Page 35 of Rainwater

Then she bit down as hard as she could on Jay’s hand.

When he let her go, she turned and pushed Jay into Stuart and when he staggered back, she ran.

There would be no way that she would be used to hurt Corey, she vowed again, running for both their lives.

Corey’s only chance to defend himself would be if she was out of the picture.

She deftly slipped through the corral fence as quick as a flash.

Jay swore viciously. “Hold him here until I get her and bring her back. I want her to see him humiliated and begging for mercy.”

He charged after Jennifer and Corey struggled, but he was held too securely.

“Excuse me, gentlemen, but I would appreciate it if you would get your hands off our foreman.” Ellie’s polite words broke into the thick, charged air.

Five heads whipped around and five mouths gaped open as fourteen-year-old Eleanor Jean Horn cocked the rifle she was holding with a metallic, unmistakable sound.

“Now, now, little lady, you better put down that gun before someone gets hurt,” Jackson said, letting go of Corey’s arm.

“Someone will get hurt for sure, Mr. Butler, if you don’t let him go.

” Her voice never wavered, her hands steady as a rock.

When they didn’t do as she asked, she pulled the trigger, hitting very close to Emmett’s foot.

A smile curved her mouth when he yelped and jumped away.

Very deliberately and without taking her eyes from Emmett’s, she cocked the gun again.

“Let him go now, or the next one will be extremely painful!”

When Emmett took a step toward her, Ellie smiled nastily and without missing a beat, said, “Go ahead, Mr. Butler, make my day!”

A siren in the background caused them to back off.

“Face down in the dirt and don’t move a muscle.

” Ellie watched closely as all four of them lay down in the dirt.

Thank God the sheriff had called her. Of course, he’d told her to hightail it out of there, but she couldn’t leave her mother and Corey at the mercy of the Butlers.

Corey turned and frantically searched the corral, his eyes lighting on a scene straight out of his worst nightmare.

Jay had Jennifer by the hair up against the far wall of the barn.

His hands were on her. In the corner, a large shadow moved and fear squeezed Corey’s heart.

He was paralyzed, recognizing the shadow as it lumbered into the moonlight, its small dark eyes fastened on the movements of Jay attempting to strip off Jennifer’s blouse. Fury mixed with fear.

Jay wore a red shirt that looked even brighter in the moonlight.

Unable to move, unable to breathe around the fear in his gut, Corey watched in horrified dread as the bull pawed the ground.

A bull that Jennifer had had to single out of the herd because he was too aggressive.

A bull that had to be isolated because he had killed other males. A bull that was the rodeo’s dream.

A killer named Marauder.

Corey let out a ragged groan as the bull charged, his bellow loud on the still air. “Butler, look out!” Corey shouted, but it was too late. Much too late.

Jay turned too slowly. The bull impaled him on his horns and threw him into the air, shaking his head and stamping around the ring in a frenzy of rage.

Jay stood shakily on his feet, blood soaking into the red shirt.

With a stumbling run, he headed for the fence, leaving Jennifer behind.

Marauder stood still for a moment, then he pawed the ground, churning up the earth and nausea twisted Corey’s stomach.

The scene was so familiar. With another bellow, the bull surged forward, hundreds of pounds of enraged muscle and sinew, death shining off the wicked horns.

He gored Jay again, then in a rage trampled Jay’s broken body.

Ellie watched in stunned horror as the bull mauled Jay, and with a sickening feeling deep down inside, she knew he was dead, and with a frightening dread, she realized she was glad. She also realized that she would never be the same again and that Tucker would never look at her the same again.

With the bull distracted, it gave Corey a chance.

A very slim chance. He had time to save Jennifer.

Jennifer’s eyes never left the sight of the horror of Jay’s death.

A scream issued from her throat and the bull abandoned Jay’s body, his head lifting once again.

Those small, black, enraged eyes locked on Jennifer.

Corey moved, not even knowing how he mounted Monster, not even feeling the horse leave the ground as he sailed over the corral fence in a breathtaking graceful leap, ignoring the jarring impact when Monster’s front hooves hit the dirt in the corral.

With speed and agility, big muscles flexing and lengthening, the horse raced toward Jennifer at the same time the bull charged.

Corey leaned down low over the saddle, reaching out with his hand.

Time seemed to slow down and the far wall looked a million miles away.

He prayed. Something he used to do as a boy.

Something he hadn’t done in a long, long time.

Prayed to a God who had abandoned him in his need. Prayed as he’d never prayed before.

He reached her a split second before the bull, scooping her up and over the saddle with a desperate move that almost unseated him and pulled the muscles of his back.

His hip burned and ached as if a hot brand were pressed against his flesh.

The wicked horns of the bull missed the hindquarters of Monster by mere inches and the big gray horse, pale as a ghost in the light of the moon, sprinted toward the fence in a run for his life.

The bull ravaged the barn wall with his horns, enraged at missing Jennifer, giving Corey a few more precious minutes to reach safety.

Then with another bellow, the bull turned and gave chase.

“Jennifer, hang on!” Corey yelled, knowing he was taking a big chance in forcing Monster to jump a fence with two riders.

Jennifer was in a precarious position, he could lose her, but he had no choice.

The stallion increased his speed, giving all he had in response to Corey’s urging.

The bull gained, but with the extra burst of speed, the animal’s horns missed again.

Corey felt Monster prepare himself for the leap, judging the distance and the height, and then, as if the horse had grown wings, they were flying. Corey felt the sheer power of the animal throughout his body. The impact was jarring and he felt Jennifer slip, but she clutched at his leg and held on.

That night, Jennifer sat at the window seat.

Knowing now that it was just a matter of time before Corey finally left.

Now that Jay wasn’t a threat, there was nothing to keep him here with her.

She could feel the distance he was already putting between them.

She wished she knew what to say, how to get through to him.

She’d seen him walk down to the paddock and lean against the fence, his head bowed as if the weight of the world was upon his shoulders.

Her heart ached as she watched the light wind ruffle his dark silky hair, her fingers tingled with an uncontrollable urge to feel the soft strands.

She watched him push it back impatiently, as if it was the thing that annoyed him.

She could see that he was in torment. Even now, his body looked ready to flee.

She saw his muscles tense and he shifted, leaning all his weight on his hip.

Then she saw him flinch and rub the flesh beneath his tight-fitting jeans.

He was in pain and she fought back a knot of emotion that clogged her throat.

With a fierce caring and an anger that was irrational, yet strangely justified, she continued to watch him.

He gripped the fence and kicked the bottom rail, then leaned his head against the top rail and her heart surged with so much feeling for this man she could barely contain it.

He pulled a long knife from his boot and she watched him test the edge with his thumb.

Suddenly something inside her went cold.

He grabbed his hip again, his muscles bunched and he moved away from the fence with that same graceful prowling stride she’d seen him move with countless times.

Panic fluttered in her like a thousand tiny birds trying to get loose.

She ran outside, later not even remembering her desperate run through the house.

He was going to do something irrevocable, unspeakable.

She could tell. He was going to the cottage to destroy something in himself with the act and she wasn’t going to let him do it.

The slashed canvases flashed in her head. She remembered the pain that finding those had caused her. It was as if in his need to heal himself, he refused the means by which to do it. Countless times punishing himself over and over again. Spiritually, irreversibly, permanently.

Corey had stood at the fence, replaying the bull goring in his head over and over again until his hip ached with the remembered agony.

The destructive force inside him was restless and savage tonight.

He wanted to hit something, crush something with his hands.

He wanted her. She was all that was good, beautiful and bright.

Color in a gray world. Vibrancy in a dull, dark void.

Fulfillment where there was only dissatisfaction.

His hand gripped tightly around the handle of the long blade in his hand.

Dark destruction was all he knew. It was in his genes passed from father to son.

He didn’t want to be like his father. That was the deep, imbedded, innate fear that ate like acid, burned like a white-hot fire with scorching, searing, relentless pain.