Free River's End (River's End Series, #1) by Leanne Davis Page A

is with Chance; and if it’s possible, I think you must detest him even more than I do. Explain that to me. Explain to me what the hell you’re doing here.”
    Erin dropped her shoulders as she stared at Jack’s boots. She swallowed before she finally looked up at him. “I didn’t come here just to be here. I came here because I had nowhere else to go.”
    “You’re not a college student.” He said it as a fact. He always knew she was lying.
    She shook her head.
    “And there was no fire, was there?”
    “No.”
    “Then why did you come here without any clothes?”
    She dropped her head down. “My stepfather never liked me. Or maybe it was he liked too much. But I detested him. After my mom died, he inherited what little she had and kicked me out after trying to… take advantage of me. I fled with what was on my back and whatever was stashed in my car. My mom had met him through me. He was my boss. So I lost my job and apartment in the same moment.” It was the same car her mother killed herself in. But Erin failed to add that pathetic, albeit gruesome, fact.
    “And Chance was your best option?”
    She shook her head and raised her eyes to the horizon. “No. Chance was my only option.”
    She couldn’t meet Jack Rydell’s eyes. She couldn’t take the shame of having Jack see what a loser she was.
    He was silent for a long, drawn-out moment and she squirmed under his intense, sharp gaze and muteness. He cleared his throat, finally, and simply stepped back. “Spring brings the snakes out. They’re pretty lethargic though this time of year. Just give them some space and they won’t bother you.”
    She glanced up. “That’s it? You’re not forcing me to leave?”
    His gaze seemed flat. “I have to insist that Chance leave at some point. He’s a terrible worker. I don’t know how much more I can take of him, even for Joey.”
    She nodded, feeling puzzled. Meaning what? She could stay until Chance got evicted? She had no time and had to come up with a plan soon.
    Jack stepped around her and started back towards the barn. She watched him leave and rubbed her wrist before turning to head for the trailer. She had to think of something fast. She could no longer hang out here. Chance wasn’t going to like what happened today. She’d gone from just being a nuisance to a major problem.
    ****
    Jack pounded nails into the loose boards of a horse’s stall. Sweat beaded on his face. He finally stopped and swiped at his head with his shirt. When he looked over, he saw Ian standing in the doorway.
    Ian was seven years younger than he, while Shane was ten, and Joey was a full fifteen years difference. Since their father died, Jack became the only father figure to all of them. It was a responsibility he accepted right down to his bones since the age of only twenty years old. The ranch. His brothers. The house. His wife. His two sons. All had been thrust upon him, and around him, and in need of him since he was just barely done being a teenager.
    Ian was the quiet one. So quiet, he rarely spoke unless he had something important to say. He usually just said it and that was over. Jack couldn’t have handled the ranch, his kids, and his brothers in the ensuing months after his parents, and then his wife’s death, if not for Ian.
    “You working through dinner?”
    Jack sighed. “I could and still not make a dent in the work that needs to be done around here.”
    Ian nodded. “It all gets done eventually.”
    Jack smacked at the board. “We should hire some decent hands.”
    “Joe still set on Chance?”
    “Yeah, well, we’re having a talk tonight about that.”
    “’Cause of her?”
    “Her? Erin? Yeah.”
    “Joey likes her, Jack. You gonna throw her out? Joey won’t like that.”
    Jack rubbed his neck. “I thought about it. But no. Besides, that’s not what I meant. Today, I heard her screaming. Like terrified screaming, not kidding around screaming. When I got to the yard, that little shit, Chance, had his