“Oh yeah? Know her then, do you?” Interest filled Kent’s face.
Linc made an irritated noise. “Are you taking lessons from your brother about sticking your nose into other people’s business?”
Kent grinned, clearly not taking offense. “Hit a sore spot, did I?”
“I didn’t come over here to gossip.”
“Then what did you come here to talk about?” Kent asked.
“Marisol said that she was doing Mrs. Long’s nails the other day.”
Kent made a groaning noise. Yeah. Exactly.
“And she said that she’d heard rumors about what went on here at the ranch. About Caley living with the two Docs.”
Kent’s eyes narrowed.
“And about the women on the ranch being spanked if they misbehaved.”
Kent’s f
ace darkened. “What the fuck? How did that become a rumor?”
“I guess something was bound to leak out. No matter how careful we were.”
The people who lived and worked on the ranch were chosen because they were part of the lifestyle. Clint and Kent were very careful about protecting everyone on Sanctuary Ranch, but most particularly the women.
“Someone must have seen or heard something,” Kent mused. “Clint won’t be happy.”
No, he wouldn’t be. Clint was a giant mama bear. Gruff on the outside, marshmallow on the inside. But God help you if you threatened one of the people that he considered himself responsible for.
“But if it’s Mrs. Long and her cronies spreading the rumor, people aren’t likely to take too much notice,” Kent mused. “She’s a known gossip. They’ll likely think she’s making things up. And it’s not like we’re doing anything to be ashamed of.”
“Yeah, well, that’s the other thing. She went to Ed about it.”
Kent straightened. “She what?”
“Yeah. Apparently, she wanted him to investigate you all for abuse. Because she heard that your women are spanked and have to ask permission to do anything.”
“Fucking hell. That old bat. We’re not doing anything illegal.”
“So Ed didn’t come to you or Clint? He didn’t tell you about this?”
“No. He didn’t. But he might have been waiting until after the wedding, so he didn’t stress Clint out. I’ll call him. Things are bound to slip. Especially now that we have more Littles living here, it’s harder to keep everything secret. But the main thing is making certain that none of the women on the ranch are threatened or hurt by it.”
“Might be best if they didn’t go into town on their own for a while.”
Kent sighed. “Eden will be thrilled by that. I’ll let Zeke inform her.”
Linc didn’t envy Zeke that job. In a way, Eden was the most independent of all of them. Maybe it was because of the accident that had left her in a wheelchair, meaning she had to rely on people in other ways. Or maybe it was because she liked to drive fast and didn’t want anyone around to witness that and report back to Zeke.
He knew someone else who liked to speed. Linc shook his head at the thought of Marisol driving that piece-of-shit car at high enough speeds to get pulled over by Ed. Meanwhile, her aunt was driving around in a car that cost more than some people made in a year.
He didn’t like that.
Not. At. All.
12