The Taming (The Black Thunder Series) (36 page)

Jack said nothing in omission to his shame. Instead he kissed her not knowing what else to do, burning the image of her grief stricken face into lamented ash with the depth of his mouth and tongue. He kissed her harder till her breath changed from ragged cries to sharp gasps.

They parted, just for an instant as her blue eyes penetrated him down to his guilt ridden core
. He turned her, freeing him from her trusting gaze then thrust his hardness into her back like a knife, while his hands groped madly around to her breasts, ripping her tear stained garments so he could feel only the softness of her flesh.

“You belong to me Kate
. Remember that,” he whispered hoarsely in her ear then moved her toward his desk and bent her over, shadowing the letter from his view with her skin.

Like a man possessed to be rid of his demons he lowered her shorts and his jeans and took her right there on his desk
. He was fierce in his taking as if he could rob her mind of anything else but him, stripping her of all thoughts of teaching or education, and schooling her in the ways of power and submission.

By the time he was done, she was too exhausted to
cry much less think. He carried her up to their bed and laid her beneath the sheets, tucking her in as she snuggled against her pillow beckoning for sleep. He placed a gentle kiss to the blond wisps of her hair then left, closing the door behind him.

He glanced at his watch and cursed under his breath knowing he was behind schedule for the day
. He needed to go to Dayton and pick up a load of supplies from the feed store. As it was, it was going to take him most of the afternoon to load and he had one stop to make after that.

He walked downstairs and headed out
to his truck. He climbed in and pulled out on to the dirt road, turning the radio loud in order to drown out the voice in his head about Kate and that blasted school.

Twenty-Four

Betrayal of Another Kind

K
ate woke with a start. How long had she been sleeping? She searched the nightstand for her cell phone but it was gone then she suddenly remembered she left it on Jack’s desk. She dressed and went downstairs to start dinner. She put a roast in the oven and set the timer before going to the study to look for her phone.

She found it tucked under a stack of papers, and to her delight, there was a text message from Jack
.
Luv u baby. See u tonight
. She smiled as she read the message then placed the phone in the pocket of her jeans. She flopped lazily into his chair and released a heady sigh. She rubbed the side of her aching thighs still feeling her muscles twitch from being propped over his desk when her eyes fell on the letter.

She leaned over, picked it up and read it again as she swiveled back and forth in the chair
.
We regret to inform you the teaching position has been filled,
she read aloud. She wondered why a rejection letter always stated,
we regret to inform you
when there was no regret at all.

Once she finished reading it for a third time, she tapped its contents on the side of her hand as she scrunched up her nose and pursed her
lips.

Despite Jack’s objection for her to take any action, she still wanted answers
. No, she needed answers as to why she didn’t get the job. After a minute of wrestling with her conscience, she hopped from the chair.

She
marched into the foyer, picked up her purse and headed out the front door to her car. She would get her answer and she knew just who would give them to her. She climbed into her car and drove straight for Clara’s. If anyone would know it would be her or at best Adam since he consulted for the school. She felt a twinge of guilt for going against Jack’s orders but as the old adage goes,
what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him
, reverberated a justifiable voice in her head.

Five minutes later, Kate was walking up the front steps to Clara’s home
. She knocked on the screen door first, then opened it and entered.

“Hey,” she
hollered. “Anyone home?”

“In here,” she heard Clara’s voice calling from the kitchen.

She followed the voice and entered just as her friend stepped through the sliding glass doors that led from the porch to the kitchen.

“Well look what the cat dragged in
?” Clara smiled at her and gave her a huge hug. “Let me take a look at you,” she said giving her a mock once over. “Yep, still the same old Kate just as I remembered.”

“It hasn’t been that long,” Kate replied.

“Humph,” she grunted and motioned for her to take a seat at the kitchen table. “I’m glad you’re here. You’ve been on my mind today and I was going to come over to see you but I guess you saved me the trouble,” she said with mixed emotion. “You hungry? I could whip us up our favorite brownies.”

“No,” said
Kate, wondering why Clara was offering to make her comfort brownies. Did she look as bad on the outside as she felt on the inside? “I can’t. I can only stay for about an hour and then I have to get back.”

“Why
? Won’t Jack let you out to play?” Clara grumbled as they both sat.

“No,” she said
almost defensively then caught herself and relaxed. “If you must know, I have something cooking in the oven.”

“Oh God, I hope not,”
she said with a frown. “The less ties you have to Jack McBride the better.”

Kate gave her a disconcerting look
. Did something happen that she didn’t know about? Anything was possible between the two of them. Like vinegar and water, the two never mixed.

“What’s got into you
?” She asked seeing the scowl across Clara’s brow.

“I don’t like the way
Jack is manipulating you.”

“I know
he can be a little overbearing at times,” she said as if to justify his way.

“A little?” Clara tilted her head and gave her a queer glance.

“Okay, he’s a lot overbearing,” she laughed thinking about their conversation today. “But there’s another side to Jack too. He really is very sweet.”

“All
right, so he’s sweet.” She’d give her that. “But there’s a lot you don’t know about Jack McBride. He had a hard life as a kid and he brought it with him as a man.”

“I know all about Jack’s childhood.”

“Who told you?” Clara seemed surprised.

“Jack did
. He told me his dad was an alcoholic.”

“Wow, he told you about his old man,”
she said astonished. “Well at least that says something, because Jack doesn’t talk about his past, ever.”

“I
think it does,” said Kate.

“Did he tell you that as a kid
he used to pry his old man off the bar floor when he was too drunk to go home?”

“We didn’t go into all the details,”
she said as she pushed the image from her mind.

“I remember Jack used to always fall asleep at his desk at school,” stated Clara as her memories of the event were still fresh
. “Most of the teachers just let him sleep too, considering we all knew he was too busy to sleep at night.”

“I get the picture,”
she said not wanting to hear about Jack’s suffering.

“He was a hard kid back then, and he’s a hard man now,” said Clara needing
her to understand. “He may be sweet, but Jack likes control over everything, especially you.”

“I am well aware of Jack’s control issues
. They stem from his insecurities, though he would never admit to that. I understand him, Clara.”

“Well, I hope you’re as understanding to him when I tell you what he did.”

Clara paused and took a breath. She knew her next words were going to hurt her friend deeply. She’d been brewing most of the afternoon trying to figure out a way to tell her before she arrived unannounced.

Kate felt a
sense of trouble in the pit of her stomach. She braced herself by gripping the edge of the table.

“Adam called me this afternoon,” sighed Clara as she saw the fear in her friend’s eyes
. “He was working at the school today fixing their computers. He ran into Mitzy and she told him you didn’t get the teaching position.”

“I know,” she said with a mixture of sadness and relief
. “I got the letter this morning.”

“
Damn, I didn’t want you to find out that way,” said Clara but she was almost glad she did so that she wasn’t the bearer of all the bad news.

“That’s why I came over,” she stated
. “Did Adam tell you why I didn’t get the job?”

She waited for Clara to respond, batting her innocent blues that made her friend wish she didn’t have to be the one to shatter her world
. She’d been through so much already, first with her ex-husband and now this.

  “Okay there is no easy way to say it so I’m just going to spill it,” said Clara taking a cleansing breath
. “Mitzy told Adam that they were going to offer you the position until Jack had a little talk with the Superintendent.”

“I don’t understand,” said Kate as Clara’s words were not sinking in.

“It’s simple, darling,” she continued. “Jack is a man who gets what he wants, and he wants you all to himself. He’s got influence in this town and people listen, like the Superintendent. Jack doesn’t want you teaching and he told Seymour as much. That’s why you didn’t get the job.”

This time the words sunk in and she sat bolt upright in her seat.

“I don’t believe you,” she said in a state of anger and shock. “Jack wouldn’t do that. He knows how important that teaching position is to me.”

“Well, he did,” said Clara again.

“No,” she said sharply. “What are you doing Clara? Why are you always looking for any excuse to come between me and Jack?”

“
You think I’m making this shit up?” she gasped startled by her friend’s accusation. “Why would I do that?”

“I have no idea,” s
pat Kate. “You tell me.”

“I am telling you the truth
. It was Jack that sabotaged your teaching position,” she reiterated again. “I told Adam you wouldn’t believe me. You want me to call him so he can tell you himself?”

“Yes,” she yelled
. “That’s exactly what I want you to do because quite frankly I don’t trust you anymore when it comes to Jack. You’ve tried twice already to keep us apart and I’ll be damned if I’ll let you do it a third time.”

“Fine,” said Clara pulling out her phone
.

“Fine,” snapped Kate seeing her friend place her phone to her ear.

Clara called her husband. She spoke to him briefly before handing the phone to Kate. Clara sat back and watched in silence as Kate listened to Adam tell of Jack’s deception.

She didn’t take pleasure in seeing her friend
’s pain, watching as the words sunk in and Kate crumbling before her eyes. Tears of betrayal pooled in her eyes and waves of heart wrenching despair ran deep in her watery blues.

Kate lowered the phone and handed it back to Clara
. She didn’t utter a word, not one single word. She just sat there as if she were in shock and disbelief.

“
Are you all right?” Clara asked with great concern.

Kate
didn’t respond. She just stared blindly at the back wall and the grandfather clock, watching the second hand move in slow motion. Clara couldn’t tell what her friend was thinking, which made her worry more.

“What time is it?” asked Kate
finally not realizing she was even staring at the clock.

“
Sweetie, it’s four-thirty,” she said growing more distressed for her friend’s wellbeing.

“I gotta go,”
she said in an alarmingly calm tone though she seemed so far away. She rose from the chair and headed for the front door. Clara ran after her.

“What are you going to do, Kate?”

She stopped and looked painfully at her friend. “I don’t honestly know.”

With that Kate turned and walked out the front door
.

Twenty-Five

Day of Reckoning

I
t took Kate a matter of five minutes before the shock wore off and the anger set in. From the time it took to leave Clara’s and arrive at the ranch’s front door, she was seething and like a tea kettle she was ready to blow her top. She got out of her car and saw Dustin by the stables. She marched toward him and stopped.

“Dustin,” she stated
with teeth clenched. “I want you to pack up all my things from the main house and return them to the carriage house.”

“You want me to
do what?” he said not sure he heard her correctly.

“What part of
I’m moving back to the carriage house
didn’t you understand?” she said eyes narrowing into tiny blue slits.

“Are you sure about this?”
God, he hated to move her again only to have them make-up so he could put it all back. “Maybe you should sleep on it for a day.”

“There’s no
thing to think about,” Kate came unglued. “You going to help me or not?”

“Sure, I’ll help you,” he said seeing how mad she was.

“Good, I want it all done before six,” she ordered. “Can you do that?”

“Not by myself I can’t,” he exclaimed as he scratched his head.

“Then get as many hands as you can,” she instructed. “I want to be long gone before Mr. McBride returns.”

“Jack doesn’t know you’re leaving?” said Dustin as he swallowed hard knowing his boss was going to be heaping mad when he discovered she was gone
. “You sure you don’t want to wait and hash this thing out before moving your things back to the carriage house?”

“I have nothing to say to Jack,”
she yelled. “Just pack my fucking boxes and move them back to the carriage house.”

“Whatever you say, Kate,” he said as he left to find help moving her belongings.

Kate stormed along the path to the carriage house. She climbed the porch and went inside. All her things were in perfect order just as she left them. She saw several empty boxes along the wall.

One by one she packed them, removing what was left of her life and placing them securely in each box
. Next, she removed the pictures from the walls and stacked them by the front door.

It was time to go home, back to Santa Cruz
. If she was lucky, she would be able to get her old apartment back and her teaching position if it hadn’t already been filled. Tomorrow she would make the necessary calls.

She
finished in the living area and moved to the kitchen, packing up her dishes, glasses, silverware, and pots and pans. Dustin and two other ranch hands entered the carriage house as Kate walked back into the living area.

“You want us to take them upstairs?” asked Dustin.

“No,” she said. “Set them on the floor by the wall. I’m not staying.”

“You’re leaving us?” he asked realizing the seriousness of the situation.

“I’m moving back home,” said Kate in a strange resolving voice.

Dustin nodded and set the boxes alongside the wall
. They left and she resumed packing. For the next hour, the men went in and out stacking the boxes along the wall.

Kate went upstairs to pack what was remaining
. She found the box tucked away back in the closet. She pulled it out and sat on the bed. She opened it and retrieved the small teddy bear and her wedding picture. It seemed kind of silly to her for keeping them like secret treasure. They held no meaning to her now.

She saw the bear Jack gave her on the bed
. She would not make the same mistake twice. She picked up the box and went downstairs leaving the bear and all reminders of Jack behind.

Kate walked back into the kitchen and hovered over the trash can
. She flipped the box over, spilling its contents into the trash then she tied up the trash bag and threw it into the dumpster by the side of her house. She closed the lid and the final chapter of her past life.

Jack was glad the day was over
. He wiped his hands on his jeans after unloading the last of the supplies from his truck. His belly rumbled, reminding him he was overdue for dinner.

He hadn’t meant to be late, but his afternoon
altercation and workout with Kate set him behind schedule. She was probably mad that he didn’t call to let her know he was going to be late. A smile formed on his face picturing her all riled up.

Jack walked through the front door and saw Dustin with several of his ranch hands descending the stairs with boxes in their hands.

“Shit!” exclaimed Dustin when he saw his employer. They almost made it out unscathed considering this was their last load.

“What are you doing?”
Jack demanded as he approached the stairs.

“We’re just doing what Kate told us to do,”
his hand replied.

“And what exactly did Kate tell you to do?” he asked as his eyes narrowed
like green crystal glass.

“She asked us to pack up her things and move them back to the carriage house,” said Dustin nervously.

His words hit Jack square in the chest and almost knocked him back.

“Since when do you take orders from Kate?” Jack
hollered like a drill sergeant. “Put it back. Put every last box back!”

“We can’t.
” Dustin cowered and prayed he would not make him drop and do twenty. “This is the last of it.”

“I said put every last fucking box back!” he yelled so loud the house shook
. He pushed Dustin aside and took to the steps two at a time. “Kate!” he thundered up the stairs looking like he was ready to throttle her.

“She’s not upstairs, Jack,”
he said.

“Where the hell is she then
?” He turned and roared.

“She’s at the carriage house packing up
.” Dustin grew nervous again. “She’s leaving. She says she’s going back home.”

“Like hell she is!”

Jack barreled down the stairs and out the front door heading toward the carriage house. She wasn’t going anywhere if he had a say in it, and he always had a say. He was furious at her. Did she think he would let her leave? What got into her fool head to leave him and go back home? There was nothing for her there, but painful memories.

This was her home now, here on the ranch, in his home, in his bed
. What had changed between the times he left her sleeping until now?

Jack had an unsettling feeling knowing he was the cause, but he forced it out of his head, tucking away his own hand in her irrational need to leave
.

He
charged up the porch steps and barreled through the front door. “Kate!” he yelled. “Kate, where the hell are you?”

She
emerged from the kitchen. At once Jack was upon her, taking her by the arms.

“What are you doing?” he hollered and almost shook her.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” said Kate. “I’m leaving.”

“You’re not leaving.” He shook his head violently
. “I won’t let you!”

“You can’t stop me,”
she snapped.

“Oh, but I can,” he growled tightening his fingers around her arms
. “Remember, you belong to me.” He grabbed her hand and showed her the ring.

“Well, not anymore
.” She pulled the ring off her finger and threw it at him. “I belong to no man, and especially not to you.”

Jack stepped back and picked up the ring
. His heart felt a sharp pain, like a knife stabbing into its center. “Why, Kate?” he looked hurt, which made her angrier.

“You tell me why, Jack?” she yelled at him
. “Why did you do it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about
,” he said as if to play dumb.

“Like hell you don’t,”
she raged. “You knew how much I wanted that teaching position. Why would you go behind my back and tell Seymour not to give me the job?”

Jack had no words of defense
. He had done exactly what Kate accused him of. Why did he do it, knowing she would eventually find out? Perhaps he thought he could get away with it without her knowledge. He bowed his head as if ashamed.

“You’re a jerk!”
She said as mad tears welled up in her eyes.

“I know I am,” he said seeing the pain he caused her
. “Please Kate, don’t be mad at me.”

“Mad at you
? Mad at you-” She screeched and picked up a pillow from the couch and hit him with it. “This time you have gone too far.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said raising his arm blocking her
assault. “I just thought I was doing what was best for us.”

“You weren’t thinking about us,” she hissed
. “You were thinking about you and I am so sick and tired of your bullshit.”

Jack stepped back
when she struck him again.

“
You belong to me, baby
,” she mimicked him to perfection as she continued to slam him with the pillow. “
I can do whatever I want to you, baby - squirm under me, baby - cook my meals, clean my house, fight for me, baby.”
She took a quick breath. “Why it’s enough to make me want to throw up!”

“Okay, okay,”
he yelled shielding himself from her attack. “I get it!”  Kate hit him one last time and Jack fell onto the couch.

“You don’t get anything,”
she yelled pointing an accusing finger in his face. “I’m not your property, Jack. It should have been a mutual relationship. I’m tired of your insecurities, your irrational jealousies, and your insane need to control me.

Why are you so
damn intimidated by me being a teacher? Is it the fact that I’ll be away from you and not under your thumb? Or is it that you’re afraid I’ll get bored with you and your simple-minded cowboy mentality?”

“Maybe it’s both,”
he said honestly as he ran his hands through his hair.

“Get a spine, Jack,”
she shouted at him again. “If you’re afraid I’ll get bored then do something about it. Pick up the freaking newspaper or read a book, go back to school, do something constructive instead of destructive for a change.”

Jack just sat there
. He had nothing to say in his defense. She was right. She nailed it right on the head. He was afraid for all the reasons she gave. “I’ll change, Kate.” Jack finally spoke up.

“I doubt that
. People don’t change.”

“I’m not most people,”
he said as tears filled his eyes.

She
knew he wasn’t cut from the same mold as most, but it was too much to expect even for Jack.

“Please Kate, give me the chance to prove it to you,” said Jack as his world was shattering around him
. “I promise you I’ll make it right between us.”

“You need to fix this, Jack,”
she stated firmly.

“I will
. I promise,” he said as he stood from the couch and took the pillow from her hand. “Just don’t leave me.”

“You’re going to get my job back because they were going to hire me before you stuck your nose in it.”

“I will Kate,” he said as he saw her begin to settle down. “Are we okay?” He reached for her hand. “Are we okay?” he asked her again.

“I honestly don’t know,”
she sighed. All she knew was that she was exhausted.

Jack held up her hand and went to put the ring back on her finger.

“No,” she snapped and pulled her hand away. “I’ll never wear a ring from you again knowing what it means to you. I don’t belong to you. I belong to me.”

“I’m not taking mine off,” said Jack feeling the pain again in his
chest. “So don’t ask me to.”

“I’m not asking you to,”
she said, seeing his eyes fill up again with tears.

“
At least keep the ring with you.” He handed it to her but she shook her head no.

“You keep it
.” She pushed his hand away.

“I’ll hold on to it ‘til you’re ready
.” Jack tucked it in the pocket of his jeans.

“I
may never be ready.” She shook her head and waved him away.

“Don’t say that, Kate,” He stated with panic rising again in his voice
. “Don’t throw us away.”

“I’m not the one who threw us away
. You did that all on your own.”

She was right and he knew it but he couldn’t let her go
. She was his life, his world, and in a single act he destroyed both.

“Please Kate, give me a second chance,” he was pleading now and it tore her heart apart.

She couldn’t say no to Jack and his pleadings. She loved him but she was too tired to say yes. She needed time alone to think, to work out her thoughts and make a decision.