Authors: Claire Adams
“How
is it? Should I just come up there?” Garrett yelled as he stood at the bottom
of the ladder.
“Did
you do this?” I asked but then realized it had to be much older than when
Garrett arrived. “We haven’t had square bales around here for at least ten
years. I bet one of the old ranch hands made this place up and hid out here all
day to avoid working,” I said almost under my breath.
“Sounds
like a smart man,” Garrett said as he climbed up the ladder and joined me in
admiring the makeshift bed. “Maybe I’ll use it as my secret napping area from
now on.”
I
knew Garrett was joking because he worked harder than I did. Garrett took pride
in the work he did on the farm, as if he was part owner in the property or
something. Neither my father or I ever had to tell Garrett to get things done,
he naturally just worked. He always worked until late into the evening and
seemed to be willing to work even longer than that if we needed him.
“Or
maybe we can use it as our secret love nest,” I teased.
When
I turned around Garrett was already taking off his shirt and looking at me with
that familiar look that told me he was ready to take me. I loved that look in
his eyes and I wasn’t opposed to having some fun in the hidden love nest we had
found.
“Come
here,” he beckoned me.
“Oh
yes, sir,” I laughed as he pulled me close to him.
It
was exciting to be in the barn during a thunderstorm. Garrett worked slowly and
pulled off each piece of my clothing. He lingered on my raincoat buttons and
licked his lips as he dropped the coat to the ground. Then he did the same
thing as he worked to unbutton each of the buttons on my shirt. Before I knew
it, we were both standing there naked with our skin pressed against each other
and the cool breeze of the storm exciting us both.
I
wrapped my arms around his neck and he lifted me up and gently set me back onto
the makeshift bed. His eyes were locked with mine and I felt the love he had
for me. Of course, I wouldn’t say the word love in front of Garrett, but I felt
it and that was good enough for me. Nothing about our future together mattered
to me in that moment, I was happy to have him there and delighted to be the
woman who he was about to make love to.
Slowly
he kissed down my body and my nipples hardened with the anticipation. There was
a light breeze seeping through the rafters and it sent goose bumps throughout
my body as well. The lights were still on down in the main barn, but it was
just a glow of light up where we were. There was just enough light that I could
see his face and watched him enjoying the taste of my body.
My
heart was so full with Garrett there. He was a kind, hardworking man who
treated me the way I had always wanted a man to treat me. It was like a
fairytale, yet I knew it wouldn’t last forever. Never in all of my adult life
had I thought I would be all right making love to a man that I knew I wouldn’t
have a long-term relationship with. It just hadn’t been my thing, but there I
was; enjoying every moment of my time with Garrett.
The
thing that really surprised me was just how much I liked myself when I was with
Garrett. I was nicer, happier, and enjoyed life so much more since I had met
him. I could only hope I would be able to maintain this new view on life after
Garrett decided it was time to move on. And secretly, I did have a tiny bit of
hope that he would decide he liked it at the ranch and wanted to stick around.
I knew it was wishful thinking and I didn’t care if it seemed illogical, I
still held out hope.
If
he did have to leave I hoped we would keep in touch. I hoped we would go on a
real date to a movie someday. Perhaps even continue our romance long after he
decided to leave the ranch, but I honestly was all right if we never got to
move our relationship forward in that way. I was learning more about myself and
my heart while I was with Garrett than I had learned in all my years as an
adult. I knew that I deserved a man like him in my life, which was a huge
lesson that had taken me many years to understand.
As
Garrett’s lips moved up and down my body, I felt so relaxed. I felt his warmth
as his lips touched my warmth and then quickly continued up my body. He thrust
into me and I moaned out louder than I had expected. I surprised myself and
instantly bit my bottom lip in an effort to prevent myself from making too much
noise.
“Louder,”
he beckoned me with a mischievous grin.
“I
don’t want anyone to hear us,” I said.
“There’s
a storm outside. If there was ever a time for some hot and noisy sex, it’s
tonight.”
He
was right, it was pouring down rain outside and we were in the loft of the
barn. There was no way anyone would hear us up there. I got excited at the
notion that I could scream out if I wanted to. There was something so naughty
about the idea of being really noisy and not caring at all about it.
“Oh,
you like it when I’m noisy?” I asked him.
“I
fucking love it.”
“Game
on,” I joked.
Garrett
thrust hard into me and I delivered a loud scream that would have rivaled any
porn star. It was a fake scream, just to tease him though. But instead of
teasing him, my scream drew a powerful thrust from him. He really did like
hearing my moans and thrust after thrust he delivered to me in an effort to
make me scream louder and louder.
I
liked pleasing him. In all of our time together, I liked that we could tell
each other what we wanted to try and there was no judgment. We were having fun
with each other and on that night it was no different. Soon my moans weren’t
fake at all. I was enjoying our rough sex and getting more turned on by the
moment.
“Harder,”
I moaned out as my fingers dug deep into his back.
His
thrusts were pleasuring my body in a new way and it had me shaking with desire
even before I had released in orgasm. I loved it. I held onto him as our
thrusts shook the barn. It was a good thing there was a storm outside, or
everyone on the ranch would have known just how much pleasure Garrett was
giving to me.
“Yes,”
he groaned deeply.
His
eyes were closed and there were beads of sweat forming on his brow. He was
enjoying himself just as much as I was. So I closed my eyes and continued our
little game of thrusting and screaming. It felt primal to thrust my hips
against him and feel him deep inside of me.
I
had had some rough sex with a boyfriend in my past, but it had just been an
act. I wasn’t into it and he wasn’t good at it. But with Garrett, I felt a
desire to have more and more from him. I loved watching his body as he put
every effort into his thrusts. I wanted to see how much more he could give. How
much harder he could thrust. I loved that we were experimenting and having fun
with our night. It was certainly an evening I wouldn’t soon forget.
Over
and over again he pressed into me and I moaned out. The storm outside was still
causing plenty of noise so I stopped worrying about anyone hearing us. We were
going to screw ourselves right into passing out from exhaustion and I treasured
it.
“More,”
I breathed as our bodies started to sweat and stick together. “I want more.”
Garrett
opened his eyes for a moment to look into mine and then he leaned down to kiss
me. His lips stayed on mine just for a moment and then he took a deep breath
before delivering his final symphony of thrusts that finished both me and him
off for the night. I felt the sweat dripping from his chest as my hands ran up
and down him and encouraged his movements. I wanted him to know I was enjoying
every last moment of our night together.
As
Garrett collapsed next to me, my legs shook from the exertion. It was a good
thing we had already decided to sleep in the barn, because there was no way I
was going to make it down the ladder, my whole body was exhausted. I really
didn’t know if I’d be able to make it down the ladder by morning, I hadn’t had
that good of a workout in months.
“Now
that was fun,” Garrett said as his sweat soaked body heaved up and down.
He
took in some deep breaths as he tried to calm himself and I couldn’t help but
lean my sweaty body up next to his. It was at that moment that I felt totally
at peace. I didn’t feel judged by Garrett. I didn’t feel like he wanted
anything more from me than I wanted to give him. There was no agenda between
us, no worrying about who wanted something from the other person. We didn’t
have friends or social circles that we had to worry about. There was nothing
else to our relationship than just the two of us and it was a wonderful partnership
so far.
“What
time is it?” I asked as I looked at his watch.
“Two
o’clock.”
I
laughed at his watch and examined it a little bit. That watch was such a
running joke between all the ranch hands that I couldn’t help but think about
the new guy my father had finally hired.
“Didn’t
my father finally hire a new guy this week?”
“Yes,
some young kid who had been hitchhiking I think. It’s good to have some fresh
blood. I think the guys were getting tired of shoveling horse crap.”
“Yeah,
I couldn’t believe he went so long without hiring someone. We were getting
pretty damn shorthanded. Have you all told him how to wake up in the mornings
yet?”
“Oh,
no way. They tortured me for weeks with that. I’m not going to give in that
easily. He’s got at least another week of missing breakfast before we get him a
watch.”
Because
all of the ranch hands had the same joke pulled on them, it seemed like new
hires had to spend longer and longer periods of time not knowing how to wake
up. If it had been up to me, I’d have just put an alarm clock in the bunkhouse
and been done with it, but my father said it was a bonding thing with the men
and to stay out of it.
“You
guys are so mean to each other. It’s a wonder you can keep any new hires at
all.”
We
both laughed as we cuddled up together and listened to the rain. I was joking
with Garrett about the new hires. I knew that since Garrett had become the lead
ranch hand we had actually kept almost all of the old workers. Our rate of men
leaving had declined rapidly and I blamed it all on Garrett. He got along well
with the men and they respected him. Garrett worked just as hard, or harder,
than the other ranch hands and that gave them the perfect example of what to
work towards.
When
Garrett decided he wanted to leave, it would be a sad day for all of us. My
father loved him, my mother adored him, and I was falling in love with him. He
was a great leader to the other men and he did a really damn good job at
running the ranch. If he did stay around I bet my father would eventually even
give him a piece of land from the ranch so he could start his own family and
ranch. Although, that didn’t seem like something that was in the future for
Garrett.
“We
aren’t mean to each other. It’s just how men are.”
“So
men just like to keep other men from eating breakfast?” I laughed.
“No,
we just like to make sure the men we are around understand who the boss is.
That new kid will certainly understand his place in the pecking order by the
time we get him his watch. I know I did.”
“Yeah,
I remember when you first started. Wow, that seems so long ago.”
“I
know,” Garrett said as he yawned. “But I’ve loved every minute of it.”
“Me
too. I’m so glad I got fired and forced to move back home with my family. I
mean, the sweat, hard work, no pay; it’s so much fun,” I joked.
“You
love it and you know it. Don’t even pretend like you’re not happy here.”
“You’re
right. I’m happier than I’ve ever been,” I said as I closed my eyes and cuddled
close to Garrett.
As
we fell asleep, I could tell the storm was calming down and I couldn’t wait
until morning. We were likely going to have quiet the mess on our hands from
broken tree limbs and other debris from the storm.
Chapter 13
Garrett
The
sound was foreign to me at first as I woke up out of a deep sleep. But then I
realized what I was hearing: it was gunshots. I wasn’t all that familiar with
the sound of a gun going off, but I had heard them enough in Los Angeles to
know what they were.
In
Los Angeles, the gunshots had always sounded like they were miles away from
where I was at. But the ones I heard that morning were clearly very close to
us. They sounded like they were right outside the barn and I was scared to
death. Even through my fear, I knew that I wanted to keep Sarah safe. No matter
what was going on outside of that barn, I wasn’t going to let her be harmed. If
it meant that I was killed instead of her, I was willing to end my life that
way.
“Get
up,” I said as I jumped up and started to get my clothes on. “Stay up here and
hide in the corner.”
I
was firm with Sarah and I hoped she would listen to me. The sun wasn’t out yet
and my alarm on my watch hadn’t gone off yet, so there was no reason at all
that gunshots should be going off at the ranch.
The
only time we heard gunshots on the ranch was when Sid was chasing away coyotes,
and even then he used his shotgun and not a pistol. But the two shots I heard
sounded much more like a pistol and that scared me. I didn’t even think Sid
owned a pistol; he had no use for such a small gun on his ranch. It wouldn’t
help him with the animals that he had to put down and a pistol wasn’t really
Sid’s style either.
As
I started to descend the old ladder, I couldn’t fathom why gunshots would be
going off outside the barn. At least for a moment, I couldn’t fathom why; but
then a fearful thought started to fill my head. What if Frank Gordano’s men had
finally found the ranch? It was a chilling thought and the only thing I could
think off for why there would be such horror going on at that hour. I hoped I
was wrong. I willed myself to be wrong as I climbed down.
“What
is it?” Sarah asked.
“I
don’t know. But you’ll be safe up here. Don’t come out until I tell you to. I’m
serious, Sarah; do not leave this area until I or one of your parents come for you.
Not under any circumstances.”
I
could tell she wanted to protest my directions, but then something stopped her.
She just shook her head in agreement and slipped her clothes back on as she
moved into the corner of the loft area. She grabbed one of the blankets off the
makeshift bed and covered herself with it. I hadn’t explained anything, yet she
trusted me enough to listen to me in that moment.
As
I climbed down the ladder, I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard a man’s
voice begging for his life. The terror in his voice made the moment real,
although it still felt like I was in the middle of some sort of crime show. I
desperately hoped that I would wake up and realize it had all been a nightmare.
If only what I heard outside the barn wasn’t really happening at all.
“Please
don’t shoot me. Please; he’s in the cabin. Please don’t kill me; he’s in the
small cabin over there.”
The
man’s voice was followed by two quick shots and then silence. I would have been
more scared had I had the time to think about what was going on. But all I
could think about was keeping Sarah safe and getting to Sid and Meredith to
keep them safe as well. They were my family now and I couldn’t imagine anything
happening to them. But it was happening. There was someone just outside the
barn door shooting people, and from what I heard, it sounded like they were
really looking for me.
If
I was what they wanted, then I was what they were going to get. I couldn’t let
another person get shot because of me. It was my responsibility and my burden
to carry. I looked out the barn and saw two men making their way toward my
small cabin. There was no doubt about it: Frank Gordano had found me.
For
some reason, I had thought that he wouldn’t actually come after me. At first,
when I had arrived at the ranch, I stayed up late worrying about Frank; but as
time went on, I relaxed. The Miller ranch began to feel like my home and I felt
safe there. I slept well at night and didn’t worry about my safety. The only
thing I worried about was if I was doing a good job leading the other ranch
hands.
The
terror of the moment had my body frozen as I stood in the doorway to the barn
and watched the two men. The bright lights from the barn illuminated me and I
certainly wasn’t hidden at all if the two men had bothered to turn around and
look behind them. I decided it would be best to try and put up a fight. At
least I could try and do some harm to them before they killed me.
I
grabbed a pitchfork that we used to feed the horses their hay and I was just
about to leave the barn when I noticed Sid. No, no, no, I thought to myself as
he came out of his house in his pajamas. I wouldn’t let Sid risk his life for
me. There was no possible way I would let that man be the person they killed.
It was me they wanted and I would be the one who they had, I wasn’t going to
let Sid get involved if I could help it.
I
saw Sid as he stumbled onto the front porch with a shotgun in his hands. The
light on the barn was shining brightly and Sid looked over toward me. I
motioned to my small cabin and nodded my head to confirm what he must have been
thinking, then I held up the large pitchfork and started toward the cabin.
Those were indeed shots that had been fired and all of our lives were in
danger. I had never been so glad to see a man with a shotgun in all of my life.
Sid
glanced from me to two ranch hands that lay dead on the ground. The sun wasn’t
up yet, but the lights from the barn were enough for both Sid and I to see that
Ralph and Devin had been murdered. That was all Sid needed to see. He pulled
his shotgun up to his face and walked straight toward the cabin without
stopping to look at me again.
Ralph
was my second in command and had been a truly good man. I imagined that he had
pushed the other men aside when the intruders started asking about me. Ralph
had an ex-wife and three daughters he sent money to. He confided in me once
that he had never been a good husband, but he wanted to be a good father. He
worked hard and didn’t keep any of his salary for himself. Every month he went
into town and had a cashier’s check made up and sent to his family. He was
proud of the support he gave them and my heard ached to know he had been
murdered.
Devin
was one of the youngest ranch hands we had, although you wouldn’t be able to
tell it by looking at him. He was six feet six inches and nearly four hundred
pounds of pure muscle. He wasn’t the brightest of kids, but he was so kind that
we all fell in love with him. He had been in prison after some boys were
picking on him at his college and he punched one of them who ended up dying. I
honestly believed that Devin hadn’t tried to kill that boy, but just didn’t
know his own strength.
I
turned and watched in total astonishment as Sid walked straight toward the
cabin without hesitating at all. I ran after him. I didn’t know what I was
going to do. I didn’t have a gun and only the pitchfork as a weapon, but I
wasn’t about to let Sid get murdered by these men who were really there after
me. I would rather them just kill me than see Sid or any of his family hurt.
Whomever Frank Gordano had sent to kill me, obviously they were cold blooded
killers who didn’t have any problem with murdering an old man if Sid was
standing in front of them.
Sid
stood outside of the cabin about twenty feet away and just as I caught up to
him the two men walked out the front door. There was no yelling at them. Sid
didn’t give them a chance to put their weapons down. There were just two
shotgun blasts to their bodies and the men fell straight to the ground. It was
quite a sight to see as their bodies collapsed onto each other and everything
went silent.
My
hands shook, my whole body shook, as I walked with Sid over to them. He flipped
the porch light on and we saw that one of the men was the new ranch hand that
Sid had just hired. Sid had known that his hiring of ranch hands was the only
way to get close to me. He had held off as long as he could before he finally
hired the man. We had talked about it and Sid was going to lose other men from
exhaustion if he didn’t get more help. We both shook our heads. It was a
horrific scene, but we didn’t have time to linger over their bodies.
“Go
check on those two,” Sid ordered me.
As
I ran over to the other two men, I saw Meredith in Sid’s office. She was on the
phone with someone, but appeared remarkably calm. It struck me that she knew
exactly what to do and wasn’t crying or screaming in panic. Meredith Miller was
a pretty strong woman.
When
I got to Ralph and Devin’s bodies, it was clear there was nothing we could do
for them. They had both been shot in the head a point blank range. The other
men were standing at the window of the bunkhouse and slowly came out as they
realized the two assailants were dead. Their eyes looked at me and I felt their
stares even before any of them spoke.
The
brains of Ralph and Devin were spewed out all over the dirt and I was the one
the men were looking at. They knew I hadn’t actually shot the two, but I
suspected they also knew that the gunmen had really been looking for me.
That
evening I had my fill of gruesome bloodied bodies, that was for sure. I had
never been so close to a dead body and it seemed unreal that I had four of them
all around me. It was almost too much for me to handle and I desperately tried
not to look at them anymore.
Instead,
I looked at the ranch hands and searched the hate in their eyes; it wasn’t much
easier to look at that. These men had been my co-workers and friends, but in
that moment they appeared fearful of me. I saw it in their eyes. They thought I
had something to do with their friends being murdered. Which, technically I
did. It was me who those men had wanted and I knew it.
“They
were looking for you,” one of the ranch hands said. “They had your picture.”
His
voice was filled with contempt and hate toward me. I didn’t know what to say or
do. It was true, I knew it. If I hadn’t of been at that ranch Ralph and Devin
would still be alive.
“I’m
sorry,” I said quietly.
The
group of men just looked at me and then at Sid. They were scared and didn’t
know what was going on. I didn’t blame them for hating me. I had put their life
at risk and their friends had been murdered all because of me. I deserved their
hatred. I deserved every stare they were giving me. My heart sank as the scene
unfolded and the reality of the situation began to weigh heavily on me.
Never
in my life had I felt responsible for a man’s death before I got mixed up with
Frank Gordano. My money hungry decision had changed the lives of so many people
and ended the lives of good men. I was sick to my stomach. In that moment I was
feeling the true consequences of my actions. Up until that second I had
believed my consequences were only that I had been sent away to the Montana
ranch and that I had to take time out of my life. But that was not true at all.
My
actions in deciding to work with Frank were a ripple effect that had changed so
many people’s lives. I wished I could take it all back. I would give every last
penny that I made back and I would live the already great life I had. But I couldn’t
take it back, nothing I said or did could change what had happened that night.
Two
good men were lying there dead, all because of me. It was a senseless act of
violence and I felt so guilty I almost collapsed right there in the dirt. Since
arriving at the Miller’s ranch I had only worried about my own life. It had
never dawned on me that Frank Gordano would actually kill innocent people to
get to me. And from what I heard, Devin had even willingly told them where I
was, but the killers didn’t care and shot him anyways.
I
stood there looking at Ralph and Devin as tears filled my eyes. They were dead
and I was alive. It was a horrible injustice yet I couldn’t do a thing about
it. I couldn’t bring them back to life and I couldn’t change what had happened.
Everything
had happened so quickly that when I looked up and saw Sarah standing in the
barn doorway it felt like it had been hours since I had been lying next to her.
But in reality, it had probably only been about five or ten minutes. She had
stayed in the barn like I ordered her, but with the talking of the men from the
bunkhouse, she finally emerged.
“Daddy,”
Sarah yelled as she ran over to her father who was walking toward me with his
shotgun in hand. “What happened?”
“I
need you to gather the men and keep them occupied. Take them to the north barn
and feed the animals or something. Just keep them away from all this,” Sid said
without actually answering her as to what was happening.
Sarah
stood looking at Ralph and Devin in total shock and then looking at me. There
was no time to explain what had happened; I would just have to talk to her
later. For the time being, we weren’t one hundred percent sure that we had
everyone who had come there to kill me and it wasn’t a good idea for Sarah, or
anyone, to stay there.
But
I knew that Sarah had heard Devin’s pleas to save his life just like I had
heard them. She knew that the men had been looking for me and she knew that I
was the reason that poor Ralph and Devin were lying there with holes in their
heads. I couldn’t take the disappointment and sadness in her eyes. I couldn’t
stand the way she was looking at me one more second.