Page 58 of Rough Stock
The calf burst out of the chute, but Jensen was right on his heels and threw. The rope landed true and caught both horns, and in a split second, Shyanna had caught the heels and pulled the animal tight. Snowman was still backing against Jensen’s rope, and he nudged the horse forward to release the loop around the calf’s horns.
He spun to look at the clock and listened as the crowd first gasped and then cheered. Shyanna was all smiles when he caught sight of her face. For the moment, they were in first place. “Proud of yourself?” she asked as he joined her back in the staging area to leave the arena.
“No. Amazed, actually. I was so afraid I’d fuck up,” he answered, his cheeks burning.
“I’m proud of you. You shouldn’t even be trying this tonight, and yet here you are.” As they entered the alley, someone called Jensen’s name and he looked up to see the girls right above the entryway.
By the time they got the horses back to the barn, Amber and SammyJo were there. “You doin’ okay?” Amber asked Jensen, and he could tell she wasn’t just being polite. The looks on her and SammyJo’s faces were enough to convince him that they truly were worried.
“Yeah, I’m okay. You okay, babe?” he asked Shyanna.
“Yeah. I need to take a walk and clear my head before tie-down. Amber, would you and SammyJo walk Rhubarb and help Jensen? I’ll be back in just a few minutes.”
“Sure!” Amber chirped and took the reins from Shyanna’s hands. “Guess that was pretty hard on her too,” she almost whispered.
“Yeah. She took it hard, even if Cobra wasn’t hers. She’s spent a lot of time around him in the last few weeks, and she loves these horses.” Jensen watched her go, walking slowly away with her head down. “And I hate it. She’s got enough stacked against her without having to deal with my shit.”
“You guys are together. Your shit is her shit,” SammyJo pointed out.
Your shit is her shit. Jensen hadn’t thought of it that way, but it was true. What affected him affected her and vice versa. At least she didn’t have any other events where she dependedon him to help her score. She had enough bad luck already. She didn’t need his too.
Shyanna walked slowly awayfrom the little group to the end of the walkway in front of the barn, then turned right and went down the side. As soon as she was out of sight, she picked up the pace.
Darting around in the parking lot, she looked everywhere. It wasn’t on their side of the grounds, so it had to be there or in the next lot. If she could find it, she could get some clues as to what was going on.
And she did. Max’s trailer was sitting at the back edge of the parking lot. Funny thing was, his truck wasn’t there. Why would his trailer be there and his truck not? She knocked on the door, but nobody came, so he obviously wasn’t there. The tools in her pocket had been poking her for over an hour, and she slipped them out. It only took a few seconds to unlock the trailer’s living quarters door and she was in.
She looked around. There was nothing visible that would suggest Max had any drugs. Matter of fact, there was nothing visible that would suggest he was even staying there. And if he wasn’t staying there, wherewashe staying? She looked under sofa cushions, in the refrigerator, in storage compartments here and there, but she didn’t find anything unusual. In reality, she found almost nothing at all?few clothes, little food, no boots, and almost no personal hygiene items in the bathroom cabinet. And if he took any kind of medication, it wasn’t there either. There also didn’t seem to be a gun anywhere. The only thing she saw was a document, something between the rodeo associationand some kind of pharmaceuticals company called Zesser. It looked pretty standard, from what little she could tell about it, and it couldn’t be all that important. But what was Max doing with it?
She’d about given up when the sound of tires on gravel hit her ears and she peeked out the little porthole on the front of the trailer’s gooseneck to see Max’s truck pull up. Quick as she could, she slipped open the little door between the living quarters and the horse stalls, then crouched there in a stall beside the door, down far enough that no one could see her. There was nothing in the trailer, so she couldn’t imagine he’d even look in it.
The entry door on the side of the trailer banged shut and she heard Max moving around. In seconds, a conversation started, but she could only hear his side of it. “Yeah… No, no traces. I didn’t do it here anyway. I did it in my room… Uh-huh… Yeah, I brought quite a bit tonight, and I moved it all, so I went back and got more. Don’t worry. We’ve got one more night, so I should be able to move at least two more boxes. I felt like a fucking stripper?buyers were coming out of the woodwork and stuffing money in my belt!” he said, laughing raucously. “Yeah, I’ve got tie-down roping and then the rough stock events. And that Owens bitch is signed up for bareback bronc and bull. I really thought what I did last night would get rid of both of them, but looks like I was wrong… Yeah, I’ll give you a call when I get back to my room. Later.” She heard him stomp around a little more, then the entry door slammed again. The sound of boots crunching in gravel filled the horse compartment, and when she rose up a little, she could see him making his way across the parking lot, so she waited until he was out of sight.
Sneaking back through the tiny door and out the entry door, Shyanna looked around but saw no one milling about. Everyone was in the arena. Besides, she’d learned a lot in prison. She’dlearned to pick locks. And she learned the most important thing a person could do when they were caught somewhere they shouldn’t be was to act like they belonged there, so she marched across the parking lot and back to the barn.
Dropping her head, she rounded the corner of the barn again and headed back to find one of the girls leading Rhubarb around and the other leading Snowman. “Where’s Jensen?” SammyJo pointed to his trailer, and Shyanna hustled off toward it.
She opened the door to find him sitting on the little sofa, elbows on thighs and head in hands, and he didn’t move. “Babe? You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m okay,” he said with a sigh and lifted his head. “I need to tell you, StagHendricks is leaving the circuit and he’s offered me his horses at a spectacular price. I told him I’d gladly buy them.”
Shyanna’s eyes flew open wide in surprise. “Oh, wow! That’s awesome! Can you afford them?”
“At the price he’s offered, hell, I can’t pass ’em up even if I can’t afford ’em. And hopefully I’ll have enough winnings to be able to at least come up with half,” he said, giving her a tiny smile.
“You look tired,” she said as she leaned down and kissed his forehead.
“I am. We’ve got to get ready to go.”
“I need to tell you something. And you’ve got to promise not to flip your shit,” she said, hoping her no-nonsense tone would keep him calm.
“What? I’m not going to like it, am I?” he asked, side-eyeing her.
“Nope. I just broke into Max’s trailer.”
Jensen shot up so fast that Shyanna almost fell backward. “Broke into Max’s trailer? Are youinsane? Shy, what the fuck?” he almost screamed.
“Keep your voice down!” she barked back. “Everybody can hear you!”
