Bound by the Don(24)

"Elsie, don't think you can just sneak in here unnoticed. I need to talk to you."



She turned around slowly with a sigh. It wasn't we need to talk; it was just I need to talk to you. As if she wasn't really involved, just some passive observer. Forcing herself to take another calming breath, she turned and faced him.



"Hi, Daddy," Elsie said softly, staring at the man who had raised her single-handedly. He wasn't a particularly big man, the top of his head reaching just a hair under six feet tall. But to her, he'd always be a giant. His features were hard in a face that was starting to go soft with age, but he wasn't portly. His hair had more grey than blonde in it now, but his blue eyes, just like her own, were still just as bright, just as piercing, just as all-knowing as always.



"Elsie, what did I tell you about running around with the animals? Look at you! You're covered in mud and God knows what else." He threw his hand out to emphasize the casualness in his words, but Elsie still felt the embarrassment reddening her cheeks as she glanced down, taking in the ripped, dirty jeans and shirt, sweat-soaked from her long day's work.



"Daddy, I had to go check on the herd. There's been this infection going around … "



"And that's why we hire Dr. Compton. He's a real, trained veterinarian, not some kid who doesn't know what she's doing," her father said dismissively. Elsie bristled at his words.



"Well, I'll be a ‘real' vet soon enough, won't I?" She started to turn back around to walk up the stairs, but she only made one more step when her father spoke again.



"The hell is that supposed to mean?" Mark McLaurel's face was growing red. Elsie looked over her shoulder, trying to keep her anger under control as she spoke.



"I already sent my applications in, Daddy. We've talked about this before. I want to go to vet school. I want to learn how to take care of the animals."



"You hire people to do that, Elsie! And we did talk about this," he huffed, his own voice growing tenser with every word. "You are going to stay and apprentice with me, learn the ins and outs of the business. That's the plan."



"No, Daddy, that's your plan. Not mine." She shook her head, tired from the same old argument, the one they always got into. "It's my future. I want to be a vet. Then I'll be able to take care of the animals and you won't have to hire Dr. Compton." Elsie remembered the last time she'd tried to give advice to the elderly vet and he'd nearly snapped her head off.



"Now you listen here, Elsie," he started, shaking his finger in her direction, his blue eyes flaring at being disobeyed. "You are the heiress to the McLaurel corporation, and  –  damn it!  –  you will learn how to run the business. I'm not going to have some slick bastard come in and steal everything from this family, do you understand?"                       
       
           



       



Elsie stared at him for a long moment, feeling a pang of regret at the angry look on his face. She shouldn't have said anything. But her heart wouldn't let her back down. Neither would her stubborn pride. At least she knew where she got it from.



"I know you always regretted having a daughter instead of a son," she said softly. Then her voice firmed and she threw her shoulders back, refusing to look away as she continued. "But I have to make my own choices, Daddy. I have to make my own life. I love animals. I love treating them, taking care of them. That's what I want to do. Not sit in some office all day, balancing numbers and looking at profit and loss."



"Well, that won't be a problem if you decide to be this foolish," her father shot back. "You won't make a dime as a vet."



"It doesn't matter, Daddy. At least I'll be happy," Elsie said earnestly, trying to get him to understand.



"And you won't get a lick from me either," he snapped as he took a step backwards, his eyes shooting blue fire. "I give you two weeks without money from me and you'll come running back with your tail between your legs."



Elsie just shook her head, knowing that nothing she said would convince him. He just didn't understand, and that was the crux of the problem. When it came to Mark McLaurel, the only thing he understood was money. He never understood anything else. Elsie had spent her entire life arguing with him, and she knew a lost battle when she saw it. Silently, she walked up the rest of the stairs, biting back every retort her mind hurled at her.



"Just you wait, Elsie. You'll see. You'll come around," he shouted from the bottom of the stairs.



"Goodnight, Daddy." She didn't look around as she spoke, didn't look back at all as she made her way to her bedroom and shut the door firmly behind her. She had barely finished stripping off the button-down shirt when her cell phone rang. Elsie couldn't keep the slight smile off her face as she glanced at the caller ID. She walked over to the small desk in the corner, pulling out the grey chair as she answered.



"Hi Rae!" Elsie said, not noticing the mud stains she left on the chair as she took a seat. She opened her laptop and waited for it to power up as her best friend spoke.



"Els! Thank god. I've been trying to reach you for hours."



"Sorry, Rae, I was out in the fields with Lorenzo," Elsie said, grinning at her friend's penchant for the over dramatic. "What is it this time?"



"Mmm …  Lorenzo. What's that hunk been up to?"



"Rachael! He's at least fifteen years older than you!" Elsie grinned.



"Age is just a number after eighteen, Elsie. Besides, I've always been attracted to older men. These country boys just bore me." Rachael sighed dramatically over the line, and this time Elsie laughed out loud.



She had been best friends with Rachael Donohue since the fifth grade. Elsie had been terrified of moving to a new place, but Rachael had immediately taken her under her wing, showing her around the small Texas town of Mayville that was her new home. They'd been inseparable ever since.



Rachael always said she was going to get out of Mayville, Texas, even if it killed her, and Elsie never doubted her for a second. Rachael never stopped dreaming of leaving the small town behind and moving to a big city like New York or L.A. Somewhere exciting, she'd say. She was a daredevil and a born troublemaker, which made things tough for her father, who just happened to be the town's sheriff.



In a lot of ways, they were total opposites. Where Elsie tended to be more quiet and introverted, Rachael was the life of the party. In school, Elsie had always been the serious one. While Rae was sneaking off with some boys to smoke cigarettes behind the bleachers, Elsie had been busy in the library.



Rachael always had a way of making trouble for herself, which prompted Elsie's next question.



"Rae, what did you do this time?" she asked, laughter still edging her voice as she typed in the computer's password.



"Me? Why would you assume that I'd done something? Why would you assume it was me?"



"Because it's always you, Rachael," Elsie chuckled, shaking her head. "What is it this time?"



"Well, I may have snuck into the Lucky Dog last night," Rachael started hesitantly. Hesitant is one word that seldom applied to Rachael and it made Elsie sit forward a little as she prompted her to go on.



"And? Rachael, you sneak into that bar all the time."

                       
       
           



       

"I know! But last night …  now, I don't quite remember all the details, but I'm pretty sure I may have started a bar fight."



"What makes you think that?"



"Well, I've got one hell of a shiner. And this morning old Joe at the bar called my daddy and served him a bill for three thousand dollars of damages."



"What? Jesus, Rachael!" Elsie exclaimed.



"I know! They'll never let me back in there. Now where am I supposed to get drunk in this lousy town?"



"You start a bar fight and that's what you take out of it? What other bar are you going to sneak into?" Elsie shook her head at her lecturing tone, but she couldn't help it. "Rae, you're nineteen years old. Here's a thought. Maybe …  don't sneak in to bars when you're underage? You could get a lot worse than a fine."



"Where's the fun in that?" Rachael shot back casually, and Elsie could only shake her head again. "Besides, my daddy said he'd take care of it."



"What happens when he decides he's done with doing that? What did he say to you this time?" Elsie asked.



"Same old, same old," Rachael replied as she put on her best impression of her father. "I'm the sheriff of this town, young lady, and as sheriff I demand respect. People won't respect me if my hooligan daughter is running around town, sneaking into bars underage and starting fights."



"He called you a hooligan?" Elsie laughed, and Rachael let out a little chuckle too, but a moment later grew serious.