I elbowed Teddy. The motion woke him and also Ruby.
“Teddy, listen. Is that Wolf’s van?”
Before he could answer, Ruby darted up. “Wolf!?”
At the mention of his name, both Grayson and Samuel woke with a jerk.
Buck naked, I turned in circles looking for my clothes.
A car door shut.
Shit. If he’s going to the office, he’ll have to pass through the stables.
“We’ve got to hide,” Grayson loudly whispered. He moved the bales of hay away from the wall and ducked behind them.
I grabbed a pair of jeans off the floor and was about to slip them on when Teddy snatched them from me. “Those are mine,” he said.
Footsteps approached.
Ruby had gathered her clothes. She’d slipped into her pants and was about to slip into her shirt when I took her hand. “Come on,” I said as I pulled her toward the door. “We’ve got to get you out of here.”
I pulled her to the right.
“My bike’s that way,” she said and pointed in the direction from which Wolf was approaching.
I shook my head. “You’ll get it later. We need to get out the other way.”
We ran to the second to last stall.
“Take Storm,” I said.
In the uncanny way horses sometimes seem to understand their handlers, Storm sensed our urgency and, without me having to lead him, he exited the stall, waited for Ruby to jump on then tore out of the stables kicking a cloud of dust behind.
Again, Ruby had sped away from me on horseback, again leaving me to choke on her dust.
“Wyatt!”
I snapped my head around. Wolf had stepped into the stables, and with the bright day at his back, I could see only his sinister outline, his face dark and featureless yet I knew still that he wore an expression of anger that his voice confirmed.
“What the hell’s going on here!?”
I started to walk away. I knew he would follow, and I didn’t want him anywhere near the stall where Teddy, Grayson, and Samuel were either hiding or were about to spring from.
“Hey!” he shouted. “Don’t walk away from me.”
I stopped at the entrance of the stalls and watched Ruby and Storm ride across the open field. It was a beautiful sight: Ruby’s red hair, blowing in the wind and lightly sweeping against her bare shoulders.
Wolf stood beside me. “What the hell, Wyatt!?”
I turned to him, a smile beaming on my face. I couldn’t help it. Ruby had gotten away and it was beautiful, and I was happy.
“You want to tell me what the hell’s going on, here?”
I shrugged. “What does it look like’s going on?”
He sneered and looked me up and down. “It looks like you’re buck naked in the stalls and someone’s just torn out of here on a horse.”
I chuckled, turned back toward the field, and watched Ruby disappear from view.
“Don’t tell me that Mayor's granddaughter was here,” Wolf said.
I shook my head. “Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.”
Again, he looked me up and down. “Ridiculous!? You’re the one in the stables with your dick blowing in the wind.”
I squared him up. “And so I am.”
“You’re fired,” he said.
“Fired? For what?”
He gave me a look of disbelief and waved a hand at my uncovered body. “For… for whatever the hell you’ve been up to.”
“What?” I protested. “There’s no harm in a little romp in the hay.”
One of the boys must have tripped over the bucket because we heard a grunt and a fall coming from the stall then the clank of the tin handle.
Wolf and I both looked back toward the stall.
Wolf made no comment. He calmly walked back to the stall. I followed.
“Well, well, well,” said Wolf from the door to the stall. “What do we have here? Grayson and Samuel, that’s no surprise. But you, Teddy.” He shook his head. “What the hell am I paying you for, Teddy? Wait. Don’t answer. I’m not. I’m not paying you, none of you.”
He pointed. “Get your clothes on and get the hell out of here. I see any of you on this ranch again and I’ll shoot on sight.”
Wolf turned and walked away.
As he passed me, I said, “Hold on a second, Wolf. I can explain.”
“I don’t want to hear it.” He kept walking.
I followed him out of the stables and toward the office. “We were just having a little fun after work. There’s no harm in that. You can’t fire us.”
“I just did.”
“But the rodeo,” I protested.
Wolf didn’t break stride. “Ain’t going to be any Rodeo.”
“Huh?”
“And you can thank your girlfriend for that,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
Without looking at me, he pulled out a folded letter from his shirt pocket and handed it to me. “Read for yourself. The Rodeo’s been shut down. And they’re probably going to take the ranch from me, too.”
I didn’t take the letter.
Wolf put it back in his shirt pocket then, as we’d arrived at the office, he stopped and turned to me. “I’m going to my office, going to get my piece. When I come out, I’m coming out shooting. I’d get going if I were you.” He turned, opened the door to the office then said. “And put some damn clothes on, will you?”