AVERY (The Corbin Brothers Book 2) by Lexie Ray Read Free Book Online Page B

been such a bummer?” Hunter joked.
    “He can hear you all standing out here on the porch bitching about him,” Zoe said, poking her head out the door. “The windows are open.”
    “Fuck,” Tucker said mildly. “Well, guess we’d better go in.”
    “Damn right, you’d better come in,” Chance bellowed. “You’re wasting daylight.”
    And only Chance and I knew just how precious daylight was now. How much longer would the rising and setting of the sun dictate our days? How much longer would the ranch be ours?
    Inside the house in the front room, Chance looked as haggard as I felt. At least, I hoped I didn’t look as hungover as I really was. Chance appeared so much older than even the day before, and unless I was imagining things, I thought I saw more gray hairs populating his head.
    “You all had better sit down for this,” he said, even though he was standing, pacing around.
    “You’d better sit down, too, or you’re going to wear a hole in my floor,” Zoe tossed over her shoulder as she walked back toward the kitchen. Chance watched her go before plopping down hard on the couch. Zoe and her son, Toby, were the most recent additions to this mismatch of a ranch. She cooked and cleaned for us in exchange for a small paycheck and room and board. I had no idea where the money came from for that, but Chance was the one who kept the books, not me.
    “We know about the missing cattle,” Hunter said gravely, looking to get this show on the road.
    “Missing cattle?” Tucker repeated. “Really? Have you checked the gorge? Let’s send Emmett.”
    “I am dying laughing, but it’s on the inside,” Emmett said, his hand on his knee brace.
    “Missing cattle isn’t a joke,” Chance barked. “Avery, what’s the count?”
    “We’re down five,” I said. “Hunter and I have been all over looking for stragglers.”
    “And I’m going to do a perimeter run after this,” Hunter said, impatient to get back in the saddle.
    “That’s not the only reason we’re meeting,” Chance said, putting his face in his hand. My stomach dropped out from underneath me. I knew what was coming and my brothers didn’t have a clue.
    Chance was saved from having to drop the bomb on everyone by a sharp rap on the front door, followed by several pressings on the doorbell Hunter had recently fixed.
    We all looked up, confused.
    “Are we expecting a shipment today?” Chance asked Tucker.
    “They wouldn’t ring the doorbell — they’d just drop it off at the barn.”
    “Well, no one’s down at the barn,” Emmett reasoned.
    “Are any of you lazy asses going to get the door?” Zoe demanded, bustling back down the hallway.
    “Sorry, Zoe,” Chance said. “That’s not your job.”
    “It’s somebody’s goddamn job.” She switched her sweetness on as she opened the front door. “Corbin Ranch. What can I help you with?”
    “Bud Billings. Here to see whichever Corbin is on hand.”
    All of us froze. What the hell was that vulture doing here?
    “Well, looks like you have your pick of Corbins today,” Zoe said, her tone notably chillier. “May I ask what your business is?”
    “Business with the Corbins. Not your concern, girl.”
    Chance was on his feet in a flash, marching toward the door before even Tucker could grab him. “Listen here, you son of a bitch …”
    “Excellent,” Bud said, sidestepping both Zoe and Chance and looking around the front room. “You’re all here. This is better than I could’ve imagined.”
    Bud Billings was one of those old men who never seemed to age, an exact date of birth indeterminate. He looked the same to me now as he had when I was a boy, wiry, close-cropped white hair and ropy muscles you could still discern beneath his clothes. He walked with a cane, but not because he had to, I didn’t think. He was always dressed sharply and was one of the first ranchers in the area to go commercial — that is, practicing everything in ranching my parents had been so against. Bud