Page 8 of Burned & Bound
“You haven’t in seventeen years, so why the hell would you start now?” he snarled.Low fucking blow.Maybe I deserved it.
“Whatever,” I muttered. Fighting him would get me nowhere, and all I wanted to do was find a bar to drown in. Ignoring anything else he said, I climbed into my truck and turned it on. The engine was too old and a little too broken to run quietly. It made for a great escape tool. Out the open window, I pointed to my ear and shouted, “Sorry,boss, can’t hear a fucking word you’re saying.”
From the way those blue eyes blazed with anger, Jackson heard every word. Good. I just needed him to stay pissed off and at a distance for one year. I wanted my money, and I wanted to get the fuck out of Oregon. I didn’t need Jackson Myles opening old wounds he had no business poking around in.
CHAPTER 04
jackson
Islammed the doorto my truck, taking my anger out on it. Cussing out Harrison and West McNamara while I drove only did me so much good. What I really wanted was eight seconds on the back of a beast trying to take his rage out on me to center myself, but that shit wasn’t happening. It left me wound up and ready to fucking snap.
My foreman, Mickey Hughes, sat on my porch when I rolled up. Mickey began working for my family when he was eighteen years old. That was over forty years ago—not that anyone ever brought up his age to him. Old and weathered, his gray hair was thinning, his skin was wrinkled, and those brown eyes were tired, but he didn’t stop. I wasn’t sure he knew the meaning of slow down.And I wasn’t about to tell him to either.I may have been the ranch owner, but everyone around here knew Mickey was in charge.
He was also the only employee allowed at my house. No one else dared to cross the creek for a visit unless the world was ending.It hadn’t so far.
“Your truck broke, boy?” Mickey asked as I stopped on the step.
“You know it ain’t broke,” I snapped.
“I’m guessin’ the sale didn’t go real well.” He took off his hat, dropping it on his knee.
“It didn’t go at all. Did you know Harrison changed his fucking will?”
“Boy, I don’t take a shit without tellin’ you what I’m doin’,” he reminded me, his tone hardening. Unfortunately, that was true. The man told me everything he did on any given day without sparing me any fucking details. I sure as fuck wished he would though. “So, don’t you go actin’ like I kept somethin’ from you.”
“I know.” I sighed and dropped into the rocking chair next to him. Sighing, I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Harrison changed his fucking will so it prohibits an immediate sale. Instead, the McNamara’s half of the ranch has been put in a trust for the next year. West has to be my goddamn employee for one year in order to inherit and sell.”
“That sick son of a bitch,” Mickey grumbled. “He sure did know how to fuckin’ stick it to you in the end, didn’t he?”
“Yup,” I muttered. That was the understatement of the century. It was no lie Harrison McNamara and I didn’t see eye to eye. It’d been rough before my dad died, but these last five years? Fuck, they’d been a nightmare. I had no clue why the man fucking hated me, but every turn of business was a goddamn fight with him. And that was before his gambling problem toppled the ranch’s finances.
I wasn’t thrilled when anyone died, but I sure as fuck didn’t feel bad when the old man keeled over from a heart attack either.
“So, what now?”
“Now, I just need to wait him out and sell in a fucking year.”
“At the rate things are goin’, you ain’t goin’ to have the money to settle up that deal.” Mickey reminded me—not that I needed it. I didn’t offer forty-seven to West because I wanted to cut him out of the business—I did, but that wasn’t the reason behind the number. The truth was the ranch was drowning. I couldn’t do it all. Between bull riding, sponsorship duties, and the ranch, I was stretched thin to my limit.
In the last year, we had not one but two viruses sweep the herd. It killed nearly half my cows, including most of the young. The recovery was brutal and almost didn’t happen. As was, buying new stock was out of the question.
It also cost me half my men.Not that I blamed them.They had families to feed and take care of. But that left Mickey and I working our asses off to make up for it.
My plan had been to sell off the land once West was out of the question. That money could’ve been funneled back into the herd to pick the ranch off its ass. I had four months to figure this shit out. I didn’t want to spend it chasing around West McNamara just to protect what was mine.
“How’s he lookin’?” he asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Like shit,” I answered all too quickly. Mickey’s head tipped back in the chair as he busted out laughing—a full, body-shaking kind of laugh that I rarely saw from him.And at my own goddamn expense.I scowled.
“Boy, you forget I’ve known you since you were born,” he replied. I wanted to wipe that stupid grin off his face. “You may fool most of them, but you ain’t foolin’ me. And quit your grumpin’. I taught you that shit.”
“Fuck you,” I muttered. Mickey had been the first person I came out to, though he hadn’t been surprised in the least.Really no one was.But he was the one person around the ranch who treated my sexuality like any other part of me—interesting only when it entertained him. Changing the subject, I said, “Look, I want you to run a full background check on West. I don’t want any fucking surprises where he’s concerned. We can’t afford surprises.”
“Speaking of surprises,” Mickey began slowly.
“Fuck. Cows or horses?”Because my luck would have my mom’s horses getting sick now too.
“Lost two in herd three on the west side last night.”