Page 45 of The Undercover Cowboy

He cut his eyes to his dashboard clock. He’d barely make it, if he left now and pushed over the speed limit the whole way there. “I’m two hours away and Dallas is in the opposite direction of where I’m going. Are you sure we can’t do this over the phone?” he said.

“Positive. It’s an emergency.”

Shelby didn’t use words like emergency unless it really was one. “Are you all right?”

“I will be once you get here.”

“Is it Mom?”

“No.”

“Can you talk freely?”

She forced a half-laugh. “No.”

“Are you in danger?”

“No,” she said more seriously.

“Is it Dad?”

Shelby hesitated. “It’s complicated.”

Fuck. Of course it was. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

As soon as it was safe, he turned around and put his foot down on the gas. He wasn’t sure what time Dolly got into theoffice, but she didn’t answer her phone when he called. It was early but it had gone right to voicemail.

He tried to ignore the sick feeling in his gut that there was something really wrong in the Dallas headquarters. For shits and giggles, he called Jackson Blevin’s office line.

“UPRC,” a woman’s nasally voice said.

“Who’s this?” he asked gruffly, deepening his voice.

“This is Debbi. Who is this?”

“Get me Jackson Blevins.”

“Um. He’s not available right now.”

“Where is he?”

“Do you have an appointment? Because all of his appointments have been canceled today.”

Is that right?“Why?” he barked, hoping to intimidate her into answering.

“Who is this?”

“Shane Calland,” Nash barked, using Dolly’s brother-in-law’s name. “From the Viking Ranch. I need to talk to him about Laredo.”

“I’ll pass along the message to him.” And then she hung up on him.

Interesting. Nash considered calling back and saying he was from the other two stock suppliers, but he didn’t think he could pull off two different voices.

His phone rang again and this time, he didn’t recognize the number. He wondered if it was his father. He pulled the truck over, even though he couldn’t really afford to and still make it in time for Shelby’s meeting.

“Nash?” It was Finn.

“Why are you up so early?” he asked, annoyed now that he’d pulled over for this.

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