Page 8 of Jax

Max’s fight didn’t wane at my bellow. She bucked and shrieked before bolting again. I held onto the rope, held my ground, and held onto any sense of reason I could, as Max tried to drag me like a rag doll.

I realized too late that I hadn’t pulled the rope in close enough. This wasn’t the wide fields of Texas, and as my eyes flew to a new Jeep positioned in Max’s panicked path, I braced.

Crunching metal, shattering glass, and Max’s shocked shriek shook the air. The vehicle jerked a few feet to the side with a screech and Max’s body slumped into the bending metal.

The large collision did nothing to snap Max free of her blind panic. She stumbled to her feet and jerked forward against the rope. I countered it, using my weight to pull her back into line. She raced forward and I saw Ronnie jump back into the trailer and out of the way as Max headed toward it.

I wrapped the rope round my waist and leaned back even further, pulling Max back enough that she didn’t trip over the ramp. I let her run, fast and with all her might around in a circle, roping her in bit by bit until she was close enough that she couldn’t reach any more cars. I turned with her, leaning my weight into the rope around my back until I felt it begin to wane.

Max’s weighted pull on the rope slowed, and her exhaustion set in.

Twenty minutes later, her legs shook so much they were barely holding her up. Hoarse, grated breaths heaved in and out her mouth, her eyes lowered and head hanging to the ground. All her energy had been used up.

I hissed and let the rope slacken from behind my back, then unwound it from my forearm. A fresh, throbbing wound stung at the touch of air as a trail of blood trickled over my tattoos where my skin had torn.

Ignoring that pain for now, I focused my attention on wrapping a quick Honda knot at my end of the rope before giving a small, steady pull, bringing Max about eight feet from me at the center of the circle, but it was more than close enough.

Using my good arm, I swung the lasso in the air and released it as naturally as one might toss a horseshoe. But unlike others, I never missed, and the rope cleared Max’s long face and slipped down her broad, sweat-dampened neck. She stiffened as it sunk down onto her shoulders but otherwise didn’t have the energy to fight it.

I kept it loose as I walked her back near the club house. I led her up next to the wall with me on the other side of her, and when I reached the end, I turned and walked back up the length again. Both of us regaining our lost air and resting our tired muscles.

It was there, as I calmly watched her move up and down one side, that I looked at her condition. This close, I could see the scars that her dark hair had hidden, an arc of jagged, angry marks over her rump that dragged down to her thigh.

Animal attack.

It was likely to have been some variation of cougar or bobcat or one of the other breeds of wild beasts that lived in the area surrounding the ranches Max lived on.

I sighed with defeat in my chest and soul as I walked Max back from the wall and across the car lot.

Ronnie stood in silence by the trailer, dry tear tracks on her cheeks, fresh ones filling her eyes. I saw her biting down on her lip, her shoulders tucked into her chest. She was bracing herself.

I took a deep breath. “I’ll do it.”

Ronnie’s heart was written across her face as it flooded with relief. She bent over like she’d been punched in her stomach, her breathing stuttering in and out of her. When she looked back up to me, she was crying.

“Thank yo—”

“Not for you,” I interrupted. “I’ll help. But I’m not doing it for you.”

Whatever reaction Ronnie had disappeared as her walls came up. She knew where I stood. This wasn’t a start over for us or a chance. This was just a business deal.

Like every time I’d done this before, I would do it for the horse. For the creature that needed my help when everyone else refused. Because I was Max’s chance for a happy life. A happy life I could give back to her.

But not one I was offering to Ronnie.

Her chance had long passed.

Ronnie took a deep breath and dried her tears. She looked to Max and then to me. She swallowed, cleared her throat and with a clear voice, she said simply, “Okay.”

Chapter Two

Ronnie

Idid it.

I actually... did it.

Even an hour later, as I sank down on to the bed of my motel with a gushing breath, it was still unbelievable. I laid down onto the musty sheets, ignoring the stagnant smell that had soaked into the room.

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