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“Well…” The girl dropped her gaze, then her eyes flicked back up to Chyanne. “My… my… Daddy.”

Even though she’d already heard it once, that had been through whispers from a distance, so she’d half-expected her ears had deceived her. But this… what the hell kind of freak show had she walked into? Despite her brain screaming at her to run away in the opposite direction, she forced herself to breathe slowly and smile. “My name’s Chyanne, what’s yours?”

“B-Betsy,” the distraught girl stammered.

Her smile widened. “Okay. Betsy. Nice to meet you. Now, I’m going to help you.”

Betsy’s bottom lip quivered, her large hazel eyes gleaming with tears. “R-really? You can do that?”

Chyanne nodded. “Really. Now, why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”

All at once, there was a sudden din of conversation.

“Oh, Betsy, I don’t know—”

“Excuse me, miss, I understand you’re just trying to help, but—”

“I’m not sure what you heard, but—”

She ignored them all. She kept her attention solely focused on the girl. There was no doubt in her mind Betsy was a victim. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Betsy was not as immune to the girls’ explanations and reasoning, and her eyes shifted to each of them in turn before finally coming to rest on Chyanne again.

Chyanne waited—if she’d learned one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt, it was that you can’t help people unless they truly wanted it.

“He… he’s mad at me,” she said again, looking away. “I… I did something I shouldn’t’ve. I… I know that, but…”

“It doesn’t matter what you did,” Chyanne assured, her voice soothing. “No one deserves to be hurt.”

“He’s not going tohurther, for God’s sake.”

Betsy’s eyes darted away to the speaker, then back again. “He… he’s going to spank me! Hard! With the thing I hate most in the world!” When she finished speaking, her cheeks were pink and she was breathing hard.

Unable to stop herself this time, Chyanne jumped back as though she’d been hit. Hewhat? It took her a long, silent minute to get ahold of herself as the girls were trying to reason with and reassure Betsy all the while. Finally, she’d had enough and whirled on them.

“Stop it!” she snapped, her voice hoarse and harsh. “I don’t care what she did,” she reiterated, glaring at each of them in turn. There was a blonde, another petite brunette, and a tall, willowy woman who seemed the least intimidated by Chyanne. It only made her glare harder. “No one deserves to be… to be…”

“Paddled!” Betsy wailed, once again bursting into tears and proceeding to bury her face into her hands.

That was it. Chyanne had heard enough. Whipping her phone out of her back pocket, she typed in her password and unlocked her phone. She could feel eyes on her, and her ears perked at the sudden quiet.

“What are you doing?” one of the girls asked as Chyanne pulled up the phone app.

“What any one of you could have done—shouldhave done.” She looked up long enough to aim a glare at each bystander, minus Betsy. Then she turned her attention back to her phone and dialed.

9-1-

And then, to her shock and horror, her screen turned black.Noooo!her mind wailed while aloud she let out a stream of curses that a seasoned sailor would have been proud of.

When she looked back up, every eye was on her and most mouths were gaping open in shock.

Guess they’re not used to bull riders—foul language and a hot temper is just part of the gig.Suppressing a sigh and trying to hide her disappointment, she pocketed her useless cell phone and looked at Betsy.

The poor girl’s eyes were full of tears and her lower lip was quivering. That was all it took for Chyanne to forget her own troubles and focus on the petite brunette.

“Listen,” Chyanne appealed to her. “We might not have much time. I want to help you, I do, but now that my phone’s dead…”

Betsy blinked furiously and a tear dripped onto her cheek. “I k-knew it. It’s p-pointless. I-I’m doomed.”