The cab was filled with an uneasy silence as he pulled out onto the highway heading into town. Which, Travis sighed, he supposed was better than them beating the shit out of each other, but not by much. Though his jaw would probably disagree. The twinge of pain from gritting his teeth had him glancing at the guy sitting next him who was ultimately responsible for his current state of discomfort. Fuck, he was a good looking bastard even with the swollen lip he had managed to give him before Bo had broken them apart. Returning his gaze to the windshield, he had to fight the urge to throw him out of the truck while doing 60.
Gripping the steering wheel, Travis focused on the road in front of him. Normally, he wasn't a jealous kind of guy and if anyone he was with happened to be...then he was out of there. But fuck, there wasn't anything normal about this situation. For one thing, he loved her...deeply, so walking away wasn't even on the table. He should be one happy son of a bitch and he was...except the woman he found himself head over heels in love with lived with six possessive, good-looking assholes who seemed to know more about the situation around here than he did. But were being stubbornly tightlipped.
He glanced up at Harley's Ford following close behind and he could almost feel Bo's disapproving eyes boring into his back. It was enough to make even the most self-confident man stumble a little and lose his cool from time to time. Sighing, he refocused on the road. Thank fuck she had been a virgin or he'd be a real hot mess right now.
"How long have you known Harley?" Cade asked casually, breaking the silence.
"Long enough," Travis muttered, not really wanting to go there with him.
Cade laughed. "No need to be defensive, Princess. I was just trying to make conversation." Green eyes measured him up from across the cab.
"How long have you know her?" he found himself asking. What the hell, one good turn deserved another.
"Since the World Championship in Vegas." Cade looked out the window. "My brother and I were riding pickup duty."
"The night she fell."
Cade turned towards him. "She told you about that?"
Travis shrugged his shoulders. "I saw the video."
"It was a hell of scary night." Cade blew out a breath. "We all thought she was dead. When I reached her," he shook his head as if he could dispel the memory, "I just knew she was. But then...she reached out a hand and grabbed mine." He picked up his right hand and held it in front of him for a moment, flexing his fingers. "She's been holding it ever since."
"You love her," Travis stated, bristling at the words even though he was the one who spoke them.
"Yup." Cade smiled widely. "She's hard not to love."
Snorting, Travis pulled his hat lower. The urge to punch the shit out of the guy raging through his system as jealousy reached out and bitch slapped him.
"Calm down, Montgomery. I'm just jerking your chain." Cade chuckled. "I don't love her like that. She's like my little sister."
Relaxing a bit, Travis silently breathed out a sigh of relief.
Cade leaned over. "We all love her, but only one of us has actually dated her."
Well...shit!
Travis's hands tightened on the steering wheel and he was about to start interrogating the smug asshole when he spotted a black dot up ahead walking alongside the road. His attention swiftly switched gears as his heart fell to his back pockets when he realized it was Harley...without her bike.
"Dammit! She went down," Cade choked out in disbelief, turning his paled face to Travis. The smirk he had been wearing long gone.
"Fuck," Travis growled, pulling to the side of the road. Slamming on the brakes a few feet in front of her shocked face, he bailed out of the truck and ran towards her. The Ford behind him squealing to a tire smoking stop behind him.
"Travis? Cade?" Her mouth dropped open in surprise.
"Jesus, sunshine! Are you okay?" Travis couldn't stop the shaking in his hands as he reached out for her, pulling her gently into his arms. She looked like hell and he was almost afraid to touch her.
"Harley, what the fuck happened?" Cade came barreling up, giving Travis a shove as he yanked her out of his grasp. Obviously, he had no fear to touch her as his hands started inspecting her ripped and torn leather jacket.
"I..."
"Get out of the way." Bo broke into the group, elbowing Travis and Cade to the side. "Baby girl, are you alright? Are you hurt? Do I need to call an ambulance?"
"Does this damn town even have an ambulance?" Cade scoffed.
"Of course we have an ambulance," Travis snapped. "I'll take her to the hospital." He made a grab for Harley's elbow, but Cade stepped in and blocked it.
"Who are you to decide what is best for her?" Bo demanded, keeping a wiggling Harley plastered to his side.
"I'm her boyfriend."
"I..."
"Ay dios mio!" Diego came striding up, jerking Harley out of Bo's clutches and wrapping his arms around her. "What happened my Princess?" he asked while putting his hands on Harley, easing them down over body. Invading her personal space as he looked at her injuries.
"I..."
Travis snarled as each cowboy seized and manhandled his woman like they had a right. Somewhere in the back of his head, warning bells were clanging that he should back off and let her family have their moment...but...well fuck that! Logic could take a flying leap. He was her man. If anyone was going to take care of her, it was damn sure going to be him.
Moving quickly, he strode over and reached for Diego, neatly picking him up by the throat and slamming him against the hood of his truck.
"Travis!"
He heard Harley's outraged shout, but frankly, he didn't give a shit. A man could only take so much and right now, there was only him and her so called family. This was as good of time as any to clear up a few issues before they proceeded forward. As for Harley, she would just have to deal with it. She made her choice the night she wrapped her body around his and offered herself up to him. She fucking belonged to him and it was time the rest of these cowboys got the memo.
"Hey, amigo. Let's talk about this, si?" Diego gasped out, trying to pry Travis's grip from around his neck.
"Keep your fucking hands to yourself and we won't be needing to have any more discussions. Comprendo?" Travis warned gruffly, pushing the Latino's head into the hood.
"What the hell, Montgomery!" Bo marched up to them, pulling both cowboys apart.
"Fuckers got a death wish," Cade mumbled under his breath.
Travis turned to him. "Yeah and your next if you so much as lay one more hand on her."
"I already told you man, she's like my sister."
"Do you touch your sister that way?" Travis took a step towards him. He wasn't letting any of them off with that excuse. It was time they learned to take a step back and understand that Harley was his responsibility now.
"He doesn't have a sister," Diego said as he rubbed his neck.
"Not helping, dickhead," Cade said, rolling his eyes at him.
Bo walked up to him and stood chest to chest. "You listen up, buttercup. She was ours long before she was yours. Now why don't you get in your truck, go home and cool down before you stick your head any further up your ass." Sarcasm dripped from his voice.
"I'm not leaving," Travis growled back at him. "She needs me."
"Maybe you didn't hear me right." Bo bumped him hard causing Travis to have to take a step back. "I'm telling you we don't need you. She's got her family now and we will see to it that she gets what she needs. Not you."
"And I'm telling you, jackass that I am not leaving."
The cowboys stood in a circle arguing over who had the right to do what, each not giving an inch when the sound of a truck pulling up laying on its horn nabbed their attention. All four of them turned to see Harley behind the wheel of her Ford with one pissed off look on her face.
"When you all get done with your pissing contest," she hissed, "my bike is wedged under the guardrail up the road about two miles. I'm going home." With that, she rolled up the windows and hit the gas, sending a cloud of dust and loose gravel at all four of them.
"Son of a bitch," Bo muttered, breaking the shocked silence. Looking down, he booted a rock across the road.
"See what you did, Princess?" Cade scoffed, leaning against Travis's pickup with a scowl.
"Me?" Travis whirled around.
"Si, you."
Cade pushed himself off the fender. "Yes you, with your Billy Badass routine. What the hell man?"
"Listen asshole, if you would learn to keep your hands to yourself..."
"Everybody just shut the fuck up!" Bo crossed his arms over his chest and glared at everyone. "All of us have been acting like dicks. We don't need to sit out here and start measuring who is the biggest one."
"Pfft...like that would be a contest," Cade muttered, hitching up his pants.
"Cade," Bo warned.
"He's right," Travis said. Turning his head, he looked down the road in the direction Harley had gone. That's twice now she'd taken off to escape their stupidity. He'd be damned if he was going to be the cause of a third. Facing the group, he squared his shoulders. "We need to figure out a way to get along."
"How about you stop trying to start a fight with the boys every time I turn around," Bo ground out. "That would be a great fucking place to start."
Travis grimaced slightly. "Yeah, my bad on that one," he mumbled. Rubbing a hand behind his head, he looked at Diego, letting it drift to his side. "Sorry about that man. I don't know what's wrong with me."
Diego gave him a good-natured punch in the arm. "You're in love, pendejo."
"Makes you do all kinds of stupid shit," Cade added with a sly grin. "But damn, Princess...you're the reason why they have to put directions on a shampoo bottle."
"You should know a little something about that, amigo...beings you wrote the book on doing stupid shit."
"You all are stupid," Bo said, rolling his eyes. "Now that we have the warm and fuzzy bullshit out of the way, let's go get her damn bike and get home." He opened the door to the dually and jumped in, slamming the door.
"He didn't even call shotgun," Cade grumbled as he headed for the passenger side.
Shaking his head, Travis briefly looked up at the blue sky and wondered once again how his life had taken such a turn. What was it they said? You can choose your love but you couldn't choose the relatives? They weren't fucking kidding. Climbing behind the wheel of his truck he longed for a simpler time. Like this morning...when he was in bed...with a gloriously naked Harley lying next to him.
A short time later, Travis pulled his truck to the side once more. Jesus. What a mess. Bits and pieces of her bike lay scattered across the highway with long black skid marks marring the road. She was lucky to be alive by the looks of it.
"Fuck me," Cade said, poking his head up into the front.
That pretty much summed it up, Travis thought exiting the pickup. Here they'd been acting like a bunch of world class assholes when she had needed them most. Needed him...and he had failed her...miserably. Scrubbing a palm over his face, he took in the wreck sight. If stupidity had a face, it would be his.
He and Bo walked over to where the bike laid jammed under the guardrail. Bo picked up her helmet, running his fingertips over the deep gouges on one side. His head bowed and he cursed under his breath.
"We're assholes," he muttered, tossing the helmet next to the bike.
"I'm not going to argue with you on that one," Travis said, as a wave of guilt washed over him, ridding him of the last bits of jealousy which had been clinging on for dear life. Not only did he wholeheartedly agree with the man, but he had just been thinking the same thing.
"Hey, Bo, Travis...come here and look at this." Cade waved them over to the middle of the road where the skid tracks started. "There's two sets of marks here." He pointed to the impressions. "This one goes off that way where Harley's bike is, but this set," he kneeled down and ran his hand over the second set of tracks, "takes off on down the road."
"Are you saying someone ran her off the road?" Diego asked, his face drawn in a furious scowl.
Cade stood up, brushing off his hands and the knees of his jeans. "That's exactly what I'm saying."
"Who the fuck would do that?"
Bo and Travis exchanged a brief look. Somehow, Travis knew they were both thinking the same thing.
"Let's get this bike loaded and head back," Travis muttered, jumping to his feet like his ass had suddenly caught fire. He needed to get to Harley, beg forgiveness and find out what the hell happened.
Thankfully, nobody argued with him and within a few minutes of struggling, they got the tore up bike into the back of the pickup. All four stayed blissfully quiet as he headed back to the Gypsy Rose.
Author's Note:
Hello darlings!
I hope you enjoyed this latest installment and if you like it, you will consider giving it a vote. I also love hearing from you and comments are always appreciated. If you don't see any updates here...don't forget to check out my other stories Bending Steele, FANGED and Steal You Away.
Sincerely,
K