one foot like a toddler.
“Just because you saw it on YouTube doesn’t make it right,” Sawyer said.
“See? Just like that,” Rubin nearly screamed. “You think you are so damn smart. You aren’t. I bet you didn’t even go to college, did you?”
“Rubin!” Lucien said angrily.
It didn’t matter. Rubin was on a roll now.
“Well, I did,” Rubin said. “I know the world. I know how people like you look down on people like me because I didn’t have some magical, mystical childhood where I shoveled pig shit and grew my own corn. You might have my dad and my uncle and my stupid cousin all fooled, but you don’t fool me. You’re a hick. A dumb, wide-eyed hick. And I swear, I will go back to California, get my lawyer, and sue you until the name of the ranch says, ‘Rubin’s Big Dick Ranch.’”
Rubin was screaming now, his face red and a vein sticking out from his neck. His arms were flailing around, and I saw the danger instantly. The cow saw his waving hand and bucked. Sawyer tried putting both hands on its neck to calm it, but it was no use. She slammed her head to the side, knocking Sawyer over, and then ran over where he was balled up on the ground.
I let out a terrified yelp as the massive animal bulldozed him down and ran over him, then took off for the distance, vanishing out of sight in a cloud of dust.
“Everybody stay on your horses,” Colt shouted, and I realized he had made it all the way around to behind me. He rode up quickly.
Rubin scrambled back to his horse and tried to mount her. She bucked when he did, obviously not trusting him much more than she had all week, and Rubin nearly fell off the saddle. He was only half on when the horse trotted away, moving in the opposite direction of the cow.
Rubin was hanging on for dear life, his free foot occasionally slamming into the ground as the horse got away from danger, but his hand was tied up in the reins, and he was holding on to the pommel. He kept trying to hop up to swing onto the horse but missed, slamming into her hide and encouraging her to go a little faster.
As Rubin got farther away, the cow, who had only gone a few yards away and then turned in circles, kicking up dust, started to calm again. Without Rubin there to agitate her, she was a little more inclined to just huff and paw and wait for the adrenaline to go away. Then, without any other prodding or herding, she went and rejoined the rest of the cows, moving back into place as if she had never gotten out.
“Stop, dammit,” Rubin hollered from behind me as he wrestled with trying to mount his horse.
But I didn’t care about Rubin. I was far more worried about what I saw in front of me. On the ground where he landed when he was hit was Sawyer, and he was still curled up in a tight ball. Colt had dismounted, holding the horse’s reins so it didn’t get too upset at the current situation, and then let them go, walking toward his brother with a horrified look on his face.
My heart was in my throat, and I tapped the sides of Cloudy, moving her closer. As scared as I was of what I might see, I knew I had to look. I had to get close enough that I could see Sawyer’s face and either know that he was okay or wasn’t.
Colt gave no indication as he knelt over his brother, and the terror wrapped around my heart. I pushed Cloudy closer, faster, and looked for any sign of movement, any sign of life at all.
A prayer passed through my lips as I got close to them, and I looked down to see the crumpled form of Sawyer, lying in the dust.
Chapter 31
Sawyer
“Son of a bitch,” I yelled as I rolled over onto my knees.
“Aww, he’s all right,” Colt said from behind me.
I turned over to look at him, and a grin broke out across his face. It wasn’t the grin of a man having fun but a man trying to lighten a moment while simultaneously ignoring that he was in abject terror not thirty seconds before.
Another cow, a younger one, made his presence known by nudging my shoulder. It seemed like it was checking on me, and I felt a