Page 25 of Ranch's Resolve

Izzy and Tanya share a look before Izzy responds. “I thought you’d be with Ranch after his accident last night and the attack on the ranch.”

“What?” I explode. “Ranch was attacked? When? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine,” Izzy says, touching my arm. “Someone set a trap for him. They spread a wire across his driveway. It knocked him off his bike, so he has some bruises, but it could have been much worse. There would have been more damage if he had been going any faster. He’d only just turned onto the driveway, so he hadn’t picked up speed. It’s a good thing he didn’t notice the flames sooner. If he had, he would have gunned it and done some damage.”

“Wait, what? Fire? What fire? Not his home?” I ask, grasping Izzy’s hand in a panic.

“No, the barn.”

“Oh my god, the horses?”

“They all survived. Max and Ranch got them out. The barn is gone, but the horses are fine. No one was seriously hurt.”

“What happened? Was it an accident?” Raven asks.

Izzy shakes her head. “No, we don’t think so. Ranch got a call from some asshole pressuring him to sell the ranch. Ranch told him no, again. Guess the guy has made the offer a few times. He told Ranch he’d be sorry for not agreeing to the sale. Ranch said he hightailed it home because his gut told him to get there fast. Good thing, too. Ranch heard from the firefighters that he’s not the only one getting pressured to sell. Supposedly, whoever it is, they caused a neighboring rancher to fall off his horse and break his leg.”

“The guys will figure out who is messing with the other ranchers. Ghost said he, Flame, Carver, and Reaper volunteered to help the rancher with the broken leg. His daughter is running the ranch, but she’s struggling to manage all the work. The rancher is considering selling, even though he doesn’t want to. The guys will help until the rancher comes home.”

“That’s nice of them,” Raven says with a glance at me.

“Yeah, it is,” Tanya says. “However, they aren’t doing it just to be nice. They want to figure out who is trying to pressure the ranchers into selling their land.” She glances at her watch, and I realize how late it is getting.

“You ready?” I ask her.

She smiles and nods. “I’ll be about an hour.”

“No problem, I’ll wait out here,” Izzy says, grabbing a magazine and taking a seat.

“How are you doing?” I ask Tanya when we sit across from each other.

“I’m so happy I don’t know what to do with myself,” Tanya laughs. “Being with Ghost these past few months has been amazing. He’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” When she says this, she sobers. “Not that Deion wasn’t good to me. He was. He’ll always be my hero for finding me. It’s just that Ghost is everything I didn’t know I wanted or needed. Does that make sense?”

“It does.”

“I don’t want you to think I’m not grateful for everything Deion did for me.”

“First, it doesn’t matter what I think. These are your feelings; if you’re happy, that is all that matters.”

“I know I hurt Deion when I broke up with him, but I couldn’t be with someone who broke the law and hurt people.”

“You know the Demon Dawgs aren’t exactly model citizens?”

She laughs. “Oh, I know, but there’s a difference.”

“Is there?”

“Oh, yes. A huge difference. I overheard Deion threatening Brooke. He wanted her to steal drugs from the hospital. The Demon Dawgs would never threaten a woman. Well, that’s not true.”

“It isn’t?”

“No, they’d threaten a woman if she did something to hurt an innocent. You see, I realized that Deion went looking for trouble. He wanted to break the law, and he didn’t care who got hurt in the process. I know he isn’t like that now, but he was back then. Take this rancher with a broken leg. The old Deion would have taken the opportunity to break into the rancher’s home and steal what he could. Anybody in his old gang would have done the same. Ghost wouldn’t do that. None of the Demon Dawgs would. Instead, they’re going after whoever hurt the farmer. They’ll likely break the law doing it. It’s the difference between breaking the law for gain and not letting the law stop you from doing what is right.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: RANCH

I rise at daybreak and step outside. The first thing I see is the burnt remains of my barn. Beyond the remnants are the fields where the horses munch out of their feedbags. I spot Max shoveling hay and walk over to him.

“How’s it going?”

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