Chapter 2
BEAU
I was winding up my bull rope to stow away in the back of my pickup when Cammie came running up like she was being chased by a stampede.
“Beau!”
I turned abruptly and took in her fear-filled face.
She skidded to a stop before me, breathing hard, tears streaming down her cheeks.
I set my hand on her shoulder. “What’s the matter? Where’s Momma? Are you hurt?”
My gaze raked down her body and back up in a quick check.
She shook her head, her hair flying, breathing ragged. “No, I’m not hurt. Momma’s watching the quilt judging and will meet me inside to watch the events. She saved me. You have to go help.”
“Momma saved you? From what?”
“Not Momma. Another woman. This man… he, he was nice and we were talking. Asked if I wanted to go somewhere and talk some more, but I thought he meant inside the arena. Like get a funnel cake or something. Then he’s leading me away into the back lot and–I said no.
I told him I didn’t want to go with him but his hold was so tight.
There wasn’t anyone around until her and… oh my God.”
She was a little frantic, but coherent. Her words made me see red. Some man had fucked with my kid sister. Had been taking her off somewhere. Against her will.
Someone was gonna die tonight.
She was twenty, a dozen years younger than me and a product of our momma’s second–and much more successful–marriage.
The two of them came from Bozeman to see me compete and enjoy the fair.
While I didn’t have an event tonight–the bull riding was scheduled for tomorrow–I helped my friends who’d been in the steer wrestling event, the girls did the rides and took in the fair’s exhibits.
“What man?” I snapped, looking over her shoulder.
She put her arm behind her. “Back there. Almost to the back of the field beyond the other trucks and trailers. She stopped us when we were beside a trailer that had a picture of an alpaca on the side. I don’t know if she got away.”
A junior in college, Cammie was studying nursing.
Smart. Pretty. Kind. I protected her as best I could, but I’d graduated high school and gone off on my own when she was still a toddler.
She had a good head on her shoulders, but I’d ask her later why she’d gone off with the guy in the first place.
“Good job. You said she saved you. Who is she?”
Cammie shook her head, then wiped her eyes.
“I don’t know. A woman. Blonde hair, my height.
She had a number pinned to her chest like she might be competing.
She, um, saw us together and tried to stop the guy.
He was mean and really strong. She kicked him in the balls and told me to run, so I did. Oh God, I left her there.”
She started to cry again, but I gave her a little shake.
“You did the right thing. You ran, just like you were supposed to and got help. You got your ticket to the rodeo?”
She nodded.
“Good. Go on in and find your seat and Momma. You’ll both be safe in that crowd, all right?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Good girl. Text me when you’re with Momma. I’m gonna take care of this.”
She gave me another shaky nod, then took off toward the arena. My truck was only a row back from the competitor entrance. People were milling about not thirty feet away.
I watched her go up to the entrance and hand off her ticket, then go inside.
Once I was sure she’d be safe surrounded by the crowd, I made my way through the makeshift parking lot and weaved through all the trucks and farm vehicles, circling back once until I found the alpaca trailer she mentioned.
Then, I turned and headed toward the outer edge of the field.
A scream cut through the air and I turned in that direction. It didn’t take long to find the little group after that.
I took a breath, slowed my gait, then stopped all together when I recognized the woman who was being manhandled.
Lainey Wilder.
My good friend Trig’s sister.
And the woman who I’d imagined fucking twenty different ways since I met her for the first time the other night at her parents’ house for dinner.
I’d entered the room with Trig and his wife, Ellie.
I’d made introductions with her father and mother and then…
bam. Like I’d been bucked off the back of a bull and tossed through the air.
I had yet to land.
She’d been sitting at the huge dining table–big enough to seat at least fifteen–and held a bowl of green beans.
It had been her eyes, the brightest blue, that had snagged me.
Or the blonde hair pulled back in a loose braid over her shoulder.
Or the way she was so damned tiny seated between two of her brothers.
Or that mouth, plush and plump and biteable.
I was used to hanging on for eight seconds. All it took was one for me to fall for Lainey Wilder. To know she would belong to me.
Over the meal, I’d quickly learned that a woman who had eight overbearing brothers could hold her own.
Sass and determination, like a tiny firecracker that made the biggest boom.
My dick had been instantly hard beneath the table and all I wanted to do was toss her over my shoulder and carry her off like a Neanderthal.
She stopped me in my tracks once again, not expecting her to be the one who’d saved Cammie and ended up with these fuckers. Those blue eyes widened in recognition as they met mine. I saw a touch of fear that was hidden mostly by fiery anger.
How dare someone fuck with something that was mine.
“What the fuck, Gil?” I said. “To get a woman you gotta muzzle her?”
Gil, a barely successful saddle bronc rider, had his hand over her mouth. The fact that he was touching her, hell, breathing near her, pissed me the fuck off. Had he been the one to grab Cammie first?
“She doesn’t stop yackin’,” he said.
That sounded like the Lainey I knew.
She and Gil sat on a beat up cooler. Lainey’s eyes narrowed and she made a sound against Gil’s beefy hand. “Maybe let her breathe? Your way with the ladies needs some work.”
I knew all but one of these men. They were assholes, definitely on the fringes of the rodeo circuit. Didn’t treat the animals like they should. Drank when they shouldn’t. Even scared away the buckle bunnies, who’d climb on and take any man on the rodeo circuit for a ride.
They might win here and there, enough to keep them in beer and gas for their rough RV, but most likely only because they doped a horse or the competition somehow broke a leg. I’d never heard them force a woman before. They sure as hell had crossed a line.
“Yo, Beau! Wanna play? With that big bank account of yours, we’d be happy to take some of it from you.” Sherman Parks, who was called Parks because he hated his first name, patted an empty camp stool beside him.
“I’m here for the woman,” I told him. “No love match if you’ve gotta force ‘em, Gil.”
The fellas laughed.
Why was I playing it chill? Why wasn’t I walking right up to him and punching him in the fucking face?
I had no idea what the fuck was going on.
Montana was an open carry state when it came to firearms, but it also meant they might have some concealed, too.
I wasn’t risking anything when it came to Lainey’s safety.
He shrugged. “We’re just gonna hang out for a little while and then I’ll let ‘er go.”
I tucked my thumbs in my jeans pockets, tried to seem casual. What I wanted to do was jump over the table and beat the shit out of Gil. Out of all of them.
“Too bad,” I told him. “That woman’s mine.”
I knew when I saw her the other night, but there was no question now.
“Her?” He dropped his hand from her mouth.
Lainey turned and glared at Gil, as if he’d insulted her with just his tone.
“Yeah, her.”
“Your woman kicked me in the balls.”
“You deserved it, you asshole,” she snarled. “I think you need to clean your ears more because I said no.”
“See why I covered her mouth?”
Lainey popped to her feet like a rocket and looked ready to throttle Gil all by herself.
“You know who she is?” I pressed.
All five men looked to Lainey.
“Ever heard of the Wilder boys?”
Two of them groaned. Yeah, they were well known in the area… and beyond.
I pointed at Lainey. “That’s their kid sister. Trig Wilder’s gonna kill you and his brother, Colt, the county sheriff, is gonna let him.”
Lainey grinned almost evilly and crossed her arms over her chest.
Trig Wilder, retired rodeo champ, was my closest friend… and her big brother. What I said was true. Trig and his brothers would kill these fuckers for sure. But they were going to kill me, too, when they found out I was claiming Lainey.
No one fucked your friend’s little sister. It was a rule.
A rule I was gonna break.
Now Gil held up his hands in surrender. “No one told me her name, only that she was blonde and tiny.”
“You need to check an ID of a woman you kidnap, you asshole?” she snapped. “And I’m not tiny, I’m petite.” Her chin tipped up and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to kiss her for that defiance or spank her pussy for stirring up even more trouble.
“Come ‘ere, love,” I said, curling my fingers and beckoning her over. I needed her out of here in one piece, so this wasn’t time for her fury. I’d take care of these guys later.
Gil stood, too, his hands dropping into fists.
The others were smart enough to remain seated.
When Lainey was tucked into my side, I kissed the top of her head.
She was like a little peanut next to me.
I wanted to savor the feel of her in my arms, how soft she was.
Warm. I wanted to breathe in her sweet scent.
Taste her. Mouth and pussy. Hear her moan.
Scream my name when I made her come for the first time.
But not now. Now, I had to deal with these fuckers.
“Like I said, we were only gonna hang for a little while, then I’d have let her go,” Gil complained.
“You that hard up you have to resort to kidnapping?”
I let Lainey go and tucked her behind me, not sure what she might do. Then took a step, then another toward Gil. “I hear any of you fucking with a woman again, I’ll not only tell the sheriff about it, but all the other shit you’ve been up to. I mean it, Larry. You, too, Sherm.”
I had no idea what other shit they’re wallowing in, but there had to be something.
The seated guys nodded. Gil swallowed hard.
Yeah, they were guilty as fuck. Which meant after I got Lainey safe and Cammie settled with Momma, Colt Wilder was gonna hear all about this.
He’d take care of them. These five were gonna wish they were in prison when he and his brothers were done with them.
“And Gil?” I punched him in the face. He stumbled over the cooler and fell on his ass. “That’s for putting hands on my woman.”
I’d do more to him later, but with Lainey here, that was enough for now.
I took Lainey’s hand and led her away. She might think I was saving her, but I wasn’t planning on letting go. Ever.