Page 68 of Scapegoat

“We haven’t finished our challenge.” Ned looked seriously pissed right now, especially when Jayden came to stand beside me. “I could’ve beat him.”

“You couldn’t do shit and you know it,” Jayden drawled.

“Walk. Now.” George pointed imperiously at the doorway until Ned finally shook his head, grumbling as he went. But once the man was gone, he turned to the rest of the shed. “We had a good day yesterday and no injured sheep. Don’t need that getting ruined by idiots posturing to get a girl’s attention.” He nodded to me. “Kai’s made her choice and it’s not you dickheads, so don’t go throwing away a decent job for a girl that doesn’t want you.”

The bubble of tension in the room seemed to pop right then, everyone’s bodies going loose right before they turned back to what we needed to do.

“I’ll mop that mess up,” Vicki told me when I went to find the mop bucket. She put her hand on my shoulder to stop me going further. “You all right?”

It always confused me when people asked questions like that, as if I had a right to feelings or something. I just forced myself to smile, still able to see the gleam in Ned’s eyes, then the splash of the sheep’s blood when I blinked.

“I’m fine,” I said with a nod.

“All right then, it’s not long until smoko, but you might want to stick with those boys of yours. Some men…” She shot me a rueful smile, “like nothing better than to thump their chest and make idiots of themselves, thinking it’ll get them attention.”

“That definitely won’t work,” I said, then moved away. Fleece was building up around the men’s feet and we had a job to do. I’d much rather focus on that than what had happened. Vicki seemed to approve of my resilience, the two of us moving like a well-oiled machine to move the wool to be graded.

Lunch was a much quieter affair, with little said around Vicki’s dinner table. People asked politely for dishes to be passed around, but that was about it. George tried to start a conversation about how the weather was going, a safe subject if ever there was one, but he didn’t get far. But when the meal ended, Vicki asked if we’d be sticking around for dinner.

“These idiots might,” Jayden said, nodding to his brothers, but the other men seemed to take especial note of that, including Ned. “But Kai and I have plans.”

“What plans?” I asked him as we walked back to the shed after lunch was done, but he just smiled, then ruffled my hair.

“You’ll see.”

I did, once we were finished for the day, Jay having slipped off while Vicki and I retrieved the rest of the fleece from the floor, because when I stepped outside, he was sitting on the back of a trail bike, the engine roaring obnoxiously as he revved it.

“Jump on,” he said, jerking his head back over his shoulder and I wiped my grimy hands on my jeans before doing just that. “Been waiting all day for you to put your arms around me.” People were watching, I could feel their eyes upon us, but Jay didn’t care. He covered my hands with his, pushing them down lower so I was holding onto his stomach and then, with a roar, we took off.

Chapter 40

Jayden

Feeling my girl’s arms around me as we roared up a dirt track, it was almost enough to make me forget that fucking dickhead that thought he had a chance with her.

Almost.

I wound the bike along the ragged path, revving the engine harder and harder as we moved faster. If Xavier had seen me take corners the way I was on a track I didn’t know, he’d have been fucking furious, but even when the back wheel skidded away from us in a muddy spot, I corrected fast and pushed on. I had Kai pressed into my back, hanging on like a fucking spider monkey.

And I needed to do this.

Ride hard, fast, away from fucking Ned and his dickhead mates, away from anyone who might want to get between me and my girl. I rode, taking us further and further away until we reached our destination.

I’d asked Vicki quietly if she knew a good place for a picnic. She’d told me the top paddock was empty because all the sheep were close to the farmhouse, ready to be shorn. The sky arched up above us, because the paddock was on the top of a small hill, not a tree in sight. As we got off the bike, stars winked into view, one after another.

“Jay—” Kai started to say, but I was on her the moment she slid down, pressing her against the bike, testing the kickstand’s stability, holding her face in my hands as I just stared into her eyes before taking her lips.

“No, not now,” I told her between kisses, unable to get enough of her. “I need this, just this.”

I hated doing that, pushing at her, demanding something, because Kai would always deliver. Her mother had made sure of that, but… I needed her like my next breath, not able to stop kissing her until something settled inside me.

“I don’t want you working in the shed,” I told her. Her dark eyes seemed to take on the shine of each star in the sky as she stared back at me. “You don’t need to. We make more than enough—”

“You don’t get a say in that,” she told me, going to push me backwards, but when I planted my feet, she just slipped sideways, striding across the grass. “No one gets to tell me what I do with my life anymore.”

“I don’t want to tell you shit,” I replied, grabbing the basket of food that Vicki had slipped me. For an old biddy, she seemed curiously supportive of our relationship. She’d patted my hand and smiled, telling me to look after Kai. “But I need you to be safe.”

“What can Ned or any other guy do when you’re around?” she shot back, cocking her hip. “Who can touch me when I’m around my fated mates?”

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