Claimed By Her Cowboys

When he finished, she stepped back. Her lips were slightly reddened as she looked dazed.

“Wow,” she said.

He chuckled. “Go ahead.”

“Wait a damn minute,” Archie said. “I want a kiss too.”

Annalise giggled and went over to him, cupping his face, and kissing him. Archie grabbed her around the waist, dragging her down to the sofa and nuzzling her neck.

“Now, I can let you go,” Archie said.

Annalise rolled her eyes, and went to Vinny, who stood, stroked her face, and grazed his lips across hers. “I loved today,” he whispered.

Gabe couldn’t help the twinge of guilt he felt for being such a damn ogre about this. All of them would have reacted to what happened. He couldn’t blame Vinny, but clearly, his friend didn’t know what was at stake and he needed to let him know.

Sometimes being the oldest sucked.

Annalise left the room, and Vinny turned toward him. “Okay, let me have it. Whatever you’ve got to say to get shit off your chest, do it!”

“Do you have any idea what you were fucking thinking?” Gabe asked.

“Yeah, they were hassling our woman, so I took care of it. What is the big fucking deal?” Vinny asked.

“The big deal? You don’t get it, do you? So I’ll spell it out to you. Those men, especially. They work for her fucking stepfather. In case you forgot, he’s decided to make things fucking difficult for us.” He got the call that very morning, after Vinny had left.

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve got a few inspectors coming to the ranch, Vinny. That guy you were pummeling also has it in his thick head to press charges on you. So far, the sheriff was able to hold him down. As he said, Annalise had given a statement of harassment, and his inappropriate language, so he talked him down, but this is just the start.”

Vinny stopped and looked toward the doorway to where Annalise had left. “That fucker said we’d be sorry. He can’t do this, Gabe.”

“Well, we’ve still got an inspection to deal with.” Gabe glanced up and down at Vinny. “I told you to be careful. Let’s just hope the guy we get isn’t in his fucking pocket.”

He needed to get some fresh air.

Stepping out of the ranch, he breathed in the warm night air. There were times he hated the heat. The sweat constantly clinging to his back a constant reminder to him of how much work he still needed to get done.

The phone call had pissed him off. Annalise had told them all about the stepfather’s inappropriate touching. Now this. It all made complete sense to Gabe. He wouldn’t justify the bastard with a name, so he thought of him as stepfucker.

Her stepfucker had been working behind the scenes, manipulating everyone and everything around Annalise, and he finally knew why. He wanted her. This wasn’t because she was another man’s kid.

Stepfucker wanted Annalise as his own.

It was why he, Vinny, and Archie were a problem.

He couldn’t bribe them with money, or anything else, but the ranch. It was their baby, their dream. They’d worked their tears, blood, and sweat into this place, to turn it into a place that finally profited them.

They weren’t rolling in dough, but they made enough to get by at the moment. Anything could create a bad turn.

This was so fucked up.

He wasn’t going to give up Annalise though. Not for anything. If her stepfucker wanted to play this game, he’d step in the ring. He was used to being without, dealing with assholes willing to take everything from him. He had to wonder just how far stepfucker was going to take this. To Gabe, this life, it was beneath his flesh, written in his core. He knew hardship, pain, loneliness, and downright fucking poverty. He wondered if her stepfather was willing to take that on because Gabe was in this to win it.

****

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Vinny asked. “A simple phone call would have helped.”

Archie sighed. He really didn’t want to be dealing with this nightmare. “Seriously? You want to blame us for not getting your ass in the know sooner? Give me a break.”

“I didn’t know.”

“And?” Archie asked.

“If you’d given me the call, I’d have grabbed Annalise and gotten the hell out of there. You know this.”

Archie snorted. “What I know is any man who hurts our woman, puts his hands on her, and scares her at all, is going to deal with me. I ain’t got a problem with you doing what you did, and let’s be honest, Mr. Cool Face out there doesn’t have a problem with it. Any other day, we’d all be shaking each other’s hands, grabbing an ice-cold beer, and laughing it all off. We don’t have that luxury.”

“The stepdad did all of this. Why?”

“I’m guessing he’s got a hard-on for Annalise. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”