The Lone Rancher - By Carol Finch Page 0,2
you, too, little sister.” Quin tossed her a pointed glance. “You have plenty of regrets already. What a shame that Ma’s last thoughts were probably about your childish tantrum over a new dress.”
Despite the tears filling her eyes, her spine stiffened and she tilted her chin at Quin. “I’m not playing maid to you and I’m not staying on this isolated ranch!”
His temper boiled over when his little sister—the one he’d vowed to protect and defend—became as insolent and disloyal as his brothers. “You’ll do as you’re told,” he snapped in a tone that brooked no argument whatsoever. Not that it did any good, damn it.
“No one made you ruler over us all,” Leanna shouted disrespectfully. “You can try to hold the ranch together, but you won’t be able to do it alone. Bowie has his own life. Chance doesn’t want yours and neither do I.”
“You’re going to find a job?” he asked caustically. “There’s only one place I know where a woman like you can get by doing nothing more than smiling and looking pretty for pay. I can’t picture you as a saloon girl.”
“If that’s where my dreams lead me, then so be it.” She stiffened her spine again and went toe to toe with him. “I think we should sell the ranch and each take our share.”
Quin felt as if his little sister had stabbed him right through the heart, then given the knife a painful twist. “Are you out of your mind? Sell off chucks of the ranch? Over my dead body!” he thundered, appalled by the blasphemous suggestion. “Ranching is our way of life. It’s who we are. We just buried Ma and Pa on this land.”
“Making a bigger name for the 4C, for the Cahills, won’t bring back Mama and Papa,” Leanna reminded him.
“This ranch is our destiny,” Quin declared.
“Yours, maybe. Not mine,” Chance—the traitor—said.
Quin wanted to hit something—beginning and ending with his selfish, betraying siblings. “Fine! Follow your dreams and see how far you get without your family to back you up. I’ll be here to see the 4C grow and prosper, doing what Ma and Pa wanted, expected.”
He flashed a hard, steely-eyed stare. “All profits go into expanding this ranch. If you leave, you’re walking away with no more than the clothes and belongings Ma and Pa bought for you.”
Chance scoffed. “More than what I expected.”
“Take your favorite horse and get the hell out of my sight!” Quin shouted at all of them.
“I hardly think we need to ask your leave for that,” Bowie said, and smirked.
Quin made a stabbing gesture toward the front door, as if his brothers and sister were too dense to know where it was. “Go! Defy your legacy if you want. You might as well walk over our parents’ grave on your way past, too.
“You think leaving here will help you find out who you are?” Quin looked them up and down—thrice. “I can save you the trip. You’re quitters and I’m ashamed to call you family.”
Chance muttered something foul that Quin didn’t ask him to repeat.
Bowie looked as if he wanted to smash his fist into Quin’s face. Quin almost welcomed coming to blows to appease his frustration. However, Leanna grabbed Bowie’s arm and said, “No, Bowie, don’t make this worse.”
“Stay out of it, Annie,” Bowie snarled, shaking off her hold.
“None of you are worthy to bear the Cahill name,” Quin hurled hatefully. “Maybe you should take an alias to hide your shame for defying Ma and Pa. I sure as hell don’t want to claim any of you!”
Bowie glared holes in Quin’s starched shirt, spun on his boot heels and stalked out.
In tormented fury, Quin watched Chance and Leanna fall into step behind Bowie. He called them every name under the sun as he stormed onto the porch to watch them mount up.
When all three stared at Quin as if he were the black sheep of the family, proud defiance took control of his tongue. “Don’t think I’ll beg you to come back because I won’t!” he bellowed before they rode away.
Quin reentered the house and slammed the door so hard dust dribbled from the woodwork. He wondered if he’d ever see his traitorous family again. Overwhelming feelings of grief and anger, not to mention the deep sense of betrayal, left him thinking he didn’t give a damn what became of his family.
Quin scanned the empty hallway—and felt his heart twist in his chest. Deafening silence filled the home that had once brimmed over with