“You heard anything from Buckley?”
“Not in a few days,” Dave told him, and felt a flash of irritation. He wasn’t used to not being in charge on a deal. Now he was in the position of having to wait on someone else, and Dave didn’t do waiting. When he wanted something, he went out and got it. Hell, he thought with an inner smile, he’d gotten a fiancée when he needed one, hadn’t he?
“When are you meeting him next?”
Dave frowned. “I’ll set something up with him in the next week or so. Want to give him time to have our operation checked out.”
“Buckley’s not an easy man to deal with, but he’s fair,” Mike said. “He’ll figure out we’ve got the best beef in Texas soon enough.”
Dave did have the best beef around, and everyone knew it. Hell, his cowhands did everything short of singing the steers to sleep at night. The herd was free-range Black Angus. Organic, too—no antibiotics, no feedlots. He’d put his heart and soul into building this ranch, and now he had a fiancée who would convince Buckley that Dave Firestone was a settled, trustworthy man. Everything was moving as it should.
So why was he still feeling…off balance?
It was Mia.
The woman kept slipping into his thoughts. Ever since their meeting the night before, he hadn’t been able to keep her completely out of his mind. And he knew why. She hadn’t been what he’d expected and Dave wasn’t used to being surprised. When he made a move—in business or his personal life—he went in knowing exactly what would happen. Knowing ahead of time how his adversary would react.
Mia had thrown him. Without even trying, she’d aroused him. Intrigued him. And set him up for more surprises. Which he didn’t want.
“So, is your mom coming out to stay over Christmas again?”
Dave came up out of his thoughts and shot a look at his foreman. Mike’s expression was hard to read, as if he were trying to be deliberately casual.
“Yeah,” Dave said. “She’ll be here in November, like always. Stay through the first of the year.”
Mike nodded. “Sounds good.”
Frowning, Dave briefly wondered why his foreman was so interested in his mother’s upcoming visit. Then he shrugged it off. Bigger things to think about.
“Looks like you’ve got company, boss.”
Mike jerked his head off to the west, and when Dave looked in that direction he saw a man on horseback headed their way. Even at a distance, Dave recognized him.
Chance McDaniel. Chance owned a thriving guest ranch and hotel on the other side of Royal. He made millions by hosting city people who wanted to pretend to be cowboys for a week at a time. Then there was the four-star hotel on the property that was a popular spot for weddings, conferences and all kinds of gatherings.
But McDaniel’s Acres was a working ranch as well as a dude ranch. Chance ran some beef and horses on his land, too. The two of them often shared the work at busy times of the year, lending out cowhands and doing whatever was needed. He was a good friend and like Dave, preferred, when possible, to be out riding a horse to doing just about anything else.
When he was close enough, Dave held up a hand in greeting. “What are you out doing?”
“Heard you were moving your beef to winter pasture,” Chance said with a shrug. “Thought I’d ride over and lend a hand if you need it.”
“Hell, yes, we can always use another cowboy,” Dave said. “Appreciate it.”
Chance grinned. “Beats being at McDaniel’s Acres today. My guys are helping tourists try their hand at roping. Set up a plywood steer and they’re taking turns using a lasso.” Laughing, he added, “There’s gonna be more than a few of them looking for aspirin tonight.”
Laughing, Mike said, “It ain’t easy being a cowboy.” Then he nodded and moved off to join the other hands circling the slow-moving herd.
The two friends rode in silence for a few minutes until Dave finally said, “You usually enjoy watching city guys try to ride and rope. So why are you really here?”
Chance glanced at him. “Thought I’d let you know that the state investigator’s staying at my hotel.”
“She is?” Dave felt like he’d just taken a hard punch to the gut. He’d heard about the FBI-trained investigator, of course. Nothing stayed secret for long in Royal, and it wasn’t as if Bailey Collins was trying to keep a low profile, either.
She was working out of the Dallas office and had been looking for Alex for weeks. Dave had spoken to her once himself and he knew that she’d worked with Nathan to discover that Alex Santiago had a few secrets of his own. In fact, Santiago might not even be his real name. Questions brought more questions and there simply weren’t any answers to be had. But knowing that Bailey Collins was staying at McDaniel’s Acres told Dave that she wasn’t going anywhere. Which meant that she wasn’t finished looking into Alex’s disappearance. Frowning to himself, Dave realized that though Nathan Battle might not consider him a suspect, Bailey might feel differently.