Herd That ARC

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  Callum grunted.

  “Do you think I should get a job?” Banks asked from behind us.

  I frowned.

  “Umm,” I hesitated. “What happened to working at the ranch?”

  Banks sighed and stood up, stretching his arms up high over his head.

  “I’m bored at the ranch and you know it,” he said. “With Jensen, Colt, and Remy on his way? You won’t need me. You have more than enough hands on deck. Not to mention, they’re better at it and have more patience.”

  That was true.

  I’d noticed it more than once.

  Yet, I didn’t say anything because having him help run fence and train horses was extremely helpful.

  However, Callum and I were doing the job just fine by ourselves when it came to running the ranch. And with Jensen and Colt adding their two cents on how to do what? Well, Callum really wasn’t needed

  It was just that Banks helping out seemed to make everything just a little bit better. I loved the shit out of my brother, and as much as I thought of my friends as family? They weren’t ever going to be Darby, Callum, Banks, or Georgia. You didn’t share something like we did and not have an unbreakable bond form out of fire and blood. Something that could never be broken, or replaced.

  “What would you do instead?” I asked, not bothering to disagree with his earlier statement.

  “I was thinking about applying at the sheriff’s office,” he explained. “Or the highway patrol. I haven’t decided which yet. Sheriff’s department would allow me to still be here and help out on my days off. Highway patrol could send me practically anywhere.”

  I nodded my head. “Why a cop?”

  He shrugged. “Why not?”

  “If that is the way you’re rationalizing getting a job, why not finish your degree?”

  Banks had been halfway through his degree in fire science and his paramedic degree before he’d quit both to move back with us. After spending years in the military, then two trying to get his college degree as well as work full-time as a bar bouncer, he’d come up here and quit everything.

  He’d begun working for us and us only, which inevitably made his mind idle.

  Which wasn’t a good thing for Banks, and never had been.

  Not even when he was a young boy.

  Out of all of the Valentine crew, Banks had definitely been the most adventurous.

  I’d say the worst, but Darby had taken that crown a long damn time ago.

  At least when Banks got into trouble, he did it in a way that he wasn’t caught.

  Which meant he at least had some common sense.

  Darby, though?

  Well, him getting a blow job in the middle of the living room with every single door in the house unlocked, as well as every single light turned on? Well, that was just asking for trouble.

  “I guess I could,” he finally said. “But the highway patrol will hire me. I know they will.”

  “You don’t want to finish your schoolwork?” I guessed.

  He shrugged. “It’s not that.”

  “Then what is it?” I asked.

  “I’m thinking I want to get back on the bull.”

  I shook my head at that. “You know I’ll support you in any way, Banks. But there was a reason that you quit last time.”

  Four concussions, as a matter of fact.

  “Yo!” Jensen, who I hadn’t seen come into the gym even once since he’d come down, came running up to us. “Did you hear?”

  We both stopped and turned. “Hear what?”

  “That there was a fight down at the police station,” he said. “I was in town picking up some feed and happened to hear a couple of old men talking about a rumor that they heard. Anyway, I got to listening, and then I heard an old man’s radio going off about a disturbance at the police station. The old men go running out to their trucks. Anyway, long story short, I decided to follow them because I’m curious by nature. You know me. So I get there, and there’s this big ass throwdown going on in the parking lot. Jace and Marie were screaming at the top of their lungs. Marie was throwing accusations out, and Jace said he was filing for divorce. All the while your little lady stood there looking awestruck. She was forced back inside by the chief along with Marie. Marie was slinging verbal blows at Codie all the while they went inside. Apparently, everyone is saying that Codie decided to tell everyone that Marie was cheating on her man.”

  I sighed.

  “I bet that’s the meeting that kept her,” I finally said. “And what the hell, Jensen? How do you find this shit out?”

  Jensen grinned, and then his eyes darkened. “When you’re invisible, people tend to run their mouths. Which is why I know that it wasn’t Codie that said anything at all. It was Jace. He was the one that confronted the man that was giving Marie the business.”

  I groaned. “Fuck.”

  “Fuck indeed.”

  ***

  I wasn’t sure where Codie was going to head when she finally got off work, which was why I was waiting outside when she finally came slinking out the front door.

  She saw me and ran straight to me.

  I caught her up in my arms the minute that she reached me, then pulled her in close.

  “How was your day?” I asked against her lips.

  She pressed her mouth to mine once more, then cupped my cheeks.

  I hadn’t shaved in a while, and I was damn close to having a beard and not just a five o’clock shadow.

  She studied my face for a few long seconds, then shrugged.

  “It was okay,” she answered. “Nothing exciting. Nothing to process, which I suppose is a good thing. I missed following you around while you worked, though.”

  I grinned. “You can do that Wednesday. You still have Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays off?”

  She nodded. “As long as nobody gets dead, yes.”

  “Gets dead?” I teased.

  She shrugged, causing the earrings that were in her ears to touch the tips of her shoulders.

  My eyes took in the earrings.

  “Where’d you get those?” I asked.

  “I’ve had them for a while,” she said. “I felt like maybe I should make an impression. But I don’t wear jewelry very often. Most of the time it breaks me out where it touches me. So only the sterling silver, twenty-four-carat gold, and a few other things really work for me. And those, of course, cost money. So, I don’t have much of it.”

  I touched my nose to her ear and said, “My mom was the same way. She didn’t have much, but what she did have was the finest quality. Though, my dad didn’t give it to her. Her brother and father did.”

  “You have an uncle and grandfather?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “Not anymore. My grandfather died a couple of years before my parents did. Her brother died in a boating accident about six weeks before my mother.”

  She frowned. “That’s awful.”

  It was, but it was the way of life, too.

  “I think everyone in my entire family is alive,” she paused. “Though my father’s parents never really liked my mother all that much. We don’t see them but once every couple of years when we go visit them in Japan. And that’s only when they’re being nice that year. Most of the time they’re not. My mom has four sisters, all of which live scattered around the United States. Unfortunately, they were never close so we don’t see them all that much, either.”

  “Your dad have any siblings?” I asked, hiking her up higher and walking around the front of the truck.

  She shrugged. “He has one, but he’s in Japan, too. The chosen child. He doesn’t like us because he likes Mommy and Daddy’s money more.”

  I snorted. “When am I going to meet your parents?”

  She made a face. “They won’t come back here. If you want to meet them, we’ll have to make a special trip down to them. Unfortunately, they have a whole lot of reasons not to come back.”

  I imagined that
was the truth.

  “I don’t know why I came back either,” I admitted. “I mean, Georgia is here. The kids. But… this place has a whole lot of memories I can’t escape. Everybody looks at me with pity, too. It’s awfully exhausting some days.”

  She pressed her lips to my nose, and I backed away, closing the door once she was situated in her seat.

  It was when I was climbing in my side that she said, “At least they try to accept you back into the fold. Me, however, they still look at me like I’m a powder keg waiting to blow.”

  I grinned at her. “You’re my little powder keg. Tell me who’s mean to you, and I’ll set them straight.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t think it works like that.”

  I shrugged. “I hear Marie had a nice day at work,” I teased.

  She made a gagging sound in her throat.

  “I don’t know who said something to Jace, but he came into the lab today pissing mad. Oh, man. Luke had to restrain him,” she said, her face bright with the memory.

  “I heard. And that was why you were late,” I explained.

  She nodded. “I’m fairly sure one of them is going to have to leave. There’s no way in hell that they’re going to be able to work together after everything was brought to light.”

  “That she cheated?” I guessed.

  She nodded. “It was with another cop… but you knew that, didn’t you?”

  I shrugged. “Jensen said it best earlier. When you want to be invisible, you become very good at being in places where juicy gossip is shared. Unfortunately for Marie, she happened to share it while I was at the feed store. She was looking at dog food with her friend, and I was in the next row over looking for antibiotics for the cattle. She should’ve been more careful about where she shared her misdeeds. And she should’ve not been so bitchy to you.”

  Codie’s lips twitched, and her cheeks heated. “I love you, you know that, right?”

  I felt my belly tighten.

  “Yes,” I croaked, my hands twitching. “Why would you say that now, in the police station’s parking lot, where I can’t pull you into my lap and tell you how much I love hearing those words on your lips?”

  She blinked innocently, batting her eyelashes at me. “You can’t? Why not?”

  I gestured to the four cops who were less than two car lengths away from us. Ones who hadn’t stopped staring at my truck.

  One of those cops being Nico.

  Her head turned, then she giggled.

  “Then take me home.”

  Home.

  Not ‘take me home to my house.’ Home to mine… ours.

  I started the truck, then put it into gear and accelerated out of the parking lot.

  Not too fast.

  But definitely not slow.

  I also caught every cop’s attention in the parking lot, including my brother-in-law.

  “I heard from Todd,” I said, hoping to change the subject long enough to get home.

  “Yeah?” she asked, turning in her seat. “Did you tell him that you love me?”

  I opened my mouth and then closed it.

  Then burst out laughing.

  “Actually,” I said as I thought about it. “I did. He asked what my intentions were toward you, and I told him that I love you, and I planned to make you my wife. He asked when, and I told him I had to ask you first.”

  Chapter 22

  You are not my brand of cattle.

  -Codie to Darby

  Codie

  I sat stiffly in my seat, wondering if we were ever going to make it home for me to jump my man’s bones.

  He was driving way too slowly.

  Much slower than normal, and I had a feeling it was due to me pressing him for the words.

  Words that I somehow knew he meant without me having to second guess, or think about whether he meant them or not.

  I’d always had to be aware of others. Of how and what they thought about me.

  Whether I thought they were being sincere, or whether they were just putting on a front so that they could make it seem like they cared when they really didn’t.

  But with Ace?

  I never once, not one single time, doubted him.

  I knew without a single ounce of doubt that he loved me.

  He’d said the words. He’d meant them.

  “Anyway,” Ace said as he took the last turn that would lead to his driveway. “Back to what I was saying about Todd.” He pulled into the gravel drive and I lost what he said next.

  Mostly because I was unbuckling my seatbelt and crawling over the center console toward him.

  On my way, I’d shed my shoes and t-shirt.

  By the time I crawled into his lap, he was stopped—for the most part.

  The truck was still rocking, but he was also shedding his seatbelt, t-shirt, and undershirt.

  I started tackling his jeans, and it was only as I was straddling him and working his cock out of his pants that I realized I still had my pants on.

  “Shit,” I muttered, rolling over sideways so that I could work the button on my pants and shimmy them down my hips.

  Ace helped me, yanking them off and tossing them across the cab of the truck.

  They hit the side door with a thunk, and I realized that I’d still had my phone in my back pocket.

  Oops.

  “Get on top of me already,” Ace growled, pulling me back down.

  “But my panties…”

  Those were ripped from my body in the next second, and I gasped.

  “I just bought those!” I murmured. “They were so comfortable!”

  “I’ll buy you some more,” he grumbled as he pulled me astride him and lined his cock up with my entrance.

  There was no more talking after that.

  Only the rocking of the truck as I rode him hard.

  It was only as I was coming down from my orgasm, and that he was still pulsing inside of me, that I realized that we were in the middle of the driveway, likely in plain sight of the main house.

  Any of his brothers could’ve seen.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, pressing my lips to his bearded cheek.

  He tightened his arms around me, then ground himself up, giving off one final lurch inside of me, causing me to moan in reaction.

  “Don’t apologize,” he grumbled. “That was the best sex we’ve ever had.”

  I agreed.

  It had been superb.

  The best? Maybe.

  Then again, anything that had to do with this man was earth-shattering.

  I pressed my forehead against his and blew out a shaky breath.

  “Loving you kind of scares me,” I told him. “The idea that one day you might stop, shakes me to my core.”

  His arms tightened around me until the point of pain.

  “It scares me that you’re willing to take a chance on me even with knowing what my father did to my mother,” he countered. “His tainted blood runs through my veins. I look just like him. What if one day…”

  I pressed my lips to his, knowing exactly what he was thinking without him having to voice it.

  “Ace.” I pulled back, staring into his beautiful eyes. “You’re not your father.”

  His eyes closed, and a breath escaped from his lungs, brushing over my face.

  “I’m fucking scared still,” he mumbled. “What if something happens? What if you leave me? What if I lose you?”

  I brought my hands up to cup his face. “You’re never going to lose me. I’m going to be right here, forever, and it’s going to take a divine act of God—like death—to get me to ever leave your side.”

  His forehead dropped down to rest on my shoulder.

  “I want kids,” he informed me. “But I still hear my sister and brothers’ screams in my nightmares.”

  The fact that he was having nightmares made me want to cry.

  Hell, who was I kidding?

 
I was crying.

  “Are you saying you want babies with me?” I teased.

  He growled out a laugh. “Lots of babies. At least six.”

  My head shot up, and I stared at him incredulously. “You what?”

  “Six,” he repeated, knowing I’d heard him correctly the first time.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know… how about two?”

  “Four,” he countered.

  I bit my lip. “Three?” I squeaked.

  He started to laugh. “How about we go with three, and when the time comes, I have the option to convince you to have more?”

  I sighed. “I guess that’s understandable.”

  He leaned over then, dropping the ashtray down and reaching inside.

  “I was going to ask my brothers if they minded if I used my mother’s ring… then I decided that I wanted something that wasn’t tainted with their memory. Luckily, I found this… and Desi helped me size it. So if it’s not the right size, you can call and blame her.”

  I started to snicker.

  The snicker died as I got a load of the ring.

  “Holy shit, Ace,” I breathed. “That’s… that’s too much!”

  He was already shaking his head.

  “No, baby. It’s not enough,” he countered. “It’ll never be enough.”

  Chapter 23

  Kinda give a damn. Kinda want a taco.

  -Codie to Ace

  Codie

  I was standing in front of the coffeepot in the middle of the Valentine kitchen, wondering if this was my life now.

  Four nights ago, I’d accepted a proposal from Ace Valentine, the sexiest of all the Valentine brothers.

  Today, I found myself waiting for my coffee to finish, and contemplating what I was going to make the Valentine men for breakfast.

  Today was Friday, and the men had been up for hours.

  I was alone in the large house, and wondering if I should just go ahead and make myself at home, or wait for someone to come back to give me permission.

  Knowing what Ace would say, I finally unglued my feet from the floor and turned to the fridge, pulling out bacon and sausage.