Chapter Nine

The entire following week, the new hands were caught up on what was happening, and as much as Dallas worried over telling them, none seemed all that concerned. Mary Sue Ginn was Bonita's pick. She was tired of being the only woman on the ranch that did the work that she did. She practically threatened Dallas to hire her, but Dallas was already prepared to do just that.

The others were Felix Montega, Steve Nunez, and Daryl Brunt, all gay and excited to be on a ranch where they could be out.

He knew that feeling well.

What bunks weren't taken in the bunkhouse were quickly assigned by Dallas and Jace. The one that would be staying there that worried Dallas, however, was Marius.

After the search parties came, Dallas kept his people on track with their assignments each day, while sending four of the older hands to help the search. Jace and Dante also had people helping, and Hunter was one of them.

He got the biggest horse they had; a gray Arabian named Shoe-Fly. He said Shoe-Fly reminded him of his favorite horse, Mayhem. He led the search while the rest of them did their daily chores and then had meeting after meeting with the other people on the property.

Burke was beside himself with loneliness after sending Damon and Joel home. Joel said he was anxious to get back to his animals, and Damon agreed, but mostly they were worried about Joel. He wasn't handling it well once they found a woman murdered on the property.

Burke helped him out where he could, trying to keep busy. "I can't abandon the project. It means a lot to me, expanding Cowpokes. This…this is epic. I mean, there are gay cruises and there are other resorts, but this is special. I saw that after we opened. From the first weekend, I saw men enjoying themselves in a setting that was beautiful, peaceful, and secluded. They took long walks and sat on the grass playing with the baby goats and rabbits. This? It could be so much more."

Roland came in and sat with them while they were eating their breakfast one morning in the bunkhouse. "I have something to ask you two."

"What's that?" Burke asked before sipping his coffee.

"We planned Cowpokes to be at the end of the street in the resort town we're planning, right?"

Dallas nodded. He'd seen the sketches. "That's the plan. All roads…okay, the one road, leads to the club."

"What if we built it away from the town? Not far but, see, Blaine was talking about adopting or getting a surrogate and having kids. Then that subject got brought up, how the resort would be great for kids too. But, if the biggest attraction in the little town is a sex club, not a lot of men are going to want to bring their kids."

Dallas nodded and said, "Good thinkin'. How far from town?"

"Less than a mile. I found on the map the perfect spot. We could build the store with the sex toys and stuff next to it, then add on another building that could serve as a bathhouse."

Burke grinned at him and said, "Haven't been to one of those in years. Roland, that's genius. If we have on the website and the ads for it that daytime is for families and the nighttime is for adults, well, we'd definitely attract more. Well done!"

"I've got to run it past Dante, of course, but if you're on board, he will be, Burke. You know he really values your input on all of it."

"The man is generous, Roland. He's not only paid us a fee for using the name but insists on us sharing the profits of the new one. He said that encourages discourse on ideas and makes new and better ones come to the surface. He's a brilliant businessman. Despite, I guess, some of his businesses."

Dallas nodded and told Roland, "You have my vote if my vote counts. I don't think they'd want to ever bring the kids to town with that big sex club sitting at the end of the street."

"Exactly," Roland said, sitting up a little straighter. "Thanks. I know if you two think so, I can take it to them. They'll ask your opinions anyway."

Surprised to hear that, Dallas stared at the two. "I'm a ranch hand."

Jace snorted a laugh. "You're the manager of the ranch, which is the biggest part of the property, Dallas. What part of that do you think is small?"

He hadn't thought of that. "Weird and intimidating."

"That's been my life for as long as I remember," Jace said with a laugh. "Listen, I need to sort out some more places for people to stay. How is that one project, Roland?"

"The construction workers arrived on that particular project the day before last, and they started first thing that morning. It's going to take a week. They're working in shifts to get it done fast."

"I thought you were starting on the cabins. What is this project you're starting with?"

Roland ducked his head and mumbled, "Just something else the Carrillos insisted on. I have to go. Thanks, you two."

"What do you suppose that was about?" Dallas asked Jace.

"None of our business, Dallas. Maybe they're building a big old house for the hitmen or something."

Dallas laughed, but that possibility was all too real, he thought.

Ruben came in from checking the cattle and fences and ate a sandwich while Dallas was going over the next day's assignments.

They had spoken little since the body was found. Dallas had been giving him space, but it seemed he no longer wanted it. "You like Marius," Ruben said casually.

Dallas stared at him, totally taken aback by the comment. "Excuse me?"

"I see you two together all the time now. I don't mind, you know."

Ruben chewed another bite of the sandwich, and that alone distracted Dallas. Watching his mouth moving, his Adam's apple as he swallowed…

When he could pull his eyes from that, he asked, "Ruben, what are you saying?"

"It was just an observation."

It's not like it was untrue. Marius had been his shadow in the past couple weeks, dogging his every step, and no, Dallas hadn't minded it a bit. Marius and his flirtations kept him from losing his mind over all the additional work he'd had.

Dallas was ready to ask more, but like magic, Marius walked in at just that moment. He sat on the bench seat next to Ruben and said, "How's it hanging, fellas?"

He was grinning crazily, but there was something behind the smile. "Why are you so happy?"

Marius looked beside him and threw his arm around Ruben's shoulders before he asked, "You didn't tell him?"

"No, I was getting there," he said, annoyed, throwing Marius's arm from him.

Dallas had a thousand things go through his head in that moment. Mostly, it was seeing the two naked together, fucking in the barn in the hay. Not that it didn't infuriate him, but it also turned him on in the worst way at the worst moment.

Marius noticed. "Well, look at that face. I think someone just pictured me naked."

Ruben slapped him in the gut. "Would you quit?"

"No, probably not," he said, snatching Ruben's sandwich from the plate and taking a bite.

"What the fuck is going on?"

Ruben smiled shyly, blushing brightly. "We…were talking."

"I'll bet," he said, standing as he grabbed his plate and cup. "Have fun."

Marius was laughing, but Ruben got up to stop him from leaving. "Wait. It's not what you think."

"What do I think?"

Marius, of course, answered, "That Ruby and I have been fucking like rabbits," he said, then looked at Ruben, confessing to the smaller man, "And we would be fucking like rabbits."

Ruben huffed in exasperation. "You're fucked up, Marius."

"I told you, my little sweetheart, to call me Dimples. I like the way you say it."

Dallas tried to push past him, but Ruben stopped him again. "Listen! We've been talking, and only talking."

"About what?"

Marius purred, "About getting together. The three of us. Hot, right?"

Dallas felt his dick twitch and start to harden, and as much as he hated it, those pictures went through his head again. He calmed himself. "Listen, with everything going on right now, how can you think about…about that?"

A bark of a laugh came from Marius before he asked, "That? Can't you say it? Are you shy, sweetheart?"

"I'm not shy, and I'm not your sweetheart. I have a job, and it's a big fucking job, so excuse me if I'm not running around all day thinking of ways to have orgies with my employee and…some guy."

He'd meant to scald Marius with that scolding, but Ruben was the one who took offense, and for good reason. He turned and stormed off, leaving the two of them with their jaws dropped.

"Shit. Me and my mouth," Marius lamented.

"Yeah, I agree, but…it's my mouth that did this," Dallas admitted. "Let's both go talk to him."

"Yeah. Let me talk first. You're not good at this."

Dallas gaped at him, ready to punch the man. "You're such a dick."

"Beside the point, dear."

They found Ruben on his bunk, looking murderous. Each took a side to bookend him on the bed, Dallas shoving his fists between his thighs. "Ruben…I told you I liked you. I have just been nuts with all this shit with the cops and all these people coming every day and trying to make sure they stay away from the cattle, and they don't fuck up the land, and worrying over the regular stuff too. It's a lot for me. Hunter and Jace are helping, but I'm learning a whole new job. That's…"

"He's scared he won't do it right. He's scared he's not cut out for it, and he's also worried that having this new job, he won't have time for other things, like a great guy he likes and the annoying one that likes him too."

Their heads turned to him as Dallas asked, "How do you know that?"

Leaning back on his arms, he admitted, "I had a guy when I got sent up the line in our family. They put me in charge of some stuff, and now I'm as close to a capo for the Carrillos as can be, if not a little higher. I lost him because I was scared and trying so hard to do a good job."

"I'm really sorry," Ruben whispered to him.

"Me too." Dallas said.

"Don't be. He wasn't the love of my life or anything. He was a guy that lived with me and ate all the fucking salt and vinegar chips."

Ruben gasped and said, "I love those!"

Marius got up and said, "That's it, not another chip thief for me!"

Dallas was the one that pulled him back to the bed. "Stop. Buy him his own."

Ruben looked from Marius to Dallas. "You…what are you saying?"

"Nothing. That was, fuck, I don't know! I'm not good at this, and if you haven't figured that out yet, I'm telling you! I'm not good at this. I'm holding my own ass with both hands just so I don't lose it while I'm running around, trying to figure out my life now. It's not you, or even…Marius. It's me, and I am telling you, I'm not good at this!"

"I think you're better than you think you are," he said sweetly, then rose from the bunk and sighed. "I think it's time for a beer and a cookie. Vic made cookies."

"Cookies? And no one told me?" Marius got up and they both walked off, leaving Dallas to wonder, again, what had happened.

He followed them and Vic was overjoyed to hand them both cookies, going so far as to pinch Marius's cheek. Dallas went to them, and Vic smiled at him. "Want one?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'm not some old lady. You know to call me Vic."

When the other two went to the table to sit, he remembered that he'd been elected to ask her, so he whispered to Vic, "One day, we were talking and…is there anyone in Redbud or the county in general, who would want to try to run for sheriff?"

Eyeing him hard, she asked, "Oh? Daily giving you troubles?"

"Yes. He's an ass, and he wants to make this a closed case, putting most or all of us in jail to make himself look good. I swear, Vic, no one here did that to her."

"She was a good lady, Dallas. She had a hard life, but she still managed to always smile. It would be a damn shame if someone was out there, a killer, and no one was looking for him or her because they already convicted Mr. Carrillo."

"So, are you saying you'll think about it?"

As her eyes cut away to the hands coming into the bunkhouse, she whispered, "I'll come up with a name by tomorrow or I'll damn well do it myself."

Once the cookies were eaten with a lot of laughter at the table where he sat with Ruben and Dimples, they retreated outside, walking slowly off to the west. Ruben was in the middle, and that was good. He seemed to be the referee that was keeping the two of them from killing each other.

Ruben took their hands and led them to a little stand of tall maple trees, sitting them side by side and sitting in front of them. "Now, enough of this bullshit. I like you, Marius. I like you, Dallas, and you know I have liked you since the second I got here."

"I did not know that."

"Well, then you're blind. The point is—"

"No, Ruben, sorry, but I have a few points first," Marius said, holding up a hand for a moment before his fingers curled into a fist that he pounded gently in the dirt. "I, uh, love this place, and when I saw one of you, then two, I thought I could finally have a life outside of my…career." He swallowed and stared at the ground, and for the first time, Dallas saw that he was vulnerable. Dallas would have bet he would hate it if anyone saw that besides the two of them.

"See, I like my job. You two have totally different jobs, and they're normal, they're good and clean jobs."

"Clean?" Ruben asked.

"Not without dirt, like this," he said, tossing some dirt on Ruben's jeans. "I mean, my job, I do things that aren't legal. I hurt people and worse, and I'd deny that if you told anyone!"

Dallas's eyes took in his vulnerability, sure, but also his worry over what they thought of him. That was more shocking than the vulnerability. "Marius, we're not some ignorant hicks that don't know about the world. Just because we live places like this, we have phones, computers, television. We've probably thought you've done worse things than you actually have. You are a mobster, right?"

"Right," he said with a shy smile. More surprises. Dallas never thought Marius could smile like that.

Ruben took over scolding him. "He's right, Marius. We're not dumb and we're not some innocent little church boys. We're gay men that have been in backrooms of clubs and sucked dick in alleys."

Dallas didn't think he could take more shocking revelations, and Marius's jaw dropped as well as they both stared at him.

"What?"

"You? In a backroom? I…can't picture it," Marius said, laughing. "You pull off a great virgin vibe."

"Is that why you liked me?"

"No, it's not why I like you. Like, present tense, and it does bring several questions to mind, ya know? Like…are there pictures and can I see them?"

"Perv."

Dallas hadn't said anything and suddenly they were both looking to him to do just that. "I don't care what any of us did or do now. Jobs, guys, whatever. I'm not good at conversations."

"So, you've said,"" Ruben drawled while rolling his deep, dark eyes.

Dallas knew he had to speak, had to tell them his thoughts. Despite having so much going on, learning organic ranching, handling paperwork he'd never had to do, the death on the property, all of it. Still, Ruben and Marius hadn't been far from his thoughts. "How do we do this? What is this? Maybe I've got more questions than answers on this, so that's where I am right now."

Marius reached for his hand and took it into his, his fingers curling tenderly around Dallas's, his eyes warm and heavily lidded. "We don't know either. Right now, it's some weird attraction. Maybe we found people we need for this time in our lives. I think we could better answer those questions together, because I'm sure all three of us have them."

"I do. I've never liked two guys at once like this," Ruben agreed.

"Then, we take it by ear. We didn't burst through a crowded club to grab each other romantically and start this crazy love affair. We're mature, grown men that know that shit doesn't last."

It was Marius's turn to get gawked at. "That was…grown up," Dallas said with a chuckle.

"Well, I can be, when I need to be. But don't count on it lasting," he said with a wink.

Ruben got up and yawned. It was adorable, and Dallas laughed while asking, "Where are you going?"

"This was to talk. Like Dimples said, we're grown, but that doesn't mean a boy don't like some romance. You two can figure out how to woo me."

As he left, Marius and Dallas were left to stare at each other. Marius was the one to finally break the silence. "Do you feel like we just got played?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I sure do. I thought he was the little shy one. Looks like he's in control."

Marius got up and held his hand down for Dallas, who took it with a goofy smile that cramped his cheeks. As they were face to face once he was on his feet, Marius grabbed his face with one hand, squeezing it almost painfully. "We don't need to be romantic with our first kiss, right?"

Dallas didn't know why with these two men, he felt like he was shy and unsure. He'd gone up to men twice his size before and grabbed their cocks, telling them to suck him without a second's hesitation.

Not with them. Not once with them.

"Right," he hoarsely whispered, then Marius chuckled darkly, simply staring daggers into Dallas's eyes.

He didn't kiss him right away. His hand that wasn't holding Dallas's face was slipping behind him slowly, moving over Dallas's ass, holding it loosely. Loosely, yes, but his hand was so hot, it radiated through his jeans.

The move happened and Dallas waited for the second Marius's lips touched his. When it happened, when those firm, dark lips touched Dallas's, he felt like he'd been pulled from his own body and was watching from outside of it.

Marius may be a braggart, he may be rough and careless at times, but he wasn't any of those things while kissing Dallas. At first, the kiss was simple, their lips crushed together, barely moving, but that changed quickly.

Marius's head tilted and the actual kiss began, and the longer it went on, the more taken from himself he felt. His entire body was numb except his mouth, where Marius held his attention, his tongue moving between Dallas's lips, a sweeping brush of it over Dallas's tongue sent shivers through him.

Never had he felt his body respond so strongly to a simple kiss. Marius's moan as he pulled away from it echoed his own feelings. He hadn't wanted the kiss to end.

"That's a kiss I'll never forget," Marius said in a cracking whisper before he disappeared, leaving Dallas to swoon alone in the trees.

Since his legs couldn't hold him, he sat back in the dirt. When he realized he was smiling, he let himself feel good about it. About all of it. Marius was back over talking to Ruben, and Dallas saw them laughing together, and though he should feel jealousy, he didn't.

No, it wouldn't happen fast, and it probably would end badly, but he wanted to feel good for a while, at the very least. He wanted those two men, and if it ended, he knew he'd still feel grateful he'd had it at all.