Seduction of Saber (Saving the Sinners of Preacher's Bend #3) by Jevenna Willow Page B

moment
to do so, that her little brother liked calling folks names. She watched with
tepid amusement Mr. Patterson eyeballing Cody down, the Bull Man squaring his
shoulders to an intimidating stance.
    “Wanna bet?” he threatened.
    Cody’s hands quickly formed closed angry fists. “I’ll
tell my Pa on you, ya big piss head!” He was battling with a grown man three
times his size.
    “Now you’re threatening me, besides name-calling?” Saber
glared at the youngster, even harder.
    “I don’t need to threaten you. Once Pa gets hold of
you, you won’t have much between your scrawny little legs to pee with. I don’t
need to do anything. I have Pa. And he’ll pommel you into oblivion, Pisshead.”
    Julia watched in horror Mr. Patterson’s facial muscles
twitch.
    “Cody Hillard!” she blurted; appalled her little
brother would even say such a thing to a veritable stranger. The kid needed his
mouth washed out with a bar of soap. Soon, before a slightly angry Bull Man strangled
the lad.
    “Is that so?” Saber asked. “Seems to me your Pa should
get ahold of your backside and give it a good tanning to teach you to respect
your elders.” He eyed the kid up and down with unveiled disgust.
    Uncle LeRoy then cleared his throat only to get his
nephew off the boy’s case.
    Julia’s other guest had vacated the room the instant
Cody started name-calling.
    Unfortunately, that left Gill who’d come through the
backdoor and looking for his wayward son. Who, by simple exemption of manners,
was supposed to have been at Rachel’s Cafe awaiting him as told, and hadn’t
been, as usual.
    Every pair of eyes within the living room turned
Gill’s way.
    “Did I interrupt something here?” he asked crisply.
Having entered through the kitchen, he’d completely missed the heated exchange
of his son and the newcomer. Yet anyone alive could tell by the way it had
gotten deathly quiet in the living room that something was about to
self-destruct.
    “No! Nothing,” Julia spoke out hurriedly. She gave
Cody the evil eye, but, as always, the vile brat ignored her, getting his way.
    “They were kissing with their tongues. It was gross.”
And, of course, Cody demonstrated. “And they were doing this.” He put his hands
around his back and showed Gill what a too close hug looked like and what
gyrating hips would entail; the actions done most viciously. “I caught `em at
it red-handed. And they’d been hugging. He was rubbing up against her like that
big old tomcat does to the girl cats in our barn. So I kicked him as hard as I
could in the leg to stop him from doing it anymore. And now he won’t let me
have one of Julia’s muffins. He even hit me!”
    In horror, Julia watched her father’s face turn white
as a ghost, then deep red. His eyes drifted slowly to hers.
    “He what?”
    “I can explain what the kid saw, Sir,” Saber started
to say; only to have a large hand come up and close off the rest of his words.
    Mr. Patterson backed up a bit, because at that moment Julia’s
father did not look as though he had any want of being interrupted. Gill looked
pissed as hell; a raging bull let loose on purpose.
    “I want to hear the explanation from my daughter, if
you don’t mind.”
    Gill towered over every man in the room by presence
alone. Those that dare stayed. Three of them had already escaped through the
back door. LeRoy, Shamus, and a young Cody. The fourth was either a fool or had
a death wish.
    If so, under the circumstances of a stranger having
hit his only son with no reasonable cause, Julia knew her father would grant Saber
this wish. No one was allowed disciplining his children, other than himself or
their mother. Moreover, no one was to raise a hand to a child when there no
need. Understanding gained peace. Gill could probably use an enormous chunk of
his own advice, but he looked too far gone with rage over what a stranger had
supposedly been doing to her.
    Julia had wanted the day ‘special’, but not like