Page 6 of Shared on the Ranch

It was a place for a certain kind of people, and he could tell this poor girl didn’t have the faintest clue. That was the question looming largest in his mind: Why was she here when she obviously had no idea what she’d gotten herself into?

“Whatisyour name?” he asked, calm and level.

Her eyes only narrowed even further until they were tiny slits. “Not tellin’,” she spat at him, the words followed by literal spittle.

“Who is this girl?” Blake—Betsy’s daddy—hissed at Nate.

“I hate to admit it, but I don’t actually know,” Nate murmured back for their ears only.

Chandler felt his curiosity creep higher.I guess there’s a first time for everything.“You need to tell us what you’re doing here and what’s going on,” he explained in his most soothing tone. “Otherwise, we’re going to have to escort you off the premises, but we’ll have to call the cops first.”

The redhead considered him through her squinty view and he could see the tension tighten in her shoulders. “Chyanne Saunders,” she said at last, hurling the words at him like they were meant to be an insult.

“Why does that name sound familiar?” Nate pondered.

Instead of turning to his friend, Chandler kept his gaze on Chyanne. “And why are you here, honey?”

He’d chosen exactly the wrong words based on her bristling tone when she answered, “I am not your honey!”

“Okay.” He held up his hands in a ‘surrender’ gesture. “My mistake. Why are you here, Chyanne?”

She relaxed the tiniest bit. “I was hired to ride in a rodeo.”

This time, he couldn’t help but turn to Nate, the question on his face.Her? She’s a tiny slip of a thing!

Nate’s brows shot up in evident surprise, and then he nodded. “That’s where I know the name. She signed on for the program I’m trying to start.”

“Which means…” Chandler mused.

“Which means she signed the Ranch contract,” Blake said, the first to voice the realization they were all coming to.

Chandler arched a brow, and Nate gave him a nod. “Okay,” he muttered to himself, turning back to Chyanne. “Listen, sw—” He bit back the word as he saw her hackles rising. “Chyanne, it sounds like all this has just been a big misunderstanding. What we’re going to do right now is head back to Nate’s office, have a cup of coffee, and have ourselves a talk.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she declared, looking like an angry, trapped cat.

He weighed his options. He could pick her up and heft her over his shoulder without any problems, but that generally wasn’t the way he liked to do things. He preferred for everyone to be on the same page and more or less in agreement. Question was, was there any way to get Chyanne there?

“All we want to do is talk,” he tried again.

Chyanne hmphed at him, but he could see the slit of her eyes widening, her countenance softening.

Will the mountain lion turn into a house cat after all? Here, kitty, kitty…

“Sure,” Blake muttered beside him. “Talk.”

Blake hadn’t meant for her to hear him, but she did and turned into a tightly coiled ball of resistance from that one word alone.

Chandler had never had an urge to hit another of the doms at the ranch… until now. But he’d save his rage for the other man for later. Right now, the only one he could afford to focus on was Chyanne, who looked like she was considering her fight or flight instincts very seriously.

“Get the other girls out of here,” he muttered out of the side of his mouth.

“You got it,” Nate answered. “See you in my office in thirty—with or without her.”

He nodded and did nothing but look at Chyanne as Nate summoned the other ladies. They went without a fuss, most giving a glance or two to the fiery redhead. They all looked sympathetic.

Veronica, however, only had eyes for Chandler, and stopped right in front of him. “If she’s been hired as an independent contractor, then the same rules don’t apply to her.”

He arched a brow. “Have you looked over her contract, Miss Winthrop?”

---