Page 4 of Buck This (Battle of the Bulls #6)

The buzz had not worn off at all by the time she found her seat in the box.

The roaring in her ears didn’t stop as she watched from the front row as a bull and rider bucked.

The rider made it the eight seconds. In the box next to her, a middle-aged guy greeted her and asked if she was with the herd, but she didn’t understand the question, so she just smiled, said she wasn’t sure, and scooted closer to the railing.

Buck This Storme would be loading any second now, and she had a great view of the chutes from this seat.

A huge clang sounded, and she could see a bull buck inside of the chute. Buck This Storme’ s head came above the chute, and she gasped as he nearly jumped out as the handlers were yelling, trying to get him in position again.

A pair of cowboys pulled open the gate to chute three and a solid tan bull bucked. The rider held on for five seconds before he was thrown off.

Another damaging clang sounded from chute six, and the crowd gasped as Buck This Storme’s head appeared over the panels again.

He bellowed a roar before he settled back on all four hooves again.

He bucked in the chute, throwing the cowboy with every moment while the cowboys around them were yelling and trying to keep the rider seated. She’d never seen such raw power.

“Geez,” she whispered to herself.

The box was suddenly flooded by the shifters who had been signing autographs. They waved to her one by one in a polite greeting as they took their seats, but they all looked nervous, or perhaps unsettled.

Raven sat in the chair right behind her and squeezed her shoulder.

“He’s not ready,” the Dead of Winter guy said low.

“He is,” a giant man with silver streaked through his dark hair and beard gritted out.

“Look at him,” another said. “He’s wasting all his energy in the chute.”

“He’ll be fine,” the dark-haired man said. Whoa, that was the Quickdraw Slow Burn guy who had been signing autographs. She remembered the tattoos on his forearms.

“Who are they talking about?” Torrey asked, but she had a feeling she already knew the answer.

“Buck This,” Raven murmured. “He’s one of Quickdraw’s prospects to sponsor, but he’s a freaking mess before each buck. Sabotages himself almost every ride.”

“The athleticism though,” Quickdraw said.

“Hey, no one is arguing that. There are just safer bets,” Dead of Winter said.

“Screw safe bets. Safe bets never become legends,” Quickdraw said, not taking his eyes off chute six.

Clang!

“Why are his horns messed up?” Torrey asked. The other bulls had uniform horns.

“It had to have happened after he sawed them for rodeos. Those types of injuries could come from a number of things. Frostbite if he was Changed in a storm and got stuck in the weather. He’s a Montana boy so that could be possible.”

“You know he didn’t damage them in weather,” Two Shots Down said. “Look at him. He’s a fighter.”

“I bet he did it fighting,” Quickdraw guessed as he clapped for another bull bucking. “I’d bet a thousand dollars he did it scrapping outside of a bar.”

Dead of Winter said, “Leave it up to you to only be interested in sponsoring the problem child of the circuit.”

“Yeah, well you used to be the problem child, and look how that turned out,” Quickdraw spat out. “You did just fine. You leveraged your bad boy reputation to your advantage. He could too if he can get out of his own damn way.”

Torrey’s heart was in her throat as she saw who was getting on his back. The announcer said his name right as she realized what was happening. Cobalt Blue would be riding Buck This Storme out of chute six.

Shhhit.

Torrey looked around, searching for Reece, but she couldn’t find her. Torrey wouldn’t be able to be with a man who did this kind of competing. She couldn’t watch the man she loved get onto an animal like that. She would worry herself to death.

The two cowboys in the arena pulled the rope on that gate, and the crowd, including Torrey, held their breath as…nothing happened.

“Fuck,” Quickdraw cussed, standing up beside her. “Buck This, go!” he roared.

And then that frozen bull exploded out of that chute like a tornado. He spun fast and bucked high, kicking his back legs. He switched directions. Once, twice, and Cobalt went flying through the air.

The bull was charging him before that cowboy even hit the ground, and the bullfighters were desperately trying to distract Buck This while they bought time for Cobalt to get up.

One of the bullfighters grabbed him by his sponsor vest and dragged him out of the way, but the bull was right on them.

The crowd was going wild with excitement as the pickup men collapsed inward in an effort to assist.

Buck This was still bucking, and almost landed his back hooves on Cobalt’s leg.

“Oh no, oh no,” she murmured, horrified.

There was chaos, and then Cobalt was running for the fences, and Buck This went after a couple of bullfighters before he circled the outer edge of the arena.

“No, no, no!” Quickdraw yelled.

“What’s happening?” Torrey asked Raven.

“He’s a fence jumper,” she said somberly. “He’s looking for a place to jump.”

“Jump into the crowd?” Torrey asked, terrified as the enormous bull galloped right for them.

Quickdraw blocked her view completely as he yelled, “Don’t you fucking do it!”

Raven pulled Torrey backward, but when Quickdraw moved to the side, she could see Buck This hadn’t jumped. Now, he was pacing in front of their box.

“What’s he doing?” Two Shots Down asked.

“Hell if I know,” Quickdraw muttered. He cursed as a rope loop sailed right past Buck This’s head and hit the panel.

The other cowboy on a horse tossed his loop of rope over Buck This’s head and the bull went mad as soon as that loop was tightened.

He went to bucking again, dragging horse and rider toward the center of the arena before the rider let the rope go.

He looked pissed as he kicked his horse into a gallop to grab another rope someone was offering near the chutes.

He didn’t even have a rider, but he was bucking so hard, dust was flying off his flanks.

It took another minute before they could get him coaxed to the exit gate, and it wasn’t until he was through that Torrey let out the breath she was holding.

Everyone in the box was frozen, staring toward the gate.

Quickdraw cursed and stormed out of the box.

Dead of Winter sighed. “That was a disaster from start to finish.”

“We keep telling him,” Two Shots muttered. “He’s too damn stubborn.”

Torrey stood and told Raven, “I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“To check on him.”

“Oh, that’s sweet of you, but it’s best to leave Quickdraw alone for a while. He’ll be headed back to his table to finish signing for fans.”

“Oh, I don’t mean Quickdraw.”

Two Shots Down and Dead of Winter wore matching confused expressions.

Torrey explained, “I mean I’m going to check on Buck This Storme. It was really nice to meet you.” Never in her life had she seen two more shocked faces than those two bull shifters as she shook their hands and left. She waved to Raven, and she wore this pretty, surprised smile on her face.

Torrey really liked her. There was a merchandise table near the entrance, and she remembered seeing Hagan’s Lace T-shirts. She was definitely getting one before she left tonight. Raven had a new fan.

“Come back when you’re done,” Raven called. “Your seat will still be here.”

“Okay. I will.”

Cheeks heated with pleasure, she made her way past Gary Wade, the beer T-shirt wearing ticket checker and offered to grab him another beer while she was out, to which he answered, “Absolutely.”

She made her way close to the railing, searching all the pens for Buck This Storme.

There were so many cowboys back here, and it was overwhelming to her senses.

Now, there were cowgirls in beautiful sparkling outfits trying to control prancing horses.

They seemed ready to start whatever the next event was. Barrel racing?

She stopped and scanned the clearing, trying to think of where else she could look for Buck This when Two Shots Down and Dead of Winter passed her on their way back to sign more autographs.

They must’ve just come to the box to watch Buck This Storme.

Was that his real name? Or maybe he’d chosen one, like Cobalt had.

The memory of Cobalt-the-Cockiest-Bull-Rider-Ever flying through the air dragged a small smile from her lips. Now that she knew he was okay, it was a little funny what had happened.

That man had been humbled tonight. Probably. She didn’t really know. The ego was pretty big with that one.

“Did you see him?” Reece called.

Torrey had to search for a few seconds to find her friend. She was near the entrance to the bleachers.

“Hey!” she said, waving.

Three cowgirls trailed behind Reece as she jogged to meet Torrey. “He nearly rode the meanest bull in the entire circuit! He got to seven point five seconds. Cobalt said no one has ridden him this season, but he almost did. Gosh dangit! He was so close!”

“Oh!” He didn’t really ride him for seven point five seconds if Buck This Storme sat in the chute for the first three seconds, but whatever. “Hi, I’m Torrey,” she introduced herself to the three girls behind Reece. “I’m Reece’s friend.”

“So am I,” the blond with fabulous false eyelashes deadpanned.

Right. “I was just headed to…” How did she explain she was headed to check on the bull that had bucked Cobalt off? “Somewhere.” God, she was the worst liar.

“Good, we’re just headed to the bar.” Reece was already slurring.

“Cobalt is getting another ride tonight because the stupid bull got penalized for sucking. The judges said he gets a re-ride, and I just know he’s going to take this one.

I feel it in my bones. He’s going to go number one bull rider in the country after this event.

He’s so close in points! Torrey! I’m going to be married to the number one bull rider!

My Instagram following is about to go insane. ”