Page 28 of Lawless Ride

“No, I saw three riders chasing down the mustangs and they had lariats and were trying to catch the horses.”

“That ain’t legal,” said Harlan.

“Sure isn’t, and I’m going to talk to the sanctuary people to see if they’ve been missing any of the herd.”

“Where’s the sanctuary people at?” asked Harlan.

“I’m about to find out.” I grabbed myself a beer out of the fridge and sat down at the end of the table fuming. “Deal me in.”

Chapter Six

Saturday, May 26th.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

Breakfast was loud. Tammy cooked and while she was at the stove, the other two hollered back and forth to her. I’d missed the girls, but I hadn’t missed all the noise they made.

Both girls had insisted on helping Harlan at the barn, although with only the two horses, he didn’t need any assistance. He was capable of feeding two horses and mucking out their stalls on his own.

I sat down with a cup of coffee and asked, “So, what’s the biggest thing y’all learned in week one of your training?”

“I’d say that we have to be better riders, and that a lot of winning depends on our horses,” said Tammy.

“That makes sense. I think both of you have decent horses, they’re just not trained as well as they could be.”

“Marilyn has a couple of guys working for her that only work with the horses,” said Lucy.

“Do you have to pay extra for them?” I asked.

“Not on the day-to-day,” said Tammy. “Those guys are there to help all of us, but if you want them to spend time with your horse to correct a fault or just make your horse listen better, then you have to pay them by the hour for the time they spend.”

“How much per hour do guys like that get?” asked Harlan.

“I didn’t ask,” said Tammy. “It’s costing Mama plenty of money already for us to be there.”

“And Mommy is paying for two of us,” said Lucy.

“Did Marilyn tell you when we’ll be allowed to come and watch you race?” asked Harlan.

“Maybe next weekend,” said Lucy. “I think it might be next Saturday morning. When I know for sure, I’m going to tell Mommy. She said she might bring Jacks and come up for a week to watch us.”

“Annie-girl hasn’t said anything to me yet. I’ll keep next Saturday open, just in case that’s the day.”

“Another whole week to wait before I can watch?” Harlan sounded disappointed.

“We need to get better before people can watch us,” said Lucy. “When you and Travis come, we’ll be nervous.”

“What about when a thousand people watch you at the fuckin rodeo?” asked Harlan. “What are you gonna do then?”

“Pee my pants,” said Tammy, and they all laughed.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

On the drive down to the station, Harlan talked about installing cameras along the back fence line so we could have a good look at the rustlers and possibly catch them.

“We see the time and date stamp and that might help us know when to be back there,” said Harlan. “It’s gonna be hard to catch them at it.”

“Yeah, it is. I’ll find out where the management office is and go talk to whoever is in charge.”

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