Page 19 of Rein in the Night

Sighing in disappointment, he drew back. “Then let me come to your cabin tonight. I have something to do before then, but say midnight? How about that?”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine, but behave yourself until then, or you’ll get no nookie from me.”

His eyes flashed. He smacked her ass once and turned her toward the street. After they had joined the others for the barbecue, Keena realized he’d never promised to behave at all.

Chapter Nine

Keena got a late start a couple days later since Ryan hadn’t come to her cabin until two in the morning and hadn’t let her sleep the entire night. She ended up sleeping until well after breakfast and had to beg Mirabelle for food. She was well and truly out of the woman’s good graces, that was for sure, but she still hadn’t confronted Mirabelle on her attitude. Keena knew how she was. She let things go until she exploded, and the end result was worse. As she strolled down toward the stables, she promised herself she would talk to Mirabelle before the day was over. She might not have long here, but that didn’t mean she wanted things to end on a sour note. And who knew, maybe she could come back again.

The thought of picking up with Ryan again next year appealed if he wasn’t attached, although leaving him did not. She pushed all of those thoughts, one way or another, out of her head and picked up her pace. She hadn’t ridden in two days because she was so sore, but now she felt much better and had even brought Annabel a treat. She hoped the horse missed her as much as she missed the horse.

The stables came into sight, and Keena couldn’t stop the grin on her face, but when she heard the screech and the alarmed whinny, dread rose inside her. Jade came cantering around the side of the stables, from where Keena couldn’t imagine, but she rode Annabel with all the inexperience of someone who had never ridden a horse.

“What the hell?” Keena shouted and ran to catch the reins without thinking. Annabel danced wildly. “Stop it, Jade. Let go of the reins. You’re tugging too hard on her mouth.”

“What do you know!” Jade countered. “You think you’re something special because Ryan showed you some interest. Let me tell you something, you’ll be gone soon, and he and I will be right back where we always are—in each other’s arms.”

Keena gritted her teeth. What Jade and Ryan did or didn’t have wasn’t important. What was, was the fact that the bitch was ill treating Annabel, and Keena wasn’t having it. Without a second thought, she reached up and yanked the skank down off the horse. Jade screamed and flew at Keena, but Keena shoved her away. She turned to calm Annabel, but the horse galloped away from the nut who had abused her.

“Now look what you’ve done,” Jade groused. “I was going for a ride.”

Keena got in Jade’s face. “The only reason you were riding Annabel was because Ryan picked her out for me to ride.”

Jade wasn’t intimated by Keena in the least, although Keena outweighed her by a good forty pounds, to her disgust. Jade put a hand on her hip, flipped her pale hair back over a shoulder, and narrowed her eyes at Keena. “The only reason you ride that horse is because you’re trying to impress Ryan. Why don’t you go back to the city where you belong?”

Keena leaned back on her heels and crossed her arms. “Why don’t you?” She gave Jade a scathing look from head to foot. “It’s clear to anybody looking at you that you’re just as much city girl as I am and that you’ve never sat that skinny ass on a horse. I mean, the cowgirl clothes are a joke, seriously.”

“Bitch!”

She flew at Keena a second time, but from nowhere, Ryan stood there and grabbed Jade by her wrists, keeping her sharp nails from connecting with Keena’s face. Jade fought and shrieked in outrage in his hold until she realized it was Ryan, and then Keena couldn’t believe how the woman did a one-eighty. She sagged against Ryan’s chest while whimpering about Keena attacking her and yanking her off her horse. “I could have been killed with the horse galloping along like that.”

Pouting, she looked up at him through long, curled lashes. Keena thought her breakfast would come spewing up at such a disgusting act. She had to control her anger to keep from ripping out a few locks of Jade’s hair.

When Ryan called a command to have someone go after Annabel, Keena realized they had an audience. Several people stood around gawking, most with knowing expressions on their faces, looking from Jade to Keena and back again. Shame filled her. She had never been in a fight or gotten loud like she did just now as an adult. From the way she acted and the way these people were taking it, she was no better than Jade, wild, loud, and getting into a catfight over a man.

Leaving Ryan standing there holding Jade and trying to calm her, Keena hurried back to her cabin. She wasn’t there ten minutes before someone knocked on the door. With a sigh, she rose from the chair she occupied and crossed to the door to open it. Mirabelle stood on the porch with something in a mug. “Can I come in?”

Keena didn’t step aside. “Look, it’s been plain to me over the last couple of days, Mirabelle, that you aren’t happy with me, and you can rest assured I’m not happy with what just happened. I don’t need a lecture about it.”

Mirabelle handed her the mug, which Keena found was coffee, heavy on the cream and sugar like she enjoyed it. The older woman patted her hand.

“I’m not here to judge. I just thought you might want someone to talk to, someone to help you put things in perspective.”

Keena raised an eyebrow at that wording but stepped back to let Mirabelle in. “Please have a seat.”

Mirabelle sat and laced her fingers in front of her. When that didn’t satisfy her natural need to stay busy, she straightened the doily on the table beside her and began to restack the magazines Keena had left haphazard. She didn’t raise her eyes from her task

as she spoke. “You may not know this, but Jade is Jeb’s daughter.”

Keena nodded. “I gathered. I guess she’s like the princess of this place being the owner’s daughter and all.”

Confusion clouded Mirabelle’s eyes when she looked up at last. “Owner? Oh, no, sweetie. Jeb manages much of the business having been in the field for years, but he’s not the owner of Luna Mountain Ranch.”

That surprised Keena. So Jeb wasn’t the owner, but manager, and still Ryan’s boss. He had something of an influence over Ryan, being able to fire him if he felt like it. Keena glanced at Mirabelle with her head down as if she was avoiding looking Keena in the eyes. “Why did you come, Mirabelle? To protect Ryan from me? I assure you it’s no big deal for two people to be . . .” She stopped, not wanting to admit they had progressed to lovers. “I already feel like an idiot for getting into that argument with Jade, drawing a crowd, her acting like I tried to kill her. I was more concerned about Annabel.”

Mirabelle’s face had reddened when Keena almost said “lovers.” Keena could guess, no doubt, from the way they behaved around each other, and if Linda had gossiped about Ryan grabbing her ass in the general store, it was probably all around the ranch. She sighed, rubbing a hand over her eyes. And then the truth of it hit her.

“Wait a minute. He’s the boss, isn’t he?” Keena demanded. “Ryan is. You’ve been protecting him as your boss. That’s why he can prance about like he has nothing to do but entertain me, why he can decide to come and go as he pleases. I can’t believe it’s taken me all this time to figure it out.”

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