Final Scream Read Free Page B

that.”
     
    Cassidy’s shoulder throbbed, but she wasn’t going to let any stubborn mule of a horse beat her. She downed two aspirins with a swallow of water, then dashed out of the bathroom, her boots ringing loudly on the bare steps of the back staircase. She was out the screen door before her mother could catch her. Racing down the hill to the stable, she ignored the fact that it was twilight, nearly dark. Night or day, it was time to teach that damned colt a lesson.
    Sweat beaded on her forehead—the heat of the afternoon still lingering like a curse. Even the faint breeze had little effect on the temperature, which had been hovering near a hundred for most of the afternoon. The roses had begun to wilt in the heat despite the sprinklers that were pumping well water onto the dry beds. Yellow jackets, thirsty and mean, hovered near the sprinkler heads.
    At the stable, she didn’t bother with the lights; she could still see well enough and there was no reason to let her mother know what she was up to. Dena Buchanan would have a fit if she knew Cassidy was deliberately disobeying her. Again. Though she’d never said it, Cassidy was sure that her mother wanted her to be more like Angie, her half sister. Beautiful, boy-crazy Angela, who dieted to keep her waist tiny and brushed her long black hair until it gleamed. Her clothes came from the finest stores in Portland, Seattle and San Francisco, where sometimes she’d been asked to model. With flawless skin, high cheekbones, pouty lips and eyes as blue as a summer sky, Angie Buchanan was, without a doubt, the most beautiful girl in all of Prosperity.
    The boys were crazy for her and she teased them mercilessly, reveling in their adoration, lust and sexual frustration. Even Derrick seemed mesmerized around his sister.
    It was enough to make Cassidy sick.
    She yanked a bridle off a hook in the tack room and found Remmington in his stall. In the half-light his liquid eyes held a tiny spark of fire. Yep, this one liked a challenge. Well, so did she. “Okay, you mean old jackass,” she said in her most coaxing tone, “it’s time for you to learn a thing or two.”
    She slipped through the gate to the stall, stepped inside and sensed the tension in the air. The colt pawed the straw and snorted, the whites of his eyes showing in the darkness.
    “You’ll be all right,” she said, slipping the bridle over his head and feeling his tense muscles quiver as she fiddled with the buckle. “We’ll just take a nice little ride—”
    A hand clamped over her forearm.
    She yelped. Her heart nearly stopped. Spinning around, she started to scream before she recognized Brig McKenzie. Her father’s latest acquisition. That thought bothered her. She’d heard stories about Brig and had admired his irreverent streak, never once believing that he, like everyone else in town, would eventually become a Buchanan possession.
    Tall, broad-shouldered, with tanned skin and a nose that had been broken more than once, he glared down at her as if she’d done something wrong.
    “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, trying to yank back her arm and failing.
    “You know, that’s exactly what I was gonna ask you.” Furious blue eyes assessed her. Thin, nearly cruel lips drew flat over his teeth. She knew in a split second why so many girls in town found him dangerously sexy.
    “I came here to get my horse and ride—”
    “No way.”
    “You think you can stop me?” she scoffed, unsettled by the way he was holding her, furious that he would try to tell her what to do. Truth to tell, she was more than a little embarrassed that he’d sneaked up on her without her hearing him, but she wasn’t going to let that side of her show.
    “It’s my job.”
    “Remmington’s your job? Since when?”
    “Yesterday.” His voice was rough and close, his breath much too warm as it whispered across her face. “Your dad hired me to train your horse.”
    “My dad hired you to work in