Cut Off (Book 3): Cut Loose Read online

  “Sounds good. I was hoping you could lend us some of your seed.”

  “It goes without question. Do you want it now or later?”

  “Later’s good. I’ll send somebody over to pick it up.”

  Oscar grinned beneath his great bushy moustache. “I’ll have it set up and ready for you.”

  “Thanks, Oscar. I appreciate it–”

  A loud whinny caught their attention.

  “Here comes Vincent,” Oscar said. “I swear, that old stallion never feels the detriment of age.”

  Vincent. Katie couldn’t believe the old stallion was still alive. He was old even when she was a little girl. He had a little more grey and white around his muzzle and mane but was otherwise exactly as she remembered him.

  Ella would love this, she thought before catching herself. She still checked either side of her legs, expecting the beautiful little girl to hop alongside her, blonde ringlets bouncing, and little Scallywag dancing around her feet hoping for a treat. She felt sad the little girl wasn’t there.

  She’s somewhere safe, that’s all that matters. Katie dismissed the internal voice. She wanted to feel sorry for herself. At least for a little while. If she ever heard Ella was being mistreated or something sinister was going down at Geronimo’s community…

  She shook her head of the negative thoughts and grinned as Vincent trotted up. He leaned his great big head over the fence, nostrils flaring and snorting, searching for something on Katie, then Oscar. He extended his thick lip at the old man’s pocket, finding what he wanted located inside it.

  “Yah!” Oscar said. “Get out of it!”

  Vincent wouldn’t back down and only nodded his head in an attempt to convince the old man to hand over whatever he had in his pocket.

  “It’s mine!” Oscar said. “I’ve got to eat too!”

  Vincent threw his head to one side and knocked the old man off his feet.

  “You pain in the arse!” Oscar said. “I should have you taken away and melted into glue!”

  Vincent swung his giant head around and caught the old man across the backside this time. The old man fell on his face. He rolled over and grabbed the apple out of his pocket and hurled it into the field. Vincent took after it like a shot. The old man jammed his hat on his head as Katie helped him up onto his feet. Katie couldn’t stop grinning.

  Oscar slapped the dirt off his palms. “Useless animal. I don’t know why I keep him. He refuses to pull a cart and is too old to stud. He won’t even let tourists ride him.”

  “Except for me. He must have a good sense of character.”

  Oscar didn’t snort or laugh as she expected. He only nodded. “Aye, that’ll be it.”

  “Do you have many horses around these days?”

  “Too many. I don’t have the heart to sell them, not when I don’t know they’re going to a good home. I let them hang out at my farm. It’s not like I need the money or the hassle of selling them on. Another piece of your father’s advice. God bless him, he turned out to be right.”

  Katie’s melancholy thoughts shifted from Ella to her father. Why did she always have to lose the people she cared about most in the world?

  “I miss him,” she said.

  She was never honest like that with anyone unless she knew they felt the same way as her.

  “I do too. I miss his laugh more than anything. Remember how he used to roar? It used to scare the horses!”

  Oscar slapped his knee and wiped the tears out of his eyes. Tears of sadness or joy? Katie couldn’t tell. She wasn’t sure of the origin of the ones in her own eyes either.

  “I see a lot of your father in you,” Oscar said. “A great deal. I don’t say it to upset you. I know it must have been difficult when he passed, but I do see it.”

  Katie wasn’t sure how to respond to that. She loved her father but it was never what you might call a loving family atmosphere. She wasn’t particularly into doomsday prepping and fought bitterly against his torturous teaching methods. She wondered what part of him she took after. Everyone agreed she took after her mother in the looks department. Thank God for small mercies.

  “There’s an inner drive in you, something that forces you to keep going, to never back down,” Oscar said to her unasked question. “I guess that’s why your father always thought of you as his protégé.”

  Katie blinked at that. “He did?”

  “Sure. He never spoke to you about it?”

  “No. Never.”

  They hadn’t spoken about much in the last few years of his life. It was a somewhat… tense relationship.

  “I doubt the issue will die with the way things are right now,” Oscar said.

  “What do you mean?”

  Oscar prodded his hat up with a thumb. “You’re not the only one who shares characteristics with your father.”

  Camden. He’s talking about Camden.

  “Your grandfather. But he’s getting old. The day will come when one of you has to accept the mantel and become the next leader of your community.”

  “There’s only nine of us.”

  “It won’t be forever.”

  4

  It was lunchtime and everyone gathered at the lodge to enjoy their first real meal. The lodge was not a small dwelling but it felt crammed with so many people inside it. The biggest shock came when Jodie joined Nancy in the kitchen without even asking to help. She was usually so shy.

  The second shock came when it became apparent Jodie’s skills surpassed anything Nancy ever possessed. She grimaced when Nancy poured herbs into a wok and appeared heartbroken when the same thing was done to the soup she was working on. Katie always thought her mother overdid it on the spices too.

  “Learning to see what others only appear to see?”

  The voice whispered in Katie’s ear. It was Bill, her grandfather, standing over her and nodding his head appreciatively. “Good girl. That skill will come in handy in the future.”

  “What are you going on about?” Katie said.

  “With your observation skills, you could be a mighty addition to the group, maybe even the leader here one day.”

  “What are you talking about? We don’t need a leader.”

  “Every group needs a leader, otherwise all efforts lose focus.”

  “If anyone’s our leader, you are.”

  Bill shook his head. “I can’t be. Not forever. Someone else needs to take over.”

  Katie got to her feet and moved into the kitchen. “Need a hand?” she said.

  “You can grate the carrots if you want,” Nancy said.

  Anything to keep my hands busy.

  She grabbed a pre-peeled carrot and got to work grating it into strips.

  Aaron leaned against the kitchen counter and chuckled. “Your grandfather. He’s one of a kind.”

  “I just had a conversation with him and I have no idea what he was talking about.”

  “Welcome to my world. I never understand what he says.”

  Katie couldn’t put her finger on the reason why but she was concerned for the old man. “Does grandfather seem a bit… distracted to you?”

  “Yeah. You could say that.” Aaron smiled at her. She wished he wouldn’t do that. Now she was the distracted one. They’d been at the lodge for three days now and things were just beginning to get organised. Everyone was finding their place and starting to fit in. She hadn’t spent more than a few minutes in Aaron’s company. If she did, she’d have no time for anything else.

  Growing flustered, Katie took out her aggression on the carrots.

  “Take it easy, will you?” Aaron said. “We actually expect to eat some of this food.”

  “Sorry. I was just a bit… worried.”

  “Impulsive thoughts?”

  “Idiotic thoughts.”

  “Care to divulge?”

  Definitely not. “Do you ever get the feeling you’re being pushed in one direction when you’re desperate to go in another?”

  Aaron took a step back as if looking at
Katie in an entirely new light. “Yes. I do.”

  In his eyes, she saw what he meant. She was what he was conflicted about. She turned back to the carrots.

  Aaron took a step closer and their arms brushed against one another. “Want to know what I realised?”

  “Not really.”

  “Don’t get stressed. Don’t fight. Relax and let it blow you where it wants to go like a boat on a restless and writhing stream. It’ll find home eventually.”

  He’s telling me to let go of my inhibitions and do whatever I want. For a moment, a brief delicious instant, she thought she could do it. The friendly conversations around her faded into fuzzy darkness, the warm temperature massaged her muscles and the delicious food being prepared filled her nostrils. He stood there, standing there looking at him, looking so bloody good, asking her to let go and do whatever she wanted. She parted her lips and edged forward–

  Camden leaned against the counter. “Is it just me or do Steve and Mum seem a bit… friendly?”

  Bloody hell, little brother! Perfect timing, as always!

  “I guess I’ll catch you later.” Aaron spoke with a smile. Katie thought she caught a wink too but it was gone as fast as it came – if it came at all. She must have imagined him winking at her.

  I hope he winks at me again…

  Katie!

  Her hands worked more furiously at the carrots to conceal the blush rising to her cheeks.

  “Don’t you think?” Camden said.

  “What?” Katie snapped.

  Her brother didn’t take the hint. “Over there. Look. Don’t Mum and Steve look a bit… familiar?”

  “Of course they do. Mum’s only been our mum in forever. And we’ve known Steve for almost as long.”

  “No. Familiar with each other.”

  Katie shrugged. “They’re old friends.”

  “They’ve never been that close, have they?”

  It was the confused look in her brother’s eyes that made Katie turn to look at the pair. While Nancy cooked, Steve helped share the food across their plates. He got halfway through ladling the peas before she distracted him and they shared a laugh. That in itself wasn’t particularly shocking – their mother tended to get along with everyone and their dog – it was what followed that most grabbed her attention.

  Steve placed a freshly-made roll on each plate, and as he did, her mother took a sip from her glass of wine and looked at Steve, in profile, and her eyes drifted down to the open buttons of his shirt… and then further down still…

  A smile lit up her face and then – oh my God! – Katie turned away before she was sick.

  Her mother blushed. The former chief nurse at Nottingham hospital, unafraid of anyone or anything, had actually blushed.

  Katie hadn’t seen that look in her mother’s eye in… How many years? Since before their parents separated.

  She felt… She wasn’t sure how she felt. She tore her eyes from the spectacle and filed it away for later. She focused on the task in hand.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing,” she said.

  “Are you seeing the same thing I am?”

  “Sh! Everybody! Be quiet!”

  Bill stood up, his hands spread out on either side. Everyone had their eyes fixed firmly on him. He was listening for something, but what?

  Then Katie heard it.

  It was an odd noise. A cross between a bird and a duck.

  “What in God’s name is that?” Darryl said.

  Camden paled. “Sounds like a duck trying to sing like a bird… on its deathbed.”

  “It’s not a duck. It’s Ronnie.” Bill turned and hustled out of the lodge.

  “What’s wrong with Ronnie?” Katie said, dropping the half-grated carrot and following Aaron. “Is he dying?”

  “We left him on watch,” Aaron said. “That’s the signal.”

  “Signal for what?”

  “That someone’s coming.”

  5

  It was the strangest scene Katie had seen in some time – and that was saying something considering what she saw recently.

  A young woman tripped and fell to her knees. She only managed to get to her feet so quickly thanks to the hunky young man who held her hand. Their feet skittered over the sticks and stones littered across the driveway and slurped as the mud snagged at them.

  They made a b-line directly for them.

  And they weren’t alone.

  Hot on their heels, riders rode on horseback. They nudged and tussled with the men on either side, each in a race to be the first to cross the finish line.

  Except, Katie wasn’t sure where the finish line was or what their target was. To ride down these two young people and trample them into the dirt? That looked like the most likely goal.

  No one on Katie’s side moved so much as an inch. It was an arresting, bizarre sight. Katie might have been watching it through 3D glasses at the cinema.

  Drawing down on the hapless couple, the riders weren’t about to stop. The horses would trample them underfoot if someone didn’t do something–

  A single gunshot fired in the air.

  Camden held the pistol aloft having fired.

  Tanya looked down at her empty holster and snatched it out of Camden’s hand and gave him the stink-eye.

  Katie and the others rubbed their ears at the loud noise. “Thanks a lot, Camden,” they grumbled.

  But they weren’t the only ones watching.

  The riders pulled up two yards from the young couple, who stumbled through the mud and fell at Bill’s feet.

  The gang of riders instinctively split into two groups and now that Katie got a clear look at them, they were as distinguishable between a pug and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

  “Please,” the young man caked in mud said. “Help us.”

  Bill snarled and didn’t offer a hand to aid him. “Get up, boy. I don’t know who you are or what’s going on here.”

  He looked over at the two groups of riders.

  “What the bloody hell is going on here? What is this? Some kind of hunt you’ve got going on? Don’t you have enough foxes to keep yourselves busy?”

  A man from the pug family stepped forward. He was around Katie’s age, handsome, if you were that way inclined. “The girl’s name is Louisa Wedge. I am Oliver Wedge, her brother. I want her back.”

  “She’s your sister, isn’t she?” Bill said. “If you want her, come get her.”

  Oliver glanced over at the second group. “I would but I’d expect a blade or a bullet in my back.”

  A representative from the spaniel side stepped forth. “It’s not the Thornhill way to go stabbing people in the back.” He spat. “It’s only the Wedges that do that and everybody knows it.”

  Oliver turned his horse to face the older man and spurred him forward with a jab of his heels. “I’ll have your tongue, you lying old goat!”

  “You’ll have trouble finding it. It’s not buried up your arse like you’re used to.”

  The spaniels laughed – a little too forcefully for Katie’s taste.

  Oliver slipped a blade from his pocket, flicked it open, and jabbed his horse harder in the ribs. “Yah!”

  He rode directly for the man on the other side.

  Another gunshot.

  Oliver came to an immediate halt and checked for the bullethole he expected to find on his person. His horse skittered, dancing nervously on the spot.

  Bill lowered his pistol and tucked it back in its holster.

  “We’ll have none of that on this land,” he said. “If you want to kill each other, you’ll do it out there on the road or on one of your properties. Not here.”

  Oliver didn’t like it but he didn’t have to. Grandfather laid down the rules and there was no court of appeal.

  “Thornhills,” Bill said. “Wedges. I’ve got to tell you, I’ve heard this story before.”

  “Maybe you have, old man,” Oliver said. “But it doesn’t have an ending yet. And I’ll be dead in the cold, cold ground b
efore I let my sister run off with a Wedge. I’ve come to take her home. She belongs with us.”

  Bill looked the girl Louisa over. Still on her knees, she wore puppy fat about her face. She would be a true beauty one day. “She looks small enough to me. Why do you need a posse to take her?”

  “Because the Thornhills brought one to find Luke Thornhill.”

  Luke must be the name of the lad in the mud.

  “God knows what they would have done to her if they got their hands on her.” Oliver’s face curled with undisguised rage. There was a feud between these two families, Katie surmised. A feud that had gone on for years.

  “We don’t want your whore of a sister,” the Thornhill man said. “We won’t want the good Thornhill name dragged through the mud. Especially not by a filthy Wedge.”

  That struck its mark and the men behind Oliver bristled. Oliver raised his hand. “It’s all right, boys. If the Thornhills attack us, we have the right to defend ourselves. I’m sure the little Thornhill man meant nothing by it.” His eyes were untempered blast furnaces. He turned back to Bill. “Give us my sister and the boy. He put a spell on our sister and we want to teach him and his family a lesson in manners they won’t soon forget.”

  The Thornhills roared, the argument about to kick off once again.

  Bill waved his hands. “All right, all right. We can see there’s bad blood between your two families. That much is clear. We don’t want any trouble from either of you. So here’s how it’s going to go down. The Thornhills get the lad. The Wedges take the girl. Fair? Good.”

  “No!” Louisa and Luke cried. “Don’t let them take us! Please!”

  Bill turned his back on the scene, done with it.

  But not Katie. She still had some unanswered questions.

  “Wait.”

  The two gangs were already edging closer to the couple in the dirt. They held each other close, masks of horror decorating their features.

  Katie stepped forward and addressed the couple. “Why were you running from your own families?”

  The young couple looked from Katie to Bill, and back again. If they wanted to escape the clutches of their respective families, she was their only chance.