Page 53 of The Undercover Cowboy

After Dolly wrappedup her presentation, Jefferson looked over at Martha and said, “Would you mind if I spoke to Ms. Keller privately?”

Dolly’s heart stuttered in her chest.

“Of course,” Martha said. “I think I’ll take you up on that offer of coffee now.”

“It’s right around the corner,” Dolly said through numb lips.

When Martha left, the click of the door latch sounded like a gunshot in the stillness of the office.

Dolly sat down at the conference room table.

“I was surprised to hear your name from Finn,” Jefferson said, thumbing through a stack of brochures that showcased the upcoming events. “You’ve done well for yourself.”

“I’ve worked hard to get where I am.” She lifted her chin, meeting his stare head-on. “And I’m not going to let anything jeopardize that.”

“Easy.” He held up his hands in a placating gesture. “I’m not here to cause trouble. I just wanted to see you again. See how things worked out for you. Finn loved the photo shoot that you did with him. It was very professional.”

Despite the tension coiled in her gut, Dolly felt a flicker of pride. “Thank you. Finn makes it easy. He’s really making a name for himself on the rodeo circuit, isn’t he?”

“Sure is.” Jefferson beamed with pride. “He’s got more talent than I ever did. I reckon he’ll be one of the greats someday.”

“I don’t doubt that for a second.”

He hesitated for a moment before continuing the conversation. “Listen, I know we have a complicated history, but I’d like to put that behind us. I’m happy to see that you’re doing well. I’ve thought about you often over the years. You’re a strong woman, and you deserve every success that comes your way.”

Dolly had to fight to blink back tears. That was unexpected. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

“Anyhow…” Jefferson glanced at his watch, a flicker of regret crossing his face “…I hate to cut this short, but I’ve got another meeting to attend to.”

“Of course.” Dolly got up and smoothed down her skirt.

They walked through the busy office. Martha joined them as they passed by the break room.

“Martha, Lonestar Leathercraft will be sponsoring ten athletes of Dolly’s choice. We’ll work out the details later.”

Dolly did blink back tears this time. “That’s incredibly generous. Thank you. UPRC has no shortage of gifted athletes. I can put together a list of popular riders who’ll be more than happy to have a Lonestar Leathercraft saddle.”

“Excellent,” Martha said.

With a final nod at Dolly, Jefferson walked into the elevator with Martha.

Dolly let out a big sigh. She had kept her secret safe and secured a major sponsorship deal. Not bad for a day’s work. It was a bit of a relief that Jefferson Laker was still the nice guy that she remembered.

Now all she had to do was get through the rest of the day and then she could enjoy her night with Nash. But as she made her way back to her desk, Dolly’s eyes flicked to Debbi’s empty desk. With a glance around, she confirmed that no one was looking directly at her. She eased into Debbi’s office and quietly closed the door behind her.

When she jiggled the mouse, the screen appeared. Luckily, it didn’t ask for a password. The first thing Dolly wanted to do was get her hands on the staffing information for the Laredo rodeo. The preliminary email had circulated this morning, which is how she knew Nash’s name hadn’t been on the VIP list, but the final version wouldn’t be sent out until later. It was a piece of cake to open up the document and add Nash’s name so his VIP badge would be available at the will-call booth this time. She sent the email with the word “Final” in the subject line. If Blevins could send out promo packages from her email, turnabout was fair play and she could send out information from his office as well.

With Nash’s name safely on the Laredo list, Dolly was about to cover her tracks and go back to her own office. But the thought of that offshore account that Debbi had mentioned gnawed at her. She decided she could afford to snoop around a bit more. She navigated through a labyrinth of digital files, searching for any hint of illicit financial activity. File after file opened and closed, revealing nothing but mundane transactions and tedious bookkeeping. It was boring and frustrating, and she was risking getting caught the longer she sat here.

A prompt flashed up. Debbi just got a new email from Blevins by the looks of it. But she couldn’t access it without a password. She tried a few generic guesses, all meeting with rejection. With a huff, Dolly stopped attempting to hack her way into Debbi’s email. She didn’t want to lock Debbi out of the system.

She was covering her tracks and erasing the history when she caught sight of a file she had missed before. It was marked DK6969. It struck her as being the type of thing that Blevins would name a file. She opened it, skimming through the contents.

“Fuck,” she whispered, feeling the world tilt.

DK was her. Dolly Keller.

There in cold, unforgiving black and white were the details of her employment history at Leisure Industries. Scanned pictures of the catalog that Leisure had sent out with her featured in it were in the file. Shame burst through her, like hot vomit. Her family would be mortified if they saw these cheesecake pictures. And Nash? He’d be disgusted. She was disgusted.

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