Page 103 of The Cowgirl's Secret Love
“What the hell is going on?” Julia asked. She glanced back toward the fence line. Pointing again. “Over there.”
It was the briefest moment where a single form was silhouetted by moonlight. A second man came running out of nowhere, tackling the first to the ground, while again gunshot echoed.
Karen glanced at the herd, but they were milling around Julia as if she were the holy grail. “Stay here,” Karen ordered before turning Starlight and heading at a run toward the batch of trees closest to the fence line.
“What the hell?” Julia’s voice faded in the distance.
Maybe this was a stupid move, but every instinct Karen had told her to do it. She put her head down and rode.
Finn hitthe ground with a stranger under him, pain streaking along his weak right leg. Fists pounded against his ribs as the man attempted to throw him off.
Zach cursed in the background, a gasping sound, and Finn was distracted for just long enough that the man under him kicked him off. The stranger scrambled for the gun that had been knocked from his hands.
He lifted it, pointing directly at Finn’s midsection.
Goddamn it.
Finn slowly raised his hands in the air. “Careful.”
More curses sounded, but this time they were from the man in front of him. A familiar voice, completely unexpected.
Anger flared. “Brandon?”
His mentor’s son pushed back his hoodie and glared. “What the hell are you doing out here?”
“Talking to a piece of shit horse thief.” He turned his back on Brandon and hurried to see what was wrong with Zach. He knelt beside his friend. “You okay?”
Zach was on the ground, clutching his shoulder. “I dove the wrong direction,” he said, his voice shaky. “Fuck.”
Finn moved Zach’s torn jacket aside to see enough to infuriate him. The shot hadn’t gone through his friend, but it was a bad enough graze it probably hurt like hell.
He put Zach’s hand back over the wound and pushed down hard. “Pressure. We’ll get someone to fix you up right away.”
He pulled out his phone to call Josiah while Brandon kept shouting random bullshit in the background.
Rising to his feet, Finn snapped at Brandon, “Shut up, right now. I don’t know what the hell’s going on, but we’ll figure it out after Zach’s been fixed up. Put that damn gun on the ground and get your ass over here.”
Brandon just stood there, hand shaking, gun still pointed in Finn’s direction. “Did I shoot him? I didn’t mean to shoot him.”
He was on the edge of tears, definitely not coherent.
“You don’t pull out a gun and point it at a person unless you intend to shoot them.” Finn roared the words. “Put the damn gun downnow.”
Nothing changed. If anything, the gun wiggled even more.
“I didn’t mean it,” Brandon cried again. “It was an accident.”
Hell. Finn raised a hand, trying to calm the man, but it was no use. Brandon grew more hysterical, the shotgun waving in the air with zero finesse as he shoutedaccidentover and over.
“Of course, it was an accident. He’s fine,” Finn said loudly, trying to break through the panic.
“It’s your fault, you know.” Brandon raised his gaze to Finn, and the damn gun rose again.
In spite of the man being an absolute chickenshit, at that moment Finn was convinced he was about to be shot anyway. When a loudcrackrang out, he even flinched, waiting for pain to rip through his body.
Instead, Brandon screamed. He fell to the ground and clutched his lower leg.
All the breath whooshed out of Finn.
