Read Blackbird Lake for Free Online

all.
    Those eight seconds you needed to stay on that bull didn’t seem like a long time unless you were the one riding that two-thousand-pound beast. Then those eight seconds ticked by as slow as frozen syrup while those monsters heaved and bucked. Jake was used to it—he had the rhythm of the ride in his veins, pulsing through his blood.
    He’d had his close calls, plenty of them—all the times he’d needed to roll aside real fast, but the rodeo clowns had always dashed in front of him, arms waving, distracting the bull before it could reach him once he was bucked off.
    Cord hadn’t been as lucky that night. The clowns had raced in—but the enraged bull had cut toward Cord even faster. And Cord had been too stunned by the impact of the fall to roll or leap out of its path….
    Jake still found it hard to believe he was gone. Everyone who’d ever met Cord Farraday took to the guy. Total strangers bought him drinks within minutes of the most casual conversation.
    Even his ex-wife still loved him, though they’d been divorced for more than a year. Tiffy Farraday couldn’t take the stress of the rodeo life, of not having money to pay the bills, of not seeing Cord for weeks, sometimes even a month at a time. She’d given him an ultimatum and he’d chosen rodeo over her.
    Still, when he died, she handled all the funeral arrangements and buried him in a plot near her home in Mesa. She’d cried in Jake’s arms at the funeral and there was a world of regret, anger, and lost dreams in her red-rimmed eyes.
    Brady had been there, too, but the boy hadn’t seemed to really grasp what was going on. When Jake threw an arm around his shoulders and tried to offer his condolences, the kid had pulled away. He’d seemed still half in shock. Brady had remained mute during the entire service, his eyes almost glazed—then, the moment Cord was lowered into the ground, he’d roared off on his motorcycle without a word to anyone.
    Jake had been trying to get in touch with him and make sure he was all right ever since.
    “If there’s anything I can do to lend a hand, let me know,” Rafe told him quietly. “If Brady decides he wants to have a go at ranch work, I know the Double J is shorthanded. I can talk to Jerry Johnson, put in a good word for him.”
    “Thanks, bro, I’ll tell him.” Jake didn’t mention the idea that had been circling in his head for a while now. It had first come to him a year ago, just a vague notion. With his schedule, he hadn’t had time to really develop it. But every once in a while, it returned and began taking hold in his mind.
    Now, while he was here in town, with Brady needing a job and all, maybe it was time to set things in motion.
    “Any idea if Brady’s still living out at the house?”
    “Seems like the logical place, but I can’t say for sure. Not too many people have spotted him since he got out of jail.”
    “Well, I’ll be heading over there later to find out. Soon as I check out my cabin, see if it’s habitable for tonight.” Jake got to his feet, mindful of the lightly snoring mutt whose golden head still rested on his boot. He eased his foot away but even as he did, the thin dog clambered up, staring at him with deep, worried brown eyes.
    “Come back and have supper with us,” Rafe suggested as they headed to the kitchen door. “Sophie will bite my head off if you don’t. And you can always bunk here if your cabin needs work before you can spend the night. When are you heading over to Travis’s place?”
    “Right after I scope out the cabin, clean up a little. Been driving for ten hours and don’t want to hug little Miss Zoey wearing my travel dust.” Striding out the door, just as a horse whickered from the corral, Jake noted wryly that the dog was still right there on his heels.
    “Hey, buddy, you’re staying put,” he said firmly, as Starbucks and Tidbit trailed eagerly after their skinny new pal. “You’ve got yourself some friends now. Ivy and Aiden will want