Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“Already got everything but you, girl.” Young mimed polishing his nails.
I liked Young a lot.
He was sweet and kind, gay as hell, and loved animals.
He was flamboyant and kind-hearted, and never missed a beat to make Denver uncomfortable.
I enjoyed hearing him needle the man.
Though he wasn’t doing it to be unkind.
He was doing it because he got supreme satisfaction out of making a man as hot and powerful as Denver uncomfortable.
I hopped in the truck with Young driving and told him where we were going first.
The first place we stopped was at the Dowry Farm and Petting Zoo to see a camel that wasn’t drinking and was so lethargic it could no longer stand.
Once we got him fixed up with some electrolytes and an eating regimen, we moved to the two bison that’d been attacked by some wolves overnight.
We, unfortunately, had to put both of them down.
By the time that we’d left that appointment, I was mad as hell.
Those bison had been suffering for hours, and the Kolders should’ve put the damn bison down the moment they’d seen the wolves had all but eviscerated the bison.
The Kolders were a little bit too soft, in my opinion, to own animals.
We got a call out to them several times a month because there was something wrong with one of their animals that they couldn’t handle.
This particular one took the cake.
There was no way those animals were surviving, and it pissed me off to no end that they couldn’t handle the hard parts.
Did anyone want to kill their animals? No. But they did it anyway to end the animal’s suffering.
My mind was going a million miles an hour by the time that I pulled up to the Windsor Ranch.
The youngest Windsor, DeeDee, met us in the middle of the driveway already on her horse.
“Hey,” she said subduedly. “Do y’all want to ride the side-by-side or a horse? Got two already hitched up. Dad thinks that you should ride the horse so not to spook the cows any more than they are right now, but he said to leave it up to you.”
I looked at Young who immediately caught one of the bags and slung it over his shoulder.
I did the same with the other and we mounted the horses.
Young wasn’t a natural in the saddle, but he’d done it enough now that he could pass.
I’d been riding since I was a young girl.
Young mounted his horse and was following DeeDee before I could mount the paint.
I cooed at the horse that I was riding and held out my hand, letting him sniff me.
He nudged at my jacket and I laughed, pulling out a small sugar cube left in there from the last horse I’d visited with yesterday.
“Ohh.” I smiled as I ran my hand down his neck. “You’re cute, aren’t you?”
He ate the sugar cube up, and I mounted him before tapping him lightly to get him going in the direction I could see Young and DeeDee heading.
I didn’t end up catching up to them until they were already at where Denver was standing.
But before I could get there, a thunderous bang filled the air, and I flinched.
The horses didn’t, though.
Which showed how well they were trained.
When I got up to the man holding the rifle in his hand, his face was grim and his shirt was covered with blood.
My stomach sank as I saw the five downed cattle.
“I guess I don’t need you any longer,” he sighed. “This one was the only one left that I thought might make it, but she went downhill pretty damn quick in the last half hour.”
I looked at the cow.
Then I looked at the man.
He looked pissed as fuck, and I felt bad for getting here as late as I had.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
He shrugged. “Part of life.”
It was, but that didn’t mean that it didn’t still suck.
Ranch life wasn’t the easiest in the world. In fact, I would say that it was one of the hardest jobs a person could have. You couldn’t be soft like the owners of the bison that’d been euthanized earlier. You had to be tough…like Denver.
The sound of heavy equipment started up, and I turned to see a tractor heading our way.
Never waste.
That was the motto, anyway.
Since Denver knew when and how these cows died, they’d all be processed and eaten.
If you couldn’t sell them, then eating them was the next best thing.
“Do you need any help?” I asked, lazily running my fingers over the paint’s neck.
“Nope,” Denver replied gruffly, finally looking up at me. “Thanks for coming out.”
I nodded, hesitant to leave.
DeeDee, however, turned her horse around and said, “I’ll lead you back.”
She had no idea I knew her dad’s land as well as my own.
I used to trespass like a motherfucker.
Denver never said anything, and neither had Denver’s dad when he’d still been a part of the cattle operation side of the Windsor dynasty.