Page 24 of Whispers of My Skin

What the fuck are they talking about?

“I’m hoping for a boy. A mischievous little boy who’s the spitting image of his father,” she laughs.

“Well, I think it’s going to be a girl,” Joel laughs back “A fiery little redhead just like her momma. And I give you fair warning, I’m gonna spoil her rotten, so you’d better get used to the idea.”

Cassandra’s pregnant? With Joel’s baby?

The very thought makes me want to puke.

Holy fucking hell.

And yet he married me?

Joel and Cassandra. Having a family together.

My heart breaks as I imagine them planning a life together, having children together, raising them together.

Sharing everything that I can’t have with him… such as growing old together.

While they’re sharing their excitement about her news, all I can hear is my heart painfully thudding.

“So, have you thought any more about what to do with the ranch?” I hear her ask. “With the way the market is right now, it’d make sense to either sell the whole thing, or at the very least part of it, in order to release some of the equity.”

Sell my ranch?

No. Never!

How can Joel even consider selling any part of Redlands? That’s the ultimate betrayal of my trust, since the whole point of my going to him was precisely because I didn’t want to sell up. This is my land. All that I have left. My legacy. I thought he understood, but now my faith in Joel is shattered like glass under a hammer.

I’m shaking with anger. I need air. I need to get out of here. I don’t want them seeing me like this. I have to think up a strategy, take advantage of the fact that now I’m aware of their scheming, I can do my best to block them. Forewarned is forearmed, after all.

My first thought is that I need a lawyer—if I only had the money for one. Which I don’t. So, I’ll have to come up with another plan.

On my own.

I should have stuck with flying solo in the first place, rather than chasing some foolish romantic notion that Joel was the one person I could turn to, because he wouldn’t let Redlands down.

Well, now he has. Lesson learned.

I stumble out of the kitchen in a confused daze, not even looking where I’m going.

I only realize I’ve ended up outside the ranch hand’s living quarters when a strong arm suddenly grabs me round the waist and drags me inside before I even have time to react.

“Well, look what we have here,” a gruff male voice says as he holds me firmly in his grip. I can’t see his face because he’s holding me from behind, but his nasty mocking tone sends fearful shudders down my body.

If I was panicking before, it’s nothing to now, as his disgusting smell hits me, a mixture of stale sweat, tobacco, and alcohol.

“Looks like someone’s come to pay what they owe us. Fine by me—more than one way of getting paid,” another husky male voice chuckles from behind.

I’m guessing some of the men didn’t take too kindly to Joel firing them this morning, and it appears they’ve been drowning their sorrows in what smells like cheap whiskey. Drunk and disgruntled—not a good combination.

How can I escape? I quickly work out that my only option is to make a run for it, but when I try, rough hands immediately catch hold of me and effortlessly haul me back into the room, as several men stand around laughing raucously.

“Now don’t you go thinking you’re too good for us, little lady. You obviously came here in search of a good time, and we’re only too happy to oblige, show you how real men do it.”

Shit. I don’t need to be a genius to work out that I’m in serious trouble.

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