Just Shoot Me (Cowboy Way, #1)

by Becky McGraw

  Dean shoved up to his feet, because he needed to get out of there. “I need to check on the mare,” he said. The pregnant mare who was due to deliver any minute. It was as good an excuse as any to leave, even though he knew his daddy checked her not long ago.

  “That can wait, son," Silas Dixon said with a reprimand in his tone. "She was fine when I checked on her an hour ago.”

  The warning tone fell on deaf ears. Dean knew if he didn’t get out of there he was going to say something shitty and ruin his brother’s moment. Then his daddy would really be on his ass. And he didn’t want to hurt Hope. She didn’t deserve his anger, even though his brother more than deserved it. “I’ll be back in a few minutes—congratulations," he mumbled to no one in particular as he hustled through the room toward the front door.

  Dean's chest finally loosened when he stepped out on the porch. He breathed in a deep lungful of the crisp night air. He didn’t wait to see if anyone followed, he strode across the porch and down the steps. Halfway to the barn though, Cord called his name from the front porch. Dean didn’t stop. He kept a steady pace toward the barn and his eyes on the light shining there. He hoped his damned brother would take a hint and leave him the hell alone. But his brother wasn’t that smart. Cord called again from a lot closer just as Dean entered the barn.

  “Wait!” Cord growled, catching up to him just as he reached the mare’s stall. His hand dropped on Dean’s shoulder.

  Every muscle in his body tensed, as Dean fought the urge to turn around and plant his fist in his brother’s too-handsome face. “What the fuck do you want?” He wished the bastard would just pack up his wife and move back to Dallas, model his fucking jeans and leave him and the ranch the hell alone. Dean couldn’t take a piss these days without Cord in his back pocket.

  “The best thing you can do is leave me alone right now,” Dean warned in a low tone that should have told Cord to back off.

  Instead his brother’s hand tightened on his shoulder and he walked around to get in his face. “What the fuck is wrong with you, man?” Cord demanded.

  Dean huffed out a breath trying to get control. He looked off at the mare who stared at him curiously over the stall. “Nothing,” he ground out, brushing Cord’s hand off of his shoulder. “I have work to do.”

  Dean walked over to flip the latch on the stall, but Cord still didn’t leave. He walked up behind him again and leaned around him. “You always have work to do. You need to take a break and relax. Daddy’s better, and I’m here now. Hope and I can watch Jeremy for you. You have no reason not to take a vacation.”

  “Yeah, everything is perfect now that you’re back,” Dean replied sourly, then turned and propped his arm on the stall door. “Wanna tell me where we’re going to get the money to buy the spring stock if I don’t stay here and figure that out?”

  “Hope—“

  “Has given enough. Don’t you have any pride, man? You think I don’t know, but I know your wife has given every penny she has to bail us out. To take care of Daddy.”

  Cord’s eyebrows lifted and he looked a little shocked that Dean knew exactly where that money had come from. The only reason Dean knew the money hadn’t come from Cord’s modeling and savings like he told the family was because he had been present for Hope’s meltdown when she was served the hefty lawsuit from Brittany Weston for screwing up her wedding. A woman with a trust fund the size of Hope’s shouldn’t have batted an eyelash, but she had fallen apart.

  Right then Dean knew something was very wrong, so he point blank asked what he’d suspected all along. If all the money that had fallen from the sky when they needed it most was from her trust fund. She squirmed, danced for a while, tried to protect Cord, but when Dean pressed her she finally came clean. She was a good woman, and his brother had used her enough.

  “I paid her back a lot of it,” Cord replied indignantly.

  “So you can borrow it from her again?” Dean accused. “She has her own problems with that lawsuit she’s fighting with that woman in Dallas.”

  “Fuck!” Cord stepped back to shove a hand through his perfectly combed hair, evidently even more agitated that Dean knew about the suit too.

  “My sentiments exactly,” Dean replied with a dry laugh. “We’re fucked,” he said then turned away. He had work to do, and he was sure his brother had something else to do.

  “The calendar sales—“

  Dean spun around again and held up his hand. “Are going to finish paying her back. I don’t want that damned money, and neither does daddy. Ask him how he feels about it,” Dean challenged, knowing Cord didn’t have the balls.

  “Daddy thinks that money came from my modeling and investments. It did in a way since I’ve paid Hope back with it as it becomes liquid.”

  “Fine, and the calendar sales will make that completely true,” Dean said. “Pay your wife back, and we’re even with her.” Dean wasn’t taking another dime from Hope Dixon.

  She’d paid off the mortgage on the ranch, paid for his daddy’s treatments, and the repairs needed at the ranch before Christmas. Enough was enough. Even if what Cord said was true and he had paid her back a portion of it, they had to still owe her a lot more.

  “We all need to talk about it,” Cord said with frustration. “Me, you, Hope and Daddy need to talk. We’ll figure something out.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about. I’ll figure it out,” Dean said firmly. Dean had been in charge of figuring things out on his own at the ranch for a long time now. He’d figure this out too. Without his brother’s input or his new sister-in-law’s money. Decisions by committee never worked. The less people he had in the mix, the better. Cord needed to know that Dean was still going to make those decisions. His brother might be back, but Dean was still in charge.

  The mare neighed loudly, and it wasn’t a hello. It was time. This conversation was done. “Go get Daddy,” Dean said gruffly as he opened the stall.

  “But I need to talk about—“ Cord protested.

  “I’m done talking. Go get, Daddy, or get your ass in here and help me. She’s tearing,” Dean challenged. Cord’s face blanched and Dean laughed as his brother turned on his heel and all but ran from the barn, because it looked like some things about his brother hadn’t changed. Like Cord’s aversion to blood.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Tina knew she was way too early, but she was too excited about taking a much needed break in the country to wait a second after five a.m. to hit the road. Laney had been just as excited. The kid had barely slept last night, and in turn neither had Tina. At least her niece was catching up on her sleep. Tina wished she was still in bed too now, but had been driving for over an hour.

  Her eyes got heavy again, so Tina cracked her window, inhaling deeply of the sweet country air that rushed inside the car. The temperature dropped inside the car and a chill raced down her spine, so she quickly rolled it back up. She would sure be glad when it warmed up. Spring had arrived, because things had started to bloom, but there was still a definite chill to the morning air. And she had put up her sweaters and refused to bring them on this trip. She was going on a mini-vacation. Lord knew she and her niece could both use it too.

  Lori was driving them both crazy. And Tina still hadn’t had an opportunity to talk to her, but she was going to pin her down soon. Laney needed a mother, and Tina hadn’t birthed her, so her sister needed to live up to her own responsibilities. She glanced at Laney sleeping peacefully in the seat beside her and her heart squeezed. The kid deserved so much better. Tina was going to make sure she got that. Like a home she could call her own, somewhere to put down roots, just as soon as she got this promotion. A kid needed that. Something she and her sister had never had. They had seen the country, too much of it. Tina had finally planted in Dallas after their parents divorced, but her younger sister was still a tumbleweed.

  Narrowing her eyes, Tina watched the road closer. The trees broke and wide pastures covered by a thick blanket of fog appeared. Her turn should be coming up soon,
according to the GPS on her dash. A few miles later, she saw the rutted gravel drive at the last minute. She made a quick right then gritted her teeth as her compact car bounced over a cattle guard. The front wheels cleared that to immediately take plunge into a deep pothole. She glanced at Laney, and her little body bounced and she moaned, but didn’t wake up. The ground leveled out, and Tina sighed.

  In the distance, she saw a big house at the end of the long driveway. As she neared, she also saw another thinner, longer building off to the left. That must be the bunkhouse where Hope and Cord were living. There weren’t any lights on inside. Probably because it was just now six a.m. and Tina was four hours early. In the distance, an eerie yellow light cut through the thick fog and caught her attention. Tina squinted, the fog rolled, and she could see it was coming through the door of a huge barn. Someone must be up after all, she thought as she drove past the bunkhouse toward the barn. Maybe it was Cord. If it wasn’t, Tina would just park there and take a cat nap for an hour or so until the residents at the ranch woke up.

  The models she’d scheduled for the test shoot wouldn’t be there until ten. Or at least she hoped they would. You never knew if they would show or not. Work ethic in the modelling industry was notoriously bad. Tina had encountered it many times from the female models she had worked with at Texas Tomboy. Often, if they weren’t late, they didn’t show at all. If they did show when they were running late, they were usually in a bad mood and turned into whiny divas.

  She hoped working with male models would be easier, but she wasn’t holding her breath. Good looking single men liked to go out on Friday nights. The two male models she was expecting today were definitely good looking. But if they showed up looking hungover or had bad attitudes, she would send them right back to Dallas. She wasn’t paying them to take photos she couldn’t use. And she wasn’t going to coddle them. That had always been her mode of operation with models. She hired them to do a job, and they were going to do it or she would find someone else who would. She might cut them a little slack though, because she had incentive to get this shoot done today.

  Stopping outside the wide barn door, she killed her engine. Laney didn’t stir when Tina opened door and paused to slip on her high heels before she swung her legs outside. In hindsight, the stilettos probably weren’t the best shoes she could have chosen for a trip to the country, but she didn’t have much choice. She’d worn out her last pair of sneakers at the gym, when she actually had time to go to the gym. These days between taking care of Laney, and all the hours she put in at the office, Tina just didn’t have time for anything anymore.

  Besides she liked high heels. Vertically challenged at just a little over five feet, they added height and that boosted her confidence. Made her feel on more even footing with the world. When she wore them, people seemed to take her more seriously.

  At least she had found a ruffled blue jean skirt in the back of her closet to wear. That was as close to casual as she could get. Nothing in her closet fit anymore, because she was a little curvier than she had been when she had time for the gym. And she didn’t have time to shop for clothes that fit better either. It was a vicious cycle that wasn’t likely to change soon. Her job as Assistant Marketing Director at Texas Tomboy was demanding. Once she got her new promotion, it would only get worse. Unless she made her sister step up and be a mother.

  Tina stood and quietly closed the car door. The heels of her shoes immediately sank into the dewy earth. She moved her weight to the toes of her shoes to tiptoe toward the barn door. A horse whinnied loudly inside, then she heard a loud bang as if the animal kicked the stall. A throaty growl, followed by a loud curse told her someone was definitely awake and inside the barn.

  When she finally stepped inside, she squinted against the bright lights until her eyes adjusted. Two horses swung their heads in her direction to look at her curiously over the top of their stalls. One of them nickered and tossed his head as if he was saying hello. Tina laughed then looked around. The rich earthy smells assaulted her nostrils and she wrinkled her nose. Other than the horses though, she didn’t see a soul inside the barn. Walking a little further inside, she stopped on a concrete pad where she could ease onto her heels.

  Cupping her hands around her mouth, Tina shouted, “Hello!”

  The only reply she received were agitated snorts from the horses. She scanned along the walls from stall to stall hoping to see one open, but they were all closed tight. Noticing a light at the back of the building coming from a darkened hallway, she headed that way. The barn was so big, she knew yelling probably wasn't going to do anything except stir up the horses more. She held onto the rail and made her way toward the back.

  At the end a narrow hallway, she noticed a door was opened a crack and a light was on inside the room. The person she heard must be in there, she thought as she walked there. At the door, she stopped, took a deep breath then pasted on a smile, before she pushed the door inward. Her smile turned to a surprised gasp when her eyes landed on a cowboy sitting in a chair beside a scarred wooden desk. The man wore nothing but tight, white underwear, a t-shirt and his black cowboy hat. His jeans were around his ankles, and he was massaging his thigh.

  His stormy blue eyes swung to hers, but he didn’t make a move to pull up his pants. His body tensed, and one dark eyebrow lifted beneath the brim of his hat. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded, and his deep, honeyed drawl crawled along her nerve endings, exciting each one.

  The man looked somewhat like Cord Dixon, but he definitely wasn’t. His face was squarer and more rugged, his jaw firmer, than Mr. Laramie. Cord’s eyes were more of a sky blue, but this man’s eyes almost looked like the sky when warning a summer thunderstorm was about to erupt. They perfectly matched his prickly attitude.

  Those sexy, insolent eyes left fire behind as they made a quick pass down to her toes. They moved a little slower back up her body, before settling on hers again. He sat there staring at her when she didn’t answer. Tina gathered her senses, licked her lips and found her voice. “Um, I thought Cord might be out here,” she stuttered.

  His eyes narrowed and his jaw tightened. “If you’re here to pick up something with my brother, you’re wasting your time. He’s married now, and his wife is knocked up. Best thing you can do is get your pretty little ass out of here, before Hope sees you.”

  “I’m here to see Hope too,” Tina clarified. When he flinched, her eyes fell to the hand on his thigh, he moved it and Tina saw a dark purple bruise beneath his fingers. Against her will, her eyes darted to the impressive goods those tight white underwear of his was trying to contain.

  He cleared his throat, her eyes flew back to his and her cheeks heated. One side of his firm mouth kicked up into a cocky smile. “See something you like, buttercup?”

  Tina saw a lot she liked, and that was the problem. She had to fight to keep her eyes from going back there for a second look. “Um, did you hurt yourself?” Tina asked, trying to cover the fact that she had been staring at his package. It was obvious from his widening grin that she hadn’t fooled anyone.

  He snorted and grabbed a rolled up Ace bandage off of the desk. “It’s nothing,” he grumbled as he wrapped it around his thigh. “Damned horse kicked me.”

  “It looks pretty bad," Tina said, moving in for a closer look.

  He stopped wrapping and his eyes flew up to hers again. There was a warning there and Tina stopped in her tracks. “What the hell do you want here?” he demanded.

  “I’m here for a photo shoot. I’m Tina Montgomery with Texas Tomboy. Hope said I could do a photo shoot here today.”

  Blue fire sparked in his eyes. “Well, Hope failed to ask if that was okay with me.”

  The arrogance in his tone made Tina angry. As far as she knew, this was Hope’s home now too. If she wanted to invite a friend here, who was this guy to say she had to ask his permission? Tina folded her arms over her chest, and snapped, “She lives here. Is married to one of the owners. Why would she have to ask you if she could
have someone out here?”

  “One of the owners, huh?” he said in a low lethal tone, as he clipped off the top of the bandage and leaned back in the chair to cross his arms over his broad chest.

  “Yes, Cord Dixon is her husband. He’s one of the owner’s sons.”

  “Well I’m Dean Dixon, the owner’s other son. The one who has been busting his ass here, taking care of this family, while my brother chased skirts like you all over Dallas. And unlike my brother, my name happens to be on the deed to this ranch.”

  Dean Dixon. Cord’s brother. Hell, she didn’t even know he had a brother, but then again she didn’t know much about Cord Dixon other than he was Mr. Laramie and looked better than any man she’d ever seen in a pair of jeans. Her eyes dropped to the jeans around Dean’s ankles and noticed they were Laramie jeans. She wondered how his muscular thighs would look in those jeans. Probably better than his brother’s. Tina dragged her eyes away. “You think you could put your pants on so we can finish this conversation?”

  “It’s finished as far as I’m concerned,” he said as he stood and bent to drag his jeans up his legs. His zipped them angrily, then shoved his belt through the loops. “You can get back in your car and get the hell out of here. I don’t have time to deal with this shit. The only thing my brother and I are going to be doing today is getting these horses ready, so we can get them to the auction on Monday.”

  “I won’t get in your way, and I’m not here to shoot with Cord. I have models coming,” Tina informed him.

  Dean finished buckling his belt, then put his hands on his hips. “I don’t think so. Call them and tell them to stay in Dallas then head back there yourself. This ranch is not a photo studio.” He limped past her to the door, and shoved it open, causing it to bounce off the wall. He put a hand on the wall and made his way down the hallway to the arena.