Love and Fury: The Coltrane Saga, Book 4 (17 page)

This was, she told herself dismally, turning into a fantasy world. It had become too easy to pretend this was
her
world, to forget the misery that waited for her at home as she struggled to make a living for herself and Charles. The truth was, the longer she stayed on the Coltrane ranch, the harder it was going to be when she had to leave.

“Don’t pay no attention to Pope.”

She whirled around, nervous, as she saw Dirk Hollister. For some reason, she never felt at ease around him. The way he looked at her, his eyes constantly shifting from her face to her bosom, made her feel as though he could see right through her clothes. He wasn’t actually sinister looking. In fact, he was attractive, in a rough sort of way. His dark, unruly hair was too long, but he had a nice face, with finely chiseled features, and his blue eyes were fringed with long lashes. Tall, well built, he could be a handsome man, she realized, if he cleaned himself up and worked on his manners.

His eyes darted to her bosom. “Pope acts like an old woman sometimes. But I’ve seen you ride, and I know you can take care of yourself.”

“He
is
the ranch foreman,” she reminded him. Dirk was a new man Branch had hired during Colt’s absence. He was a drifter; she knew that much about him and no more.

He gave her a taunting smile. “Don’t you own half this place? Well, so that makes you
his
boss, Miss Dani.”

Briana nodded. “That’s true, but I don’t want to make trouble. After all, I’ve never been around a ranch before. Or that wilderness out there.” She gestured to the plains surrounding them.

He shrugged, grinning down at her, standing with his feet wide apart and his thumbs hooked in his belt. “If you’d rather stay in the house on a nice day like today instead of riding out with me to round up strays, okay by me.”

He tipped his hat and turned to leave. “Wait,” she called out impulsively, her mind racing. Branch took her on pleasure rides exclusively, so she had never seen much of the workings of the ranch.

“Do you really think it would be all right?” she asked hesitantly. “Branch wouldn’t be angry with us?”

“Of course not,” he assured her. “Come on, Miss Dani. We’ll go get Belle saddled. Pope won’t even know about it unless you tell him.”

Soon, they were riding away from the ranch, the bright morning sun beaming down on the plains. A hawk spiraled in the azure sky high above them, and she wondered how much territory he covered in a day. She’d ask Branch. There was so much she didn’t know. She’d learned the names of many plants, though, and she recited them to herself as she rode: greasewood, mesquite, creosote, yucca. At higher elevations there would be sagebrush and Joshua trees, junipers, mountain mahogany, firs, and spruce trees.

A covey of quail darted in front of them, and Briana laughed. “They look like fat baby chickens, don’t they?”

“Chickens!” Dirk mocked, not unkindly. “Their feathers aren’t as long as a chicken’s. But they sure taste better’n chicken when you roast ’em over an open fire.”

In the distance, on the southwestern horizon, the Sierra Nevadas rose majestically. In the winter, she’d been told, they would be capped by snow.

“It’s all so beautiful,” she told Dirk, and he agreed. “Maybe one day I can take you for a really long ride, out to the Alkali Desert and the Toiyabe Range. That’s still wilderness. Of course, Nevada was all wilderness before the Comstock lode was discovered. Prospectors sometimes passed through on their way to California, but not much else happened.”

Briana asked him where he was from, and a guarded look came over his face. “Nowhere particular, Miss Dani. I don’t know where I was born, and I never knew my parents. It’s like all of a sudden I was just
here.”

“But where did you grow up?” she prodded. “Surely relatives raised you, or—?”

“Nobody raised me,” he snarled. “I just got by on my own. I’ve never stayed in one place. I just keep moving.”

His voice leveled a little as he finished, “The world is too big to stay in one place.”

They rode for a while in silence, Briana embarrassed to have pried.

“What’s it like in France?” he asked suddenly. “I’d like to go to Europe when I’ve seen all there is to see here.”

She told him about the south coast of France, about the rocky cliffs and jutting mountains, the endless blue sea with pebble-covered beaches.

He listened, then remarked, “And you think
this
is beautiful? I should think you’d rather be back in France. But I guess a rich person gets bored and restless. Probably nothing satisfies you,” he added, a sudden coldness in his voice.

Briana almost laughed. Rich? The deBonnett family believed that a roof over their servants’ heads and leftovers from the main kitchen was an adequate wage!

Dirk mistook her silence for acquiescence and glanced at her with contempt.

A moment later, he saw what he was looking for: five stray heifers grazing in the sparse grass along the edge of a stream. “They’re peaceful enough,” he told her, reining in and dismounting. “Come on. We’ll rest here for a spell, then round ’em up and head back.”

Briana slid from the saddle and dropped easily to the ground. Stretching, she breathed in the sweet air, delighting in the warmth of the sun on her face. Then, suddenly, she was aware of the way her stretching made her breasts strain against the thin cotton shirt. Too late, she saw Dirk’s eyes devouring her. Lowering her arms, she turned away, embarrassed. She kept her back to him, waiting for the moment to pass. She didn’t even hear him approach, didn’t know he was right behind her until his hands clamped down on her shoulders. As she tried to move away, his lips began nuzzling the back of her neck. “Little rich girl,” he teased, “this is probably the only thing you’ve yearned for and never—”

She jerked away and cried angrily, “How dare you?” Laughing, he reached for her. She slapped his hand away. “Oh, Dani,” he said, exasperated, “don’t pretend you didn’t know why I asked you to ride out here. You’re not that naive.”

“I was naive enough to think you could be a gentleman,” she declared hotly, turning toward her horse. “I’ll find my way back.”

“You aren’t going anywhere!” He grabbed her around the waist and yanked her back, flinging her to the ground. He fell on top of her, hands moving over her breasts as she screamed. “Stop pretending you don’t want it,” he commanded, “or I’ll have to hurt you. I can be mean…or I can be nice. It doesn’t matter to me because, either way, I’m going to get what I came out here for.”

He ripped open her shirt, and she sank her teeth into his ear, biting down hard. With a yelp of pain, he jerked his head up, and she slapped him. With a fierce snarl, he brought his hand up to crack across her cheek, once, twice, again and again, until she was blinded by pain. Then he clutched her throat and banged her head against the hard ground. “Stop fighting me, God damn it, or I’ll have to hurt you bad.”

Briana struggled to stay conscious as he yanked at her trousers, jerking them down around her ankles. Pulling at her underwear, his mouth sought hers, moist and hungry. “I’m gonna make it so good,” he rasped, “you’ll beg for more. I can give you all you want…” His tongue flicked against her throat.

Briana twisted her head from side to side, terror welling. She could not let this happen. She would rather die. Mustering all her strength, she brought her nails tearing down his cheek and, at the same time, she threw her body upward, bucking him away from her for just long enough to jerk her knee up into his crotch.

He screamed, clutching one hand to his face, the other to the excruciating pain tearing through his crotch. “You bitch! I’ll kill you!”

But Briana was already on her feet, and in a flash she was hoisting herself up on Belle, landing crossways, lying on her stomach. The startled mare whipped around and started into a trot. Briana clutched the mare’s mane, hanging on with all she had, the bumping of the saddle against her stomach painfully knocking breath from her body.

To the side of her, she saw Dirk struggling to his feet. Holding tightly to the mane and bracing herself against the saddle, she swung her right leg up and over the horse’s rump. She almost lost her balance, but finally she was able to right herself in the saddle. Tucking her feet into the stirrups, she leaned forward and caught the dangling reins. Then she kicked the mare, urging her into a full gallop, holding desperately to the reins. She had ridden this fast only once before, and that had been with Branch beside her.

“Home, Belle!” she cried against the wind whipping at her face, holding on for dear life.

And Belle obeyed, charging across the plain, head up, tail flowing straight behind her. It was as though she knew the danger, knew that the woman clinging to her was depending on her now for her life.

Though the pain was excruciating, Dirk managed to get to his horse and pull himself up into the saddle. He winced as his crotch pressed against the leather saddle. “The bitch,” he snarled, rage driving him. He jerked the horse around and spurred him into a frenzied gallop. “The goddamn snotty little rich bitch. Leading me on. All sweetness and honey. I ain’t one of her toys. I’ll rip her to pieces then move on. She’ll remember me. Oh, hell, yes, she’ll remember me, and she’ll think twice before she plays some other guy for a sucker.”

Briana suddenly heard hoofbeats crashing behind her. Turning her head, she screamed at the sight of Dirk fast closing the distance between them. She clutched at the horse’s mane, crying, “Hurry, Belle, oh,
please!”
Tears of terror and desperation ran down her face. She had no weapon, and out there in the middle of nowhere no one would hear her screams.

He was getting so close that she didn’t have to turn around to tell where he was, for she could hear his horse. On and on she rode, holding Belle’s mane, praying for her to outrun Dirk’s horse, praying she wouldn’t stumble. Briana’s sobs came in great gulps, and it was almost impossible to breathe against the lashing wind in. her face and her own terrified sobbing.

The sound of the horse behind, her grew closer and closer, and then he was upon her, reaching out to punch her face. She sprawled to the ground, thudding on the rocks. There was a sharp pain across the side of her face, and then blackness surrounded her. Belle kept on going.

Dirk jerked his horse to a halt and leaped off, dropping to his knees beside Briana. Hellfire, he hoped she wasn’t dead. He’d let his temper get the best of him, which had never bought him anything except trouble.

She was lying very still and blood was oozing from three scraped places on her face. He lifted her head and pressed his fingertips beneath her nose. She was still breathing, alive, he realized thankfully. But she was knocked out—and he wanted her awake, so she could know what he was doing to her. He’d wanted to be gentle with her. Lord, she was a beauty, but she’d refused him when he was nice. She’d asked for it this way. She wanted to be taught a lesson, and he was going to give it to her good.

He picked her up and placed her over his horse’s rump, then mounted and headed for a cluster of mesquite. Then he got down and carried her behind the bushes, laying her on the ground. Her shirt was open, her underthings torn, her breasts exposed. He fumbled with his trousers, leaning over to suckle at her nipples. Feeling the soreness between his legs, he angrily bit her flesh, glad when she moaned. Oh, she had just begun to hurt. He was going to give her so much pain she’d have to wake up.

He lifted her by the shoulders to give her a rough shake, then saw her eyelashes flutter.

“Come on, bitch,” he hissed. “Wake up and see what I’ve got for you.”

His head snapped up at the sound of approaching horses. Three riders were coming—fast. Quickly he adjusted his trousers and then put Briana’s clothes to rights. By the time the men reached them, he was cradling her in his arms, feigning anxiety. “Over here,” he yelled out. “She got thrown and she’s hurt. She’s alive, though.”

He knew Tom Lucas, Bern Adhop, and Lacy Coley— all wranglers from the Coltrane ranch.

Tom knelt to give Briana a quick examination, then turned to Dirk accusingly. “What was she doing out here with you? Pope is going to have your ass for this.”

“Yeah,” Lacy agreed. “And so’s that prissy stepbrother of hers. We rode out after we saw the mare come in, and we passed him comin’ up the road.”

Dirk faced the condemning glares. “I had nothin’ to do with it. I found out she was gone when I went to the tack room for something and noticed the mare was missing. I rode out to look for her, and this is what I found.”

The men exchanged glances. They didn’t know Hollister well, but they kept their distance from him.

“Let’s get her back to the house,” Tom Lucas said. “Coley, go for the doctor. She’s got a bad bump on her head.”

Dirk considered bolting, getting the hell out of there, because when she came to, she was going to tell what had happened. But he was broke. A month’s pay was due in just two more days. He’d have to hang around for that and take his chances. Besides, he told himself, he could always say she was crazy from her head injury, or that she’d made an advance at him and he hadn’t taken her up on it, so she was lying to get even. Hell, he wasn’t going to run, not with no money and no place to go.

Gavin Mason rode out to meet them, furious to hear his stepsister had been riding. Haranguing them all the way to the house, telling them where to put Dani and, for God’s sake, to be gentle, he ranted about how he’d ordered her to stay inside and swore that whoever was responsible for helping her disobey was going to be punished.