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“If you keep growling at the ranch hands, they’re going to stop wanting to work for us,” Parker said, holding his hands up.
“Then they should learn to do their job.”
“What’s really going on?”
He looked toward the house, and sure enough, Shawn and Poppy were chatting away like the good friends they were supposed to be.
“You’re not jealous of their friendship, are you?” Parker asked.
“I’m not jealous. I just … I wish things were progressing further than they actually are. I’m getting … restless.” He neared his horse and ran a hand down the old girl’s back. With his shitty mood, she’d not wanted him to ride her, which was more than fine. He shouldn’t be riding a horse in this mood.
“The time seems to be never-ending?” Parker asked.
“You feel it, too?”
“Of course. We’ve all wanted her for a long time. She’s been part of our life forever, Casey. We all love her. We’ve all taken care of her in some way.”
Just thinking about Ben made Casey sick to his stomach. To know that fucker hurt her in high school, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it, filled him with rage. Instead of dealing with the bullshit, he’d taught Parker and Shawn how to handle themselves. No one would ever get the best of any of the Smith brothers.
“If she stayed at the house some nights, that would make life easier,” Casey said. “I think she does it on purpose.”
“Does what?” Parker asked.
“Keeps us at arm’s length. I know she’s seen us and she’s aware of us.” He’d seen the tightness of her nipples pressing against her shirt, or the flash of heat in her eyes when he got close. It was why he was always sneaking up behind her, pressing himself against her so that he could hand her whatever her heart desired. Of course, being close to her meant he was paying a visit to the men’s room to stroke his cock with images of touching her.
The arousal never stopped. He found Poppy highly sexual, from the way she walked to her laugh. She had the naughtiest, dirtiest laugh that made him think of fucking.
Her body was made for a man’s pleasure, her full tits, lush hips, rounded stomach, and juicy thighs. She was all woman in every single curve. The weight she’d lost had finally been put back on. With his mother’s cooking, and demanding Poppy ate with them, they were finally getting their Poppy back.
“I know she does. If you ask me I don’t think she wants to be like the other girls that have always flirted with us, falling over their feet.”
“She isn’t like them.”
“I know, but to Poppy I think she’s worried that we’ll see her like that. Like some mystical way we won’t like her or some shit. I don’t understand women. I never will.” Parker rubbed down his own horse. “My advice to you, though, is stop upsetting the ranch hands. When they go for their food, Poppy is in earshot and can hear everything she wants to. Hearing you’re a horrible boss is not going to help our cause.”
Casey didn’t want to admit that Parker was right, but he agreed. That day, he made sure to pay a visit to all of the ranch hands and apologize to each of them. Once that was done, and he was sure they accepted his apology, he took a ride out to the far fields.
Turning back toward the main lands on the hill top, he saw for miles, and in the distance he could just about make out the shape of his home, and a little further up, his parents’. Here it looked like they weren’t that far apart, even though he knew they were.
He turned back and frowned.
There was a cow on its side, lying completely still.
Suddenly his horse got a little skittish, so he climbed from her, patted her neck, and made his way toward the cow. When he turned, he was sick to his stomach. The cow had been completely mutilated, tortured.
He stepped away as his stomach recoiled, and he couldn’t look at it. Pulling out his radio, he got Parker on the line.
“Get our dads to come out to the far pasture,” Casey said.
“Why?”
“I think the gaps in our fence were just the beginning. I’ve just found a cow, Parker, completely tortured. Whoever did this is a sick fuck.”
He didn’t want his brothers to see it, but when Shawn and Parker made it to the spot with both their dads, he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell of him stopping them.
Casey hadn’t been sick yet, but he didn’t know how he was going to stomach any food any time soon.
“The poor girl,” Elijah said, placing a hand on her nose.
They took care of their herd.
“We were just about to do the count when you called this in,” Bruce said.
