“Yeah, they were hassling our woman, so I took care of it. What is the big fucking deal?” Vinny asked.
“The big deal? You don’t get it, do you? So I’ll spell it out to you. Those men, especially. They work for her fucking stepfather. In case you forgot, he’s decided to make things fucking difficult for us.” He got the call that very morning, after Vinny had left.
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve got a few inspectors coming to the ranch, Vinny. That guy you were pummeling also has it in his thick head to press charges on you. So far, the sheriff was able to hold him down. As he said, Annalise had given a statement of harassment, and his inappropriate language, so he talked him down, but this is just the start.”
Vinny stopped and looked toward the doorway to where Annalise had left. “That fucker said we’d be sorry. He can’t do this, Gabe.”
“Well, we’ve still got an inspection to deal with.” Gabe glanced up and down at Vinny. “I told you to be careful. Let’s just hope the guy we get isn’t in his fucking pocket.”
He needed to get some fresh air.
Stepping out of the ranch, he breathed in the warm night air. There were times he hated the heat. The sweat constantly clinging to his back a constant reminder to him of how much work he still needed to get done.
The phone call had pissed him off. Annalise had told them all about the stepfather’s inappropriate touching. Now this. It all made complete sense to Gabe. He wouldn’t justify the bastard with a name, so he thought of him as stepfucker.
Her stepfucker had been working behind the scenes, manipulating everyone and everything around Annalise, and he finally knew why. He wanted her. This wasn’t because she was another man’s kid.
Stepfucker wanted Annalise as his own.
It was why he, Vinny, and Archie were a problem.
He couldn’t bribe them with money, or anything else, but the ranch. It was their baby, their dream. They’d worked their tears, blood, and sweat into this place, to turn it into a place that finally profited them.
They weren’t rolling in dough, but they made enough to get by at the moment. Anything could create a bad turn.
This was so fucked up.
He wasn’t going to give up Annalise though. Not for anything. If her stepfucker wanted to play this game, he’d step in the ring. He was used to being without, dealing with assholes willing to take everything from him. He had to wonder just how far stepfucker was going to take this. To Gabe, this life, it was beneath his flesh, written in his core. He knew hardship, pain, loneliness, and downright fucking poverty. He wondered if her stepfather was willing to take that on because Gabe was in this to win it.
****
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Vinny asked. “A simple phone call would have helped.”
Archie sighed. He really didn’t want to be dealing with this nightmare. “Seriously? You want to blame us for not getting your ass in the know sooner? Give me a break.”
“I didn’t know.”
“And?” Archie asked.
“If you’d given me the call, I’d have grabbed Annalise and gotten the hell out of there. You know this.”
Archie snorted. “What I know is any man who hurts our woman, puts his hands on her, and scares her at all, is going to deal with me. I ain’t got a problem with you doing what you did, and let’s be honest, Mr. Cool Face out there doesn’t have a problem with it. Any other day, we’d all be shaking each other’s hands, grabbing an ice-cold beer, and laughing it all off. We don’t have that luxury.”
“The stepdad did all of this. Why?”
“I’m guessing he’s got a hard-on for Annalise. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“I want to kill him.” Vinny’s hands clenched into fists. They were already cut up from his fight that day.
“Not going to happen. You’ve done all the pummeling you’re allowed to do for the time being. I suggest you go and wash up or do whatever it is you have to do to get your shit together. I’ll go and talk to Gabe.”
“Since when are you the levelheaded one?” Vinny asked.
“Since you were an asshole and decided to go down a few pegs.” Archie stepped out into the night.
When they’d gotten the call from Annalise to go down to the sheriff’s office because of what happened, he’d been so pissed.
He’d known about the inspection though, and knew Gabe was worried. His friend acted like he didn’t care, but Archie knew different.
Gabe put himself in the role as their protector, and the truth was, he’d never left it. He put the world on his shoulders, and he hated there was nothing he could do to make this right.
“Hey, big guy,” Archie said.
Gabe shook his head. “I’m fine. You don’t have to walk on eggshells around me. I’m good.”
“I don’t know. You seemed pretty pissed in there.”
“Nah, not pissed, just dealing with each problem at a time. I took it out on Vinny.”
“We both know we would’ve gutted the guy for touching Annalise,” Archie said.
“Oh, I get it. There’s no doubt about it. I’m just getting my head together because her stepfucker is going to cause us problems, and we need to be one step ahead.”
“I don’t see why we would have an issue with this inspection, Gabe. We’ve already done hundreds of them, even before we opened. We always make sure we’re ahead of the game. Those guys always liked to come when we weren’t ready. Now they can never find anything wrong.”
“We run a tight ship. It’s what I’m hoping for.”
“What aren’t you saying?” Archie asked.
“It’s fine.”
“Damn it, Gabe. I know you like to play mother hen, but now isn’t the time. We’re all fully grown men. You don’t need to protect us anymore.”
“We’ll pass the inspection. I have no doubt, but I fear how far he’s willing to go. We know those men were sent by him, Archie. It’s the start. We can’t be all over this ranch. We can’t protect all of the cattle, the house, the barns, even our workers at all times.”
“You think he’s willing to take matters to the next step?”
“I think a man who is desperate for what he wants is willing to do whatever it takes for a specific piece of ass.”
“Don’t say shit like that.”
“Annalise is not a piece of ass to me, Archie. She’s our woman, but you’ve got to be ready for this guy. For what he’s going to want.”
Archie wanted to tell Gabe that he was overthinking it, expecting the worst-case scenario. The only reason they’d always been one step ahead of the inspections was because of Gabe. He always expected the worst, and oftentimes, he was right.
“Shit.” He looked out toward their land, their dream. “I’m not giving her up.”
“Wouldn’t ask you to. I’m not going to give her up either. She means way too much to me.”
“Then what the fuck do we do?” Archie asked.
“We wait and handle every single problem that comes our way, all the while, we need to go after him,” Gabe said.
“How? We don’t have the kind of money to hire a private investigator.” He knew, he’d looked.