Breaking Boundaries (5th in Breaking Series)

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-One

"Liz, we need to have a talk with you."

Elizabeth glanced over at Brody and the kids as all the ranch hands minus Aiden, Nick, Wendell and Cookie approached her just as soon as she'd ridden in sight of the barns. "Go on ahead, Brody, and get the kids settled in at the pony barn, they have stalls to clean. I'll see to this and join y'all in a minute."

Brody took a draw off his cigarette and nodded before clicking his tongue and leading the children away.

"What seems to be the problem?" Elizabeth questioned as she dismounted, though she already knew what they were going to say.

It was a hand named Graham who had been with them off and on for close to two years that stepped forward first, "We want Nick and Aiden gone."

Elizabeth nodded as she crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her hip to the side, "That's a pretty serious request," she acknowledged. "What seems to be the problem with them?"

The men all shared looks and shifted their feet as if waiting for someone else to speak up. Elizabeth fixed Graham with a stare and took a page out of Brody's book as she raised her brow. "Men, we have a ranch to run so either get to giving me a damn good reason why I should let go of two hard working men who haven't given me a single reason to want them gone or get the hell to work."

"Boss, those men aren't natural and I for one won't be working around a man who might want to rut with me," Curly grumbled.

Elizabeth looked the slim, dirt crusted, middle-aged man up and down and shook her head, "You think too highly of yourself, Curly. I'm sure rutting with you never once crossed their minds."

Curly's dark eyes flashed with temper but Elizabeth wasn't afraid. She hadn't been raised to feel fear and she'd dealt with men much tougher than Curly in her time—hell she was married to Brody Atkinson after all.

"Miss Elizabeth, this is serious," Frank spoke up. Elizabeth was disappointed in the man. She had known Frank nearly her entire life and had expected better of the man than to be so afraid and intolerant of something he didn't understand, "We ain't comfortable working around those men."

"Then you have two choices," Elizabeth said, using one of her husband's favorite lines as she looked around at the group of men, "You can either get the hell over your small mindedness and do the work that I pay you to do—or you can pack up your belongings and get off my ranch. What's it going to be?"

"I'm gone," Graham growled. Elizabeth waved goodbye to him and he turned and stormed off toward the bunkhouse with Curly and two other hands on his heels.

"If you stay then you damn well better be willing to get over this and not cause any trouble," Elizabeth warned the nine men still standing in front of her. They all nodded in agreement though they didn't look too pleased. "Then let's get to work."

Elizabeth split the men into groups to go and ride the fence lines to check for any more problems. They hadn't seen anyone coming around the hole they found cut and no new holes had since been discovered. Elizabeth hoped the hole had been nothing but a one-time incident, the culprits had been scared off and nothing else would come from it.... The thought of someone stealing from her was enough to make her blood boil especially when Elizabeth had always done everything she could to help anyone who needed help.

"Did you get things squared away, boss?" Brody asked as she joined him at the small barn where he was supervising the children as they went about tending to their ponies and cleaning the stalls.