Cowboy Take Me Away

Chapter 12

It didn't take much to convince Ryan to come back to the cabin to take a shower with me. We were in there until the water got cold...

"There's no chance you can stay, is there?" I asked, handing him a towel.

"Not tonight," he replied, drying his hair off. "I swear, one of these times, I will figure out a way to be able to spend the night with you."

"I'll hold you to that." I said, putting my shirt on. Once he was dressed again, I pulled him in for one more kiss before he left.

As Ryan was headed out the door, he nearly collided with Kayce. "Shit," Ryan mumbled.

Kayce just shook his head and stepped aside so Ryan could go. Once Ryan was gone, Kayce came inside, shut the door, and busted up laughing. "You should have seen the look on his face!"

"I imagine it looked something like it did when Rip caught us," I replied.

He laughed for another minute or so. "God, I needed that." He took off his boots and hat.

I yawned, and motioned for him to follow me back to my room. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but I figured you and Monica would be taking full advantage of the child-free privacy." I sat down, leaning back against the headboard. I let the dogs up on the bed after I was comfortable. "What brings you to my neck of the woods?"

Kayce was about to sit down, "Did you guys...?"

"In the shower. So unless you're planning on sleeping in my tub, you can sit down." I teased.

He sat down on the other end of the bed, moving one of the border collies out of his way. "Monica said she wanted to use the time here to forget about stuff at home, and the next thing I know, she wants to talk about giving Tate this life." He shifted back to a more serious tone.

"So you got up and came over here?" I asked, just to clarify.

"I left this place for a reason. I had to get out from under his shadow. He wanted Monica to get an abortion, and now he wants to play grandfather," Kayce vented.

I stayed silent. I'll never forget that night... The night that our father branded Kayce, it took two ranch hands to keep me down.

"This is how you prove you can be trusted," our father said, pointing the brand at Kayce.

"What the fuck?" Kayce and I replied in unison.

I stumbled upon the scene on accident. Clearly, I wasn't meant to see this. Dad tried to get me to leave, but I wouldn't budge. When I wouldn't leave, he went ahead with it anyway.

"You're insane," I shook my head. "What would Mom think?" I asked. "I have a hard time believing she'd let you do this."

He pointed the hot brand in my face, "Keep talking and you'll be next."

"I'm not the one who will have to live with the consequences of that," I replied.

"Hold him down," my father said, nodding to Rip and Lloyd. "Make sure she doesn't interfere." He nodded in my direction.

In a split second, I watched Rip and Lloyd fight and wrestle Kayce to the ground, as I tried to fight off, and get around the other two ranch hands. I scratched and clawed at them to try to get to Kayce, but it was no use. My father already had the brand on Kayce's chest as Rip and Lloyd held him down. The noises coming from Kayce still haunt my nightmares to this day.

When he was done, they let Kayce up, but the other hands still had me restrained. One of them forced me to my knees in front of my father.

"You touch her, and I will kill you," Kayce said, stepping in front of me.