Cowgirl Education: a Camden Ranch Novel

by Jillian Neal

  Her brother’s entire demeanor changed. His eyes softened and he dropped his arms. “There’s gotta be some kinda rule about this, though.” He sounded more concerned than agitated. Holly took that as a good sign.

  “There is, but only because I’m in his class. After this semester, it won’t matter. He’s only teaching here for a year before he goes back to being a therapist.”

  “Holl, you’re playing with fire. Seems to me you could get kicked outta here or lose your stipend at the very least, and he could get fired for messing around with you.”

  “Not if no one ever finds out. And. . .I don’t care what happens to me anymore. I just need him not to get fired.”

  “I don’t much believe that. You’ve wanted to be a therapist since your junior year of high school. You’ve worked your tail off.”

  “But I love him more than all of that.”

  “You sound like a love sick pup. He better be treatin’ you right.”

  “He’s the most amazing man in the world, Luke. And actually, since you know now, Dr. Newsome okayed me staying at his house until we figure out the picture thing.”

  “Wait, the head of the department knows about you two?”

  “No. It just worked out.”

  “Sounds mighty suspicious to me, but okay. Next question, you ever think this deal with the pictures has anything to do with him? Somebody tryin’ to get the two of you in trouble, maybe. Seems to me the little pipsqueak Mr. Amazing just dragged outta here is lookin’ for something to keep you from getting whatever it is he’s decided he wants.”

  A shot of terror stabbed through Holly. She’d been trying not to think that very thing all damn day. “I did think of that, but the pictures were only of me. What would that prove? Besides, there are lots of other women who’ve also had their picture taken without their permission.”

  “Just be careful. Don’t get so hellfire determined to do things your way that you end up losing the guy his job and everything you’ve worked for.”

  “I won’t.”

  Luke stared at her for the length of two heartbeats. “If you don’t, it’d be the first time in your life you haven’t.”

  The distinctive sound of an exterior door closing sliced through the moment.

  “Shit,” Holly raced towards the front of the building. Luke followed after her. She clutched her chest, trying to steady her racing heart. Mrs. Singleton was striding out of the building. She seemed to be leaving and didn’t appear to have heard anything odd.

  Idiot just wouldn’t give it up. Dec followed after Trevor yet again when he returned to his parent’s table, picked something up, and headed back out of the room. This time Trevor walked out the exit doors, however. Dec watched him hurry towards the adjacent building until he was out of sight.

  Luke and Holly returned to the table several minutes later. The look on Holly’s face said it all. Her brother knew, but wasn’t going to talk.

  A rising tide of panic roiled in Dec’s lobster-filled stomach for the rest of the symposium. Finally, Dr. Newsome took the stage. He droned on, thanking the speakers and the attendees.

  If you get caught, it’s all over. Back to every failure with your name stamped on it. Back to that headstone. Back to suffocating in the crowd where no one cares. Without her. Forever. You can’t even handle the stress that someone else might know. You’ll never make it through the night without a little help. Bet it wouldn’t take much to find something nearby.

  The cravings slammed through him, drowning him in a riptide of weakness. Wave after wave crashed over him. Dec could barely catch his breath.

  “I know several students are hoping I’m going to announce my choice for whose dissertation I will be supervising this year. I have decided to wait until the end of the semester to make my announcement. Still too many students in contention for my help, though I have no idea why. They’re all far more brilliant than I.” Polite laughter followed Newsome’s attempt at self-deprecation.

  A cold sweat broke out across Dec’s forehead. Just shut up. I need her. I need a fix. Nice, St. James, do you love her or is she just your next addiction? Brutal thoughts embattled his mind. He had no control over them.

  Shaking himself, he grabbed a near empty glass of water and tossed it back, slapping his mouth with the half-melted ice. A constant buzz of contention took up residence in his ears.

  Suddenly, applause broke out and the lights in the room were back on. Dec blinked rapidly. His eyes sought Holly. She was laughing at something her brother had said. Breath rushed into Dec’s lungs.

  She was right there, laughing and smiling. He was okay. She was all he needed.

  Everyone made their way to the exit doors and Dec prepared to argue with Luke over letting Holly stay at his home. He doubted knowing what he now knew that her brother would be agreeable over this. Dec didn’t particularly care.

  When they spilled out into the cold night air, they were met by two other men wearing cowboy hats and boots that had to have been Holly’s other two brothers. And they were dragging two other men by the scruff of their necks.

  “What on earth?” Holly gasped.

  “Found your photographers.”

  Dr. Newsome made his way to the front of the gathered crowd. “What is the meaning of this?”

  “Larry and Moe here were snapping pictures willy-nilly outside the dining hall. We thought that was a little odd so we followed after ‘em. Headed straight up two trees outside a dormitory. We yanked ‘em down. Didn’t put up much of a fight. Cityboys.” He shook his head.

  “That’s Grant,” Holly whispered to no one in general. That made the slightly shorter one with the massive belt buckle Austin, Dec recalled.

  Newsome and Dec moved closer. “Do you attend the University, gentlemen?” Newsome demanded.

  Neither responded until Austin shook the one in his hands. “Grown man asks you a question, you best better answer lest I show you exactly what we do to peeping toms out in cattle country. I’ll turn you out with the bulls, boy.”

  “No sir,” vaulted out of the kid’s mouth. He couldn’t have been more than seventeen.

  “We go to Lincoln High,” the other volunteered without having to be prodded.

  “Why are you here on this campus then?” Newsome sounded rather severe.

  “We. . .uh. . .we’re working on. . .uh. . .a project.”

  “Yeah, for school.”

  “Oh, so you were told to take pictures of women on UN’s campus for school?” Holly stepped up. “I highly doubt that.”

  Dec watched the men closely. Neither seemed to recognize Holly at all. They shared a shameful glance.

  “Give it up, gentlemen. What’s the name of the site?” Dec couldn’t possibly have been the only one to figure this out, yet somehow everyone around him seemed surprised.

  “We don’t have much up yet.” One volunteered as the other elbowed him. “We’re caught now. We weren’t gonna put up nudie pics, I swear.”

  “My baby sister ends up on some kind of website nekkid, boy, the bulls’ll be the least of your worries,” Austin snarled. “I’ll skin you alive.”

  “Who’s your sister?”

  “Dear Heavens, all right. If you don’t mind holding them there for a moment. I’m calling campus security. We’ve got it taken care of folks. Head on home.” Newsome pled.

  The crowd begrudgingly slunk towards the surrounding parking lots. As they began to move, the one Grant was holding managed to jerk free and took off. Without thought, Dec summoned his past, every fight he’d ever been in either in a bar, or with a dealer, or user, or hell, his own brothers coursed through his veins. In three quick strides, he dodged around Dr. Hennessy and his wife, caught the kid at his waist and had him on the ground. He planted his boot firmly in the idiot’s chest.

  “Damn,” Grant admired. “You’re quick. Not bad for a city-slicker.”

  “Came up on a sheep farm. I’m not a city-slicker.” Shocked at his own decree, Dec jerked the kid off of the ground.
Never before had he readily owned up to his upbringing.

  Security pulled up followed by a police car. The fools were taken by the cop, not the security guard. Having been the guy shoved in the back of a police car himself, Dec cringed when they were pushed inside.

  Grant and Austin began recounting getting them out of the trees to the security team and the remaining crowd, but Luke discreetly motioned for Dec to follow him to the side of the building. “Look, Holl told me what’s going on.”

  Dec glanced around to make absolutely certain no one could hear them. He gave a quick nod.

  “I got a wife at home and if you ever tell her I said this I’ll scalp ya, but she’s ‘bout as big as the broad side of my barn with a belly full of my baby girls. Two of ‘em. Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, but I can’t stay out here. Austin or Grant could stay if they needed to, but that puts us short on the ranch and that’s a lotta extra work. Seein’ as you seem just as capable of taking care of Holly as we are, I’m holding you to that. Those idiots hadn’t ever seen Holly before. They didn’t take them pictures, and if they had they sure as hell didn’t return the copies to her. Something else is going on.”

  “I know that.”

  “Well, also know this, I got no issue with what you and Holl got going on long as you treat her right, and I’ll keep my mouth shut about it ‘lest this all gets fucked up bad enough to make a freight train take a dirt road. What all of that means is if something, if anything, happens to her, I’m coming after you.”

  “Understood. I’ll keep her safe. I know this looks bad, but I swear to you, man to man, I love her more than life itself.”

  “Yeah, well you both sound like love sick pups. Just keep her safe.”

  Two hours later, Dec held Holly in his bed, content on his chest wearing another one of his Radiohead t-shirts.

  “I can’t believe I’m here,” she sighed.

  “I’m just so happy that you are. Not sure you’re supposed to be now that your brothers caught the amateur photographers. Newsome never redacted the suggestion though.”

  “If anyone asks, I’ll say that we figured out that they weren’t the people who took pictures of me. Or that my brother asked if I could still stay here.”

  “Hopefully, no one will ask.” Dec shifted so more of his skin was in contact with hers. Their current reality seemed far too close to a dream.

  “We have less than three weeks until the end of the semester. Since you already met all of my brothers, do you want to come home with me for Thanksgiving? Please.”

  “I’d love to, baby, but don’t you think the other members of your family might not like confirmation that you were sleeping with your professor?”

  “Luke didn’t care. He is probably the most civilized, but they all just want me to be happy.”

  “That’s all I want as well.”

  “Then come with me. You make me happy.”

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Two days before finals began, Holly walked the circle in Dec’s house from his kitchen to the living room to the entryway, past the office and bathroom and back again, reciting facts about the functions of the temporal lobes in monkeys for her Anal Fun exam. The playlist Dec had created just for her to study to blared through her earbuds silencing the incessant drone of the salt trucks. They’d barely gotten an inch of snow, but there was more to come.

  Dec was once again playing Duffy’s. This time she had no choice but to stay home and study. Other than letting Dec fuck her senseless each night, she’d done nothing the last week but go to class, go to the library, write papers, and study.

  The music died in her ears when her phone rang. Cheyenne, again. She sent it to voice mail. Her mother, Luke, Grant, and Beth had all been relegated there that afternoon as well. Everyone wanted to wish her good luck on her exams. It was sweet, but she didn’t have time to chat.

  Keeping a close eye on the front windows, she glanced at the clock on the mantle then returned to the front of the house. The pizza would be there soon. A hint of nerves niggled in her empty stomach, but she’d repeatedly told herself that it was the topic of the paper that had weirded her out, not the pizza guy. Besides, studying made her hungry, and before he’d left Dec had ordered her a deep dish supreme with extra onion, her favorite.

  She laid her phone on the front table and went back to reciting facts. The buzz of the doorbell startled her. Holly peeked out the windows and summoned courage. It was the same damned pizza guy. Didn’t anyone else work this neighborhood?

  Opening the door, she mean-mugged the guy, but he refused to meet her gaze. His ballcap was pulled low over his eyes. “Uh. . .ma’am. . .uh. . .your pizza.” Almost dropping the insulated bag the pizza was in, he finally managed to hand her the box.

  “Thanks.”

  “And. . .your receipts.” He dug in his pocket and produced the receipt for Holly to add the tip to and sign. She completed the tasks quickly and returned the paper. He handed her a copy, glanced back down the driveway nervously, and offered her a wave.

  Carrying the pizza and the receipt back to the kitchen, Holly dropped them both on the granite. Damn thing was hot. The receipt fluttered to her feet. When she lifted it something caught her eye. Driver’s Name: Michael Ashbury was printed at the bottom of the receipt. M.A.

  Her stomach turned inside out. She had no idea how she knew he was the M.A. who’d taken her picture, but she did. The last time she’d been at Dec’s house alone. He’d been messing with his phone. He was trying to take her picture. That was the shot with his thumb in the way. The brick. She remembered. It was the brick border on Dec’s front porch. Shit. Shit. Shit. He was taking her picture at Dec’s house.

  “I don’t know who you are, and you don’t know me, but some guy’s been paying me to take pics of you. It’s getting weird. I thought you should know.”

  The squeal of tires slipping on ice ripped through the twilight. “Oh my God,” Holly stepped into her boots and raced out the front door. The brutal wind took her breath away. Her lungs burned as she sped through the trees towards the road, no longer afraid of M.A. but of the man she knew had to be behind his payments.

  Freezing in place, she watched in horror as a yellow Scion chased an old Ford Taurus with Mario’s Pizza Delivery on the top out of the neighborhood.

  “Oh my God.” Her words were whipped away in the wind. Think, Holly, think. She could call Luke. No, he wouldn’t be able to help. Racing back in the house she tried to think of any possible way to figure out if Trevor had any usable evidence to convict either Dec or herself.

  She couldn’t possibly tell Dec. He would freak and he’d told her that morning his cravings had been increasing. He’d planned to go to a meeting in Roca the next day with Kade. She could handle this on her own. She wouldn’t worry him. She just needed someone to talk it through with her.

  Beth’s phone rang three times before she answered. “I haven’t slept in eighteen hours. Why do we have to know all of this crap about monkeys?”

  “I don’t know, Beth. Listen to me.” Holly quickly explained the hell raining down around her currently.

  “Oh. My. God. Holl, what are you gonna do?”

  “That’s why I called you. I need to talk this through. I don’t even know if he has enough evidence to get us in trouble.”

  “Okay, okay, let me think.”

  “Do you want to come over here? Dec will be out late.”

  “Uh, no, if Single-ass knows where his house is it would look particularly bad for your friends to be showing up over there. Let’s not give him any real evidence.”

  ‘I’ve got you by a string this time, Holly, and I plan to take full advantage.’ “He wasn’t just threatening me at the symposium. He even called me Dr. St. James’ pet.”

  “What?”

  “He told me he had me by a string this time and that he was going to take advantage. I thought he was just being his typical douche-bag self. It never
even occurred to me he was serious.”

  “Okay, deep breath. Meet me at your old apartment. We’ll figure something out.”

  “Okay, but I have to be back here before Dec gets home. He’ll freak if he thinks something’s wrong.”

  Holly threw on her coat, grabbed the pizza on her way out, and leapt in her truck.

  “You got pizza for this?” Beth shivered when she entered the freezing cold apartment.

  “Dec ordered it before he left for Duffy’s. I didn’t want to chance his coming home and finding it uneaten. I turned the heat up but, it’ll take it a little while to warm up in here. The insulation sucks.”

  “It’s fine. Can I have some pizza? It’ll help me think.”

  “Of course. I can’t eat. Pretty sure I’m going to be sick.”

  Beth offered her a sympathetic gaze. “We’ll figure something out. We just need to think like psychologists. Understanding why people do what they do or don’t do what they don’t do is our job. We need to analyze Trevor.”

  “Okay, that’s good. Let me think. Trevor never does anything the way he’s supposed to. Dec let me see a few of his papers. He puts forth no effort at all. It was almost like he was trying to goad Dec into failing him or something. It was blatant.”

  “So, we could assume he puts forth no effort unless it’s for his own gain.” Beth took a bite of pizza and made notes on a notepad. “Do you think his plan is to threaten Dr. St. James with anything he’s found out about the two of you so he wouldn’t fail him?”

  “Maybe. But he’s the same way in his other classes, too. He went so far as to pay that Michael dude to follow me. That’s kind of a lot of effort. And oh my God, Beth, Dec could get deported all because of me.”

  Beth studied her for a moment. “Not necessarily. I mean it probably wouldn’t save you getting kicked out of school, but you could marry him. If you’re married to an American citizen, you get to be a citizen too. My dad’s from Germany. He got to move here as soon as he and Mom got hitched, well, not as soon as but a few months later.”