Into The Sunset: An Erotic Romance Anthology (17 page)

I grabbed the rifle off the hook and placed
the butt into my shoulder. I took a deep breath, wincing at the
hard edges digging into my skin. I aimed for Samuel’s back. Just
between the shoulder blades.

Point and pull.

The scuffled ended in an instant,
just after the bang. A calm silence fell over us all. For a second
of time, the world stood still and doubt overcame me. In that
second, a thousand scenarios played in my head.
Did I miss? Had I shot Graham instead? Or had the bullet gone
straight through and killed them both?
I
lost my air and had to force myself to breathe until the truth
became known.

Samuel dropped to his knees and loosened his
grip on Graham. He fell to the floor with a hard thud. Graham let
out a deep sigh of relief and looked at me. I was frozen in my
place, the rifle still up on my shoulder. Graham came towards me
and placed one hand on the gun.

“
Let go, Emilia,” he said. “It’s
over.”

But something in me was not convinced it was.
Even after Graham checked his unmoving pulse. Or after Graham
dragged the lifeless body outside. No, I did not feel safe until we
dug the hole in the woods and threw him inside. Six feet of dirt
was what it took to convince me the ordeal was finished.

We had one scare. The town’s local sheriff
surprised us one day. He said Samuel’s truck was found a few miles
away and he'd been missing for weeks. I had known the sheriff. He
had answered a few domestic disturbance complaints from our
neighbors the last few years. He knew of Samuel.

When the sheriff saw me there, living in the
cabin with another man, he showed suspicion.

“
Samuel did come by here once,” I
said. “I ran away from him and came here. When Samuel found me he
was heartbroken, but I had made up my mind that I was not going
back,” I told him. "He walked away.”

“
Samuel walked away?” the sheriff
asked with confusion.

“
Yes,” I said. “I have not seen
him since.”

Whether he believed me or not, that was the
last we heard of anyone looking for Samuel. And it was the last of
my days I lived in fear.

***

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Surrendering To The Cowboy

By Veronica Hardy

Lexie almost didn’t respond to her uncle’s
email. After all, she hadn’t talked to him in ages. So when Uncle
Chet asked her if she would come out and look after the ranch while
he took a “vacation,” Lexie wasn’t sure she could take him up on
the offer. She had to admit that she wasn’t doing much over the
summer break, and now that she was unattached all she had to look
forward to was an empty apartment until the fall when school
started up again.

The last place she wanted to be was anywhere
that reminded her of him. Rapidly, Lexie blinked the tears away
that were forming in her eyes. She wouldn’t cry over him anymore.
Not one more tear. He didn’t deserve that. Not after what he did.
Brody wasn’t good enough for her, she deserved better.

“
Shit,” She mumbled as the GPS on
her phone went blank, a “No Service” message blinking in its place.
She should have known that there wouldn’t be any service out here.
She pulled the car over onto the shoulder and rummaged opened her
dash box. She knew there was a map in there somewhere from last
Christmas when her mother insisted they bring it, just in case her
mom couldn’t remember how to get to her Uncle Chet’s. They hadn’t
needed it, of course, but Lexie was sure it was still in there
somewhere. Worse-case scenario she backtracked until she got
service and looked up a map so she could write down the
route.

She dug under her license and registration,
past a couple of discarded cereal bar wrappers until she found it.
Sighing with relief, she opened the map.

“
Thank you, momma,” She said as
she spotted the circled area that represented the
farmhouse.

At least this was one thing she wasn’t going
to fuck up. She straddled the map over the steering wheel and took
a right. There wasn’t much in the way of scenery to let her know
she was on the right track. Field after field in the Ohio
countryside looked identical. It wasn’t until she saw the farmhouse
she recognized that she began to relax. She pulled in the long
drive and followed it up to the house.

“
What in the world?” She squinted.
A group of farmhands were on horses, working a small herd of
cattle. She hadn’t really expected to see anyone on the farm, she
had assumed they would be working other fields but she should have
known better. She wasn’t going to be as alone as she thought. She
drove closer to the farmhouse, the riders coming closer into view.
She couldn’t help but stare, wondering who these men were and what
brought them here.

Her car came to a stop at the top of the
slight hill, right before the barn. Lexie got out of the car and
paused for a moment before grabbing her bags. It had been years
since she had been up here in the summer. Winter landscapes were
all that she knew of the place. The warm air of summer wasn’t quite
sweltering yet, but it wouldn’t be long before it was.

Dammit, these bags are heavy. She grumbled to
herself as she loaded up her arms with the luggage. An entire
summer at a ranch didn’t seem like a picnic, so she had brought a
few supplies. At this point, taking it all in one trip was a matter
of personal pride. Until a thick piece of gravel got wedged into
her shoe and sent her tumbling, pink luggage flying
everywhere.

She scrambled to pick up her bags before
anyone noticed, but as she looked up she realized she was standing
before a man who was holding her little pink matching makeup bag.
Her entire face turned red, the heat of embarrassment filling up
her face as she looked over his sexy Latin body.

“
Need some help with that?” He
asked, his smile reaching all the way to his eyes.

“
I, uh, thought I could handle it
myself,” Lexie explained as he grabbed a few bags from her and
headed up to the ranch house. She bit her lip and tried not to look
him over but she couldn’t help it. He had a healthy heaping of
muscles that just didn’t quit.

“
Diego Rodriquez, your Uncle’s
foreman. I am in charge of most of the men. You must be Lexie
Stewart.”

Dear Lord, please don’t let me faint from how
hot he is. Think of something to talk about Stew. Don’t just
stare.

She was staring but she recovered
quickly.

“
Yes, I didn’t realize you would
be here. I thought he kept the cows over at the Waddell
house.”

“
Used to, but it was getting
over-grazed, so he started using the pasture around his house about
a year ago.” Diego walked her up to the house and held the door for
her, before bringing the bags he had in and setting them down in
the mudroom, next to the dining room.

“
Your uncle said you would be
providing the meals in his absence? He was our cook in addition to
managing the estate.”

“
He what?” She asked, the tone of
her voice raising as she processed what the handsome man
said.

“
It got him out with the guys
really, his back being as bad as it is.” Diego explained further
before he realized what she meant. “Oh, I guess he didn’t ask
you?”

“
No, he didn’t.”

“
Well, uh, can you cook? I mean he
said you would, we have a kitchen helper but we really don’t have
an extra guy to spare right now to take your uncle’s place. We have
a field that needs hayed tomorrow and Sam needs to take a few cows
over to be processed for the local shop.”

They sold their meat right in town in addition
to sending them out to different companies, she knew that much
about the ranch.

“
I, uh, yeah. I can cook. Just,
for how many?” She asked a little puzzled. She sat down on the
bench in the mudroom and looked up at him, he was so sexy. How
could she say no?

“
Seventeen.” He bit his lip and
looked into her eyes. Clearly he was hoping his charisma was going
to get him somewhere.

“
Seventeen?” She asked again,
feeling completely blindsided. What the hell are you getting
yourself into, Stew?

“
Yeah, there is a staff kitchen
out behind the barracks. Fully stocked.” Diego pointed in the
general direction of the barracks. “We also have someone who helps
out, I’m sure she wouldn’t be opposed to taking up a little more
slack.”

“
Okay, well, I guess I could try.
I mean, I have cooked for my family before, so it can’t be that
different, can it?” She swallowed as she looked up at
him.

“
Great! Your uncle said you are
great cook. You can find me out in the L field, just beyond the
first field here, if you need me. We eat around 6, so the boys will
all be coming in around that time. Gives you about 4 hours. Jessie
should already be in the kitchen. Well now, I’ll leave you to it.”
He smiled at her again and gave her a handshake. She couldn’t help
but feel like he was looking her up and down before he left. Not
that she minded.

This wasn’t going to be the peaceful retreat
she had hoped for.

Lexie sighed as she entered the “Dining Hall”.
That was what was written on the wooden sign above the small
building. It looked more like a small break room with an attached
kitchen. When she got in there she realized the place was in need
of a scrub down. It wasn’t dirty but it wasn’t the cleanest thing
she had ever seen. She walked past the wooden picnic tables towards
that had vinyl covers on them and right through the back room
towards the sound of metal clanging together.

“
Ah, there you are. I thought you
would be here earlier,” A young woman, maybe a year or two older
than Lexie’s twenty years, stood up, a large pot in her
hands.

“
I, uh, I just got here, actually.
I haven’t even had a chance to put my stuff away.” She drew in her
brows as she looked at her. Did everyone know I was cooking but
me?

“
It doesn’t matter. I have a dish
of homemade baked beans ready and in the smoker and I’m getting
ready to start on the potatoes. Brisket has been in the smoker
since last night. It should be ready in a couple of
hours.”

“
Smoker?” Lexie asked as she
looked over the kitchen. It was cluttered but not in terrible
condition.

“
Yeah, got one out back. You know
how to smoke meat?” Jessie smiled as she looked at Lexie, getting a
big pile of potatoes and skinning them.

“
No, not really.” Lexie went to
work on the potatoes alongside Jessie.

“
That’s okay. Your uncle taught
me. So all we really need you to do today is the cornbread and the
green beans.”

It didn’t take long to get everything together
in the kitchen, and the beans sure smelled amazing.

“
Let’s turn on some music, we
still have a couple of hours before the boys are due to show up,”
Lexie suggested as she smiled. “Oh, I dunno, your uncle never let
me listen to music in here.”

“
Well, he isn’t here, now is he?”
Lexie walked over to the little radio that was on a shelf and
turned it on, modern country hits blaring through the dining
hall.

“
See now, isn’t that nice?” Lexie
shimmied a little as she walked back towards Jessie, giggling. She
knew she had just made a fast friend.

“
So, what’s the deal with the men
here. Any of them hot?” She asked, as she went back to
work.

Jessie’s cheeks went red and she looked down
at the pot before looking back up, “A few of them.
Yeah.”

“
Oooh. Which one do you have your
eye on?”

“
How did you know?”

“
Girl, I can tell when someone is
crushing. Who is it?”

“
His name is Jake. He isn’t much
to look at, compared to some of the others. But he is nice, and
that is something that can be hard to find.”

“
Oh, I dunno, Diego seems nice.”
Lexie shrugged and focused on her peeling. He was too sexy not to
ask about, and if she even had half a chance it might be a good
distraction. She needed a distraction right now. Something to keep
her mind off of Chris.

“
He is, but he’s… kinda dirty.
I’ve heard things.”

“
What?” Lexie was truly intrigued.
She stopped peeling and leaned over towards her, “I’m all ears.
Really. He is awfully sexy.”

“
Well, my cousin went out with
him, for like, six months or something. Said he was into that fifty
shades kind of shit. Except harder. You know? She freaked out about
it and told everyone.” Even she thought it was a great, immoral
sin.

Ouch, just for being into bdsm?

“
Oh really,” Lexie nodded with
encouragement for her to continue.

Jessie’s voice got just a little lower, “Yeah,
and he… he is willing to do it with more than one person at a
time.”