Chasing McCree (13 page)

Once night had fallen, we decided
against stopping for dinner, ate fast food, and plowed through,
driving longer than we probably should have. But it was beautiful
to watch out the window. The cities gave way to fields of green
hills, and corn, and other fields of plants…maybe wheat, I don’t
know. They flew by the truck. I was in heaven, we turned off the
air and rolled the windows down as the sun was setting. There was a
sweet smell in the air when we passed a field of wild flowers. I’d
never seen anything like it.

It was nearly midnight by the time we
got to an overnight rest stop. Chase let Ash out of the trailer and
took him for a walk. Then he put him back in and we decided to
sleep for about five hours. We could have stopped at another inn
for travelers with horses, but we wanted to end the ride as soon as
possible.

It wasn’t too bad. I took the backseat,
Chase stayed in the front. I laughed when he loaded the crossbow
and put it next to him. When he didn’t laugh with me, I figured out
here in the middle of nowhere some sort of protection was
needed.

I rubbed my eyes the next morning,
tired, and leaned into Ash’s warm side as Chase checked over the
truck and trailer. It was a little cool out. Rain drizzled from
clouds overhead.

“
You alright?” Chase
stopped what he was doing. He took my chin in his hand and tipped
my head back to get a good look at my face.

“
Groggy, slight headache…I
could feel worse.”

“
You should get out of the
rain,” he opened the truck door and urged me back inside. He loaded
Ash in the trailer and closed the door. Once he was inside the
truck, I leaned into his side and closed my eyes. We had enough gas
to get to the next gas station, and I didn’t think about getting
out. It would have taken an act of god to remove me from the toasty
cab. I didn’t desire getting wet or making my headache
worse.

I slept off and on most of the day,
slumped against Chase. I didn’t take to sleeping in a truck like he
did. I felt miserable. We stopped at a roadside diner for lunch. I
didn’t want to eat, but Chase insisted. I settled for half a
grilled cheese and felt myself perk up a little. We crossed the
state line and were in Montana shortly after. I was taking another
catnap when I felt Chase shaking me awake. We were driving down a
dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

And I mean, nowhere.

To the left of the car mountains with
white caps seemed to float in the distance against the sun. To the
right, it was a big green pasture full of cows.

“
How are you
feeling?”

“
Good, just tired.” I
stretched in my seat, ready for this trip to be done. “Where are
we?”

“
We’re about thirty minutes
away from my house. We’ll be just in time for dinner.” He smiled
and glanced at his watch. “I thought you’d want to be up before we
got too close.”

I nodded, “Thanks.”

“
Crap,” his brows drew
together and he shook his head.

“
Something
wrong?”

“
Watch stopped.” He took it
off his wrist and tossed it in the cup holder.

“
So only thirty minutes?” I
was past the point of being shy and blurted, “I really have to
pee.”

He laughed. “Good thing I woke you up
now. There’s a place we can stop right up the road.”

So it was a sports bar. I could handle
that. The people inside looked a little rough. More than one person
was outfitted in camo or leather.

It was the only place that had a
bathroom, so I had to brave the air thick with smoke and smell of
booze.

After I went to the bathroom, I went
back out to find Chase. He said he’d wait for me near the bar. But
I didn’t make it that far. Barbie’s tattoo covered, sailor
swearing, evil twin was eyeing me.

“
That’s expensive.” She
nodded at my purse, which just happened to be a cross body Louis
Vuitton.

I shrugged. “It’s fake.”

She didn’t look convinced and braced
her hands on her hips. “What is a little ball of fluff like you
doing here? Get lost on the way to the mall?”

Holy shit. “Uh, I had to go to the
bathroom.”

“
Sure.” She snapped her
fingers and nodded at my purse. “Hand it over.”

“
No, this is mine.” Grandma
gave it to me for my sweet sixteen. I wasn’t going to part with it
for anything. If it meant leaving with a black eye, so be
it.

“
And this is my neck of the
woods. So I say, hand it over.”

With a heavy sigh, I nodded. “Can I at
least take my stuff out of it?”

“
Hurry up.”

I reached in my purse, pretending like
I was digging my stuff out, when really I was finding my pepper
spray. I held it up, right in her face. “Back off or go blind. Your
choice.”

She put her hands up, smirking. “That
was the second stupidest thing you’ve done tonight.”

I frowned. “And what was the
first?”

“
Coming in here
alone.”

“
She’s not alone, Earline.”
A deep voice boomed across the room. It was the bartender. He
looked mean, covered in even more tattoos, one’s going up his neck
and down the back of his hands. A cigar hung out of one side of his
mouth. “She’s with Mr. McCree.”

The woman’s eyebrows went up and she
moved aside. I meanwhile, looked at Chase, who motioned for me to
come to him. He was sitting on a stool at the bar.

I don’t think I’d ever moved so fast in
my life.

Earline followed. She was still eyeing
my bag, but I felt like I was less at risk of being mauled by her
with Chase looking pissed. He glanced at the bartender and back at
the woman. “We’ll be heading out now, thanks, Don.”

The bartender smiled at me. “Ignore my
wife, she can be a little rough, but she means well.”

“
Sure.” I managed not to
roll my eyes.

“
It was good seeing you,
Mr. McCree. Come back when you’re twenty-one and I’ll buy you a
round.” The bartender started to move away.

Earline blocked our way out and crossed
her arms. “You forgot to pay for that.”

Chase glanced down at the bottle of
water in his hand and back up at her.

Don grunted. “I told him it was on the
house.”

Earline still didn’t move, and that’s
when Chase lowered his voice, and I got to see a side of him I
hadn’t yet. “My hands are in every business matter that goes on at
McCree Ranch. This includes every cent that has come and gone…which
means I know about loans. One given by my father to you to save
this dive comes to mind.” He looked back at the bartender. “I own
you, Don. Until I get my money back, keep your woman on a tighter
leash if she’s going to be in my establishment.”

Earline sputtered and looked at her
husband. “What?”

Don went red. “Now, Chase, there’s
something you need to understand…”

He crossed his arms and tilted his head
to the side. “What, that the loan was originally for twenty grand?
That after my dad died you asked my grandfather for more? Or that
you were given a period of five years to repay my father in the
first place?”

“
Your father had an
accident.” Earline argued. “Your grandfather said we could take our
time after his death…”

“
No one takes advantage of
an old, grieving man. It’s been twelve years since my dad died.
Plenty of time to pay back your loan.” Chase sneered. “You’ve got a
month to get your shit together. When I turn eighteen I’ll be
coming for you and the fifty grand.”

Chase led me out of the bar and we got
in the truck. I took a sip of the water when he handed it to me,
wondering what that was all about. I got the gist of it, and it
brought on a lot of understanding where Chase was concerned. “What
happened to your father?”

Chase stared out the windshield. “He
died.”

“
It was an
accident?”

He nodded, gripping the wheel tight. “I
was six. The ranch is huge, so dad got his pilot’s license and a
small helicopter. It was windy one day, and he was searching for a
coyote that had killed two calves. Dad lost control of the chopper.
My grandfather found him in the south pasture shortly after he lost
radio contact.”

“
I’m sorry.” I reached over
and slipped my hand into his.

“
It’s okay.” He smiled
sideways at me. “I remember his laugh. It was a good, hearty sound.
I’d do anything to hear it again.”

“
So what about your mom?
When did she leave the ranch?”

“
Oh, she was gone before my
dad died. They split when I was three. My mom hated being a
rancher’s wife. She wanted the city and everything a cosmopolitan
life had to offer.”

“
But she didn’t take you
after your dad died?”

“
She tried, but she was
single, working long shifts and going to school. I was in daycare
from sunup to sundown, and then with a sitter at night. It made
more sense for me to go back to my dad’s family.” He said. “But
once my mom graduated nursing school and could take care of me, I
was older. I didn’t want to leave the ranch.”

“
So your Grandparents
raised you?”

“
Yeah, and a bunch of
cowboys.” He chuckled.

“
Will I get to meet
them?”

His chuckle stopped abruptly. “No,
unfortunately. Grandma passed away two years ago. Pops shortly
after her. They’d been in their mid-eighties. It was
time.”

“
So then what
happened?”

“
What, you think I was
alone?”

“
Well, no. You live with
your aunt and uncle, right?”

“
Yeah, we come from an old
way of doing things. The McCree’s have lived on the same land in
Montana since 1882. And when you have so many generations before
you, on one property, you tend to accumulate houses and
people.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Well, I’ve got the big
house. When I’m ready to have it to myself Uncle Jerry and Aunt
Millie will go back to their house. Their son, Grant, and his wife,
Holly, live in the one next to it with their two kids. The third is
the bunkhouse, and the fourth is empty.”

“
Sounds like you guys are
close.”

“
Yeah, we are.” He hit the
brights on the truck and stopped, pointing out the windshield. A
massive metal gate with a bronze M and a horseshoe embellishing the
center stood in front of us. It began to swing slowly open.
“Welcome to McCree Ranch.”

Chapter 13

Chase

So there was something I didn’t do…I
didn’t tell anyone who I was bringing with me. They knew it was a
friend from Florida. What they didn’t know was that it was a girl
who had me head over boots for her.

Boy were they in for a
surprise.

“
Do I look okay?” Briar
asked as we passed through the gates.

“
You look fine.” Okay, so
she looked better than fine. I was trying to play it as cool as
possible though. We were friends, and I wasn’t sure if she was
ready to take things to the next level yet, especially since we
lived so far apart. “But we’ve got ten minutes before we reach the
house…”

She gasped. “Isn’t this your
driveway?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Wow,” she unbuckled her
seatbelt and hopped in the backseat, digging through her bags. “I
have almost no makeup on, my hair is a wreck, and I’m
wrinkled.”

I watched her in the rearview mirror,
not understanding why she was so flustered. The only thing I did
get was that she wanted to make a good first impression. “Don’t
worry.”

“
Ha, easy for you to say.
Now don’t look, I’m changing my shirt.”

I averted my eyes, laughing, and
focused on the road. “Your other clothes are probably just as
wrinkled from being in your bag.”

“
Nope, I am an expert
packer. I made sure to bring things that don’t look too bad after
being folded.” She sighed and climbed back into the front seat.
“There, I feel better.”

I eyed her white t-shirt, thinking
every guy in the county, and all the neighboring ones, would not
only come sniffing around, they’d probably pitch tents in the yard.
We didn’t get girls like her out here.

“
Mind if I make a quick
phone call?” I asked, pulling out my cell.

Briar shook her head.
“Nope.”

I dialed my mom. He voice mail picked
up. “Hey, it’s Chase. Just wanted to let you know Briar and I got
to the ranch in one piece. Talk to you soon. Bye.”

“
You have a beautiful
home.” Briar said as I pulled up the main drive.

I pocketed my phone and cut the engine
and helped her out of the truck. The big house was brown and
rustic. Lots of stone and wood, it had been added onto five times
over the years. I loved it.

“
Holy cow,” Briar squealed
as a pack of dogs rounded the side of the house and barreled
towards us. Some were mutts, others purebred herding dogs. Mostly
collies and shepherds. I knelt down and said hello, and Briar
followed suit. They seemed to like her and licked her hands, and
her face. She stood up abruptly and wiped her mouth. “That black
one went right for my lip gloss.”