Page 53 of Bravo

He chuckles. “I can promise you that there’s nothing easy about it. But it’s certainly worth it.” His cell rings, and he pulls it out of his pocket and puts it on speaker so he can eat another fry. “You’re on speaker,” he says. “What is it?”

“You seen the news yet?” Elliot questions through the phone, his tone frustrated.

“No. Why? The ranch make headlines?”

“Something like that. I was surprised to see that you let her talk to Sharon.”

Bradyn sits up a bit straighter, his expression darkening ever so slightly. “What do you mean? Who?”

“Sammy,” he replies. “The two of you are all over the front page.”

CHAPTER 18

BRADYN

If ever there was a day I might actually lose the leash I’ve put on my temper, it would be today. I told Sharon that I wanted employees to be kept quiet. I specifically told her that, unless Sammy wanted to speak with her, she was not to be included in the article.

And what happened?

The woman somehow managed to get an immense amount of information—far beyond what I told her—on the fire itself, and the damage, as well as the full scoop on Sammy—her injuries, what happened that night, and a photo of her that was clearly taken from a distance sometime before even I came back home. The green magnolia trees in the background serve as proof of that.

I glare down at the newspaper in front of me as I try to decide how I want to proceed. Sammy was furious when I told her. Even angrier when she saw the image printed of her in the newspaper. She’d insisted on going home and barely spoke the entire ride back.

Which just makes me even angrier. Whoever fed Sharon this information ruined what was turning into a great trip.

Someone knocks on my door. “Come in,” I call out. The door remains unlocked as it usually is. Bravo raises his head as Dylan comes in, looking just as cruddy as I feel. “It was Arthur,” he says. “They had dinner last night, and she sweet-talked him into providing not just the photograph but all of the information, too.”

“He’s fired.” He was already on thin ice, and I have a zero-tolerance policy for providing any information to anyone outside of this ranch unless I’ve given explicit permission.

It’s in all the contracts our new hires sign and something I refuse to bend on.

While we don’t have secrets here, I want to avoid drama or fallacies from being spread about this place. And keeping our employees tight-lipped is the best way to do it.

“Already done. He’s packing his stuff as we speak.”

“Good. Thanks.”

“You looked a little close to a lit fuse, so I figured I’d handle it for you. Sammy okay?”

“She was relatively quiet on the drive back, but I know she’s mad.”

“I would be, too. Guy made her sound like a helpless damsel in need of rescuing. Sammy isn’t like that at all.”

“It’s just part of the many things I’m angry about.” I cross my arms and lean back against the counter. “I told Sharon to drop it. That, unless Sammy wanted to talk to her, there was nothing anyone else had to say.”

“You going to deal with her?”

“There’s not much I can do. I already sent off an email to the editor of the paper, letting them know that Hunt Ranch does not appreciate what was printed, nor do we endorse it, but what’s done is done. This is hardly the first time we’ve had a news story printed about us we didn’t care for.”

“You’re not wrong there.”

It wasn’t too long ago that an employee we’d fired for being abusive toward our horses went to the news and told them that Hunt Ranch was a hazardous place to work and that he’d been fired for no reason. The article was a complete fallacy, of course, and given that everyone in town knows it, there wasn’t a ton of backlash. But that was the straw that had us tightening up our hiring process.

This ranch is the largest in the area, and the last thing we need is to end up a target for someone looking to make a name for themselves.

“It wasn’t a bad article, at least. Aside from the way she portrayed Sammy, of course. That was pathetic.”

“Sharon loves to tear people down,” I remind him. “It’s what she’s always been good at.” I rub my hands over my face and sigh. “Okay, so Arthur has been fired. He’ll be gone by morning. That’s one problem taken care of. The email to the editor has been sent, and while I don’t expect anything to come from it, I can only hope they’ll be more cautious. And as far as Sharon goes, we keep her off the property. I don’t want to see her anywhere near this ranch. We can’t risk her getting wind of the details linked to the Search & Rescue side of things because once she does?—”

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