Cowboy Edition EBook

by Maree, Kay

  “Hey, Luce, what’s Wyatt’s story?” She gave me a look, but I knew she wouldn’t ask questions. If she did, she would have to keep secrets from Zach which she swore never to do, even if I was her best friend. I respected that which is why I never crossed that line that made her. I had Michelle for that.

  “Moved here about a year ago with his brother and sister in law. They all apparently wanted to leave the town they came from after Wyatt and Toby lost their parents.

  “What happened to their parents?”

  “Car accident. Truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed head on into their parents.”

  “Poor guys.” She nodded and was quiet for a minute as if she was deciding if she should tell me something or not. “What is it?”

  “I almost don’t want to know what is going on inside your head right now, but I feel I need to say this. Wyatt is a good guy who has been through a lot lately. He is trying to stay sober so doesn’t need any complications. His ex was a real piece of work and he didn’t deal with it well when she left town. I am sure if you mention his name in town, they will tell you all the stories. Toby came to us and told us what happened, so we moved him here away from all of that.”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “You asked what his story was, so I am telling you.” She gave me a look as if there was more to it than she was letting on. Nodding, I took a drink from my glass.

  “I’m not going to sit here and tell you what you can and can’t do. I am just saying, be careful.”

  “I get it, Luce, I do. I’m not in the right place for anything. I am so up in the air at the moment. I am not looking to complicate things worse than they are.”

  “Is everything okay?” I took a deep breath. It was now or never, I guess. I could start with Lucy. If I told her than I would have to tell Zach or she would, so it was coming out one way or another.

  “Not really. My trip home isn’t what I am letting on.” She sat her glass down and gave me her full attention. “I’m running from my ex-boyfriend. This is the one place he doesn’t know about. I just don’t know what I am gonna do when I leave here.”

  “Kris, why are you hiding from him?” I knew she was minutes away from running to get Zach, but I needed to get this out.

  “I am afraid that if I stay in New York, he will kill me.” I closed my eyes and took another deep breath before telling her everything. By the time I was finished, we were both crying. Standing up, she moved over to me and wrapped her arms tight around me.

  “Kris, I am so sorry. Why didn’t you ever tell us what was going on?” I snorted.

  “I thought he loved me and really was sorry. I believed excuse after excuse until the last time. My best friend saw the bruises because he got me good that time and told her other half about it. He wanted me to press charges, but Xavier had money and could make them go away, so I kept my mouth shut. It came out that he had been cheating on me for the last couple of months of our relationship, so I left him. Moved in with Michelle and her partner where I was safe.”

  “How did you end up here?”

  “My last night there, her and I were having a few drinks after work and he and his new girlfriend came up to us. I kicked him in his junk and put him on the floor with a few moves Michelle and I had learnt in our self-defense classes. The fact that he is blowing up my phone tells me he isn’t forgetting it in a hurry.”

  “Well we are going to change that number then. You and I will go for a drive tomorrow and sort it. We can tell Toby about it so that if he does show his face here, we have them on our side.”

  “I dare him to show his face.” Hearing a male voice from the hall, I looked up to see who the icy tone belonged to and found Wyatt staring back at me, Zach, and Jackson behind him. Hiding my face in my hands, I prayed for the earth to swallow me up. How much had they heard?

  “He comes here, you will tell us, Kristine.” I nodded as Lucy wrapped her arm around me. I wasn’t about to argue with the tone in Zach’s voice or even scald him for calling me Kristine. He wasn’t kidding right now.

  “If he leaves New York, Rob will let me know. He has people keeping an eye on him. I never told him where I came from, but it would only take the best private investigator that money could buy, and he would know.”

  “You aren’t alone anymore, Kris, we won’t let anything happen to you.” Jackson moved into the room and came to crouch down in front of me. “We have done a shit job of keeping in touch with you and checking in when we should have but that stops now.”

  “You can’t blame yourselves. You have your own lives and shit going on. You had the girls, Lucy and Zach had this place.”

  “You will not blame yourself for this, Kristine, you hear me? I knew when you came home things weren’t okay. Last night confirmed them. This is in no way your fault though.” I wanted to argue my dad’s words. I had spent the last few months blaming myself for what happened, and I would for a long time to come. Looking up at him, I shook my head.

  “I should have left though. I always thought that if a guy hit me, that was it, I would leave but I didn’t.”

  “He made it that way. He scared you into staying. Your protective instincts kicked in. It is all well and good to say what we would do from the outside but living that is a completely different story with different outcomes.” I went to open my mouth to say something, but he held his hand up. “We can argue that until we are blue in the face. One day, maybe you won’t be so hard on yourself. We will help you however we can, Angel, I promise. You just can’t shut us out anymore. Let us help you now.” Nodding, I closed my eyes and lent my head against Lucy’s.

  “Come on, boy’s, let’s give her some space.” I heard them all grumbling as they moved back out of the house and into the yard. My money on them all coming up with ways to kill and hide a body. They had pigs. It wouldn’t be hard. I also wouldn’t put it past them to try it. Before I could stop it, a laugh came from my lips.

  “You okay?” I opened my eyes and looked at Lucy.

  “Would it be bad to say I want Xavier to come here?” She frowned and I think she was seriously considering getting me help. “I want to see whose kill method wins.” Lucy snorted and rolled her eyes.

  “Don’t even get them started.”

  Wyatt

  Hearing Kris telling Lucy and the others about what her ex-boyfriend had been doing did something to me. We all went back to work and while the guys plotted his death, I was quiet. They had already given me strange looks after my comment in the hall, but I couldn’t hold my tongue. A man like that deserved to be set loose in the woods and hunted for sport. No good man would lay a hand on a woman. That wasn’t how we were raised. Sure, my mom and dad weren’t perfect. They would argue at times, but they never went to bed angry at each other and they never laid a hand on each other in anger. Letting out a breath at the anger building again, I closed my eyes and counted to ten. When I felt myself calming back down, I opened them again and got back to work.

  Once we were done, the guys went up to the house to clean up before dinner. I was still feeling tense so with Zach’s permission, I borrowed one of his horses to ride. I had to wait a few weeks before Beauty was okay to ride. Grabbing the saddle from the tack room, I walked toward the stall.

  “Feel like some company?” I looked over and saw Kris standing there. Setting the saddle down, I turned to face her.

  “Sure, want to join me on a ride?” When she nodded, I headed back into the tack room and grabbed her a saddle while she came and got the other things we would need. “Who are you riding?”

  “Jez.” She motioned to the black horse at the far end. “She is mine after all. Though she is probably pissed at me for leaving her.”

  “I always wondered who owned her. Zach never said. Where did the name Jez come from?”

  “Short for Jezebel.” I raised my brow at her, and she laughed.

  “Don’t ask. I was young when I named her, and there
was no changing my mind. Mom and Dad just went with it. As I got older, I shortened it to Jez.”

  “No judgement.” Kris laughed and opened the stall door and stepped to the side so I could pass her. Once I got the saddle blanket and saddle on her, I left Kris to finish getting Jez ready. Moving to Ace, one of the horses we had rescued from a property that was going under, I got him ready to ride. As I was finishing, Kris was leading Jez out too.

  “You ready?” She nodded again. Before she could answer, Jez was nudging her with her head. I laughed as Kris rolled her eyes.

  “She’s ready at least so best not to keep her waiting.” Opening the stall door more, I ran into the tack room and grabbed a few things for the horses to eat, I went back to Kris and led Ace out of the stall and out of the barn. We mounted them and slowly walked them to where the start of the riding trail was. Once we got out a little further, we picked up speed, riding in silence. There was a creek nearby that we would take them to. Slowing down as we reached it, I looked over to see Kris doing the same.

  Getting down off Ace, I led him over to the grassy area and hooked his reins around a tree to stop him wandering too far. I took Jez from Kris and did the same. Turning and seeing her sitting down on the rocks, I moved over to her.

  “It’s nice out here. Peaceful and quiet.”

  “I come out here to get away from it all. I found it a couple of months ago when I was hiding from everyone checking up on me.” Taking a seat beside her, I leant against my legs. “It’s a good place to clear your head, if you are needing to.” She looked over at me.

  “That obvious is it?”

  “A little. I’ve been there though. Everyone watching you like you are about to break. For me, it was whether or not I was going to pick up a bottle of bourbon or not.”

  “How did you deal with it?”

  “Other than coming here, I threw myself into work or just pretended I didn’t notice. They stopped eventually.” She rests her chin on her hands, looking out at the water.

  “I’m just not used to people knowing. Up until recently I had kept it to myself and I know they mean well, but I can’t keep talking about it.”

  “I get that, but this is just new to them.”

  “So, you are saying I just need to tune it out for now?”

  “Well, we are getting new cattle next week, so they are bound to start talking about that.” She cracked a smile. I don’t know what came over me, but I found myself putting my arm around her shoulders. Instead of shrugging away from me, she laid her head to rest on my shoulder.

  “I’m sorry people are still talking about you.” I sighed.

  “Lucy tell you about it?”

  “Yeah, sorry.”

  “Well I am sure you would have heard about it eventually.”

  “No secrets in a small town.” We stayed there on the rock until we felt it was time to head back. I took the saddles of both the horses and put them back in the tack room along with the other bits and pieces. Kris came into the tack room and got a brush. She went over to Jez and began brushing her down while I got their stalls ready. Once she was done, she moved on to Ace. When she finished, we put them away for the night and I checked on Beauty and Belle.

  “Thank you for the ride.”

  “Welcome anytime.” She smiled softly and we went our separate ways. Taking out my phone as I entered my cabin, I sent Zach a message running by him what Toby and I were discussing earlier about the cookout. When he replied that he was down for it, I told Toby before going and getting in the shower. As the water washed over me, my thoughts drifted to Kris. Just seeing her at the river earlier made me glad that I didn’t bring him up first or act like everyone else. That didn’t stop me wanting to hunt him down though. Would talking to Toby be overstepping the mark? Having him keep an eye on the dickhead ex-boyfriend to make sure he didn’t come near here?

  Deciding it was best to leave it alone, it not being any of my business, I turned off the shower and stepped out. Taking a towel and wrapping it around my waist, I went into the bedroom. I dried myself off and pulled on a pair of boxers. Hearing a knock on the door, I put on a pair of sweats before moving over to answer it. Seeing Kris standing there, holding a plate of food, I moved to the side and let her past.

  “Lucy sent me down with this. She wanted to make sure you ate and wasn’t sure if you were coming up to eat with us.” I took the plate from her and went to sit it on the kitchen table. Turning to face her, she was still standing in the same place.

  “Thank you, I hadn’t planned on it, no. I was gonna turn in early.”

  “Are you avoiding me?”

  “No, why would I be?”

  “You didn’t come to eat lunch with us and now you aren’t coming up for dinner.”

  “Honey, it’s not about you. I went to see my brother for lunch and as I see the sun rise, I was going to sleep. Much like your brothers.” She didn’t look convinced though. “Kris, why would I be avoiding you?”

  “I don’t know. Lucy just said you almost always come and eat with them, but you didn’t today. I don’t want you to avoid them because of me.”

  “I’m really not understanding why I would be avoiding you when we went riding together. We sat out by the river alone.” I moved closer to her. “If anything, I am avoiding your brothers.”

  “Why would you be avoiding them? Hard to do when you work together.”

  “Extremely but put you and I in the same room as them and it gets a lot harder.” By now I was standing in front of her. She looked up at me and swallowed. “You feel it, too, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.” Reaching my hand out toward her, I gripped the back of her neck and pulled her closer. Dropping my head, my lips met hers in a heated kiss. Kris stepped closer to me, her hands moving to rest on my hips. I pulled back to look down at her again.

  “You can’t lie to me, so let’s not try it.”

  “This has complicated written all over it.”

  “It doesn’t have to be. I know you aren’t staying, and we are two consenting adults. Where is the problem?”

  “You work for my brothers?”

  “They don’t have to know shit, Kris. What happens between us stays between us. I am not about to force you into something you don’t want though.” I let her go and took a few steps back.

  “I should go before they wonder what’s keeping me.” Opening the door, she took one last look at me before disappearing out of the door. I’m not sure when I decided to fuck my life up again because if this did come out, I was a dead man, but it was too late to take it back. If nothing happened, then so be it. At least I gave it a shot. I guess it was a good thing that she was staying at her dad’s and not up with the others. Would make staying away so much harder. I went to the table and took the plate of food that she had brought down. Getting a knife and fork from the drawer, I sat down on my couch and put a movie on. Something to hopefully quiet my mind until I went to sleep. I was trying to ignore the little voice in my head telling me to go to her. No, the next move was up to her now.

  Kris

  After being awake all freaking night, the kiss with Wyatt playing over in my head every time I closed my eyes, I opted to stay at Dad’s and wait for Lucy to come and get me while he went out to the ranch to be with the guys. I had a feeling he would be out there a lot of the time, so I had two choices. Go with him every day or stay here. I wasn’t going to hide though. It’s not who I am. I considered calling Michelle to talk to her about Wyatt, but I didn’t want to admit anything that was in my head out loud, so I left it alone.

  When Lucy pulled up, I grabbed my phone and wallet and went out to meet her. She gave me a look when I got in.

  “What’s with you?”

  “Nothing, are you ready to go?”

  “I am, let’s get this over with.” Shifting the car in drive, she reversed into Dad’s garage before driving back out of the driveway. She was silent as she drove which worr
ied me.

  “Is everything okay, Lucy?”

  “Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”

  “You are quiet. Did something happen this morning?”

  “No, just wondering why I had to come and get you when Dad was coming out to the ranch, but I am definitely sure I don’t want to know.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You asked yesterday what Wyatt’s story was. Then you disappear for a while, come back saying that you went riding. Zach told me last night that Wyatt borrowed Ace so he could go riding. He only does that when he has had enough of people. He thinks we don’t know that, but we do. You are an expert rider, but you don’t know the area, so something tells me you had company on your ride.”

  “So, what if I did? You just said yourself that I don’t know the trails. Experience or not I would be stupid to ride alone no matter how badly I wanted to get away from everyone. Yesterday was a lot for me considering up until then, only two people knew of what Xavier had been doing to me. I am still not used to talking about it with people so excuse me if I needed a breather and Wyatt was happy enough to let me tag along so that nothing happened while I was out there. God forbid he stop Zach, Jackson and Dad from killing him because he let me go alone.”

  “I’m not stupid, Kris.”

  “Look, I don’t know what is in your head right now, but you know that two people of the opposite sex can have a platonic relationship. I mean fuck, I have only known the guys a couple of days. That on top of everything he has gone through and everything I am going through; it would be stupid to let anything happen. I am fucked up enough without adding to it.” She let out a sigh.

  “I just don’t want to see anything else bad happen to either of you. Above anything, Kris, you are my best friend and if I honestly thought that you and Wyatt could make something happen and be happy than I wouldn’t stand in the way, even if it did mean hiding it from Zach but I am sorry, all I see is more pain. You can tell me to mind my own business but that’s just the way I feel. You two are grown adults. Do what you like.”