“Shovel shit, sweetness,” Chase clarifies for her, but he’s also looking at her thigh and the kaleidoscope of color it is.
“Right.” She steps back. “Fine. Everything in there that I need?”
“You know what you’re doing?” I question.
“I’m not an idiot.” She rolls her eyes and makes her way to the stables next to the paddock holding Ralph. She says something to the bull on her way past, and the animal watches her, keen eyes following her path to the stables.
“That’s a nasty bruise,” Chase comments. “How did she get that?”
“None of your business.”
“You really think she’s not hurtin’?”
“No,” I admit, “I think she’s more stubborn than Ralph and doesn’t want to admit it.”
“Then why’d you send her to the stables?”
“So she stops lying.”
“A little harsh,” Chase grumbles.
“No one said the ranch life was easy, Chase,” I defend.
“If you say so, boss,” Chase steers his horse in the opposite direction and gets moving, so I do the same. I’ll leave her to it and check on her in a couple of hours. If she needs help, she can come find me.
The heat is brutal today. A haze covers the ranch, and my skin feels dry, burning in the sun.Water is key on days like this, for every single living thing on this land. I head toward the stables, a fresh, cold bottle in hand, the condensation soaking into the dust on my palm.
“Would you stop that!?” I hear a hiss. “Hey!”
My brows pull low as I turn the corner, wondering who the fuck is in here with her when all the guys are busy with other tasks, and Chase left two hours ago with the trailer to pick up some fencing to fix up a paddock on the east side of the ranch.
“Stop!” Elena snaps out and then I see it. Apollo, my late father’s Blue Roan Mustang, is nipping at her shirt over the stable door. Every time he grabs it, she pulls away from him, earning a nicker, his ears pricked and his attention solely on her.
Well, I’ll be fucking damned.
This is the most alive I’ve seen my father’s horse since he passed away. After his death, Apollo sank into himself. He grieved hard for my father, as hard as the ranch did, and we’ve been watching him closely since, wondering when he was just going to give up. The bond he shared with my father was intense and lifelong, and when one half of a whole is removed… it’s crushing.
But he’splaying.
Elena moves the broom across the ground, sweeping up the muck and hay strewn across the center alley, but Apollo stretches his long, muscled neck and catches the material on her shoulder. Before she can react and swat him away, he yanks,pulling her off her feet.
She lands with a cry, more than just frustration or annoyance. This one has pain written all over it. Apollo’s head goes up, his nostrils flaring out as his dark eyes bore down on her leaning on the stable door.
“Shit!” I hiss, rushing toward her as she grasps her thigh beneath the bandage, teeth gritted.
“Not nice,” She grumbles to the horse before she finally hears me coming.
“Elena,” I reach for her, but she’s quick to swat my hands away, glaring at me with eyes that match the color of the horse behind the door.
It’s then that I notice the blood.
I don’t let her snatch away from me a second time as my fingers circle her wrists and I force her hands out in front of her, palms up,
She’s rubbed her hands completely raw, the skin blistered and peeling with both fresh and dry blood coating her hands. A quick glance at the broom handle shows the red smudges coating the wood.
“Fuck!” I reach for the water and twist the cap, pouring some onto one palm and then on the other, washing away the dust and diluting the fresh blood. She remains stoic, Apollo watching on from above.
“How long has it been like this?” I demand.
