by Angel James
Colter’s gaze narrowed with suspicion. “Meaning?”
“Meaning, there are things about the Autrie line that you don’t know and it’s time to pass the torch with a time-honored tradition.”
“And is this necessary?” He gestured curtly to me and what Ambrose was doing in full view of everyone. His finger had dipped between my legs, much to my horror, delving into private places. I wanted to die and I couldn’t stop the tears from falling this time. “God, Daddy...stop. This is disgusting, even for you.”
That must’ve hit a nerve because Ambrose dumped me off his lap and pushed me to the floor at his feet. I banged my shin against the leg of his chair and bit back a yelp. “Boy, you’ve a lot to learn about respecting your elders. I’ve given you much too much leeway and I can see now that you’re gonna need a lesson in manners. You live and breathe by my leave, ya hear me, son? Not the other way around. I’m still the boss. I sign the checks. Without me, you’re nothing. Ya hear me? So that means you tow the line if you want to eat. Simple as that. You’re my son, my heir, true enough, but I won’t, do you hear me, I won’t stand to be judged by you or nobody else. Only God can judge me, son and you ain’t God.”
Colter, strong and built like an ox, allowed his gaze to drift to me for a brief moment but jerked his gaze away as if scalded. “You’ve made your point, Daddy.”
“No, I don’t think I have,” Ambrose said with a low, mean chuckle. “But I will by the end of today.” He gestured to the men. “Boys, make sure that my son stays where he’s at. I’m about to show him what real power is.”
Suddenly, Colter was in the grip of both men and even though he threw a punch or two before one got him into a chokehold, he was as helpless as me.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Colter roared, struggling until the man holding him put more pressure on his windpipe.
Ambrose, satisfied that Colter wasn’t going anywhere, motioned to the free man and unbuckled his jeans. “Hold her,” he said and right before my horrified eyes as I was anchored into place, released his penis right in front of my face.
The large, veiny shaft jutted from a nest of wiry gray hair and I gasped with dawning horror as he grabbed my head and held it.
“Being the king has its privileges,” he said with a grunt of satisfaction right before jamming his penis in my mouth. I gagged and struggled but he held me in place, sliding that terrible thing in and out without my consent. I thought to bite down but a horrible thought occurred to me. What if he went after my sisters? I could endure anything if it meant my sisters remained safe. And that meant gagging on Ambrose’s rutting dick.
Colter made a strangled sound and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to get through this horrible moment without wishing for death.
“You see, there’s more to keeping people towing the line than just controlling the dollars and cents, you have to assert your dominance and the only way to do that is to make sure the people have a reason to fear,” he grunted as he pushed against my mouth.
I gagged, my tongue rebelling against the invasion even though I knew I was helpless to stop the degradation.
“Uhh, yeah baby, that’s it. Take it all, you little bitch. Take it!”
Colter couldn’t fight back, couldn’t look away. It was sadistic and beyond anything I would’ve imagined Ambrose capable with his own flesh and blood.
For a surreal moment, I popped outside of my body, away from the horror of what was happening to me, and I felt sorry for Colter. This was the man who had raised him? This sadist? I struggled with that knowledge.
Granted, I didn’t know Colter like the back of my hand but what I did know of him, he wasn’t anything like Ambrose.
So why was Ambrose torturing and humiliating his son with a show like this?
I would’ve been happy to remain disconnected from the situation but soon enough I had no choice but to slam back into the here and now and accept the knowledge that some old pervert was fucking my face like I was just some wet orifice and not a living, breathing human being.
After an interminable time — it could’ve been moments or seconds, I couldn’t tell — warm, salty liquid flooded my mouth and I fought the urge to throw up all over his fine, hardwood floor.
Somehow, by the grace of God, I held it back and managed to swallow his foul seed. Thankfully, it wasn’t much. Being an old fart had worked in my favor, I guess.
Ambrose released me and I fell back, skinning my elbows as I stumbled. He buttoned his pants and buckled his belt, heaving his belly into place with a satisfied grunt and returned to his son, business as usual.
“There is much to learn and I’ve been lying down on the job. I should’ve been bringing you in way before now but what can I say, I’m a bit of a controlling cuss.” He laughed as if he’d told a grand joke and I wanted to rip out his wind pipe. He gestured to the men. “Release him. The show’s over.”
Colter jerked away from the man holding him and reared back and punched him hard in the face. “Don’t you fucking touch me again or I’ll kill you where you stand,” he promised and I shuddered at the violence in Colter’s blue eyes.
“Careful son, don’t go breaking what you can’t fix.”
“You’re the one breaking things,” Colter spat with a murderous glare. “You’ve finally lost your goddamn mind. I’m sick of your games, your manipulations, and your fucked up appetites. I’m out of here.”
But Ambrose stopped him with one word. “Consequences.”
Colter slowly turned, his gaze wary. “And what the fuck does that mean?”
“It means you’re free to do as you please but you’re not free from the consequence of your actions.”
“That’s rich coming from you,” Colter returned coldly. “That’s hypocrisy as it’s finest.” He refused to look at me, though I held my breath at their tense exchange. I wanted Colter to turn into the unexpected hero and rescue me from his sadistic father but the daring hope burning in my chest was stealing my ability to expand my lungs.
Without looking my way, Ambrose said, “I’ll slit her throat and dump her body into the deepest mine I can find. You’re so burdened with moral fortitude…how’s that gonna sit with your conscience knowing you caused her death?”
I sucked in a wild breath. Ambrose had just threatened to kill me! My entire body shook like a tornado had just whipped through the room.
When Colter just stared in horror, Ambrose said, “If you want her to live, you’ll turn around, go about your duties and tow the line for this family. If you don’t have the sense to protect what’s yours, I’ll just have to do it for you until you come to the realization that you’re an Autrie and with that comes a certain responsibility. Now, you might see it as a burden but eventually, you’ll come around and you’ll even come to enjoy the perks that power brings. Until then…you’ll just have to trust that Daddy knows best.”
“You’re fucking crazy,” Colter said, the words escaping with an appalled realization. “I always knew you were an asshole but I never realized just how fucked up you really were.”
Ambrose flicked his gaze to me and I shrank from the dark promise gleaming in his eyes. I had no doubt he would slit my throat just as he’d promised. To Ambrose I was simply a purchase, a plaything he’d stuck in his cart as an impulse buy, easily discarded and forgotten. How many other women had he used and abused? I shuddered to think I might not be the first.
Shaking, I cast a desperate look Colter’s way. Please, help me! Please Colter…please! I don’t want to die.
Time stretched painfully slow until Colter finally jerked a nod to his daddy, conceding defeat and Ambrose’s smile stretched ear to ear.
“Good boy,” he praised but Colter looked as if he wanted to sink a knife into his father’s back and I didn’t blame him. “Now…go start in on that filly that was brought in yesterday. You seemed to have inherited the touch with skittish females.”
And just like that Ambrose switched from perverted sadist to sternbusinessman. It was
enough to make your head spin. If only Daddy had known what kind of horrors had been hiding behind those fancy doors. Would it have made a difference?
Colter jerked a nod to his father and left the room with a tense stride that radiated with anger but I was intensely grateful he hadn’t said fuck the consequences and bailed, leaving her to her fate.
For whatever reasons, Colter had just given me a brief stay of execution.
Even if he hadn’t been able to stand casting a single glance my way.
The situation was too screwed up to allow room for hurt feelings for a rejection that wasn’t even appropriate to the situation but as Colter bolted from the room, I suffered the desperate need to know that he didn’t blame me for the position I was in.
Why did I care?
I don’t know.
But I did.
***
Ambrose motioned to his goons. “Bring me the brand.” The man who’d been punched, was still rubbing his face, but went to do as he was told. To me, he explained, “I like to make sure that everyone knows what belongs to me.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, swallowing a sticky lump of fear.
The man withdrew a small iron prod with a brand symbol and began to heat it with a small blow torch over the cold fireplace.
“Some smart fella came up with the idea to burn a recognizable symbol into the flesh of his animals out in the field so that no one could steal his property and then lie about it later ‘cause the brand was proof of ownership. That fella learned how to protect his investment.”
“I’m a human being, not an animal,” I whispered, my vocal chords strangling me. “Please don’t do this.”
“Honey, I believe in protecting my investments. Everything belonging to Heartbreak Ranch has got the brand. That’s just good business.”
I stared, unable to process what he was saying. Brand me? Like cattle? I scrambled to my feet, my nakedness no longer my chief concern. “Please don’t brand me,” I begged, backing away, looking for an escape route.
Pure panic prevented me from thinking straight. I am ashamed to admit, in that moment, I wasn’t thinking of no one save myself. I didn’t want my skin marked. I didn’t want to wear Ambrose’s brand for the rest of my life.
Was he telling me I’d never be free of him? That scared me more than anything else. A part of me hoped that he would tire of me soon enough and then he’d turn me loose. Maybe I was living in denial, the situation just too much to take in all at once, but when he said he was going to brand me, I lost all hope of ever getting out of there.
And I freaked the fuck out.
I darted like a rabbit being pursued by coyotes but there was no escape. I was just wasting energy, zigging and zagging in the hopes of being free. Just as the bunny rarely escaped the coyote’s jaws, there was no escape for me either.
I was jerked off my feet and slammed to the ground, just like a calf and I screamed, kicking my feet and swearing like a sailor even as tears of complete terror streamed down my face. “Don’t! Don’t mark me!”
“Honey, stop your squirming, I’d hate to have to do it twice.” Ambrose chuckled and I sobbed as I abruptly stopped struggling, sucking in giant gulps of air as I tried to stop shaking from fear. Being branded once was bad enough; I wasn’t going through it a second time.
The brand, a smaller version of the Heartbreak Ranch mark seared into the cattle, glowed as Ambrose approached me. “Roll her over and hold her still,” he instructed. Suddenly, I was on my belly, every muscle in my body tensing and my bladder threatened to latch loose of its contents.
“This brand has been passed down from generation to generation in my family. Girl, it’s an honor to receive this mark on your skin.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, not trusting what might come out of my mouth. Ambrose, I was quickly learning, was not a man to poke at.
“I’ll tell you a secret, girl. Maybe it’ll bond us.” He laughed at his own humor. I suppose when you’re rich with an ego big enough to choke a horse, you get to laugh at your own stupid jokes. I wasn’t in a laughing mood. “Colter’s mother wore this brand, too.”
The information stunned me for a moment but I didn’t have time to process what it meant before the most intense, most excruciating pain radiated from my back as Ambrose pressed the brand into my flesh above my tailbone. I screamed, unable to hold back the agony. Sweet mother of God help me!
The acrid smell of burnt flesh — my flesh — filled the room and I gagged fresh, barely able to hold back the bile. He’d branded me. Like a cow. Like he owned me.
Because he did own me.
Daddy had sold me. I’m property of Heartbreak Ranch and there was nothing I could do about it. I sobbed openly, unable to stop. Warmth flooded from between my legs and I realized dimly that I’d peed myself.
“Aww hell,” Ambrose barked with irritation. “Get her up. She pissed all over my hardwood. Get that cleaned up and hose her off, then throw some ointment on her back so the burn don’t fester. The last thing I need is to have Doc Chester asking questions when she needs an antibiotic.”
Doc Chester was the local horse vet. I choked back a hysterical laugh. “Can’t have people knowing that you’re a sick freak, can we?”
“Girl, you just don’t know when to quit, do you?”
I’d lost all reason. I bared my teeth and snarled. “Someday karma is going to rip you a new asshole and I hope I’m there to see it.”
Ambrose smiled coldly, gripping my chin in his harsh grip. “Yeah? Well, maybe so. But until then, the only asshole getting ripped, will be yours, pretty girl.” To the goons, he said, “Take her away. She stinks like piss. Afterward, tie her up in the stable. It’ll do her some good to realize she has to earn her keep around here.”
They dragged me out of the room, my back screaming with pain. I couldn’t hold back the sobs. What had Daddy sold me into? Who would save me if I couldn’t save myself?
Ambrose held all the cards, all the power.
There had to be someone who could stand up to that evil bastard.
As they pulled me forcefully down the hallway and out of the house and to the barn, I caught sight of Colter working with a young horse, his touch gentle, even if the look on his face was hard.
His eyes told a story, a story I was afraid to learn but I knew I had to chance. How could someone like Colter come from a man like Ambrose? Was Colter just as evil? I had to reason that Colter wasn’t gonna be on my side because he’d never go against his own father but there was something — a tiny glimpse of something that burned like banked hatred — that gave me a sliver of hope.
Even if I was out of my mind for thinking it.
***
After an abusive childhood at the hands of his sadistic father, will Colter finally leave Heartbreak Ranch behind or will he doom himself to more misery to save Dallas’ life?
Watch for the next installment of PROPERTY OF HEARTBREAK RANCH by new author Angel James!