A Gambling Man // Ryan x OC

37

"Yeah, I agree."

"Use Jamie for the warrants, we'll learn real quick where he stands," Kayce looked down, he still loved Jamie as a brother and he despised this, "You're a good man, Kayce. Sometimes good men have to do real bad things. Doesn't change who you are."

"I just want to be really clear about what you are asking."

"I ain't asking anything. I'm telling you, I'm going to kill them. I'm going to kill every goddamn one of them."

There were a couple of moments of silence again before Kayce turned to look at his father, "Do you think that she'll be okay? It was bad before but now?"

John knew he was talking about Mae. He hated that he wasn't able to protect her. He hated that she got hurt and abused more times than any of them could count. He hated that he failed her.

"I don't know. I hope so, with everything in me I do but I just don't know."

Neither of them could imagine how anyone could just jump back after what she went through, how she could just be okay. They didn't expect her to be.

xxx

Mae locked herself in her room, again. It's become a sort of coping mechanism. It's her way of processing everything herself before facing everyone else and usually, everyone on the ranch respected that. They knocked, spoke to her and when she didn't answer, they left. She was expecting that, she was hoping for that but the ranch had a visitor that definitely did not approve and he was going to make that clear.

"If you don't open this door and let me in right now, I'm going to break it off of its hinges Little Bit!"

Mae sat up in bed confused, he couldn't be here, right? No one said anything, she must be delusional.

"I'm counting down from three and then this door's coming down! Three!"

Mae scrambled to get out of the bed but her foot got caught in her blanket and she hit the floor with a curse.

"Two!"

She quickly got up and pulled the door open right as he was raising his foot to kick it open.

"There, now was that so hard?" Travis huffed as he pushed past her and walked into the room.

Mae didn't know what to do, nobody had ever done this to her before. They let her take as long as she needs. They wait for her, they don't just barge into her safe space.

Travis watched as Mae's mind tried to process what was happening, "You look like shit, you know that right?"

Mae's eyes snapped up to meet his, offense clearly taken, "Hey!"

"I'm sorry have you looked at yourself? Your hair has more knots than a wild mare's, you have bags under your eyes. You're so pale I'm afraid to take you into the sun, in case you explode. I'm also sure you're wearing a shirt and boxers that Ryan would never want back. Burn them, please. I can see the tears and snot stains from here and you have a tissue stuck to your back," Travis listed as he watched Mae fold her arms over herself.

"You're a dick. Why do I like you?"

"You don't like me, you love me."

"Says who?"

"You, Little Bit."

Mae huffed, she really didn't have the energy for this, "What do you want?"

Travis could see that she didn't have it in her anymore to engage in their back-and-forth, "I wanted to see you, my favourite unofficially adopted little sister. I want to make sure that you're okay. I want to make sure that, that fucker was dead. Most of all I want to be here for you, to help you."