Tethered (The Stables Trilogy #2) (11 page)

So she’d skipped breakfast, too, and decided to pack.

Maple had thought she’d endure anything just to be near J.B. The fact that recently he’d actually touched her, had managed to make a future seem at least a little possible, made everything she felt that much worse. 

Because she wasn’t going to stay. She couldn’t. In the end, she was beginning to wonder if he was just as awful as Tony. Maybe even worse.

Making up her mind, she packed everything else. She was going to miss the ranch. She’d miss her coworkers, the horses, and even, in a weird way, the girls. She’d miss the man she’d thought J.B. was.

After combing the room to make sure nothing else was missing, it was time for the hard part. The hard part was asking J.B. to call his driver. If he said no, Maple would have to call a cab. She could call her parents, but she knew they couldn’t afford to come get her. She’d been banking whatever J.B. was paying her. She doubted it was much, because of her free room and board, but it had to be enough for a cab.

It dawned on Maple that she should probably make sure. Her phone was still in the drawer of her bedside table. It was almost dead from lack of use. Plugging it in, she waited for it to charge some.

At her parents’ house she was lucky to get a signal. And internet? No way. They had an old dial-up modem. Her parents had no use for the internet and had only shared in paying to have it run out to the farm with their neighbors because most of the business ran through e-mail. They used their internet for electronic correspondence only.

That was it.

Here at the ranch, though…

The screen lit up as the phone switched on. As soon as it loaded she was tapping the screen, opening her bank account. She hadn’t looked at it since she’d left Louisiana. She hadn’t needed to. There was nothing to spend money on in Silt Springs, and J.B. kept her busy enough that the idea of shopping never came up.

She tapped her foot while it accessed her account.

Maple gasped when she saw the balance. It was over twenty thousand dollars. When she’d started at the ranch, she’d had about four hundred in there. J.B. was paying her far, far more than a stable hand should be making.

She stared at the screen. They’d never discussed her official pay. It seemed dumb and naive to her now, but she’d given him a voided check, and then simply started to work. Out at the ranch, there truly had been no need to think about the pay being deposited every month into her account.

Now she could afford a cab. All the way to Austin, probably. And a down payment on an apartment. Her stomach roiled and twisted as she considered the possibilities. She didn’t have to run home. And she could still run away from J.B. and his merciless cruelty. She could run from the memory of Bonnie.

She could try again.

This was you trying again, Maple. What makes you think Austin would be any different?

She wasn’t certain. All she knew was that
she
was different than the little lost girl who’d gone to Tulane. Or the wreck of a woman who’d started work at Deyton Ranch. Maple wasn’t healed. Not by a long shot. Each day was spent suppressing desires and fantasies, working until she couldn’t think anymore, and avoiding confronting any decisive measures she should take.

Bonnie’s death was giving her a borrowed strength. The anger, the hurt, the loss-- these provided the impetus she needed to, for once, do something to protect herself instead of tumbling headfirst into whatever some man wanted.

Austin might not be different. But she wasn’t going to blow her money on a cab ride there. Maple needed to be smart. That meant confronting J.B. for his car, and, if he said no, calling a cab to her parents’.

Then hopping in her truck and disappearing.

She found him in the stable, working with Ashley. Maple didn’t know much about any of the girls, but Ashley was the one she was the least connected with. The medium-sized girl with freckles and strawberry blond hair was the only one who never seemed to be into the training. She went through the motions, but her eyes, a soft muted gray, managed to stay blank. Emotionless.

J.B. was pissed at her. “Ashley, I don’t know who you think is going to want to buy you if you can’t show a little goddamn personality!”

Ashley’s face stayed passive.

He sighed and dragged a hand through his hair. J.B. was rarely without his hat. Maple loved his hair. It seemed so out of character with the rest of him, the dark curls almost cherubic. “Do you want out, Ashley? Because we leave
tomorrow
. If you come with me, and I sell you, it’s fucking final. You’ll have to deal with your new Master, and there’s no easy ‘out’ switch. Not when a contract is signed, and a hell of a lot of money exchanged.”

The pony girl said nothing. Her body was a statue.

“Fine. If you don’t say the word, I’m assuming you’re on board. And if you don’t show some spirit, I don’t know who you’ll entice. If anyone. But if you don’t sell this time, I’m kicking you out of my stable. I can’t train you if you don’t want to be here.”

Ashley, prickly little filly that she was, turned and went to her stall. Without being dismissed by J.B.

Maple cringed and waited for his explosive anger. Instead, he stood, brooding. When he didn’t make a move to punish or yell, Maple started feeling doubtful.

He’d been trying to offer Ashely an out. He was warning her about how the auction might go. Like… like he cared. How could J.B. care about what happened to these girls when he obviously cared so little for Maple?

Her eyes stung, and she rallied her anger again to approach him.

“Maple, you’re early, and I don’t have time for you right now.”

“You won’t need to make time for me ever again, J.B. I need you to call your driver for me. I’m going home.” When this didn’t garner a reaction she added, “I fucking quit, J.B.”

That was what pushed him over the edge. “What the hell is happening? Is everyone fucking mutinying today? First Raúl, then these ungrateful ponies, and now
you
!? You want to quit?”

“I don’t want to, J.B., I did. I did quit. Just now.”

“I don’t accept your resignation, Maple.” He was seething, his shoulders quivering as he worked to keep himself in check.

Maple could feel her resolve threatening to crumble beneath the weight of his stare. “I don’t care if you accept it. I’m already packed. If you don’t call your driver, I’ll call a cab.”

“No, you won’t.” He started to stalk toward her. Maple’s heart raced. Her eyes darted, and for a second her body threatened to turn and run.

Shaking, she stood her ground. “Fuck you, J.B.”

He sneered. He stepped close enough to whisper in her ear, his hot breath making her nipples tighten. “You. Wish.”

He was playing with her. The cold jerk had the audacity to
play with her
. After what he’d done? Oh,
hell
no. “Not anymore, J.B.” She knew her voice would betray her. Of course she wanted him to fuck her. It was all she ever wanted. His body, his ruthlessness, his propensity for pain.

But she didn’t want him. Not now. Not with the horrible, gut-wrenching memory of Bonnie still at the front of her mind. Her beloved horse’s body was still fresh in the ground where she and Raúl had buried the pieces.

Pieces
.

Her mouth tasted like bile. She didn’t know what J.B. saw in her face, but he stepped back. “You aren’t quitting over that, Maple.”

“Like hell I’m not.”

It was kind of amazing, really. The more she snapped back, the more confident she’d felt. Tony had rewarded all of her snide remarks with an open handed slap, leaving her ears ringing and Maple second guessing herself. Her previous need to impress J.B. had always silenced her. It wasn’t much; she still felt the overwhelming desire to shut up and do what he asked.

“Okay, then you owe me twenty-five thousand dollars.”

A sucker punch. “What are you talking about? You paid me, you can’t take my wages back.”

“No, but you agreed to accompany me to the auction. You’re reneging on that agreement. Your ticket was twenty-five thousand dollars. I didn’t agree to eat that cost just because you found a punishment-- that you fully earned, by the way-- too much to handle. So pay me back for your ticket, and I’ll call my driver, and we’ll sign separation papers.”

If her jaw could hit the floor like a cartoon character, it would. That’s what the moment felt like. Surreal. Absurd. Drop an anvil on her. Explode her with dynamite. Because J.B. had to be kidding. He couldn’t make her pay that! She deflated.

“What kind of ticket costs twenty-five thousand dollars?” Her voice was too high. It sounded frantic. Probably because Maple was about a second from losing her composure.

“The kind to an event that is very, very exclusive. Where the clientele are exceedingly rich. What did you think happened? I just brought my ponies and set up a fucking booth?”

Her cheeks burned hot. “I didn’t think that! I’m not stupid, but--”

“But what?” His eyes danced as he gained the upper hand again. “But you thought it was open the the public? But you thought it would be fucking
fun
? A country fair?”

“Stop cursing at me!” The situation had completely turned on her. She felt a shame she didn’t want; it wasn’t the shame of desiring something forbidden. This was like she’d failed a test. Or been held back a grade. “You’re being so mean!”

“If you say something stupid, Maple, I’ll say whatever the fuck I want to you.”

Her vision was blurred, but she still saw the ponies gathered at their stall doors. Staring. Even Ashley watched, her face stone. Maple’s humiliation was complete. All her gumption was gone, easily snuffed out by J.B. Who had she been kidding, thinking she could storm in here and demand to leave?

She dragged her sleeve across her wet eyes, catching the tears in the flannel before they could fall. He may crush her, but this was her final, small act of defiance. He couldn’t have her tears.

“Fine,” she huffed.

“Fine, what? You’re not quitting?”

“Not yet, I guess.” She let the ‘yet’ hang between them, a dangling hook.

He bit. And sighed. “Okay. You’ll work the auction with me. We’ll see how you feel at the end of it.”

She nodded and, on a whim, stuck out her hand. A deal was a deal, and she wanted him to know he hadn’t won entirely. This was a fucking truce.

He gripped her hand, and it might have been a mistake to try and show him up, because
damn
…

His touch was electric. Just that little bit of flesh to flesh, palm to palm, almost undid her. Her body launched into arousal, her skin growing warm and sensitive, her nipples straining against her bra, her underwear soaking through.