Page 20 of Reins

“He wasn’t cheap,” John grunts. “I pulled some of the funds out of your account, but you’ll need to figure out a payment plan.”

The matter-of-fact way that he indentures me to him makes my stomach roll.

“I didn’t ask for him.” Raising my chin helps to shield his view from the tears forming in my eyes.

He dips his head, then spits into the frost near his boots. “Don’t matter. You got him.” Raising his narrowed gaze, he sniffs against the cold and pulls his arms down. “Get him put away so you can start on dinner. It’s Thanksgiving and I’m hungry.”

Snow crunches under his footsteps, then he stops a few yards away. “I turned off the wi-fi. You’ve been going overboard again.”

His shoulders hunch into his thick coat, not even acting like he cares that he cut me off from the world. Again.

We’re in the middle of nowhere. Cell phones don’t work.

That weak internet signal is my only way to contact…who?

No one. There’s not a soul in the world who gives a rat’s ass that I’m here.

Hell, I have food, they don’t beat me, and I even have two horses. By most stretches of imagination, I’m rich.

Yet I hate every second of it.

“Come on, big boy.” I open the gate and let Zeus prance back into the barn. He’s settled into our routine, nothing reactive like that first night.

I pause in front of Petunia’s stall to scratch her nose. “Maybe tonight we’ll go for another ride? I gotta show John you’re worth keeping around.”

Her eyes close as she leans into my touch, almost as if she’s putting all of her trust into me. I wish she wouldn’t. I’m completely powerless in this whole situation.

If I had any control, I’d be gone.

Dusk is settling before I get the dishes done after dinner.

Neither of my brothers even thanked me for the extensive meal. They ate without a word, piling their plates to take them to the office.

Eli has been especially growly the last few days, yet won’t say why.

I learned a long time ago not to ask.

The silence is preferred over the yelling, the chairs flying, and the fists being waved in my face.

He hasn’t hit me, but I’ve seen the urge. He gets that same crazed look in his eyes that Papa used to get before he’d strip his belt out of the loops and lash at my thighs like viper bites.

A shiver works down my spine at the thought.

I’ve seen Eli lose control. He got so mad at one of the hired hands, I’m pretty sure he beat him to death in the driveway.

That was the last time I ever saw that man, even if John insisted that he was fired as the reason why.

It’s that memory that makes my chin tremble every time Eli raises his voice. I can’t help it.

All I can focus on is the image of that bloody face of the unconscious man lying in the dirt.

I don’t want it to be me.

My knuckles are soft against the smooth wood where their muffled tones emanate.

“Yea?” John pushes his head through the opening, careful not to let me see past him.

“I have everything cleaned up, I was going to go for a short ride before dark.” I jerk my thumb over my shoulder.