April, Dani - Raven's Ranch (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme) by Dani April

first to approach her. “We should have told you. I guess we’re all just gutless cowards when it comes to you.”
    “I don’t understand, Roy. What is happening here?”
    The giant form of Bran cast a huge shadow in the headlights of his truck as he walked to stand at her side. “We’re leaving the ranch, Raven,” he told her, his baritone voice making it sound like he was heralding the judgment day and not just the defection of a few ranch hands that had not been paid.
    Raven realized she couldn’t play stupid any longer. She knew they were leaving and she knew the reason why.
    “I can’t make it without you guys,” she told them, her voice pleading.
    “We’re really sorry, Raven,” Roy told her, and she could see none of the former bravado in his voice or manner. At the moment he looked as dejected as she felt. “We can’t stay on with you any longer.”
    “It really is better this way,” Bran put in. Chip came up and stood at Bran’s side, too shy to open his mouth.
    “I don’t want you guys to go,” she told them, making her voice firm and strong, and inside feeling weak and lost.
    “I apologize. I’m sorry for the way I’ve acted and behaved around you. I said a whole bunch of things to you I shouldn’t have,” Roy told her. “I guess I’m just a no-good bastard. Always have been, and probably always will be. But I didn’t mean any disrespect. You’re a good person, and I wish you all the best.”
    “Me as well, Raven,” Bran put in, and he reached out a giant palm to shake her hand and let her know there were no hard feelings. “I guess all of us guys have been living out here by ourselves so long we forgot what it was like to be around a woman, especially one as nice as you are. But I want you to know I think the world of you.”
    Roy loaded his last bag in over the side of his truck bed. Bran got down to his knees and began to work a screw out of a folding gym table so he could get it packed with his other equipment. Chip left his truck and came to stand before her. She could see he didn’t know what to say, or if he did, he didn’t know how to piece the right words together.
    “I’ll miss you, Chip,” she told him. She wanted to cry then but was able to hold a stoic attitude. “Thanks for all you’ve done for me. I’ll never forget it.”
    Raven felt dizzy. Her world was spinning before her eyes. She had always been a fighter. She was going to fight this, too. She didn’t really know yet what she would do, but a vague notion was forming in the back of her mind.
    She kicked some weeds out of her way, got buzzed by some angry mosquitoes, and got the guys’ attention, standing in the middle of their little group.
    “Do any of you have jobs yet?” she asked them, because if they did she would not try stopping them.
    They all shook their heads. They did not have jobs.
    “Where are you going to live?” she asked.
    “For tonight, a rooming house in Masterson,” Roy answered.
    “Tomorrow we’re all going our own way,” Bran said.
    “Do any of you guys have families?” she asked. “Do any of you guys have girlfriends?” She looked across at Chip first, and she knew the answer in his case. He had no family and was too shy for a girlfriend.
    Roy and Bran shook their heads. “No,” Roy answered. “I don’t have anyone.”
    “Guys like us live too rough of lives to have girlfriends,” Bran said. “We’re loners and have been all our lives.”
    “I’m a loner, too,” Raven told them, her voice sounding small in the night air of the open range. “What are you guys going to do with your lives once you leave here?”
    “Not a clue.” This was Roy.
    “You don’t even have any money.” Raven pleaded with them.
    “We don’t have much,” Bran admitted. “But we’re not asking for any back pay. We’re willing to just call it even when we leave here tonight.”
    “That’s funny,” Raven said, her courage rising in her the more she spoke. “I don’t have