Chapter 12

They’d arrived home from worship to find dinner waiting in a well-banked and slightly warm oven. The cook Tallis had hired and Melody had taught how to use the stove had done an outstanding job. The smell alone had drawn them all into the kitchen the moment they walked through the doorway.

They ate sitting around the smaller table that sat in what Sara loved referring to as the breakfast nook. Once the food was dished up and consumed, Tallis looked at Melody. “I’m going to explain everything to Sara. Is there something you want or need to take care of today?”

Melody nodded as she cleared the table. “I still need to work with Diablo today. If your parents are returning tomorrow, I’d like to have him willing to wear a saddle when your father arrives.”

Tallis grinned. “Well, okay then. Why don’t you go ahead and change and work on that? We’ll be out to watch and learn as soon as I explain to Sara.”

Tallis stood and pulled her into his arms and kissed her. While the kiss was short and sweet, Melody had wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around his neck and force him to kiss her like he’d done last night.

However, she knew that this conversation needed to happen and that tomorrow several more would as well. She just prayed that his family would be on board with the complete plan Tallis had in mind. She also prayed that they’d accept his word as truth and be happy that he wanted to marry her, and quickly.

In her old canvas britches she’d brought from the past and a western-style button shirt, Melody slipped on her boots by the front door and made her way over to the stables.

She opened Diablo’s stall door and after patting him and giving him a couple of dried apple slices from the bag that hung at the stable door. She walked him out to the training ring and closed him in to let him run while she got everything else together. In the tack room, she gathered her saddle bags. She kept them filled with things she might need for training. Then she grabbed a halter with a soft leather bit called a training bit instead of the more popular metal one.

The leather bit was softer on an untrained or still-training horse’s mouth. That made it easy to teach the horse to respond quickly to even soft touches, and the added benefit of not desensitizing their delicate lips with hard, unyielding metal. She hung the halter off the horn of her saddle and grabbed a blanket from the clean stack, placing it on top of the seat so that she could scoop up the saddle and carry it all out to the fence in one trip.

“Well now, ain’t you a welcome and pretty sight on a Sunday afternoon.”

Melody turned at the sarcastic voice to see Brent Cole leaning up against the entranceway between the tack room and the main stable. He stepped inside, pulling the tack room closed behind him. “Where’s your shadow, pretty lady? I ain’t seen the boss man let you get two feet from him since you got here. Matter of fact, looked last night he got way closer than two feet, to my eyes.”

The foreman walked up close, crowding her up against the saddle and gear. She refused to be intimidated and carefully reached behind her to grasp the wooden cudgel she kept to strike angry horses on the muzzle with to teach them that anger caused pain. It would work on angry ranch foremen too, she was sure. “He and Sara had some things to talk about. He’s planning on meeting me in the training ring shortly.”

Brent looked her up, and down like he had that first day. In the way that made her feel like he could see right through her clothes, making that filthy sensation crawl across her skin again. Then he looked into her eyes and moved right up against her, trapping her between his body and the wooden stand her saddle sat on.

“I think you’re gonna be late. I saw the way the two of you were carrying on in the main house last night. Saw that for all his high moral ideals about treating women like a gentleman here on the ranch, when he had you alone and in his arms, it seemed like that rule didn’t apply. Now me, I figure if the boss man can take a taste or two, I should get my fair share as well.”

He grabbed her and yanked her hard against his body, leaving no question about his intentions. Her hand came out of the saddlebag, cudgel swinging for his temple, but his hand caught her wrist and pinned it to her side, squeezing till the wooden weapon dropped to the ground. “Now that ain’t nice, sweetheart. Here I am willing to play nice and you try to hurt me.”

She opened her mouth to scream, but his other hand quickly clamped across her mouth, effectively silencing her. He shook his head. “Ah, ah, ah! Don’t think you need to be trying that, miss high and mighty historical expert.”

She opened her mouth and bit into his palm, causing him to jerk his hand away from her mouth. Before she could draw in enough air to scream, his other hand latched around her throat and squeezed, cutting off her air supply. “Stop fighting me darlin’ because I promise before we’re done you’re gonna enjoy our little training session.”

His other hand gripped the front of her pants and with a violent yank, he tore the aged and weakened canvas so that the britches fell at his feet. He felt her trying to fight in earnest and tightened his hold on her neck, cutting off all her oxygen. “Now then. I’ve heard some women love it when a man chokes ‘em. Reckon I’m gonna find out if yer one of them.”

Melody wanted to fight. She wanted to get away from this brute of a man who was about to steal the most precious gift she had to give Tallis on their wedding night. But with every second her strength seeped away along with the graying of her vision as her lack of air stole all her resistance. Then as the gray crept in, threatening to send her into oblivion, color slammed into her all at once.

*****

Tallis was calmly explaining to his sister everything his Calling had revealed to him about Melody and where and when she was from. He told her what he thought he’d figured out about Reverend Johnson and the rules of the contract that kept them all from asking Melody right out if he was correct. He had just shared what both he and Melody had figured out from the sermon passage that morning when a true Ryder Calling yanked him to his feet.

This wasn’t the refined pay attention this is important tug he normally felt. No, this was a full-on danger was close at hand and he needed to act to stop it Calling. Like those he’d always heard about Nugget Nate and Nathan having.

He was moving before he even realized it as the sensation tightened and with certainty, he couldn’t understand he knew he need to get to the stables and now. As he hurried in that direction, he called over his shoulder to Sara. “Call 911, Sara, we need the sheriff and EMTs and we need them quick.”

Sara didn’t argue or ask a single question, just punched in the numbers on her cell phone. Tallis flew out the kitchen door, running full out for the stable and his future wife. She was in danger and needed him now! He didn’t know how he knew but he knew and as he tore into the building; he saw that the tack room door was shut. Tallis knew she was in there, as sure as he knew his name. He also knew she wasn’t alone before he heard the voice of his foreman, Brent Cole.

As he opened the door, Cole was standing in front of Melody, one hand wrapped around her throat as her face turned blue from lack of air, the other hand undoing his own pants. It was his words that spun Tallis’ vision beyond normal in an angry red film that covered everything. “Now then. I’ve heard some women love it when a man chokes ‘em. Reckon I’m gonna find out if yer one of them.”

With a growl equal to that grizzly bear that earned Nugget Nate his mountain name, Tallis launched himself across the room, his own hand latching on to the back of Cole’s shirt and tossing the man backwards away from Melody and hard into the wall beside the door. The foreman’s eyes widened for a second and then his hands came up as Tallis stormed toward him again. “Now boss, this ain’t what it looks like. Me and Miss Hughes were just having a spot of fun...”

Tallis right fist connected with the man’s face, quickly followed by his left sinking into the cowboy’s solar plexus. As the man bent at the pain in his core, Tallis’ strong left hand came up and with a loud cracking sound, connected with the slime’s jaw. Dropping the man like the two-hundred-pound bag of manure that he was. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fell unconscious.

Tallis turned at a sound in the doorway to see Sara about to race into the room. “Sara, stop right there. Did you call 911?”

“Yes, Tall, the sheriff and an ambulance are on their way.” As if to highlight his sister’s words, Tallis caught the first faint but growing sounds of sirens heading their way. “Good, take a picture of Melody, please.”

He heard the click of the phone’s camera shutter, and he turned to Melody. “Are you okay, love?”

She stood and started shaking. Tallis was beside her in a minute. “Sara, can you from there zoom in close enough to get a picture of the bruises forming on her neck?”

Sara nodded. “Melody love, lift your head so she can get an excellent picture.”

There was another click and then Tallis was wrapping the horse blanket around the most important woman in his life. “Are you okay, love? I know he hurt your throat, are you hurt anywhere else?”

She shook her head and answered in a very scratchy voice. “No, you got here before he could do what he’d planned. Tallis, I just want to get some britches, please. He tore mine.”

Tallis pulled her into his arms “I know love, but you can’t. yet. We need to wait for the Sheriff, she needs to see the scene as it is and take our statements first.” He looked at Melody. “Get a picture of her pants, Sara; make sure you can see the torn edges, please.”

His sister’s phone clicked again and then they heard the siren that had been growing louder go silent as the sheriff’s car slid to a stop in front of the stable. “Show her back here, Sara.”

His sister nodded and walked away. Melody looked up at him. “Why do I need to talk to the sheriff, Tallis?”

“Because love, what Brent did is a crime here. It’s called sexual assault and it will put him in jail. With the bruises forming, she may make it violent sexual assault or add a charge of attempted murder, but either way, he’s never going to hurt you or any woman again.”

Then the sheriff walked in, and took one look at the scene in front of her, as Brent Cole groaned and started to come around. Without a word, she rolled him over and yanked his hands behind his back, slapping cuffs on his wrists. “Well, Mr. Cole, seems like you didn’t listen to me again.”

Tallis’ attention snapped to the officer’s face. “You’ve had other run-ins with Brent, Sheriff?”

The woman nodded. “A few, Mr. Ryder. I’m assuming since this half-dressed young lady is clinging to you like your all that’s keeping her sane. That Cole and not you is the one who did that to her throat and clothes?”

“Yeah, I got her just before something worse happened.”

“Good. Miss, I’m Sheriff Becky Kinkade, can I get your name please?”

“Melody Hughes.”

The sheriff gave a weak smile. “I’d say I was happy to meet you, but that might seem strange in this situation.”

Tallis saw the smile that flashed across Melody’s face and knew that was why the Sheriff had said what she had.

“I have paramedics on the way, they should be here soon. Besides the obvious damage to your throat, are you hurt anywhere else?”

Melody shook her head. “No, Tallis got here before anything else could happen.”

“That’s good, now are you sure? Did he hit you or grab you someplace else?’”

She held up her right hand and they could see the bruise forming around it as well. “I tried to hit him with my training cudgel and he caught my arm and forced my hand to open by squeezing my wrist, but that’s all.”

“Do you mind if I take a picture of your wrist, Miss Hughes?”

Melody shook her head, and the sheriff pulled out her phone and snapped a couple of pictures. “I hate to ask, but I need to get some of your neck and your state of undress without the blanket.”

Tallis spoke up. “Sara got some of those before you got here.”

“Good, I’ll just have her send them to me and save us that step. Can you walk me through what happened, Miss Hughes?”

Melody described the incident and as she talked Tallis got angry at Brent Cole all over again. He moved to pummel the man again when he interrupted by yelling, “She’s lying. I didn’t do anything she didn’t ask for.”

Kinkade stopped and yanked Cole up on his feet by the cuffs. “I’m not talking to you. Matter of fact, until I’m ready to talk to you, I think the back of my car is a good place for you.”

She hauled him off and shut him in the back of the car. “Sorry about that,” she said on her return. “Go ahead and finish telling me what happened, Miss Hughes.”

Melody continued until she got to where her vision started to gray out. “Then the next thing I know, Tallis is hitting him.”

The sheriff looked at him. “When did you know something was wrong?”

“Officially, not until I entered the stable. I saw the door to the tack room was shut, and we never shut it.”

The sheriff looked at him, “Officially? Are you trying to say this is one of those cases where a Ryder knew something was wrong when they shouldn’t have known?”

“Becky, you know about our gift. I remember you had that case with Hannah a few years back.”

She nodded. “Yep, and a few run-ins with your brother, too. So you came into the stable and saw that the tack room door was shut; then what?”

“I approached the door and heard Cole’s voice. He sounded angry, so I opened the door to see him fumbling with his pants opening while holding Miss Hughes by the throat with his other. Her face was turning blue, and he said he’d heard some women like being choked, and he guessed they were going to find out if she was one. I crossed the room and yanked him away from Miss Hughes.”