Page 18 of Claiming Bennett (Montgomery Dreams #3)

BENNETT

I wish I could say the taste of Maggie’s lipgloss is worth the fist to the face when Bo catches us in the feed room one afternoon.

One moment, she’s pinned between me and the wall, lips parted as sweet whimpers slip into my mouth along with her tongue. The next, a hand is wrapped in my collar, and Bo hauls me backward, away from his sister.

I can’t get a single word out before his knuckles crash against my jaw.

The hit is hard enough to send me sprawling to the ground, sharp pain radiating across my face. My teeth feel like they’re holding on by a thread, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t knock any out. By the look of murderous rage on his face, it’s not going to stay that way for long.

“What the fuck , Ben?”

His voice is no more than a snarl, dark and dangerous. He looms over me like vengeance brought to life, betrayal and fury flaring bright in his eyes. I don’t say anything as he hauls me up from the ground and yanks me out of the feed room just to slam his fist into my cheek again.

“How could you?” he grits out.

Guilt and pain both clog my throat, and I know that nothing I can say will make this better.

Apologizing for tossing our budding friendship aside just so I could get my dick wet in his sister isn’t going to go over well.

If Maggie and I were dating, it may be different, but she was crystal fucking clear that that’s not what we’re doing.

“Answer me!” Bo shouts, shaking me by the collar. “What the fuck were you doing? I’ll fucking kill you!”

Maggie shoves her small hands between us, my eyes catching on the glitter of her nail polish as she pushes against Bo’s bloody knuckles.

“Stop!” she screams.

She pushes him back with all the strength she can muster, stepping between us when Bo releases me in surprise.

Her shoulders are tight with tension, a smattering of new freckles visible on them from all the time spent in the sun under the guise of helping out on the ranch.

Most of what she’s been doing is distracting me from my job, but now she stands between me and Bo like she’s trying to protect me.

“Bo, shut up! You’re going to?—”

“What the hell is going on here?” David shouts as he rounds the corner.

My heart freezes and then starts pounding so fast it hurts, fear kicking into overdrive as I meet the man’s eyes.

“I found Ben in the feed room with Maggie,” Bo says, his voice growly and furious. “He had her pinned up against the wall and was forcing himself on her.”

Rage flashes bright in my mind at the accusation, and the thought that Bo could ever believe I’d do something like that, but I stomp it down.

I won’t deny it. Whatever he wants to say, I’ll take it on the chin. Maggie may have started all of this, but I knew better. I’m older than her, should be smarter than her. This is all my fault, and I’ll take any blame they throw my way for being too fucking weak to say no.

“What the fuck?” Maggie screeches, her attention swivelling between Bo’s red-faced anger and the murderous rage building in David’s eyes. “No, he wasn’t! We were kissing! That’s it!”

Her voice is pitched high in panic, and it’s not helping. I doubt David hears anything but his terrified daughter, and he’s already locked in on his target.

“You were kissing my daughter?” he asks, surging forward until the only thing stopping him is Maggie.

She shoves back against his chest, but he moves to push her aside. I just hope she has the good sense not to watch while he beats me into a pulp on the barn floor.

“ I was kissing him !” Maggie shouts, pushing back on David’s chest even harder. “Me! I started it. Chill the fuck out! You can’t hurt him. What the fuck is wrong with you two?”

David’s glare doesn’t soften in the slightest as it swings back and forth between me and his daughter. I can hardly bring myself to meet his gaze, terror and shame eating me alive as I stand there, wishing I could sink right through the ground.

I’ve never been so disgusted with myself in my life.

“You’ve got until sundown to get the fuck off my ranch, boy,” David says viciously, his hands curling into fists at his sides. “I ever see you again, you’ll wind up as pig feed. You understand me?”

I flinch at the cold fury in his voice and the hate in his eyes. It’s my fault it’s directed at me.

Bo trusted me. We were becoming friends—real friends.

It even seemed like I was growing on David.

He even offered me the chance to stick around for another season if I wanted, and he told me he wanted me to come back with Carlos next year.

The three of us worked so well together on the cattle drive that it felt like we’d done it a million times over, like we were a team by choice instead of convenience. I fucking liked it here.

And I threw it all away for a pretty girl who doesn’t even fucking care about me.

“Yes, Sir,” I say hollowly.

Maggie’s hands fall limply to her sides as she turns to face me, and her voice breaks like glass when she says, “Bennett?”

God fucking damnit.

How could I be so stupid? How could I let myself even think about Maggie? I knew the second I saw her that she’d be nothing but trouble, and I walked straight into it anyway.

It’s cowardly to slink away without even looking at Maggie, without even apologizing , but it’s also the smartest thing I’ve done since I got here. David already said his piece, and I burned the foundation I’d started to build here down to embers.

There’s nothing left to do but leave.

“Bennett, stop!” she cries. “Just stay, we’ll figure this out! Where the fuck are you going?”

Bo’s furious glare is heavy on my back as I rush off, and Maggie’s heartbroken plea for me to stay echoes painfully in my ears.

I ignore it all.

“Bo, you ruined everything !” Maggie screams.

I don’t let myself think about the possibility of this being more than sex to her, even in the face of how torn apart she sounds.

I rush back to my truck and pack with shaky hands, stuffing things into the backseat haphazardly.

The shit in my trailer will be fine for the ride home, since I don’t intend to stop.

Thank God I never unhitched the trailer; I don’t think I could set it back up right now with how weak my arms feel.

My cheeks throbs viciously with every breath I take, but I at least avoided a split lip.

My pulse is so heavy I can feel it all the way in my fingertips, my lips numb and my chest burning with an emotion I don’t want to put a name to. How could I fuck up this badly?

How could I let myself?

My ringtone pierces through the air, shrill and loud enough to make me curse in surprise. I look at the screen, guilt curling in my gut when I see who’s calling.

“Pa, hey.” Is my voice shaking? Did David call Pa and tell him everything that fast? “How’s it going?”

No, David doesn’t know who I am. He’d have beat me black and blue if he knew a Hernandez was laying hands on his little girl.

“All good news over here! Ana went into labor about an hour ago, so Carlos has been running around trying to get everything set up at home,” Pa says, sounding fondly amused. “You got any news for me, mijo ?”

Well, aside from potentially ruining your working relationship with our biggest supplier…

“Nothing here.” Hopefully, he can’t hear the anxiety in my voice. “Cattle drive went well, everything David picked up looks good. Wrapped up early, actually, so I’m packing up now to head home.”

“Good, glad to hear it. Carlos will be out for a few weeks to help Ana with everything, so I’ll need you to take over for him when you get back.”

At least I’ll have something to get my mind off all this. Busy hands will keep my thoughts at bay, and I’ll be able to put all this behind me.

“Perfect timing. I’ll be on the road in about half an hour, should be back for dinner tomorrow,” I say, kicking the passenger side door to my truck closed.

“You’re leaving so late?” Pa asks, worry threading into his voice. “Why not wait for the morning, mijo ? I don’t want you driving through the night.”

I could probably find a place to spend the night somewhere in town, but there’s no way David will let me stay a second longer than I need to. Too much has gone wrong here, anyway. I just want to be back home.

“Don’t worry, Pa, I’ll be safe,” I assure him. “If I get too tired, I’ll pull off somewhere and sleep, but I’m ready to be back home.”

There’s nothing left for me here, at the very least. All I have left is home.