Shared By the Cowboys by Cassie Cole

42

Blake

I knew it.

I fucking knew something was up with Rebecca.

Ever since she got here, she seemed like she was holding something back. A secret she was afraid to reveal. And she was always on her laptop, quickly closing the lid when anyone peeked into her room. Like a teenage boy who’d been caught looking at porn.

But shit, an author? Writing a book? That wasn’t what I expected.

“Five percent is a good deal,” Terry was telling my brothers. “That could end up being tens of thousands of dollars. Especially if I negotiate a six-figure advance from one of the publishers. It’s free money for you. All you need to do is sign the waiver in my car.”

“Fuck the money,” I said. “I want to go after Rebecca. Talk to her about all of this.”

“Let her go,” Mason grumbled. “She had her chance to come clean, and instead she ran.”

“People do stupid shit when they’re scared,” I replied. “That calf I rescued from the river a month back? Asshole clawed me half to death with its hooves, because it was scared. Can’t blame it for that.”

“Rebecca isn’t an animal,” Mason insisted. “She’s a person. She made her decision.”

“A person who just said I love you,” I replied. “And you pretty much laughed in her face. I can’t blame her for running. That’s why nobody opens up to you.”

Mason stood. “The hell’s that supposed to mean?”

I remained against the wall, leaning with my arms crossed. “It means you’re a fucking asshole. You think you know better than anyone just because you’re the eldest. You ever stop to think about how Cody and I felt hearing her say those words?”

Mason looked at our brother. “I don’t know how I feel, honestly,” Cody said. “This is a lot of info to process. I’m all sorts of confused.”

“See? Cody doesn’t know how he feels.”

I rolled my eyes. “And fuck what I think, right?”

“You want to say something?” Mason demanded. “Say it. Now’s your chance.”

“Not like it’s gonna matter.”

Mason groaned and threw up his hands. “Typical Blake. Bitches and moans about whatever I do, but doesn’t contribute anything of his own. And then bails when it gets too tough while the rest of us—”

“Because you never let me contribute,” I shouted.

Mason’s mouth closed tight.

“You’re the eldest,” I snarled at him, “which means you always decide what happens. It was that way when we were kids, it’s that way now… And it was that way with Penny.”

“Penny?” Mason said, incredulous. “This isn’t about Penny.”

I stepped away from the wall and aimed a finger at him. “Of course it fucking is! When Penny died, Cody and I didn’t have a chance to process things. You immediately took over. Handled her affairs, planned the funeral and burial. You put on a good face and told us life would suck for a while, but eventually we would move on.”

Terry, who had been sitting by the fire through all of this, quietly slipped out of the room while grimacing.

“I didn’t get to grieve for Penny,” I said through clenched teeth, “because you never let me figure out how. You just charged forward, leading the way and expecting us to follow. That’s why I fucking left after she died: I needed to sort through things on my own. It’s why it was so tough for me to return here. And now here you are, doing what you always do and assuming we feel the same way about Rebecca.”

“You think you can forgive her?” Mason demanded. “After what she did?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I want to figure it out on my own without you telling me how to feel.”

We stared across the room at each other, at an impasse. I waited for him to say something so I could argue some more. It looked like Mason was doing the same thing.

The walkie-talkie on the table suddenly crackled: “HELP, wolves in the mountains, three of them surrounding us—”

Rebecca’s voice cut off.

Cody grabbed the radio. “Becca? You there? Where in the mountains? Hello?”

I looked at Mason. “You still think we should just let her go?”

Something disappeared from behind his eyes. “I need to saddle my horse.”

“They’re all saddled,” I replied. “We were getting ready to exercise them when Terry showed up.”

We ran out the front door and across to the stable. Before mounting up, I grabbed the shotgun off the wall and a box of shells. Hopefully we wouldn’t need it.

The three of us rode away from the ranch like hell was following us. The horses seemed to understand that this was different than a normal ride, that something was wrong. All I could think about was Rebecca, the woman I was quickly falling for. If anything happened to her…

We reached the gate at the edge of the forest. “Fresh tracks,” Mason said while unlocking the gate. “She came this way all right.”

I led the way up into the mountains at a cantor. It was dangerously fast in this rocky terrain, but I was weighing that risk against the risk of not reaching Rebecca in time. I would do anything to protect my girl. Even if it meant risking my own life.

I gripped my shotgun tightly. I’m coming, Rebecca.

Wildfire’s tracks were easy to follow in the snow, even at the quick pace I was keeping. I scanned the forest ahead, afraid of what I would see. I steeled myself for the paralyzing sight of three wolves hunched over a horse. Or worse: a person.

Suddenly a black shape appeared through the trees. It was too big to be a wolf.

Wildfire. And no rider was on his back.

Fuck.

“I’m coming!” I shouted.

As I drew closer, I heard shouting. Wildfire was surrounded by three wolves, which were circling menacingly. Wildfire spun to try to keep them all in view, and when he did I saw her. Rebecca was on foot, hands out in front of her as if she could reason with the predators.

I pulled out the box of ammunition and loaded two shells into the shotgun. I dropped the box in the process, but I didn’t stop to retrieve it. I slowed Bucket to a walk, gave him a little squeeze with my knees to warn him that something was about to happen, and then I fired the shotgun into the air.

The recoil was like a mule kick into my shoulder, but it did the trick. The wolves immediately turned away from their prey. The intelligent animals considered us for a moment, doing the math. Wondering if their prey was worth the trouble of us newcomers.

I fired another shot, high above the wolves heads.

They backed up now, keeping me in sight while pawing away. I followed the wolves, putting myself between them and my girl. I reached for the box of shells, realizing too late that I had dropped it. I was out of ammo.

Well, fuck, I thought.

Mason appeared next to me on Poptart. On the other side of him, Cody pulled on the reins to slow Beans to a stop. The three of us created a wall between the wolves and Rebecca. I took a deep breath and prepared to fight with my bare hands.

Fortunately, I didn’t need to. The wolves decided they didn’t want to mess with us, turning away and disappearing into the forest.

I dismounted. “Rebecca! You okay?”

She threw herself into my arms, clinging to me like I was her savior. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry… “

“Forget it,” I said. “Let’s get you back.”

I glanced up at Mason while leading Rebecca away.