.
“Easy, Sierra. You’re going to hurt yourself on that barbed wire. Why don’t you move away from it?” Rollan asked, his voice had gone smooth and soft.
“She told you? I can’t believe it. Why would she tell you anything? We don’t even know you,” she whispered.
“Because we told her to come to us if she ever needed anything. We knew you were having trouble and wanted to make sure she knew we would help any way we could,” Thorne said. He saw Rollan take a step closer to her while her attention was glued to Thorne.
“There’s nothing you can do. The bank has called in our loan, and the only way I can keep them from taking the ranch and the income we need to eat and the girls need for school is to follow that contract. Now Sedona has it, if she hasn’t destroyed it, and my time is nearly up before he won’t take it anyway. I’m going to lose the ranch no matter what.” The defeated look in her eyes and the way she slumped her shoulders tore at Thorne’s heart.
“The contract is safe, Sierra. We have it, but you’re not sending or giving it to him,” Rollan said with enough vehemence for both of them.
“She gave it to you? You’ve actually read it?” Her face paled even more, if that was possible. She sagged against the fence post this time.
Rollan raced over and pulled her away from the nasty barbed wire and held her to his chest. Thorne walked around them to check her back and winced at the tiny dots of blood two inches wide on her upper back. God, he hoped she’d had a tetanus shot recently.
“Easy, Sierra. It’s going to be okay. Just listen to us and let us explain what we want to do,” Rollan was saying.
“Do? You can’t do anything. I’ve already signed the damn thing and if I don’t deliver it to him by Friday, I’m screwed. My entire family is screwed. Not only will the money go away to put the girls through school, but we will all lose our home, the ability to buy food, and everything I’ve fought for over the past fourteen years! Don’t stand there and tell me you’ve got some magic pill that will fix this because it doesn’t exist.” She wound down, chest heaving, giving Thorn the opportunity he needed.
“Settle down, baby. We’ve got this. Let us help you. You’ve worked yourself to death taking care of your family and no one can ever say otherwise. But we want to help with this. Just give us a chance to explain, okay?” Thorn was standing next to them now and pushed a lose strand of hair behind her ear.
“Why? Why would you help me when don’t know the first thing about me?” she asked.
“Because we care about you. You’re a strong woman with a strong sense of family and loyalty that few people have in this world. Give us a chance. I promise we can help,” he told her again.
She sagged in Rollan’s arms, leaning her forehead against the man’s chest as if defeated. He hated seeing her that way. She deserved nothing but happy endings and soft kisses and good, hard loving. He and Rollan planned to give that to her in spades. First, they had to convince her to accept their offer. Then they could get down to some serious wooing.
She stood up straight, visibly stiffening her spine and squaring her shoulders. When she looked up at them, determination filled her eyes.
“Okay. What is your idea?” she asked.
“Let’s go back to the house where it’s more comfortable. Plus, we need to clean up your back. You’ve got a lot of barbed wire pricks back there. Have you had a tetanus shot lately?” Thorne asked.
She twisted to try and see her back, but it was impossible since they were so high up. Her face pinched into a frown from the pain. Her sigh of resignation added to her earlier episode of defeat only put a twist on the knife already stabbing him in the heart for her.
“Yeah, had one about two years back when I caught my arm on a rusty nail in the barn. I should be fine.” Sierra turned and walked over to where she’d left her tools.
Rollan hurried behind her and helped her load them back into the saddlebags then watched her mount the huge prancing stallion that Thorne didn’t trust with her on his back.
“Don’t even think it, Thorne. Diablo is my horse and I ride him all the time. You have no say over that. Ever,” she stressed a second time.
He just shook his head and climbed up in the saddle to follow her and his partner back to the house. Wild thoughts of her riding his cock while Rollan prepared her ass to be fucked flicked through his mind like a movie reel. Seeing her leaning over him with her golden hair falling down around them like some sort of privacy curtain had his dick twitching.
Hell no! I’m not riding this fucking horse with a hard-on. Calm the fuck down before you end up smashed between me and the damn saddle horn.
His little talk didn’t faze the bastard as it grew to the point of pain, way past uncomfortable. At least they only had another five or so minutes until they arrived. The moment they were within walking distance of the barn, he was getting off the horse and that damned torture device. What he really wanted was to sink his cock inside her warm, wet pussy. He just knew she would be perfect between him and Rollan. Just the way she walked turned him on. Watching her as they rode toward the house had his balls burning.
“God, she’s beautiful,” Rollan said in a soft voice as they rode behind her.
“When she yelled at us back there, I thought I was going to shoot in my jeans,” Thorne admitted. “Her eyes flash the deadliest shade of green.”
“How long till we can get her in our bed?” Rollan asked. “My dick is hard enough to pound steel right now.”
“As long as it takes, man. As long as it takes. She matters, so we have to go slow and not pressure her so she doesn’t bolt. We may be giving her the best deal she can possibly get, but her pride will stop her dead in her shoes if she thinks for one moment that we only want to get in her pants. That’s what that Dexter dude is doing to her. We have to prove to her we aren’t like him.” Thorne pulled back on the reigns to settle the horse into a slow trot before moving to a walk. There was only a few hundred yards left to go before they were within walking distance of the barn.
He wasn’t surprised to see his partner get down and walk his horse across to the barn as well. The way Sierra sat on a horse would make any grown man’s dick take notice. They tended to the horses then she turned and sighed. It was obvious from the set of her chin she wasn’t going to cave easily to their idea.
“Come on in. I’ll fix us some coffee. I have a feeling we’ll all need it.”
He and Rollan followed her, wincing at the red dots on her back and wishing the soft sway of her hips wasn’t so mesmerizing. As much as he wanted her in his bed between them, Thorne wanted her to want it even more. Lust was a good motivator, but he craved seeing love and passion in her eyes for them as her lovers and husbands, not simply as a woman looks at a man she wants for now.
He and Rollan wanted forever.
Chapter Nine
Sierra took her time setting up the coffee. She half expected S
edona to come down, but her sister remained upstairs, leaving her alone with the two men who claimed they had a way out for her. As much as she wanted to hope, Sierra refused to let it take root. She couldn’t take another disappointment. One more and she was sure she’d curl up and fade away.
As soon as the coffee was ready, she poured three cups and set them on a tray to carry out to the living room. Both men had said that they didn’t take anything in it, so she didn’t bother with cream and sugar. Instead, she had added some of the rice crispy treats Sedona had made for lunch to the tray.
“Thanks,” Rollan said.
The two men dove into the treats and she wondered if she should have brought more in than she did. She couldn’t help but smile at the enthusiasm they showed when food was involved.
Typical men. They were always hungry and could eat their weight in food if it was something they liked.
“These are great. I don’t think I’ve had one of these since I was a kid,” Rollan said.
“Me either,” Thorne added with his mouth full.
Sierra just shook her head and sipped coffee, waiting on them to dazzle her with their wonderful idea. She wouldn’t let herself hope or even wish they could help. There wasn’t a way out. If there had been, she would have found it by now.
Thorne sipped on the coffee then looked over at the other man. Rollan lifted an eyebrow and Thorne nodded. She wondered, not for the first time, if their partnership was more than just a friendly one. They were so in tune with each other and almost seemed to know what the other was thinking.
“From what we understand, you took out a second loan against the ranch several years back to make improvements and fix things on the ranch. Is that right?” Thorne asked.
She nodded. Sedona had told them a lot more than she’d thought. It angered her, but honestly, Sierra was too tired and heartbroken to care at the moment.
