Born To Be Wild Read Free

horse’s neck was already wet with sweat, his breath heaving, steam coming from his nose. Slade responded with a powerful lunge that almost unseated Micah. Laughing, he grabbed onto the thick mane, tightened his thighs around the horse’s barrel and did his damnedest to hang on until they crested the top of the hill in front of his buddies.
    “Woo-hoo!” he yelled, straightening in the saddle and bringing Slade to a dead stop.
    The Soto brothers, Bobby and Hank, caught up to him. Though a few years younger, Hank was nearly as big as Bobby. They had the same blue eyes, olive skin, and ink-black hair. Bobby wore his hair longish, in what was little more than a stub of a ponytail at the back of his neck. He also sported a skull tattoo that peeked out from the neckline of his shirt.
    “I won,” Micah informed them. “You each owe me a case of beer!”
    “As if we’re old enough to actually buy beer,” Hank groused.
    Bobby laughed. “Fake ID, bro.”
    Hearing hoofbeats behind him, Micah turned in the saddle to see an incredible sight approach—a mahogany bay that had to be seventeen hands or better. The young woman who had complete control of the horse, despite the fact that she was riding bareback, brought him up short.
    “What the hell do you boys think you’re doing?” she demanded.
    Hank looked uncomfortable, but Bobby laughed again and asked, “Who wound you up, little girl?”
    But damn. Isabel Falcon wasn’t little, Micah thought. Not anymore. She’d grown since he’d last seen her. He couldn’t remember when that was. He’d just graduated from high school and she was going to be a junior, so they hadn’t been in the same classes or anything. Even with her sitting a horse, he could tell her hips had widened. Her breasts had definitely filled out. And with the sun behind her, her hair glowed an incredible halo-red, though it was in fact a dark mahogany, nearly the same shade as her mount’s coat.
    “Are you trying to kill your horses or yourselves?” she asked. “There’s a reason this is called Suicide Hill.”
    Before Bobby could say anything, Micah asked, “So you’ve never tried besting it?”
    “I’m not that stupid.”
    Obviously meaning she thought they were.
    Bobby edged his horse closer to hers, and in a threatening tone said, “You oughta watch that mouth of yours, Isabel, or maybe I’ll shove something long and hard in it to shut you up.”
    Bobby and Hank’s father was a friend of Micah’s father, Jonah, and as such had enthusiastically supported the Wilds in their feud against the Falcons. Bobby was just following suit with Isabel.
    About to talk him down, Micah started when, like magic, a knife appeared in Isabel’s hand. “Try it, Bobby, and I’ll cut it off.”
    Bobby turned to Micah. “Are we gonna let her threaten us like that?”
    “Hey, Bobby, maybe we should get going.” Hank backed his horse away from the confrontation. “Mess with her and we’ll get shit at home.”
    But Bobby was paying his brother no mind. “Micah?”
    “I think you need to cool down, Bobby.” Bobby might be a buddy of his, if not a close friend, but no way would Micah let him do what he appeared ready to do. Still, he wanted to ease the situation, give Bobby a way out, pride intact. “Isabel’s scared of you and defending herself, is all. Let it go.”
    “Whose side are you on?”
    “Ours.” Micah was talking to Bobby but watching Isabel. Her anger was palpable but, thankfully, she was keeping her mouth shut. He changed tactics and looked straight into Bobby’s eyes. “You don’t want to get into it with her brother, Cruz, anyway. You touch his sister and he’d split you open and feed you to the coyotes to get rid of the evidence.”
    “I’m not afraid of Cruz Falcon.”
    Somehow, Micah kept his cool, which he wouldn’t do if Bobby actually tried to carry through with his threat.
    “Bobby, c’mon. Leave it.” He kept his voice friendlier than he was feeling now. “Just go