Where There's a Will (28 page)

www.total-e-bound.com

WHERE THERE’S A WILL

Bailey Bradford

175

Sure enough, something had. “Yeah well, hadn’t heard from Momma since I left the ranch—until a few minutes ago. Seems like she figured out I had something to do with buying the Mossy Glenn. She’s already demanding I let her go on living there,
and
she is trying to make me give her a ridiculous salary for keeping the place up!”

As much as Carlos would have liked to think Nick’s mom hadn’t been serious about such bullshit demands, he knew she was. Antonia was just not right. “She ain’t still there is she?” Because if she was, Texas was looking more attractive by the second.

Nick snorted as he whipped off his hat and scratched his head. “Nah, she had to leave a while back. She’s been staying at a rooming house or something similar as far as I know. I keep sending her money and she sure as hell takes it, but this crazy demand of hers just isn’t going to happen.”

“Thanks,” Carlos muttered. “Nothing personal.”

“I know,” Nick said, suddenly looking closer to his age. “I’m sorry. I wish she hadn’t gone all batshit on you, Carlos. You don’t know how much I appreciate you—we appreciate you—and your guys, taking over and managing the Mossy G. It’s been a huge weight off Annabelle and Rory’s chests, too.”

Well, it wasn’t like he wouldn’t be earning every penny of the generous salary he’d been offered. The Mossy G had been driven into the ground, and even with the combined monies of his bosses, it’d take hard work, grit, brains and luck to bring the ranch up to what it used to be. And to exceed it, which was damn sure what Carlos had planned.

“It’s fine.” Carlos nodded at the stall. “You want me to finish up in here?”

“Nah, do me good to work off my temper,” Nick said, smiling just a little. “And I ought to shovel shit for a while after acting like a fit-throwing brat anyways.”

Carlos thought Antonia was awful enough to make anyone act batty, but he didn’t think it’d be prudent to point that out. Instead, he finished the rest of his chores then headed to the bunkhouse. After a shower and dinner, he called his lovers. Since everyone had to work the next day, Carlos wouldn’t be seeing Troy or Will, which sucked every bit of enjoyment out of his evening. He ended up going to bed as soon as he finished up his calls, eager to get through the next day because he was going to spend the night with Will and Troy come hell or high water.

www.total-e-bound.com

WHERE THERE’S A WILL

Bailey Bradford

176

Except Milly, one of the new mares Chance had bought, came down sick, and three more horses quickly followed suit. The best the vet could figure, the horses had got a bad batch of feed, since theirs had come from a new bag.

After an all-night vigil with everyone else on the ranch, all of them taking care of the sick animals, Carlos was beyond exhausted and they were down two horses. Carlos felt sick himself at the losses, and he barely managed to shower before he collapsed into bed.

The most God-awful screeching woke him from a dream that’d been hotter than lava flow. Carlos woke up sitting upright and already throwing off the covers. He blinked as he tried to clear away the confusion from his sleep-deprived brain. Screaming had him jerking like he’d been zapped with a cattle prod. He could hear Nick and Josh, Rory and Chance, and Annabelle—
Oh fuck, is she in labour?
Carlos dimly remembered Chance saying something about Justin and Evan coming to help out today since they’d all be worn out.

Then he heard another voice and it made his stomach burn.

What the fuck is she doing here?

www.total-e-bound.com

WHERE THERE’S A WILL

Bailey Bradford

177

Hearing Antonia’s voice knocked Carlos right out of any lingering drowsiness. He admitted he was scared of the woman to an extent, because she was mean and crazy, a combination that didn’t bode well for anyone she set her sights on. And he knew he’d heard Annabelle. The thought of Antonia striking Annabelle, of maybe doing something to hurt her or those babies… It was just unbearable.

Carlos didn’t bother with more than a pair of jeans he didn’t button, just zipped as he ran. He at least had enough sense to pick up his phone and call nine-one-one in case no one else had had the chance yet. The dispatcher probably thought he was the crazy one, since he told her there was a crazy woman threatening a pregnant woman, but he hadn’t known what else to say.

He disconnected the call just as he was halfway between the bunkhouse and the main house, and it was then he realised he might have been worrying about the wrong woman. It was petty, but it did his heart good to see Annabelle slam Antonia against the side of the house.

Oh, not hard enough to break her face or anything, but Carlos knew it had to hurt, and he couldn’t say he hadn’t wanted to do something similar to Antonia a half dozen times. Or more.
If she’d been a man…

Carlos stopped right in his tracks though, held in the same thrall the other men seemed to be in. There wasn’t a one of them moving to help Antonia, although Justin and Evan were definitely hovering around Annabelle. The rest of the guys weren’t far behind. Carlos noted the bloody scratches down Nick’s cheek, the handprint on Rory’s.

He told himself he wouldn’t give in to the anger burning in his gut. At the least, he wouldn’t hate Antonia. She had to be one miserable witch to be the way she was.

“Someone needs to teach you some manners, you ungrateful bitch,” Annabelle

snapped. Carlos figured it was probably a damn good thing Annabelle’s belly was so big, otherwise she’d be all over Antonia. As it was, all Annabelle could really do was hold her at arm’s length against the wall.

www.total-e-bound.com

WHERE THERE’S A WILL

Bailey Bradford

178

Antonia wasn’t intimidated either. Her hair was dishevelled and her makeup smeared, but she still sounded like the icy queen of the world when she spoke. “
Jodienda puta
! You and your bastard baby will burn in hell! Just like Nick and all the homosexuals!”

“Mom,” Nick started to step between Annabelle and Antonia, but Annabelle hissed at him. “What did she just call me?”

Nick shook his head and Annabelle levelled a look on him that made Carlos cringe.

“Fuckin’ bitch,” Nick said, and he shrank back as if he thought Annabelle was going to clobber him.

“Yes,” Antonia snarked, “you
jodienda puta! Pinche gringo culero ve a chingar a tu
—”

“Enough!” Nick roared, so red he almost glowed. “Mother, your mouth is worse than anyone else’s I’ve ever heard.” Nick edged between Antonia and Annabelle. “You would have scrubbed my mouth out with soap—augh!”

Carlos didn’t see exactly what happened, but he did see Antonia turn around and Nick go down. He suspected, by the retching sounds Nick made, he’d been hit in the balls. He ran for the porch, where it seemed like everyone was screaming and cursing.

Josh sounded like he was trying his best to get to Antonia and tear her arms off, but it could have been Nick he was trying to help. There were too many arms and legs and too much racket to know just who was doing what. Antonia’s high-pitched screeching about made his ears bleed, and he was seriously hoping someone would shut her up. If he had to hear any more cursing like she’d been doing, he was going to need to bleach his brain.

As if someone had flipped off the sound, there was a moment of silence, then Annabelle snarled, “Let tell you something, you crazy, hateful old cow! The only person going to hell here is you. Doubt it’ll be any different than your everyday life!”

Carlos’ heart slammed in his chest as Antonia surged forward, hand raised in a threatening manner. “
Pinche joto
—”

“Shut up!” Annabelle yelled, then let fly with a right hook that jarred her and knocked Antonia back against the wall. The older woman blinked and slid down until her butt thumped on the ground. “Jesus Christ, someone should have knocked the hell out of her sooner!”

“No shit,” someone muttered. “Are you okay, Belle?”

www.total-e-bound.com

WHERE THERE’S A WILL

Bailey Bradford

179

Annabelle took a step then made a sound that sent a bigger wave of fear through Carlos than he could remember feeling in ages. “Oh!” Carlos figured every one of them with the exception of Antonia went as pale as Annabelle did then. “Fuck! Hurts!”

Oh shit!
Carlos could hear sirens and he knew he ought to be doing something, but his brain seemed to be stuck on the sound Annabelle made, and he’d never admit it out loud, but she did it again and damned if the noise didn’t remind him of the distressed sounds mares made while giving birth.

“My water,” Annabelle squeaked out, and her squeaking out anything was shocking enough to knock Carlos out of his stupor. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and shot off a text to Will and Troy when he saw Chance on the phone yelling for an ambulance.

Josh was snapping and ordering Justin and Evan to let him by, and Carlos hurried up onto the porch to see if he could bring a little calm to the herd of panicked men.

“Justin, Evan, you know Josh can help Annabelle,” he began. The fear he saw on Annabelle’s lovers’ faces brought more compassion to the surface. Carlos kept talking to them, and to Rory and Chance, and even Nick, who was still hunched over but had some colour other than green to his cheeks now.

Annabelle handled it better than any of them, becoming so calm after her initial outburst that the men couldn’t help but be soothed. By the time the cops got there—Officer Stanton, or Les, rather, and the ambulance a few minutes later, there was excitement as well as nervousness amongst the group. Carlos knew there was fear, too, but Annabelle had succeeded in showing them all how to deal with it.

“Go on,” Carlos told Chance. “Max and Bo and I can handle the ranch for however long you need us to. Where are those two anyways?”

Chance pointed and Carlos saw a truck hauling ass down the dirt road leading to the ranch. “Sent ‘em to town earlier. Bo’s gonna be mad he missed all the excitement.”

Carlos snorted. “He’s gonna be more mad if no one calls him or Max to let them know it was going down in the first place.”

“Aw, fuck,” Chance muttered. “Yeah, okay, y’all can handle the place. I’m gonna pull Rory away from the ambulance and we’ll follow it in.”

“Chicken,” Carlos teased.

Chance nodded. “Yep, I ain’t even gonna deny it in this instance. Thanks, Carlos.” He thumped Carlos on the back and took off after Rory.

www.total-e-bound.com

WHERE THERE’S A WILL

Bailey Bradford

180

Carlos watched Les drive off with Antonia. He’d have thought the old woman would have needed an ambulance too, but nope, she’d be damned before she’d admit some
gringa
put her down.

Well, fine. In truth he knew Antonia had whatever bad shit that happened coming to her.
What goes around comes around, as the saying goes.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and he took it out and grinned when he read the messages.

Apparently he’d done some good shit in his life, he thought, brightening up in anticipation of his men arriving. To help, they’d said in their texts, and damned if Carlos didn’t think the chaos sure to follow their arrival wouldn’t be the highlight of his week.

www.total-e-bound.com

WHERE THERE’S A WILL

Bailey Bradford

181

It surprised Troy, how much he enjoyed working with Carlos and Will.
No, it isn’t
surprising. What’s surprising is, I enjoyed the actual work, too. Maybe the move to Montana will be
even better for us than I thought.
If nothing else, he’d keep in shape without having to bother with a gym.

Being a cowboy was pretty damn hard work, physically.
Probably mentally, too,
sometimes.
He couldn’t imagine the stress when mares starting foaling or whatever it was they did. Hell, he and Will were plumb freaked out over Annabelle and they didn’t really know her at all. They weren’t having to watch something the size of a watermelon come out an opening the size of…Troy snorted. Like he knew much about a pussy at all. He’d avoided those things like the plague, didn’t even watch straight porn for some of the hot men in it. He knew the basics of female anatomy and didn’t see the need for any more.

If I did, I might know how childbirth stuff works. Things stretch, it hurts, and that’s pretty
much all I know. But still.
He shrugged and shook his head, not really wanting to think in specifics about what Annabelle might be going through. It was bad enough to know she might be hurting, unless the hospital had given her some of the good drugs.
Probably they had,
right?
He bet Justin and Evan would have made sure of it.

“You’re looking a tad lost, there.”

Troy turned and found Carlos standing by the tack room. Troy set down the pitchfork he’d been using. How long had he been staring off into space instead of mucking out the stall? “Heard anything yet?” Troy looked around and didn’t see Will anywhere. Odd, he’d not been far from either Carlos or Troy today.

“Nope, but I don’t expect to until after she has the babies and all the excitement dies down.” Carlos winked at him. “Might be days.”

Troy was fairly sure Carlos was teasing. And where the hell was Will? Troy opened his mouth up to ask then heard an odd, whimpering type sound from the tack room.

Troy’s body reacted instinctively to the sound before his brain even processed what it meant. Heat coiled in his belly and spread up to his chest and down to his thighs. His cock www.total-e-bound.com

WHERE THERE’S A WILL

Bailey Bradford

182

began to fill and his balls felt as if they’d swollen as need pulsed through him. “Where’s Will?” he rasped out, past his suddenly dry throat. Carlos’ wicked smile only ramped up the chaos in Troy’s body.