Page 87 of Leading the Blind
They would do this. They would do this and, God help him, they would go pick out their places in the world.
The bull finally stood, snorting and blowing snot, but waiting. Jason slid down on his back and tied his hand into the rope, Bax pulling it down tight like he knew Jason needed, with his wrist as weak as it still was.
“You do it, Jason. You do this and make it all right.” Sammy just kept yammering.
Bax got the rope tight enough, Jason wrapped it, and he knew it was time. His gut churned, nausea rising when he saw Jason settling himself, finding his balance.
He leaned down past Sammy’s protective arm, his lips close to Jason’s ear. “Don’t let go, Mini. Don’t let go.”
“You got my word.” Jason nodded his head and spun out, his lips tight and eyes wide open.
Everyone screamed and stomped, encouraging Mini to hold on, but Bax couldn’t even breathe. Sam whooped in his ear, and he could hear the Brazilians screaming wildly, but he watched Jason silently, willing his man to stay up and stay on for eight.
The first five were easy, but Mini started to sway before the six, and suddenly Bax found his voice. “Don’t you fucking let go, Jason! You ride that goddamn bull!”
Jason’s chin lifted, and Bax would be damned if he didn’t make the correction and hit the eight.
His knees buckled.
Praise Jesus, Mini had done it. It was over.
He watched Jason try to find the get off, but then he could hear Dillon shouting in his ear, and things started to slide.
“No! Jason. Go to your right. Jump off to your right.”
Nattie’s familiar, “Hey, hey, hey!” sounded, and Bax knew Coke was on the other side where he couldn’t see, waiting to catch and carry Jase if he had to.
Jason turned the wrong way and walked right into the side of the bull, just bang! Coke cried out and ran to grab him, and Bax would be damned if they both didn’t hit the bull’s shoulder.
Coke caught the horn and went flying, while Mini stood there like he was stunned.
“Goddamn it, Scott!” Nate bellowed. “Move!”
Mini didn’t—or he couldn’t—and Bax didn’t know which one, but he wasn’t fucking standing there to find out. He jumped over the fence and onto the arena.
Adam Taggart zoomed past him, his rope swinging.
Bax dug in, getting some momentum going, and he plowed into Jason, carrying him along. They were gonna go down on thearena floor, but Adam was roping that bull. He could hear David Donaldson’s play by play.
“Coke!” Dillon’s cry snapped out—huge, because it was in his ear, in the air, and he heard the groan of the crowd, then the whump of Coke’s body hitting the ground next to them.
Jason moved then, and so did he, covering Coke with their bodies, protecting the man who had saved them a hundred times in a thousand different ways.
The stomp of hooves next to his ear gave him flashbacks to his worst fucking wrecks, but he wasn’t leaving Coke and Jason, no sir—not until someone told him it was safe.
“Adam Taggart has a second rope on that bull, folks, and his brother Brian is moving in!”
Nate was screaming at the bull, and the Aussie accent of Fred was right there too, everyone working to get that damn demon bull away from them. It went on forever, and probably lasted all of half a minute.
No one knew better than Bax how fast a whole fucking life could change.
This was enough.
Bull riding had taken as much, maybe more, than it had given him, and he was fucking done. “Gonna take you to the beach,” he bit out.
All Mini said was, “Yes.”
Nate finally came and laid hands on him. “Get up, Andy. Come on. We need to get Coke to Doc. Jason too.” Nate tugged at his arms.
