“You shouldn’t have let her get away with leavin’ you there.”
“Trust me, she’ll answer to me, but she’ll do it to my face.”
His eyes rake over me. “That’s why you want out of here, you want to go and finish up those parts of your life.”
“You have no idea,” I exhale. “I want, more than anything, to put all of this behind me but the only way I can do that is to confront her. We were friends, the closest kind, at least that’s what I thought. She betrayed me. I want to know why.”
“So you never heard from her again?”
I shake my head.
“That’s fuckin’ low.”
He’s not wrong.
“Anyway, enough about me, what about you, River? Tell me your life story.”
He glares at me, and I throw him a grin.
“You’re fuckin’ lucky you’re so god damned gorgeous.”
That compliment hits me right in the feels, and I can’t help but smile, a genuine smile.
“I have that way with men, you know.” I wink at him. “Now go on, how’d you get here?”
He shrugs. “Known Rhett a really long fuckin’ time, always helped him, we’ve always been brothers, not by blood but that don’t mean we’re not all willing to die for each other. He has always had this ranch, and when he had the idea to do somethin’ different with it, we all agreed to help him. We’ve always worked here, always lived here, and now we’re helpin’ him with his dream.”
“What about your dreams?” I ask.
He grunts. “I live on a ranch, runnin’ retreats where most of the customers are beautiful women, I get to ride horses and live on the land. I’m fuckin’ livin’ the dream.”
“Oh, so you’ve had a few of the beautiful women then?”
He smirks. “One, I try to keep it away from the customers.”
I laugh. “Duly noted.”
He grins. “Come on, you should get to bed. It’s got to be early hours of the morning by now and tomorrow we’ve got a big day. You don’t want to miss all the fun activities we have planned.”
I stare at him, my expression grim. “You know I’m not excited about any of that.”
He grunts. “You’ll like it if you give it a chance.”
“I know that, but the problem is I don’t want to give it a chance. I respect what you’re doing here, but I just want to go into town, into that bar, and drink myself silly, and I will do that, by the way. You caught me once ...”
He gives me a look that tells me he’ll be having none of my nonsense. “You don’t want to cross me, little girl, I caught you once, and I will catch you again.”
I smirk. “Challenge accepted. Let’s get to bed, you’ve given me something to look forward to.”
“Mother of mercy,” he mutters.
I grin.
Maybe I’ll like it here after all.
3
“Smoke?” Fallon, my other roommate, offers as we sit on the patio the next morning breathing in the fresh ranch air.
I feel like I haven’t slept at all, and yet I was restless and up long before I should have been, considering I didn’t actually get to bed until 1:30am. It’s now 9:30am and I’m not ready for the day, but I am ready for the cigarette Fallon is offering me. I reach out and take it, bringing it to my lips and inhaling. I better insure I don’t make a habit out of this, I don’t want to take up smoking and yet ...
I hand the cigarette back.
Fallon doesn’t say a lot, she mostly keeps to herself. She has this sadness in her eyes that makes you feel really bad for her, because she seems like the world really has taken her by the balls and swung her around. She’s gorgeous, a full curvy figure, green eyes, and long brown hair. She looks like a full-figured supermodel, and I’m down for it. She’s spectacular and clearly confident in her appearance because she’s rocking the cut offs, tank, and Converse.
If I am to get along with anyone here, it would be Fallon.
“How did you sleep?” I ask her.
“Better than a prison bed, and a lot quieter, so I can’t complain. It still feels like we’re trapped though, doesn’t it? I know Waylen and Aaron were close by all night, they’re staying the cabin right between us and did you see the sensors on the door? I have no doubt they go off during certain hours if we try to escape.”
I blink and then turn and peer at the main door.
Sure enough, up in the top left hand corner, is a little flashing red light.
They can’t be serious.
They’re still treating us like criminals.
Anger bubbles in my chest, and I swing my hand out in a silent demand for the cigarette. Fallon hands it over.
“Didn’t notice, huh?” Fallon gives a small, empty smirk. “That’s because when you did a runner last night, they hadn’t set them up. They were here this morning putting them in. We might be finished with our sentence, but they’re not going to fully let us go yet. It’s like that final hold.”