Page 3 of Smokescreen

Her dad was in trouble. Big trouble.

A knot of anxiety tightened in her stomach.

What had happened? How could Olive help?

A crash sounded downstairs, and she sat up in bed.

Her heart pounded in her ears.

What exactly was going on down there? And even more importantly—was her dad okay?

CHAPTER 2

TODAY

Olive glanced at a group of men she passed, and she tilted her cowboy hat. “Howdy, y’all.”

They nodded back, and she kept going.

She took her place among the crowd gathered in the sale barn. The scent of dirt, hay, and horses surrounded her. She thought the aroma would be unpleasant, but there was something strangely comforting about it.

The Sweetwater County livestock auction was about to begin, and Olive had dressed the part of an eager buyer. Her well-worn jeans and cowboy boots blended in with the rest of the Wyoming crowd. For this part of her assignment she’d donned a blonde wig, styled in a bob. She’d never thought blonde was her color. But since she’d be going undercover in a different capacity after this auction, she needed to look like a different person.

She scanned the ranchers around her as they mingled with each other, their conversations casual as they waited for the auctioneer to take the stage. Most of them wore faded jeans and cowboy hats. They gathered in groups as if this was a big reunion. There were a couple of outsiders here too—including Olive.

Someone in this room very well could be a criminal.

She’d been hired by Reid Harrison to figure out who that might be and to stop that person before they could strike again.

What she really needed was to get into Skip Carson’s office. He headed up this livestock auction. If anyone had the information she needed, it was Skip.

She needed to figure out who’d blacklisted Reid and had him banned from buying and selling at this auction—a move that could definitely affect Reid’s ranch. He counted on these events for sales. Skip wouldn’t release the name of the accuser, but he should have paperwork somewhere.

If Olive could figure out the person behind the complaint, then maybe she could figure out who was sabotaging Reid’s ranch and why. Vengeance toward Reid? Or did someone want his property? Reid needed answers.

“Everything good on your end?” a voice said into her hidden earpiece.

Patrick “Trick” Borowski was also here.

Olive was used to seeing Trick decked out in business attire or dressed to the nines, as the saying went. For this assignment, Trick would be a ranch hand, so he’d transformed into a cowboy—a very believable cowboy.

Of course, everything Trick did was believable. He was a master of disguise.

Even though his last name indicated he was of Polish descent, he claimed to have mischievous Irish roots. He had curly, dark-blond hair and an easy grin. He could charm the ladies faster than a cheetah going after its prey.

Meanwhile, Tevin McIntyre, who ran tech for them, monitored everything from his van in the parking lot. He would mostly stay quiet in her ear unless there was an emergency. Too much talking in her earpiece only led to confusion.

Olive glanced across the crowd to Trick. “I’m on track.”

He stood beyond a fenced-off partition. Under the guise of being a ranch hand, he currently helped wrangle some quarter horses up for auction.

She remained at the back of the crowd, trying to stay mostly out of sight. But she’d seen the looks several people had thrown her way. She was an outsider here. The ranching world was small, which was why she’d had a cover story. She’d come here from Montana to scout out some new horses for her boss, who preferred to remain nameless.

“These people seem folksy enough,” Trick said. “But I don’t trust any of them.”

Olive’s eyebrows rose. She understood his sentiment. Even though they were in Wyoming among people who worked the dirt and with animals for a living, many of the people around her seemed to be anything but salt of the earth.

They were cutthroat, competitive, and willing to do whatever was necessary to keep themselves ahead.

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