AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Harper tossed her rein to Etta, threw her leg over Mattie’s neck, and slid off her right side to approach the mustang mares’ leader. The pretty palomino lifted her head, sniffing the air. She snorted and pawed the ground, nickering softly, but Harper thought it probably carried on the wind as the big roan stallion answered with a shrill whinny before rearing and galloping toward them.
“This is where you and I part company, sweet girl,” Harper crooned as the other women backed away and the wild mustangs began to move past Harper and the palomino mare danced around her. “Be free,” she said as she pulled the rope halter from the mare. She stepped away as the lead mare galloped past the others in her band and raced to meet the roan stallion and his lieutenants.
Harper turned away and walked back to join her companions to mount Mattie. “I guess that’s it. We should be able to get to the rig by nightfall and I should have you at the airport in time to catch your return flights. I really can’t thank you enough. I would never have been able to pull this off without you.”
“I really do think we ought to make this an annual thing,” said Etta. “We can figure out where we can do the most good and then slip our leashes and go have fun.”
“That’s a great idea,” said Harper.
“Not so fast,” said Morgan. “From now on I want a night’s stay before and after at some nice lodge.”
“Yes, with a massage and mani/pedi on the day after,” added Devon.
They all agreed as they turned their horses back toward Harper’s rig. As they rode, Harper couldn’t help but think how close the four of them had become. They’d been friends before, but now they were closer, more like sisters. She knew they would never replace Dulcie, nor did she want them to, and they weren’t blood. But that didn’t seem to matter much. They were the sisters of her soul. Dulcie may have been taken prematurely, but as it most often did, the universe had provided her with what she needed.
She was a little surprised not to see Spence waiting for her. They untacked their horses, gave them a good rub down, and loaded them back into the trailer. As promised, she had them back at the West Yellowstone airport in plenty of time to catch their flight back to their connecting flights to get them home.
Standing next to the truck, they all participated in an emotional and heartfelt hug.
“Thanks for including me, Harper,” said Morgan. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I don’t care how big a hissy fit Nate throws, I’m in for next year.”
Morgan thrust her hand into the middle of the group. Each woman successively added her hand before throwing them all up, cheering “Mustang.”
Harper felt tears stinging her eyes as she waved until they were out of sight. Checking the rig one last time, she climbed into the cab. It was time to go home and pay the piper.
CHAPTER16
Spence waited. He knew she would be home after dark, and all the chores were done, which was fine by him as he didn’t need for Dusty to feel some kind of divided loyalty between them. He knew Dusty adored Harper and felt he’d come to have respect for the way Spence could deal with Harper’s volatile moods.
Despite what others believed, Harper wasn’t as mercurial as she was often accused of being. In his mind, she was as constant as the North Star, but she had a quick temper and marched to her own drum. What she needed to learn was that he was the leader of the band, and she would step in time to his tune.
He had plenty of time to think about how he wanted to discipline her. He doubted she knew what kind of danger she had put her and her friends in. There was no doubt in his mind that Pete Jenkins had gone to kill Harper and would most likely have killed her friends, as well, when he discovered she wasn’t alone.
He shook his head.Pete Jenkins.It was hard to reconcile the man who had forced Spence to kill rather than be killed or have the woman he loved, and her friends killed. When had he gone so far down the rabbit hole that he couldn’t find his way back out?
The sound of Harper’s rig pulling up broke his reverie and focused him on what was about to come. His cock thumped hard against his jeans. It was all in favor of parts of the discipline session he had in mind, but he thought there was too much emphasis on things that required his dick to be anywhere but deep inside her.
His cock was a greedy bastard.
He stood in the shadows of the wash area inside the barn and watched as she unloaded Mattie, Rebel, Maverick, and finally Tank, who recognized the scent of his owner and whickered softly in his direction.
Harper whirled around. “Spence! You startled me. I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”
“Really? Where was it you thought I’d be? Interrogating suspects? Nope, I had to leave that to my team because I was off saving your ass.”
“My ass was never in danger.”
“Think not? I’ve got a corpse in the medical examiner’s office that says differently.”
“Did you kill him?”
“As a matter of fact, I did.”
“Who was it?”
“Pete,” he said in a tone that sounded dead even to him.
“Pete Jenkins? Your friend?”
