AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"How do you think you're going to win this thing? You're six foot eleven. Let's just call it seven feet. You are what? Three hundred pounds? Three fifty? You're huge, massive, and I don't think it would be an easy thing for your horse to carry along that distance while still maintaining any level of speed. The horse will break down faster than you can imagine, and by then, you will feel despair the way I felt it," Hayden said. His voice was calm, but there was still deep anger and loathing within him.
"Despair? You stand there and tell me that you know despair? You do not have the first clue what it is about, how it even feels. You will never understand what it is like to…" he stopped and inhaled deeply.
"Your family caused me despair, and I will show you what it truly feels like when we are down on that track. You will see," he said. He tried to look at Hayden with blazing eyes, and Hayden returned his gaze, back straight and teeth clenched.
"This is what you want, them?" Hayden asked.
"Ah, don't be a fool. I was here on my own, trying to mind my own business, but you came out all the way here, and you are the one who got yourself into this race and now asking me if this is what I want. That is the way your family works, isn't it? You do something and expect the person you did it to, take responsibility for your actions. That is what your father did to my father, and I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. In this case, it fell right at the foot of the tree," he said and adjusted his hat then he started walking away to where Nicole was standing with her hands folded across her chest and an angry expression on her face.
"What was that all about?" She asked him, and he said nothing to her, just continued walking.
Austin was cooped up with a small book by the time the evening came, and when he saw that he couldn't see the words again due to the darkness from the outside, he looked up, sighing heavily.
"I was just about to get to the best part of the book," he said, and Nicole shrugged.
"That is nice. What is the book about?" She asked him.
"Why are you always around me? Why does it seem impossible to shake you off?" He asked.
"I am your handler, and this is the way that it shall be between the both of us. Everyone knows of your legendary ability to get into trouble, and I have this talent of getting people out of trouble and preventing them from getting into it in the first place. It makes me disliked by people like you, but then again, I am paid for my talents, so that doesn't matter to me," she said.
"Is that your fancy way of saying that you are a lawyer?" He asked with a chuckle. She hesitated, narrowing her eyes at him, and he couldn't tell if she wanted to scold him or if she was just merely surprised. She shrugged and turned to look at the camp they had made, then she looked back at him.
"Why did you want to stay out here tonight?" She asked. He shrugged.
"There are many things that I have to think about, and I have to get myself acquainted with the fact that I will have to be outside like this for the next three days under extreme pressure, and it won't be funny at all unless I get used to it. Have you heard ofthe long ride?He asked, and she shook her head.
"Hmmn, it was this thing that I read a while ago in a book. Said that in a battle, a Mongol prince defeated the enemy cavalry by leading them on a chase that lasted a day and a half. When they were tired and exhausted, the Mongolian army, with sturdier ponies and hardier men, turned on them and destroyed them. That story always made me smile when I thought about it, and I wondered if I could have ridden among them. You know? Stuff like that," he said and chuckled.
"No one told you that I am a lawyer?" Nicole asked.
"It is rather strange to me that I supply you with this wonderful story, and you are more interested in how I know that you are a lawyer. It doesn't matter. You act like it. See Hayden's Dad? He had a lot of lawyers around the ranch, and in time, I got to know them before they even spoke and when they were not even wearing a suit. I know them well, and I know them true," he said and grinned but said nothing else for a while.
"What is your quarrel with him? Hayden? Why don't you like each other so much?" She asked, and he nodded a little, then shrugged.
"That…that is a very long story, and to tell it now would just be useless. His family wronged mine, even after mine had worked for them for a long time, and he somehow wants me to sweep that under the rug and not think about it too much. That is a tad too much for me to handle, and I didn't take that well in the slightest. Didn't take it well at all. I lashed out and did something that they have refused to get over, which was nothing compared to what they did to me. I stole a prize horse, then I beat up Hayden, and he came here with that anger in his chest to make me pay for my actions. That's lovely. I have a chance to truly crush him this time," he said. He felt the anger move to every one of his limbs, and he started trembling.
"You don't want to have to do it, though," she said.
"What was that?" He asked.
"You don't want to hurt him," she said.
"Who told you that?" He asked her.
"You are not the only one who can tell when people are bullshitting. It is true that you hate what was done to you, and you probably hate Hayden's father, but Hayden isn't the one that you hate, and you may even regret that your relationship with him had to be strained in such a manner," she said.
Austin stared at her for a while, then spat against the ground, shaking his head.
"Don't be shrinking me. I don't like it when anyone does that. Especially lawyers.
"I just want to be sure that you have your priorities straight and your head is in the game," she said. He grumbled under his breath then shrugged.
"It is," he said and stood, then walked back to one of the tents to get a flashlight and continue reading his book.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
HAYDEN'S POV
