Riders - Horizons (III) (6 page)

“I was in no position to
refuse. And you knew that.”

“Your financial situation
was not my problem. I made what I felt was a fair offer for a
business which was, quite frankly, in dire straits. I got you out
of your jam. You should be thankful Mickey Green.
Thankful.
Now get your
cheap hide off my ranch. The sight of you makes my skin crawl. You
goddamn creep. What she saw in you I'll never
understand.”

“Shut the fuck
up
.” Mickeys eyes blazed at him and then,
oddly, flicked to mine.

There was a very strange atmosphere,
underlying the deep animosity between the two men. I wondered what
the hell was going on?

“She... who's she?” I
asked.

“Your mother.” My father
replied.

“I'm confused. What has
Mom got to do with Mickey Green?”

“Maybe you should ask him?
Apparently, he could be your father...” the words rolled off his
tongue so calmly. There was a loud, collective gasp and shock
ripped through me. “Although I personally doubt it,” he added as a
softening blow.

“No...!” I shook my head.
“No way... that's a lie...”

I looked to the other faces staring at me,
registering just as much shock as I was.

“You goddamn fucking
bastard, Charlie Lyle.” Mickey ground out through gritted teeth.
“You promised her you'd never mention it. You promised on your
life. You promised to keep her good name if she stayed with
you.”

“I really don't think Anne
cares anymore. I guess it's time it all came out. Josh deserves to
know.”

“Mickey?” I said in an
agonized tone. “You
could really be my
father?”

Charlie's cold attitude toward me was now
making perfect sense. He wasn't even sure I was his son. Although
he'd tried to treat me as such, for my mother's sake. I didn't know
how I felt any more. My whole world was tipped upside down.

I could be a Green? For God's sakes NO. I
couldn't fucking bear it.

I tried to listen to what Mickey said, but
my mind was reeling.

I didn't look like Mickey, did I? I looked
far more like Charlie, I was goddamn sure of that.

“We never found out for
sure. Charlie was insistent that you were his. He wanted you to be
brought up as a Lyle. No matter who your father was. And Annie
didn't want me to do the DNA test, to defy him or to take the risk
of anyone finding out. She feared the consequences and didn't want
you to be disadvantaged in life, or to be treated differently to
your sister.”

“For fuck's sake, how did
you get together with my mother?” I was incredulous. I could never
imagine my lovely, beautiful mother having sex with this
slime-ball. Never in a million years.

“We were old news. We knew
each other way before she got together with Charlie. We were
high-school sweethearts, way back. I wasn't like I am now. I had
hopes and dreams. I had plans. I was a good guy. I openly admit I'm
not anymore. Life's dealt me some tough shit. And I've done
everything I shouldn't. Every decision has taken me around the
wrong corner. I got into some real bad stuff along the way. But
Josh, I loved your mother. I always did. And she knew that. God
knows why she married
him
.”

“You took off, didn't you?
You abandoned her. And in the end she loved me far more than she
ever loved you, that's why she married me and didn't hang around
for you.”

“I was twenty one and not
ready to settle down. I told her I'd be back and I was. I needed
some time to grow.”

My heart sank, because of the similarity
between Mickey and me. That was exactly what I'd done. What I'd
needed. To experience life and grow.

“Time to grow? Five years
is a lot of growing, Green. But, that's all by the by. When you
came back you wrecked her. You ruined my beautiful wife. You turned
her head and twisted her mind against me.” Charlie accused
Mickey.

“You did that all
yourself, Lyle. If you'd taken notice of her instead of having your
head up your important fucking ass, or constantly looking for
business opportunities, you might have noticed she was getting more
and more unhappy as the years passed by. She was desperate for some
attention and real loving and I gave her that. It was such a shame
that in the end the only way she could escape from you was to leave
this world the way she did. By dying.”

“Excuse me?
You don't know what you're talking about. You're
delusional and you've gone way too far....
Get this cretin lowlife off my property this
instant
,” Charlie commanded, almost
roaring with anger.

I listened in utter astonishment at the
unknown unfolding before me. I was amazed I knew nothing about
this, Not a thing. Not that I completely understood it yet. Or knew
the truth of it. For obvious reasons I took all Mickey said with a
pinch of salt. The guy exaggerated and lied through his teeth. I
would never believe anything he ever told me again without firm
proof of it.

Mickey sneered at Charlie.
“She told me everything.
Everything
... the silent, cold
treatment. For weeks on end you wouldn't even speak to her. How you
punished her in the bedroom. The way you wouldn't let her go
anywhere, keeping her tied to the ranch. How you picked on Josh to
hurt her and belittled everything he did. I begged her to come away
with me, but she wouldn't leave her family. Annie was loyal to a
fault. She was a saint.” Mickey continued.

“Of course she wouldn't
leave us. And why the hell would she want to go away with you? Look
at you. You're a low-life. A nothing. What could you hope to give
her? And you're a liar Mickey Green. I never treated Anne that way.
You've made me sound like some kind of monster. I know all about
you and her. All you were was a big mistake. A few months of
weakness, something from her past. I forgave her that a long time
ago. I'm not denying there were a lot of difficulties in my
marriage, and you were the sole cause of that. You should have left
her alone. You were a thorn in her side. And mine.”

“A few months? We were
lovers for years.
Years.
.. You can say and believe
what you want, Mr High and Mighty Lyle. I know the truth. In her
heart she belonged to me. She was always my sweet Annie. In the
end, she despised you just as much as I despise you. I let myself
slide into some deep shit after Annie married you. How many years
have I been in that shit...” he shook his head, “Christ, only half
my goddamn life! I was sick of myself. Sick to my teeth of what I'd
become. I had no self respect. But you know, I was just starting to
drag myself out of it. I've found another sweet woman. A widow.
Someone I care about. Someone who cares about me. She's a
hairdresser with her own place west of here. I actually have
something to look forward to in life. Well I did. Because now, it
seems you have to ruin that as well. To top it off, you set the
goddamn Sheriff on me over a few fucking cows?
Well fuck you!
If I'm gonna go to
jail, it may as well be for a good reason. I'm just about done with
you. This is for me and Annie. For ruining both our lives.
You fucking bastard. You're gonna pay and you're
gonna die.
”

It all happened so fast.

Charlie moved toward Mickey, his arms
raised, about to strangle him, and so red with anger he looked
ready to explode.

Mickey pulled a gun from inside his jacket,
pointing it at Charlie.

My eyes flew to it in horror.

“You deserve a bullet far
more than your freaking cows,” he said and a mad smile lit up his
face.

He'd lost it. Truly lost it. He was
deranged.

“Give me the gun,
Mickey.
Please
.”
I said slowly and clearly, and although my heart was pounding like
crazy with fear, I moved to stop him firing the gun. I stood
between the two of them with my hand raised in a calming gesture.
Pete tried to disarm him, from the side, and he struggled with him
but Mickey shook him off.

There was a resounding loud noise, which
echoed around the yard, and a sudden stabbing hot pain in my
stomach.

I looked down, clutching myself as blood
spread across my white t-shirt.

“No.
” I groaned, in horrified realization and
disbelief.

The guys wrestled Mickey to the ground. I
felt dizzy as I spun round and fell into Charlie's arms.

“I'm
shot...
help me
.”
I gasped.

“Josh,
no.
..” his eyes were full of horror. “Oh
God, no, please don't die.”

A lightheadedness, a hazy kind of sensation
took a hold of me. I lost all the feeling in my legs and arms, and
my stomach burned with an unbearable fire.

A dark mist invaded my mind

Through the dimming haze, I heard someone
calling in the paramedics.

Am I dying?

“Dad.
..?” I appealed, my voice weak as he crushed me to
him.

“
I love you, son.” He
choked out.

Despite everything... all the cold shoulders
and shit I had taken from him in the past... all that I'd heard
Mickey say about him and my current confusion about him and my
mother... those special words were still something I needed to
hear. Whether he was my biological father or not was irrelevant. I
needed his love and respect. For years and years, ever since I
could remember, I'd had no recognition or affection from him. It
was a crying shame it took such extremes as this to make him
realize his feelings for me and that I was actually dying when I
finally heard him say it.

I whispered in his ear. I didn't know if he
could hear me because I could hardly speak. “Love you, Pa. Tell
Tiffany I love her too.”

She was the last thought in my head.

Her beautiful face was smiling at me. I felt
her soft fair hair wrapped around my hands. Her scent was all
around me. I felt so high just thinking of her.

I'd have done anything for that woman.

Anything.

She was mine. Meant for me.

Deep regret flooded
through me
―
t
hat I'd thought so badly of
her.

I loved
her
―
everything
about her.

Suddenly, there was no noise, anywhere.

I was floating in a strange nothing and so
full of fear.

Oh God... Tiffany... I don't want to go.

My senses closed down.

And the lights went out in my world.

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