“Was just waiting on the perfect time to give him back to you, darlin’.” Austin wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “I own every horse in this stable now. So while you’re in the area, feel free to come over and ride any horse to your heart’s content.” He nodded toward the stallion now trying to sniff out some treats, obviously remembering that I always snuck him a carrot or some sugar cubes out to him every day. “As for Raad, or Prince—as Tink called him until she realized that it wasn’t his real name, he’s all yours just like he is supposed to be.”
“Really?” I kissed Raad again then turned and threw myself against my dad. “You swear?”
“Swear, darlin’.” Austin’s face was completely serious. “You let me know what you want done with him and I’ll do it. But he seems happy here. Tink might have sold me the horses and the stable itself to go with it, but she still takes care of all of them.”
“Who’s Tink?” I asked my dad as he took my hand and led me away from Raad’s stall. I blew him a kiss over my shoulder before turning my full attention back to my dad.
“Tink owns Huntington Estates. A few years ago, when her brother died, she nearly lost everything because of her sister-in-law’s excessive spending. When I came along and wanted to buy Raad back, she offered me all of the horses and the stables for a lump sum that got the Estate out of trouble. She sold off the family company and I hired her to take care of the horses for me.”
My eyes narrowed on my dad as we exited the stables. He seemed to light up at the mention of Tink. Having never had to fight for my father’s attention when it came to other women, I suddenly felt like any other Daddy’s girl would. No woman would ever be good enough for my hero. Whoever this Tink woman was, she had better measure up in a big way or I wasn’t going to let whatever was going on continue.
As we walked toward the house, Austin told me all about Tink. She was a horse lover, and had been collecting them from the time she could ride. The Huntingtons were seriously rich, or they had been until Samuel Huntington had passed away eight years ago. Now it was just Tink and her sister-in-law who lived in the huge house on the estate. While Tink took care of the horses, her sister-in-law, Sharon, continued on with her life as if they were still richer than God by hosting parties as often as possible.
When we entered the house, I found it just as ostentatious as the outside was. I raised a brow at my dad and he sighed. “Sharon has full command of the house. It was left to her in her husband’s will. But that was all she got. When it comes to money, she has to rely on Tink.”
“Someone needs to get the broom out of their ass and lighten up a little,” I told my dad as he led the way down a hall that was covered in expensive paintings. I shook my head, wondering where all the family photos were. This place felt more like a museum rather than a home.
Austin entered a room that looked like an old-style sitting room. I rolled my eyes when I found a woman in a dress with long dark-blonde hair sitting on one of the loveseats that looked as if it were hard as hell and ridiculously expensive. Across from there sat a tall, slender woman in a pair of well-worn jeans and a flannel shirt.
Both stood when we entered the room. Two sets of eyes landed on my father and my hackles began to rise as I saw interest flare in both. I stood there for a long moment, assessing the two women as they seemed to gobble up the sight of my father. I zeroed in on the woman who had to be Sharon Huntington first. She was really lovely at first glance. Slender, with a nice figure. Her long hair was gorgeous and her eyes, a dark green, really quite striking in her face. But when I looked at the woman, I saw my mother—the greed in her eyes telling me that she was only interested in my father because of the money that came with him.
There was a lot of money that went with Austin Bradshaw, after all. If the Huntingtons had been sickeningly rich, that still probably hadn’t gotten close to touching the amount my dad was worth. He came from old Texas money. His grandfather had been into oil and cattle. When the oil had gone dry, the cattle had still remained. Austin had only added to the wealth that he had inherited.
Turning my gaze to the other woman, who had to be Tink, I took all of her in. She was absolutely breathtaking. For a woman in her forties, she dressed more like she was in her teens. Her hair was pulled up into a simple ponytail and her face was makeup free, which made me completely jealous when I noticed how long her eyelashes were naturally. When she looked up at Austin, her entire face seemed to light up, much like my dad’s had when he had been talking about her earlier.
Sighing, I decided then and there that if Tink really cared about my father, then I wasn’t going to go all Daddy’s-girl bitch on her. If she could make Austin happy, then more power to her. Just as long as she kept him away from the haughty bitch turning her disapproving gaze on me.
Axton
The house was starting to suffocate me. I felt like if I didn’t get out of the house, off the farm—fuck, out of Tennessee—I was going to lose my shit in a bad way. I kept counting down the days until we would be out on the road, and they weren’t. Coming. Fast. Enough.
The only thing that helped with the overpowering feelings was Dallas. Sure, she tried to ignore me during the day, but at night I always found her easily. We usually ended up out on the porch, either sharing a beer or sharing our lips. I always sent her to bed alone, then took care of my aching body in the shower before falling into bed and texting her for at least an hour before one of us would fall asleep. All in all, I felt like we were moving in the right direction.
Today, for some reason, the suffocating feeling was worse than usual. Nothing seemed to help and I knew that I needed Dallas to distract me before I started climbing the walls and scared Marissa. Upsetting Marissa in any way would only force Wroth to kill me, and as much as I wanted this feeling to go away, I didn’t want to be dead.
Moving through the house, I discovered that she wasn’t anywhere to be found. Liam hadn’t seen her all morning because it was technically her day off. Marissa and Wroth had seen her at breakfast but nothing since. Finally I found Zander, Natalie and Linc in the family room watching some old movie that I was sure Nat and Linc loved but Zander was forcing himself to watch because he was trying to ease his way into Nat’s pants. As much as I cared about Z, I wouldn’t blink at ratting him out to Nat’s brothers. I couldn’t help but grin as I wondered how pretty his face would be once Drake and Shane got finished with him.