Free My Texas Sweetheart (book one) by Pauliena Acheson Page A

off with him. He said that he’s pretty sure Jase wants me, and he doesn’t know why none of my brothers approve of him. Oh, my god. I can’t believe him. Why am I even standing here listening to this bullshit? “Wow, I can’t believe you! All these excuses for what you did last night when, in reality, you tried to force yourself on me!” I yell. I am beyond pissed.
    Shocked that I’m yelling at him, he looks at me. All of a sudden, he smacks me across the face and yells, “What happened last night was YOUR fault!” Did he really just smack me across the face?
    I am so shocked that I don’t hear the explosion.   As soon as it registers, I turn around and see my dad holding his shotgun. Oh, shit. He’s going to kill him. “Dad, no, stop! You can’t do this!” I say, panicking.
    He pulls me behind him. “You DARE lay a hand on my DAUGHTER?” Dad says in a deadly quiet tone. I am really scared about what my dad will do.
    I hear more yelling. Oh, god, no. Not all of them. “I thought I told you last night to stay away from my sister!!” Chase roars.
    Todd and Nate both step in the middle , trying to get everyone to calm down. “That son of a bitch hit Maggie across the face…wait, what happened last night?! What else did he do?!” Dad bellows. Oh, god. This is not good. It’s only going to fuel their reason for beating the shit of him.
    They’re all staring at me. I hide my face from them. I feel someone’s arms go around me, but I am too embarrassed to look and see who it is. “You get out of here now before they kill you,” one of Chase’s friends say.
    I can hear a door slam and tires squealing. “ Maggie, are you okay?” Dad gently asks me. I nod my head, not moving away from Jase’s arms. I realize it’s him from his smell. I can also tell that he’s very tense.
    “We heard the gun shot and came running. When we saw Christian, we knew something happened,” Adam said. I really would like to crawl into a hole right now. Dad asks Jase if he can take me inside.
    As soon as we are in the house , Mom comes running downstairs and takes me out of Jase’s arms. “Come on, baby girl. I’ll run a bath for you,” Mom says. I tell her all about what happened last night with Christian, and how Chase saved me just in time. I wish she would stop looking at me like I might break.
    After my nice relaxing bath, I think I’ll take Storm out for a ride. That always helps. Mom is sitting with me and talking about going shopping, or heading to Dallas for a spa day. “Sure, Mom. Both sound great. Whichever one you want to do,” I say, feeling resigned.
    She smiles at me , but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “We can do both, Maggie,” she says.
    I finish my bath and put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, putting my hair in a ponytail. There’s a bruise forming on my face so I try covering it with make-up. As I walk downstairs, I can hear them all talking. I can’t make out what is being said, but I do know it has something to do with me. As I walk into the kitchen, everyone stops talking and turns to me.  I start to fidget with my t-shirt. “Seriously, please stop looking at me like that!” I yell as I walk out of the house.  I can’t deal with them all at once.
    I know that I’m supposed to be going out with Mom, but I decide to take Storm out instead. Everyone is acting like I’ll break. No way will I just sit there and let them stare at me.  Christian will not get the best of me. I will move past this, and show them all. I finish saddling up Storm and take off for the corral to do some barrel racing but, as I get close, I change my mind. The path looks better; plus, my family won’t find me as fast. It is a path that leads towards town and I am more than happy to take it just to get away. I hate how they all know about what happened last night, I hate how my dad wanted to kill someone but, most of all, I hate that Jase knows everything that happened. He is the one person that I didn’t want to