Chapter 4 Ben Wants My Land

*Skylar*

"Where were you?" Danica laughed as she handed me a pint of beer. Music hummed over the crowd and the air was ripe with cheap beer and the smell of hay. Squeezed up against the bar, I accepted the beer and drank half of it in one go to wash the encounter with the stone-cold cowboy away.

"I got trampled by some dickhead in a cowboy hat," I said gruffly, taking another sip.

"Welcome to the club," she chuckled just as a guy in a cream colored cowboy bumped into us and nearly spilled our beers.

"I didn't expect it to be so busy here based on the size of town," I remarked, standing on my tiptoes to look around.

"There's a rodeo in town, that's why. It's never this crowded. Usually it's pretty boring."

I took a moment to drink it all in. The sawdust on the floor. The dust covered, amber hued lighting. The rich scent of hay, hops, and sweat. I doubted I could find a body that wasn't wearing something by the brand Wrangler.

"Did you grow up here?" I turned back to Danica and leaned an elbow against the bar.

"No." She took a drink and set her pint down. "I grew up on the reservation. I'm Siksika Nation." She threw her hair over her shoulder as she gazed around the room. "I worked for a widow here in Mason Creek starting when I was fourteen. She left her property and house to me in her will. She ran a little produce booth, and I took it over. She died around six years ago now. I've been here ever since."

Danica couldn't have been much older than myself, and I was pushing twenty-seven. I noticed her eyes went a bit cloudy with some memory, but she brushed it off and took another drink.

"Now I farm heritage vegetables and flowers. There's a market in town once a week, but I occasionally drive to the next big town to set up a booth at their markets."

The dreamy look in Danica's eyes told me she'd fought for what she had now, and that knowledge curled around my heart and squeezed.

I was so glad she was the first person I'd run into in Mason Creek.

"This place is just ranching families. That's the only economy here. The bar does well, yeah, but that's because it's the only place for sixty miles to get a drink and a burger. There's a school that teaches up to 12th grade, and there's actually quite a few kids in these parts."

She continued talking but my eyes drifted from her face to the far side of the bar, where I spotted Grady talking to the towering stranger who'd crushed me to the wall earlier. The man's back was to me, his broad shoulders wide and rigid as he slowly turned his head to look at the group of men near the jukebox.

"That's Ben Lawson," Danica said, leaning in to say it as if she didn't want to be overheard saying his name. Like his name was a curse, or a death knell. The very sound of it was enough to summon the Grim Reaper himself.

"That's Ben Lawson?" I choked on my beer. I imagined him being some grouchy old man, not a greek god in a cowboy hat. He couldn't be more than thirty at the most. The way the dim light in the bar touched his cheek illuminated a scar that ran down his temple to his jaw, hooked and jagged. I bristled and turned my attention to Danica. "But he's–"

"Hot? Sure. He'll ruin your life, Skylar. Just stay out of his way, okay?"

"Why?" I leaned in, eyes glistening with newfound confidence as the beer hit my system and bloomed through my veins. I loved a challenge. Maybe that's why I ended up with a bum knee and a ranch house that looked about ready to fall in on itself. "What's so bad about him?"

"He's the king around here, whether or not people like it or want to believe it. He doesn't take no for an answer and has no qualms when it comes beating the shit out of people to get his way, okay? He has a reputation–"

"You guys talking about Ben?"

"Fuck, Grady!" Danica exclaimed, her hand flying to her heart as we turned to face Grady, who was standing directly behind Danica with a smug, boyish grin on his face.

"Everything she says about him is true," Grady laughed, then motioned to the bartender. "I'm going to buy us a round–"

I ignored Grady and turned to Danica, going as far as to grab her arm as I said, "You said he was my rival–"

"Your property is directly between his and the Hollis Ranch," she said in a near whisper, the words drowned out by the music now blaring from the jukebox. "He's had a vendetta against the Hollis family for years, ever since he took over the Hawthorne ranch after his dad's death."

"What does that have to do with me, though?" I asked, exasperated.

"Both Ben Lawson and Kline Hollis have been eyeing the Courtney property to extend their land holdings, Skylar," Danica whispered in my ear. "I wouldn't be surprised if either of them tried making you a deal–"

Danica's mouth shut abruptly, her face going hard as steel as the air in the room shifted.

"This is who I was talking about," Grady remarked to the man standing directly behind me now, towering over me and casting me in a cold, hollow shadow that sent a chill racing over my skin.

I knew it was Ben. I felt his presence without even having to turn my head to confirm it. I gritted my teeth, thinking back on the look he'd given me when he caged me against the wall while reading my poster.

He'd been sizing me up.

Ben Lawson wanted my land, land I hadn't known about until a week ago. Land I didn't know what to do with. Land that was overgrown and a house that was falling to pieces.

When I'd first found out about the property, my idea was to sell out, take the profits and run. I could buy a storefront, start a dance school, and continue pursuing my dreams since I had a little cash to get started.

But something about Ben had my muscles tensing and my heart hammering in my chest. He wanted what was mine, and I'd had enough of that taken from me already.

I whirled around and looked up into his eyes.

"I'm not selling my land to you," I snapped.

The corner of his mouth twitched, but his expression stayed as cold as ice as he looked down at me. His hat sent shadows over the sharp planes of his unusually handsome face, that sharp nose and wide, full mouth. He was clean shaven, his skin clear and tanned from the sun.

But that scar caught my eye again, and I fought the urge to flinch as he smirked, mischief in his eyes.

"I won't be asking," he said, his voice deep and full of smoke. It rippled over my skin, sending a flurry of gooseflesh over my arms and legs. He leaned down, dominating me with his body as he whispered into my ear, "but you'll be begging me to take it by the end of this."

Fury licked up my spine but I held my ground.

I was competitive by nature. I never backed down from a challenge. The only time I'd ever just straight up walked away from something was a week ago when my life imploded.

"Be nice to her, Ben," Grady groaned.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ben said smoothly, leaning an elbow on the bar. "I was just saying hello."

Danica said nothing as she watched Ben like a hawk, her eyes narrowed into slits. I wondered if she'd heard what he said to me, but I found it unlikely. The bar thrummed with music and raucous conversation and I could barely hear my own words as I hissed, "Get away from me."

Ben's eyes fixed on mine. In this light they were a pale brown, almost gold, a color I'd never seen on anyone before. A muscle in his jaw ticked, but that steely expression didn't change. I doubted he ever smiled.

"Come on, Skylar. Let's go." Danica took me by the arm and pulled me away from the bar, Grady groaning and grumbling about how he just bought us drinks.

I didn't take my eyes off Ben, however. I held his gaze until we reached that narrow front hallway and the bulletin board, and then a fresh wave of anger slammed into me.

Someone had ripped my paper off the board and crumpled it up, tossing it on the ground.

"Just leave it–"

I stooped down and picked it up, smoothing it open between the palms of my hands.

I looked back over at Ben as I slammed it against the bulletin board, our eyes locking. I glared, pressing the tack into the board so hard I felt the plastic head pinch my skin.

"Fuck that guy," I said under my breath as we walked to her truck.

"Look," Danica said, rounding on me. A group of bar goers passed us, the warm night air smelling briefly of hay and cigarette smoke. "Are you really serious about this? Like, what's your plan?"

"I'm going to fix up that house and live in it," I said without hesitation. "I have nowhere else to go and nothing to do." I glanced back at the bar, half expecting Ben to walk out and beat the shit out of me. Was it wrong that I suddenly longed to see what those hands felt like against my skin? Probably. I shoved the thought away and turned my attention to Danica. "I'm not going to let that dickhead stop me from doing that, and he sure as fuck isn't getting his hands on my property."