Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70097 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
If I’d been able to relax, it would have been a dream come true. Every Christmas, I’d asked Santa for a horse, and the rest of the year, I included the request in my prayers, but when my grandfather died, my mom and dad sold all his horses, and I hadn’t been this close to any since. But relaxing was impossible when I had no idea what I was doing beyond vaguely remembering how to tack up a horse.
Rogue helped me as much as he could, but he had his own work to do. This morning, he hadn’t been around at all. I ended up assigned to repair a fence in one of the far pastures with TJ, a scary-as-fuck man I had seen around the place and avoided. He didn’t live in the bunkhouse, so I assumed he either lived in the main house or in one of the cabins I’d seen when working around the property.
“Ever repaired a fence before?”
I thought about bluffing, but I was too scared to lie to this guy. I’d rather end up having to confess everything to Rogue’s brother than piss him off.
“No. I… No.”
He huffed. “Why would they send us out here together when neither of us know what the hell we’re doing?”
He didn’t know either? That didn’t make any sense. “I don’t know. Should I go back and—”
“Nah. We’ll figure it out.” He frowned as he looked at the collection of supplies in the back of his ATV. “So what happened to get you sent here?”
Sent? That was a strange word choice, but I wasn’t going to point that out. “I made some stupid decisions.” No one besides Rogue needed to know the details. It wasn’t like I was lying. Not following my instincts about Trey had been incredibly stupid.
“Yeah, me too, or at least my father thought they were stupid. He thinks I left too many bodies behind. So here I am, hiding out.”
Bodies? Hiding out? Like from the police? The world swam in front of me. I needed to get out of here and warn Rogue about this guy.
“What’s the matter?” TJ asked. “Too much sun or something? I know I’m not used to spending so much fucking time outside, and Boston is never this hot. People like us don’t usually see much sunlight, right?” He chuckled, and I just smiled. I wasn’t sure who “people like us” were, but I doubted I actually fit that category.
“Yeah. The sun’s a bit much.”
He huffed again. “Too right. I’d tell Grant to go fuck himself, but I can’t just sit around all day. Never could.”
I tried desperately to think of an excuse to head back to the barn. Surely there was something we’d forgotten, or maybe I should pretend to have heatstroke or some other ailment.
No. If I were feeling bad, I wouldn’t be able to drive myself back, would I? Or maybe I would if I were a tough ranch hand, but I wasn’t, and this guy knew it.
“Let’s see what we can do with this,” TJ said, lifting the fence post. “How hard could it be?”
I looked at the barbed wire wrapped around it and suppressed a shudder. This was way out of my league.
A few moments later, TJ seemed to have figured out what we needed to do. All I’d done was stand there staring at him. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to care, which was good. If he wanted to add me to his body count, there’d be no one to stop him. We were out on the far edge of the ranch with no one else nearby.
Did Rogue’s brothers know about this guy? Did Rogue? I was sure Rogue was involved in something unsavory, but he wasn’t a killer, was he?
“Hand me the wire cutters.” TJ’s tone was neutral, but the words still made me jump.
I glanced down into the toolbox and saw them immediately, but what if… “Sure. Let me find them.”
I lifted them while I moved tools around with my other hand, praying TJ wouldn’t turn around.
I pocketed the cutters as I raised up. “I don’t see them.”
“What? We can’t do a fucking thing without wire cutters.”
I made a disgusted noise. “That’s true. I’ll take an ATV back and get some.”
“Fine. I’ll get these posts pulled up.” I thought he’d protest being left to work on his own, but he seemed content. Maybe he’d realized I wasn’t going to be much help.
“Yeah… um… great.” He turned back to the fence, and I jumped onto my ATV and took off.
6
GRANT
Rhys and I were talking through plans for the day as we cleaned the tack and reorganized it.
“TJ isn’t hanging around here today?” TJ’s father had sent him to the ranch after a hostile encounter with a cousin who’d disagreed with how TJ conducted his work as the family assassin. Since arriving at the ranch, he seemed to spend as much time as he could pushing Rhys’s buttons, and interestingly, while he teased Rogue, he never showed the same amount of interest and had no problem telling them apart.