Page 43 of Kipp

And why wasn’t he running to Dale’s rescue?

Dale decided to take matters into his own hands and scurried up onto his feet and picked up handful of hay and rolled it into a ball.

‘Takethat!’ Dale said, his voice full of a renewed determination as he tossed the hay ball toward Leigh.

But Leigh simply batted the ball away with contempt.

‘You’ll pay for that,’ Leigh said, a leering smile on his face and his eyes running up and down Dale’s body. ‘And seeing as this is my property, I guess that makesyoumine too…’

Dale knew he had only one option.

‘Daddy! Help!’ Dale screamed at the top of his lungs.

The only question was, would Dale’s Daddy be near enough to hear his cry for help?

Chapter 18

Kipp

‘What the… Dale!’ Kipp roared, hearing his darling boy’s cry for help.

Kipp, accompanied by an alert Brutus, ran at full speed from the pond in the small woodland and toward the barn. As he ran, Kipp hoped beyond all hope that nothing terrible had happened to either Dale or Marshall. The barn was safe, or at least it should have been given the fixes and repairs that Kipp had made on it recently.

But Kipp knew that he was still new to all this – and Dale’s cries suddenly filled him with an all-consuming panic.

What if I missed something?

What if the boys are hurt?

I’d never, ever forgive myself…

With his heart thumping inside his chest, Kipp arrived at the barn and very quickly realized that neither Dale nor Marshall were hurt. However that didn’t mean that there wasn’t a very real threat present. Far from it, in fact.

‘Crenshaw!’ Kipp growled, immediately recognizing what was going on.

Kipp had already dealt with one bully recently, and it now looked like he was going to have to set himself to work once more. Except this time, Kipp had a feeling that Leigh Crenshaw wouldn’t fold quite so easily as Benson Rose…

‘That’s right,’ Leigh replied, puffing his chest out and clenching his fists, ready for action. ‘I told you this was my land. All I’m doing is checking out the kind of weird, freaky shit that’s been going down here. I always had you down as an asshole, Kipp. But this? This is on a whole other level. Uncle Joe would be fucking embarrassed to see it.’

Kipp looked across to Dale and Marshall and could see that both of them were upset. Crenshaw had no right to be on the ranch without an invite, and even less of a right to be upsetting these two wonderfully kind and innocent Littles.

The time for trying for a peaceful solution with Leigh Crenshaw was over.

Kipp knew that he would need to fight. And fight hard. Even with the pain of losing his brother to a brawl all those years ago still casting a shadow over him, Kipp sensed with every bone in his body that this was a time to stand up and fight.

‘You and me, outside,’ Kipp said, his voice full of a snarling rage that he was barely able to contain. ‘I’m not asking.’

‘Finally, you’re being a man about it,’ Leigh said, shaking his head in disgust. ‘We’re fighting for the ranch.’

‘If that’s what you want,’ Kipp said, reigning his temper in and focusing his mind on the objective. ‘But there’ll be no comebacks from this. Understood?’

‘Understood,’ Leigh replied, walking out of the barn and onto the dry, dusty patch of ground outside. ‘First to submit or be knocked out. No rules. No quarter given.’

‘I wouldn’t have it any other way,’ Kipp said, fixing his stare on Leigh, searching for a sign of weakness or a hint of doubt in his opponent’s mind. ‘As long as we both understand the stakes, I’m good.’

Kipp watched as Leigh took his position a few feet away from him. Kipp knew he was tougher than Leigh, but that wasn’t to say that Leigh would be a total pushover. This was a fight, anything could happen. And there was also the fact that Leigh might indeed play dirty or try something outrageous.

Kipp knew though that this was the only way forward.

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