Page 6 of Brother In Arms

Chapter 2

Bailey

“Mother, why are there motorcycles in my driveway and bikers on my porch?” I asked coolly, or at least I hoped it was coolly. My heart was pounding and I was seriously hoping my face wasn’t giving me away, blushing with color. The one biker I didn’t know, but we’d gotten awfully familiar anyways. The way he was looking me up and down, gaze burning, face otherwise shut down and neutral, told me he knew exactly who I was.

Crap, crap, crap!

So much for an anonymous one time hook up. I thought to myself. The other biker was a familiar face and one that I couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“Holy shit… is that my little cousin Dray-dray?”

“Bailey Lynn Berling! Language!” my mother cried but Dray and I both just ignored her.

“You’re only four years older than me, Bales,” Dray said, as if my mother hadn’t just admonished my grown ass over the use of a four letter word.

“Yeah,” I said looking him up and down, “but I can see it might as well be forty. When are you going to grow out of this?” I asked waving my hand over him and his friend. . My mother’s color drained and she looked like she was about to have a stroke. Dray smirked knowing exactly what I was up to, but it was a nasty little smile. Still, what came out of his mouth was, “Never,” and he said it with such a fierce conviction I was taken aback.

Go, go, Bailey, with your no filters! You probably could have done without that last one.

“Alright,” I said drawing out the word in a sing song tone. “Not trying to start family world war three. I just worry about you, that’s all.” Which was totally true, I’d missed Dray, but his father’s lifestyle, and apparently his lifestyle now too, had been what’d gotten my aunt killed. I missed her, but I missed Dray, too, and I had no idea what he would be doing here. After my mom had completely lost her shit at my aunt’s funeral, I’d pretty much never expected to see my cousin again.

My mother tugged on her jacket and it reminded me of a bird adjusting her ruffled feathers. I never did get her, she was the one forever going on about my aunt Tilly’s poor choices and how José Trujillo would be the death of her and then it’d finally happened. So why would she be sitting on my front porch sipping tea with my cousin and one of his biker buddies? It was completely mind-blowing.

“I never thought I’d see this day, that’s for sure,” I said and Dray snorted, turning to look out over my farm. I mounted the steps and let him admire the view. I’d been doing great with Blue Hills since my dad had died. All despite the road blocks my asshole brother kept throwing up and the fact that Caleb, my father’s best friend and the farm’s trustee, listened to Philip more often than not rather than the little women. Never mind that I was the one that was actually here and running the farm.

I’d loved my dad, but he was a good ol’ boy and had good ol’ boy friends and had raised my brother to be a good ol’ boy too. I don’t think Caleb nor Philip had counted on my mom selling me her portion of the farm, nor, do I think that they thought I would have the money to buy her out at fair market value like my father’s will stipulated.

Unlike my asshole brother, I’d socked my money away for years. Didn’t spend extravagantly, and knew the meaning of hard work. My daddy may have paid for everything when I was in college, but I’d still held a job and had saved everything. I’d had enough and then some to buy out my mom, but I had had to buy her out and it’d nearly wiped me out to do it.

That ‘and then some’ was dwindling fast, too. Every time I went to buy a much needed piece of equipment for the place, or hire on more staff, I was pretty much caught in a web of resistance between Philip and Caleb.

If I needed it, I would go to Caleb, and Caleb would then call Philip. Philip, who wanted to see this farm fail, would tell Caleb, ‘Nah, she doesn’t need it,’ and Caleb would tell me no… So I either had to come up with it out of my own pocket or not at all.

It was tougher than I’d like to admit. Mostly because even though I owned two-thirds of the farm, Caleb declared that my salary earned from it remained the same and that what would have been mom’s portion of it go into trust for the farm. I couldn’t even be sure the money wasn’t going into Caleb or even Philip’s pocket because every time I asked to see the financials Caleb told me I didn’t need to worry my pretty little head over these things.

I dropped into an empty seat at the four person table and sighed looking from one face to another, and another, until I finally settled on my mother’s.

“So what is this?” I asked.

“I have hired this young man to help you around here,” she said and I choked on the sip of sweet tea I’d started to take.

“Mom! You sold your portion of this place to me, you don’t get to make that kind of decision!”

“I know, you do… but Bailey I implore you to please think about this. He has experience.”

I looked over my anonymous barroom hook up, eyes drifting to the nametag thing on his vest which read ‘Rush’ and tried not to think about how I’d read that faded patch over and over as he’d fucked me against that wall. I pressed my thighs a little tighter together under the table and continued to pretend I didn’t know him from Adam.

“What’s your name?” I asked him and his eyebrows shot up.

“Rush, what’s yours?” he asked and I knew he just wanted to hear me say it because I wouldn’t tell him before.

I smiled and it wasn’t terribly friendly, “I’m sure you’re used to hearing this from the cops but I’m the one asking the questions here.”

“Bailey Lynn Berling!” my mother cried and I looked in her direction. The scowl she gave me was top notch and I just knew I was going to hear all about it from her later. My mother didn’t allow me to be raised with a single rude bone in my body but here I was, killin’ it just the same. Still, so confused! My mother swore she would never talk to José, ever again. Had cut him out of our lives completely and Dray right along with him, when Aunt Tillie had died; so this was pretty much mind blowing.

I turned my attention to my biggest mistake in recent history and he grinned at me. It was adorable, too. I kind of hated how hot he was while he nodded and said, “Okay, fair enough…” before he rattled off a rather impressive resume of things he had done at a couple of dude ranches in Arizona. Horse world was a small world and I’d heard of them in passing, however when it came to thoroughbreds and the kinds of horses they dealt with, it was worlds apart… still, a horse is a horse, is a horse.

“Mm-hm,” I said and leaned back in my seat, “and why did you leave?”

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