loud voice, “Boys, she didn’t complain about my stench when she was on her knees, sucking my dick.”
“Yeah, I did,” she countered coldly. “I’ve sucked ryegrass straws with more girth than you’ve got.”
A few guffaws were heard.
Face beet-red, he charged her. The sight of her drawn Colt aimed his way froze him midstride. She heard Whit say warningly, “Spring.”
She didn’t take her eyes off the furious Ketchum. “Need to settle this, Whit.”
Ketchum sneered. “Shoot me in front of all these witnesses and you’ll hang for sure.”
“And I’ll do it gladly because you’ll no longer be walking this earth. The girl you enjoyed beating up has wanted you dead a long time.”
She waited.
The hate in his glare flared. Her raised gun was an equalizer; even a man known as a bullying coward was smart enough to figure that out. He didn’t advance. She’d bested him. They both knew it.
“This ain’t over,” he promised.
“Then have Beck measure you for a pine box.” Wasting no more time on him, she holstered the Colt and told Heath, “Let me know about my scotch.”
On her way to the door, her eyes briefly brushed McCray’s concerned face. He was probably appalled, but she kept walking. Outside, she mounted Cheyenne and they raced home ahead of the demons rising from her past.
She put Cheyenne in his stall and was walking back to her cabin when her grandfather rode up. She wondered if her day could get any worse. “What can I do for you, Ben?” She went inside; he followed.
“Odell said you had some fella here for a couple of days.”
“Yes, and he probably also told you the man is here to do a story on Colt and got caught in the storm.” She knew what he’d really come to find out. “And if you’re wondering how we entertained ourselves, we cavorted like rabbits the entire time.”
His jaw tightened beneath his slate-gray beard. “Show some respect.”
She asked challengingly, “To whom? You? That is what you wanted to know, isn’t it?”
“Odell says he’s a nice fella.”
“He is, but I’m sure you’ll find a way to be rude. Just like you are with Regan.” Her brother had forbidden Ben to have any contact with his family until Ben could be civil to his wife.
“Your brother should’ve never married her.”
Spring felt a headache forming. “Go home, Ben. I’m not in the mood to argue with you today.”
“Just came to make sure you’re okay.”
It was a lie and they both knew it.
He gave her a terse nod and departed.
Spring put on a pot of coffee, and while it brewed, sat on the sofa to try and shake off the day. The memory of her run-in with Matt Ketchum still angered her. After Ben threw her out of their family’s home for refusing to marry his aged choice of a husband, she’d gone to Matt’s father, Mitch, to ask for a job. He bred and sold horses, and since she’d loved horses all her life and had done odd jobs for him while growing up, she was willing to take whatever employment he had to offer so she could eat and have a place to stay. His price. Her innocence. She was eighteen, homeless, and desperate. Her parents had passed away and Colt was back East studying at Howard’s Medical School. Seeing no other choice, she followed him to his bedroom and started working for him the next day. She rode with his ranch hands, and he rode her whenever he had a mind to. He let Matt ride her, too, and didn’t care that Matt used his fists on her as punishment for sins real and imagined whenever he’d had too much to drink, which was often.
She scrubbed her hands down her face and went to the kitchen. The coffee was ready, so she poured some and took a sip. The sharp bitterness mirrored how she felt inside. Her Ketchum years had been hell and she’d masked her horror, and yes, shame, by fighting, gambling, and strutting drunkenly through town as if she owned the place. When Colt finished his studies and returned to town, her wild behavior gave him nightmares and the local gossips fuel that still burned today. But she saved her money, and when she accumulated enough to pay for the land she now called her own, she quit working for the Ketchums and never spoke to them again. A month or so later Matt left town. Rumor had it he’d used his fists on the daughter of