Page 60 of Bucked Hard

“All respect, sir, I know this is your place, but this is my girl. I don’t want trouble, but I’m not fucking leaving until I know why she’s crying and how I’m going to fix it.”

I turn back as Rachel tugs her hands from mine and my heart skips a beat.

“Baby, tell me. You can tell me anything. Someone or something hurt you and I’d rather die than see you like this.”

“Did you know who I was the whole time? Is this fun for you?” She blasts me with fire in her eyes and my head spins with confusion.

“Dove, what are you talking about? I’m right here, I have no idea what you are talking about, so for the love of all things holy, please just tell me what the fuck is going on.” I lock my fingers around hers, but she tries to jerk them back and I hold them tighter. I’ve wrangled a lot of fillies in my time, and I can see I’m going to need to hold on tight or she’s going to try to slip loose.

But she won’t.

“Leanderis what is going on,” she sneers, her voice full of venomous sarcasm.

The sound of my brother’s name turns my stomach and raises a thousand instant questions in my mind. My head is pounding. Why and how is she even aware of him?

“What about him?” I keep her eyes with mine, a terror building inside me.

“Son.” Crutch’s voice booms from behind me. “I think you should go.”

I’m done playing. “I’m sorry, but I’m not leaving without her.” I grunt louder than I intended but I’m at the end of my rope.

I round up on him and have to pull myself back to stop from breaking his nose. “She’s mine and I take care of what’s mine.” He doesn’t deserve this, and somewhere deep inside I understand that, but he needs to know who she belongs to. “Rachel.” My voice turns hard because otherwise I’d be sobbing like a kid who just got his first nosebleed. “I fucking love you. For now and forever. But if you don’t fucking tell me what the hell is going on here I’m going to throw you over my shoulder and carry your ass out of here. Because we will sort this out, either here or back home.” My face is hot and the muscles in my back are twitching.

“Home? That’s—” She spits the words at me and winds up for more noise which is getting us exactly nowhere and I’ve had enough.

“Alright then.” I get it. She’s pissed about something.

But this isn’t productive so she’s going to see just what I’m prepared to do to get her back in the right mind set so we can move forward.

I hate wasting time, I’ve wasted enough in my life and I’m not going to waste another second now that I’ve found what I’ve been waiting for.

“Wait! What—”

I swoop one arm around her waist. I’m already kneeling so I tug her forward, settle one shoulder into her soft belly and lift, all before she can get her bearings.

She’s momentarily silenced by being thrown over my shoulder, and I adjust my arms around her dangling legs, then I turn around to give Crutch a glare in case he has some wild idea that he’s going to stop me from taking what’s rightfully mine out of here.

“Sir. I didn’t do anything to hurt her. I love her. Whatever is going on here, I intend to fix it. I promise you, you and I are on the same team.” I nod, holding his eyes trying to let him know I want what he wants which is to take care of her.

He squints at me for a long moment, taking me in, gauging my intentions. Finally, he shakes his head with a smile breaking across his road-worn face.

“I told you, I take care of what’s mine. I don’t know what she’s bucking about, but I love her and I’ve done nothing to hurt her. So whatever this is, we’ll work it out, because she’s not getting away. I’ll tie her up if I need to, but we’ll figure this out. So, I thank you for taking care of her, but we’re leaving.”

“We’re not leaving!” Rachel blasts from behind me as her fists start in on my lower back.

Crutch’s smile turns to a knowing laugh and I see the respect in his eyes. “Good luck. If I ever find out you hurt her, I’m coming for you.” The smile disappears, and I know that I like this man.

“Put me down! You can’t just control me like one of your horses.” Rachel’s wiggling and I hitch her up a little higher on my shoulder as I make my way toward the open office door and into the bar.

“No, babe, if you were one of my horses I’d have roped you off already and we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

She’s cussing and kicking me the whole way through the crowd. She’s as mad as a snared possum, but she’s just pounding my ass and arguing the toss, and apparently the patrons of the bar get the difference between a kidnapping and a man taking care of his woman. A bar like this, if she screamed for help, even I’d meet my match, but instead as we reach the front door, a round of hoots and hollers and applause explodes in our wake.

She softens a bit over my shoulder as we step out into the parking lot.

“Are you going to behave and start telling me in full sentences what the fuck is going on?” I can’t help myself, but I punctuate the question with a firm slap on her upturned ass.

She yelps and I think for a split second that I must be a twisted asshole because my cock is as hard as a fence post.

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