Hell's Coming with Me

Touching Your Enemy

A/N: Two chapters in a couple of days! I must be crazy. No I just thought I better post this chapter since it was completed before the previous chapter. The previous chapter took some time, editing, and deleting before I was satisfied. Enjoy!

Touching Your Enemy

The best thing about the fall meant rodeo season. That meant that Rip would allow the wranglers to practice. Which meant that the McCutcheon family would be coming up to the ranch with Travis. I loved this time of the year as we got to let loose a little bit. Even the wranglers were afforded more time off from the ranch to go to the rodeos.

"Are you coming to breakfast today?" Daddy asked me as I was sitting on the front porch, enjoying a nice cup of tea.

"Sure," I agreed, just as Ryan came out of the barn with Kayce.

"Hey sis," Kayce greeted me.

"Yeah," I waved him off, hugging Ryan who laughed.

"Wow," Kayce shook his head. "When did my baby sister get so cold?"

"Shut up Kayce," I muttered. "We are having breakfast here," I told my husband who laughed as I walked away. I gave a brief hug to Kayce before disappearing inside the house.

"Did I do something?" Kayce questioned, looking at Ryan with an incredulous expression on his face. Ryan shrugged.

Daddy, Ryan, Kayce, Jamie, and myself were seated at the dining table when Beth stormed in. She sounded like an elephant with the way that she was crushing her heels into the floor. I worried that the floor might have holes in it. I exchanged a look with Kayce, knowing that this meant another peaceful meal at the dinner table.

"Even your walks angry, sweetheart," Daddy commented as Beth took a seat, slinging her coat over the back of the chair. My eyes got wide and I didn't bother to look at my sister.

Beth shot my father a glare as she reached for the carafe of coffee. She started to pour it into her cup.

"With good reason," she growled. Ryan was trying not to draw attention to himself, but he found it hilarious that we could never have a peaceful meal together.

"I'm gonna check the airfield in Deer Lodge," Kayce changed the subject. "But I'm starting to think that planes from another state."

"Yeah if I could get a warrant," I noticed that Beth perked up in her anger at that information. "We can check the flight logs out of air traffic control in Bozeman. It'll be a lot of data to sift though, but," Jamie was interrupted by my sister.

"I thought we're not supposed to talk about work at the dinner table?" Beth interjected. I wasn't sure what happened to her this morning to tick her off this badly, but I wasn't getting on her bad side.

"In the morning, it's the breakfast table, Beth," Daddy loved to spar with my sister. I sighed. "We can talk business at the breakfast table."

"This is not a breakfast table," Beth countered. I had never wanted to shrink more than in that moment. "This is a dining room table. How do I know it's a dining room table?"

I suppressed my groan of annoyance. I can't believe that after all these years the men in my life didn't learn. The only one who learned was Ryan. He knew better than to say much at the dinner table because they all end like this. All the time.

"Because its in the fucking dining room," I looked over to see Kayce hunched over a piece of bacon. "Breakfast tables are in the kitchen. We don't even have one there – we have a bar in the kitchen. So, I guess the point is, dad, you can discuss whatever you want at the dinner table, its just us who have to navigate the algorithm of ways in which you control what's discussed."