Adult-FanFiction.org : Television / Streaming

Brothers
By : cowgirl65
Category: 1 through F > The Big Valley
Views: 3162 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: i don't own The Big Valley and make no money from this.
Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Heath rode away from the ranch. He didn’t know why he’d done what he did and the guilt was eating away at him. After listening to the talk amongst the hands and how highly they thought of their employers, he wondered if he could really do anything that would hurt them and had all but decided to ride off and leave his father’s family alone. But then Nick confronted him in the barn and in his anger, he’d blurted out that he was Tom Barkley’s bastard son. Even with their attitudes, he’d still intended just to ride away and try to forget everything after the altercation in the house. It just wasn’t in him to hurt people who’d never done anything to him other than exist and in spite of how he burned for acknowledgement of what was his, that was exactly what would happen if he pressed further.
Then Jarrod followed him into the barn and, his resentment over the attempt to pay him off getting the best of him, Heath turned to blackmail. He threatened the other man with exposure, told him he had to become Heath’s sex slave and practically raped him up against the wall of the barn. It would have been rape if Jarrod hadn’t obviously wanted it so much and Heath was thoroughly ashamed of himself.
But in spite of his guilty conscience, Heath had to chuckle. He’d never met someone as enthusiastic as his big brother or anyone who seemed to like it so rough. His own cock was chafed from lack of lubrication; he didn’t even want to imagine what Jarrod’s ass felt like.
Heath sighed. Everything would be clearer after a good night’s sleep and he could still leave town before Jarrod arrived at the hotel tomorrow. He wondered if his brother would be disappointed and changed his mind. He’d fuck Jarrod first and then tell him he was going to leave with no strings attached. That would soothe his aggrieved conscience and Heath rode into Stockton with an easier heart.

Town was a madhouse. Heath made sure his mare was secure at the livery and took his belongings with him for safekeeping, even his saddle. The gunmen he’d heard had been hired by the Coastal and Western were drunk to their eyeballs and Heath hoped the law in town was wise enough to let them pass out before showing their faces. It was a smart sheriff who knew to sometimes just let things run their course.
Heath got himself a room, locked his gear securely inside and wandered back out in search of a drink.
That was when he saw her. That blonde wildcat from the gravesite was laying all around her with that same little whip, but the men pulling her off the horse paid no heed. The little fool was about to get herself raped and Heath knew he couldn’t stand by and let that happen, no matter what he’d almost done to Jarrod in the barn. Maybe it would even let him partially atone for an act he would have been ashamed of for the rest of his life.
He dashed into the street, pulled his half-sister out of hands of the mob and manhandled the struggling girl up to his room. He threw her inside and locked the door.
“I’m hurt,” she complained.
Heath shook his head in disbelief. “Hurt? You're lucky you're not dead, you little fool. What were you doing out there?” He strode across the room and looked out the window. Gunmen were riding down the street, shooting off their guns. She was more than a fool.
Heath walked over to get some water to help clean the scratches she’d gotten. “Well?”
She glared at him. “Nobody talks to me like that. Not ever.”
“No?”
“No.”
Heath gestured towards the window and the drunken mob. “Try them.” He couldn’t believe she was so naïve that she didn’t know what had been a hairsbreadth away from happening
“I heard my brothers talking about it, what was in town, and I wanted to see.” She shot him an accusing look as he carried a rag and the water pitcher to the side of the bed. “You don't believe me.”
“Sit down,” was all he said. It didn’t matter what excuse she used, she was still a damn fool.
She complied, sashaying across the room and sitting next to him with a seductive smile and provocative posture. “You’re a rough one, aren’t you?”
You have no idea, Heath thought. If you were my type, you’d find out exactly how rough I am. Just ask your big brother. But he only kept ripping the rag and said, “I’ve crossed a few hills.”
“That's what I've always wanted to do, see places like you have, do what I want, no matter whatever.”
Heath didn’t respond, he just inspected her arm. “Hold still.” Those were admirable goals, but they’d never be realized if she didn’t have enough sense to keep herself from harm.
But she wasn’t done yet. “My brother Nick, he takes nothing from anyone.”
“You're tellin' me.” Heath’s cheek still ached from the rancher’s right cross.
“That's how I'd like to be. My father was like that.” She looked down demurely, but when she looked up, the brazen look was back in her eyes. “My mother thinks I'm shameless. Jarrod says I'm spoiled. Nick… he understands. You're like Nick.”
Heath looked up at that. Yes, to all appearances she was spoiled, but he was certain Jarrod was way more shameless and there was no way he was like that loud-mouthed braggart Nick. Well, not completely anyway; there was something about the tall rancher he admired and it wasn’t just the strength of his fist. But instead he just said, “Some guy really put his fingernails into you. Get some soap to that when you get home, you hear?”
“Is that where you're taking me? Home?” That little minx was real lucky his tastes ran more towards hard muscles than soft curves. She had no idea he’d rather have one of her brothers up here any day, the oldest in particular.
“Yeah, I think we both had ours for the night.”
“Have we?”
“I guess you know where you are.” Heath wondered if she really knew what she was playing at.
“Alone, in a room… with a man.” She looked at him seductively from behind long lashes. “It's the first time. And there's a first time for everything, isn't there? To run, to talk, to love.”
She knew what she was playing at, after all. She leaned closer and it was all Heath could do not to laugh in her face. “To test your brother. Isn't that what you're doing?” She had no idea that it wasn’t much of a test; he’d just fucked their brother and if he was so inclined, it wasn’t likely he’d stop at kissing his sister.
She started hitting him. “You liar! Lies!”
Heath grabbed her firmly by the arms. “I'll say one thing for that old bear. He bred 'em wild.” Wild in spirit and wild in bed if he and Jarrod were any indication. As she struggled against him and kept trying to hit him, he wished any man who got her the best of luck.
“All of it! Everything you told them, lies!”
“Well, I don't fancy his breedin', miss,” he sneered, “and it's no pride I got in him for a daddy. But it's a proud name, and it's mine. And I'm gonna wear it, and people… boy howdy, they're gonna look up to me just like your brothers. And everything that's Barkley I'm gonna be too.” She didn’t need to know that he’d decided to leave without pursuing his claim.
Suddenly, the door burst and two men rushed in.
“I told you, man,” the taller man to his partner. Then he turned to Heath. “Out, boy. This is work for men.” He advanced on her and Heath took advantage of his focus to throw a bottle at his head.
But the man saw it coming and ducked in time. He grabbed Heath and threw a punch that happened to land right where Nick had hit him earlier. Heath fell across the bed.
An authoritative voice came from the door. The men stopped suddenly and Heath looked up to see the sheriff and deputy with guns drawn.
“That's all of it,” the sheriff commanded. He left the one on Heath to his deputy and pulled the other off the girl. “I'll let you explain to your family, Miss Barkley. They can explain to me.” The deputy ushered the men out of the room. “C’mon,” said the sheriff, “I’ll see you home.”

Heath wasn’t sure what to do as he followed the sheriff and his sister back towards the ranch. Then she turned to the sheriff and said, “We're all right from here, Sheriff. Thank you.” He decided he’d just drop her off at the gate and go his own way. He ignored the lawman’s questions as he made plans to head across the mountains to Arizona or Nevada, try his luck there and forget he’d ever heard the name ‘Barkley’.
That was when they all saw the flames in the distance.
“That’s Swenson’s place.” The sheriff spurred his horse in the direction of the fire and the other two followed.

The scene was chaos when they arrived. Most of the buildings had already burned to the ground and men with buckets were trying to extinguish the last of the flames. Heath pulled to a stop and wondered if there was anything he could do. Hearing a buggy drive up, he turned and saw his sister run over to the silver-haired lady in the back seat. It was his first glimpse of Victoria Barkley, the woman his father raised three sons and a daughter with while he and his mama struggled on alone.
Heath watched Nick walk up to one of the other men and grip his shoulder. ”They came, just came,” the man said as Heath saw his other two brothers walk slowly over. Jarrod’s expression was grim and Heath wondered what he was thinking. “With guns and torches, howling out like wolves. And I just stood there, aside, and watched them do it.”
“Well, not my place.” A stocky man strode up, determination in every step. “And hanged I’ll be after paying for what I own.” He took something out of his pocket and waved it in front of Jarrod. “I have a paper here that says I’ll have to do just that.” He walked over to Nick and then to the sheriff. “By 8 o’clock in the morning, or have my place took out from under me. Well, I ain’t, you hear?” There was a thick silence. “I ain’t! Who stands with me?” The man held the paper aloft.
In the shadows, Heath remained mounted and watched the events unfold. This wasn’t his fight, even though it seemed it might be his brothers’ when Nick moved to stand beside the man.
Sheriff Lyman looked sternly at the middle Barkley son. “No one stands with you, Frank. I’m sorry, but legally after tomorrow the land’s no longer yours.”
Frank turned to the rancher standing beside him. “Nick,” he said, almost desperately, and then walked over to the other two Barkleys. “Jarrod, Eugene, listen. Two years ago, your daddy and mine fought and died for this, ‘cause your daddy said it was right to fight.”
Almost involuntarily, Heath looked over to where Victoria Barkley sat. Their daddy, her husband. He’d been killed in the same dispute and Heath could tell from the expression on her face that she was concerned her sons might now suffer the same fate.
“And what did it gain you?” Sheriff Lyman shouted. “Any one of you?” He turned to the man called Frank. “Your father…” and then to Jarrod, “and yours. Ten others, dead. Six years of false hope.”
Jarrod looked away as the sheriff continued talking. Heath watched him glance towards his mother and then Jarrod’s eyes met Heath’s. They held a bleak expression and Heath was reminded of his commander during the war when he’d ordered them over that hill into a battle everyone knew they wouldn’t win, the battle that had ended with over 350 men being taken to Carterson Prison.
Frank’s next words brought back that fateful day as well. “That true? What he says? Your daddy gave us nothing? No way to fight?” The farmer bowed his head and walked away, defeated. “Never did.”
It seemed to Heath that the great Tom Barkley’s death had done no more good than his captain’s when he was cut to ribbons by Confederate fire. Heath had seen enough brave men die in fights not their own and he wasn’t going to stay and watch the same happen to his brothers, acknowledged or not. He turned his mare’s head and galloped away.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jarrod saw Heath turn his horse’s head and leave and didn’t blame him. It wasn’t his fight after all. He had nothing invested in what was happening, not even the fact that it had been his father as well who’d lost his life in the same conflict six years earlier. To Heath, that father had been nothing more than the man who’d put a baby in his mother’s belly and Jarrod didn’t blame him one bit for riding away.
He turned his attention back to Frank Sample, who ripped the ultimatum from the railroad and threw it to the ground in despair. He watched as Nick took a long look around, catching each of them in his piercing gaze, with a longer look at his older brother before he walked over and stood beside Sample, arms crossed defiantly. Eugene looked at his eldest brother expectantly. There was disappointment in his eyes when Jarrod didn’t move to stand with Nick and Gene walked over on his own. Sig Swenson went to stand on his neighbour’s other side.
Jarrod was torn. In spite of his belief and faith in the law, they were back to where they’d been when his father was gunned down. He’d hoped to avoid bloodshed; that was one of the reasons he became a lawyer, so battles could be fought with words rather than guns and prevent the pointless loss of life. He’d failed what he’d set out to do and now others were going to pay for it with their lives.
Looking up, Jarrod met the eyes of his mother. He could see fear there, fear that she might lose her sons the same way she’d lost their father. But there was also pride in those grey depths, pride in all of them for holding true to their beliefs no matter what those beliefs might be. An unasked for voice wondered just what she’d think of the way he lusted after his own half-brother but Jarrod ruthlessly silenced it.
He turned his attention back to the fight at hand and knew he had no choice to take a stand along with his brothers. It was still his fight, even though not in the way he’d chose if he could. Jarrod walked over to stand beside them and the rest of the valley farmers who had come to fight the fire moved in behind.
“Harry, I’ve known you most of my life,” Jarrod said, his posture and expression implacable, “and respected you. Enough to be honest.”
“Any man who comes to try to take that farm, he’s going to be killed,” Nick finished for his brother.
The sheriff looked from one unyielding face to another and responded in kind. “I’m sorry to hear that, because I’m going to be with them.” He turned, mounted his horse and rode away, leaving the brothers united with their neighbours against whatever they would face in the morning.

*
Heath rode away from the mansion, five hundred whiskey-soaked dollars in his pocket, a saddlebag full of apples and a mind full of words spoken to him by his father’s wife.
Any son of my husband has a right to be proud. Live as he would live, fight as he would fight, and no one… no one can deny you his birthright.
He’d told his brothers that he wanted that birthright; much to his shame, he’d even threatened to expose Jarrod’s sexual preferences, preferences he shared, to get it.
Now it was seemingly being offered to him unconditionally, he just had to decide if he was going to take it. He wondered what Jarrod would say. Somehow, he didn’t think the other man would give in to blackmail easily, but on the other hand, a scandal like Tom Barkley’s eldest son being a sodomite would probably rock his family more than the arrival of a bastard son. His brother had no way of knowing that Heath had reconsidered his threat and Heath winced, sure he knew what that principled, if sexually debauched, man thought of someone who would stoop so low.
Suddenly, Heath knew what he needed to do. If he was going to wear that proud name and be everything Barkley like he’d told his wildcat sister in his hotel room, he had to start acting like it. And even though he had no personal stake in the farmers’ fight, was it really not his? In a way, he was one of them, a man who’d been born with nothing and had to make his way by the sweat of his own brow. He wondered again if his brothers were truly standing with the farmers or only fighting to maintain the family image and remembered their faces after the fire. Nick’s determination, Eugene’s disappointment in his older brother for not immediately standing with them and Jarrod…
Heath understood his brother’s hesitation. If he hated violence and unnecessary killing as much as Heath did, it wasn’t surprising he didn’t jump right in to what was sure to prove a deadly firefight. He didn’t know what happened at the farm after he left, but he doubted Jarrod would have stayed silent. A man just didn’t stand by while his brothers put themselves in the line of fire, especially if it was for a cause he believed in as well. Jarrod had put in too many hours fighting the railroad’s land grab for Heath to believe it wasn’t his older brother’s fight as much as anyone else’s.
So instead of riding away, Heath turned his horse in the direction of town. If he was going to stand with his brothers in the morning, he was going to need a good night’s sleep.
- 4
- 5
- 6
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Brothers	By : cowgirl65 Category: 1 through F > The Big Valley Views: 3162 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: i don't own The Big Valley and make no money from this.

Brothers