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Chewing my lip, I contemplated if it was worth the risk of catching Royce at the barn. Although, it was probably fairly safe to assume he wouldn’t be doing afternoon chores in with the horses. Hell, he probably hadn’t finished the morning ones.
“Damn it.”
I was going to have to go check on them regardless, so I might as well go now and get a ride in. If Silk was giving me the week off, I could cycle through all the horses, riding one each day to exercise them. They’d all love that.
Heading back to my room, I got changed into my riding gear, then headed off. There were still hours before the sun would set, so plenty of light for me to walk over. I was nearly at the barn when I heard voices come from within that had me stopping short.
“Helping you muck out stalls was never part of our agreement, Royce.”
I remembered that voice. It was Billy, one of the men who’d attacked me at The Barn that night I’d met Boone.
“Well, if you want your cut, you need to do some of the damn work. You’ve played the part for long enough. Surely, you’ve picked up some cowboy skills along the way?”
What had Royce done?
Billy laughed. “We done learned all sorts of fun things, but only about the human kinda fillies, not the actual horse kind. Why the fuck are you out here doing this shit anyhow? Don’t you got staff?”
Royce’s anger was clear in his tone. “If I had a ranch hand, they’d notice what’s going on up at the house don’t you think? Gabriela was helping with the horses, but she stormed off earlier today after the fucking SPCA dropped in for a visit. I can’t let the horses get any worse, or they’ll be back and be a pain in my ass.”
“Just sell them already.”
Bob spoke for the first time. “Or shoot them.”
“That was my first thought too, but they’re worth too much to just kill ‘em. As soon as I have enough time to put together their info, I’ll get them advertised.”
It was a small relief he wasn’t going to kill them. I had no clue Royce even knew Billy or Bob. I’d never seen them around Bridgewater before and didn’t think they were locals.
Billy spoke again, “This is all taking too long. This was supposed to be over in a month.”
“You two are the idiots who went and got arrested. Be grateful I bailed you out and didn’t just leave you there and find someone else.”
Bob laughed again, the dark sound sending shivers down my spine. “You’re the one who should be fucking grateful. How many men will help you off your folks so you can inherit a ranch you got no clue how to take care of?”
I stumbled back a step, my hand raising to cover my mouth, barely able to believe what I’d heard. I turned to head away, intending to stop and call the authorities as soon as I was sure I was out of earshot. But Whiskey chose that moment to come up to me. She whinnied a greeting and the moment she did, I knew I was fucked.
“Hey! Stop right there.”
Needing to get away quickly, I rushed to Whiskey’s side, grabbing her mane to help pull myself up onto her back. I rarely rode bareback, but I could do it. Before I could nudge her to take off, a gun went off and a flare of agony lit up my shoulder. The force of the blow knocked me from Whiskey, and I hit the ground hard enough to rattle my teeth. I tried to crawl away, but my body wouldn’t move. Blackness crept into my vision, and it was all over.
