Page 131 of Reckless Skye

Across the arena, a kid who couldn’t have been more than sixteen watched the riders warm up. He wasn’t a cowboy. He was dressed in baggy black jeans and a black sweatshirt with the hood up. Not even his outfit, which dwarfed his reed-thin body, could hide his gleaming white sneakers, sneakers that screamed city. When he sensed TJ’s gaze, the boy turned and met his eyes – and then quickly stepped back and hurried away.

TJ’s skin prickled with unease.

‘Let’s get this done.’

He looked up at Skye as she brought Kai up to the arena gate. He’d been so distracted by the odd interaction that he hadn’t even heard her drag get called.

He refocused, asked, ‘You ready?’

‘Yes.’ Skye’s voice was firm, her eyes calm.

As the first girl in Skye’s drag ran, TJ scanned the crowd from the holding area. The rodeo was roaring. The spectators were primed, some walking around, taking restroom breaks or grabbing drinks, others chatting to their friends, all ready for a night of entertainment. He tracked the seats his parents had booked and saw them sitting side by side, their hands linked.

He wanted that one day. Not just the love and commitment, but the kids, the rodeo, the life. He wanted to sit in the stands with Skye and watch their children take on the world. Knowing it didn’t scare him. TJ had faced death and survived – barely. Now, with Skye by his side and a new commitment to stay burning in his belly, life was his for the taking.

He was just about to step back when he saw them – Skye’s parents. They sat off to the right in the front row, which happened to be placed immediately in front of the first barrel. Despite the fact that they both wore jeans, they still looked sorely out of place, their denim new, their boots glossy and unscuffed, their shirts ironed and starched.

TJ immediately signalled Skye. He knew how Holden worked now, and he trusted Skye’s father about as far as he could kick him. He might not hurt her in so public a setting, but TJ wouldn’t put it past Holden to do something Skye wasn’t expecting – like cheering for her by name to try and throw her off.

Skye frowned, but she rode up to the fence that separated them. ‘What is it?’

‘Holden and Caroline are in the front row by the first barrel. No, don’t look—’

But it was too late. Skye’s gaze had snapped to them. TJ’s followed, just in time to catch Holden raising his hand in what anyone else would consider a friendly – even, fatherly – wave.

‘It doesn’t matter.’ Skye ignored her father to look back down at TJ. ‘He has no power here. This is my turf.’

TJ nodded. Pride filled him. ‘Damn straight. So, how about you show him what he created? Someone strong and brave and kind. Someone who can’t be cowed by him.’

Skye’s blue eyes lit with the challenge of that, turning ice blue. ‘Fuck yes.’

‘All right.’ He gave her leg one last squeeze, said, ‘Let’s go.’

TJ stepped into the alley and joined Skye and Kai as the announcer’s voice blared, ‘Next up, we have Skye Marchant and Sweet Lil Bullet out of Santa Barabara, California.’ The camera zoomed in on them, on TJ standing at Skye’s side as they walked down the alley together, Kai pulling on the bit in his eagerness to get going.

‘Looks like there’s been a hat change here, folks,’ the announcer teased. ‘But Triple J, Scottsdale’s very own four-million-dollar bull rider, sure looks good in pink!’

Playing to the crowd for the first time since his accident, TJ swept his pink hat off and waved it in the air.

The crowd went feral.

As if fate were aligning with them, Kip Moore’s ‘American Heartbreak’ started over the speakers.

TJ smiled. He aimed that smile, sharp and lethal, in Holden’s direction, bared his teeth when Holden didn’t even blink, only stared back, his own smile cool and dangerous.

Next to him, Kai tensed up, ready to run.

TJ moved off to the side. As Skye took her moment of stillness, TJ said, ‘You got this, baby!’

Skye grinned. She took a deep breath, one that TJ heard from where he stood.

When she let Kai go, TJ felt the ground shift and vibrate beneath his feet as they pounded down the alley and headed left to the first barrel. They took it fast and smooth; if Holden said anything to her, it didn’t affect Skye.

She pushed Kai to the second barrel, clearing it easily before turning for the third.

It was only then that TJ noticed that something was wrong.

Skye’s saddle wasn’t centred; in fact, it leaned noticeably to the right, as if it had shifted during the second barrel. ‘What the …’