Page 4 of Ace of Spades (Hidden Creek Ranch #1)

WESTON

“Did you try using a different bit?” Chance calls out from where he’s perched on the arena rail.

“Yes,” I tell him, pulling the gelding beneath me into a tight circle to prevent the little fucker from trying to buck me off again.

“Try pulling his nose to your boot!” Chance suggests.

“Do you want to get on and try?” I snap.

“Hell no, that horse is the devil.”

“Says the man who rides bulls for a living,” Rafe cuts in, strolling over to the rail beside Chance.

“Oh, I know! How about recommending they sell the horse to the glue factory?”

I roll my eyes at Chance, changing directions and spinning the gelding beneath me as he tries to take off once more.

“Can I give him a go?” Rafe asks.

Rafe and I were the two resident horse trainers at Hidden Creek Ranch, both of us having been riding since we were old enough to walk.

If there was ever a horse that neither one of us could figure out, that’s typically when we’d deem it a lost hope.

There was something about this gelding though, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

He had outstanding ground manners, and clearly knew what he was doing under the saddle—he just had a temperament unlike any other.

“Have at it,” I tell him, hopping out of the saddle and leading the little grey horse to two of the other co-owners of this ranch as Rafe hops over the railing.

He barely has a foot in the stirrup before the horse spooks, sitting on his hind quarters and pulling back.

“Do Clint and Rina hate their daughter or something? Cause that’s the kinda horse I’d only gift to my worst enemy,” Chance comments from beside me.

I give him an unimpressed look, turning my attention back to Rafe as he tries to work the gelding.

Looking from the outside, I try to get a better picture of what’s going on.

I take in all of the non-verbal cues that the horse is giving us, noticing something that I hadn’t before.

“Hey, Rafe—bring him over here real quick,” I call out, squatting on my haunches to remove my spurs.

I’m slow to get back in the saddle, taking my time with it until I’m comfortably in my seat. Instead of nudging my spurs into him, I only use the slight pressure in my legs to nudge him forward, the gelding breathing heavily through his nose as he advances.

I walk him in slow circles, turning him to the right with a slight squeeze from my inside leg before doing the same in the other direction, and then nudging him into a lope.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the horse whisperer of Hidden Creek Ranch!” Chance exclaims.

“Looks like their daughter was a little too spur-happy,” Rafe adds, trudging through the sand towards us as I pull the gelding up beside him and Chance.

“Yeah, and she’s not gonna love it when I tell her she can’t use them anymore,” I tell him.

“I’ll deal with them if they give you any shit.”

“I’m not worried about it.”

“Yeah, 'cause Sophie is practically in love with you,” Chance comments.

“Twelve-year-old girls aren’t my type.”

“She doesn’t need to be, as long as you keep her parents giving us paychecks.”

“He’s not a bad little gelding,” I admit, disregarding Chance’s comments. “Wouldn’t mind keeping him for myself. She wants him as a starter barrel horse but he’s definitely a cowy little dude. He’s got the cutting gene in him somewhere.”

“Mind if I feel him out?” Rafe asks.

“All yours,” I tell him, hopping out of the saddle as Rafe removes his spurs and takes my place. He spins the gelding beneath him a few times in the same manner that I did, using solely his legs to guide the horse.

“You see what I’m sayin'?” I ask .

“He’s gonna be a good one for sure. Shame we can’t keep him on as a ranch horse.”

“Tell them the horse is a lost hope and that we’ll buy him for cheap,” Chance shrugs.

“I’m giving them my honest opinion,” I tell him.

“Y’all are no fun,” Chase scolds, lifting his beer bottle to his lips.

“Day drinking already?” Rafe remarks.

“It’s my day off.”

“No such thing as a day off when you work on a ranch.”

Chance only rolls his eyes before taking another sip.

“Hey,” Beau cuts in, sauntering over from the direction of the main lodge.

“I’m not loving that look,” Chance breathes.

Rafe hops off of the gelding, walking him back over to the gate as a bad feeling settles in my gut, a quiet tension falling over us as Beau—the fourth final founder and co-owner of our ranch—approaches.

“I’ve got some news. Y’all aren’t gonna like it.”

“What’s going on?” I ask.

Beau looks between the three of us, his brow knit with worry.

“Joe’s was vandalized last night. Cleaned out the registers and trashed the place; there wasn’t much left to salvage. I just got off the phone with Lisa.”

“Shit” Rafe breathes.

“How bad?” I ask.

“Bad. ”

“We can do something about it, right?” Chance asks, trying to convince himself as much as us. “The payout for this next rodeo should be one of the highest, I can front them anything they need. We’ll help with repairs, anything it takes.”

“Yeah, and I got this horse figured out, that should be a decent paycheck coming in,” I add.

Beau looks anywhere but us, and I don’t have to ask to know what he’s not telling us.

“Beau,” Rafe says.

“They sold. Said they had no choice.”

A moment of silence passes over us as we take in the news.

“Well, we’ll find a way to get them out of this,” Chance states. “Tell them to undo it, we’ll figure something out.”

“They already signed the papers as of this morning. Said their backs were against the wall.”

“Fuck.”

“Who did they sell to?” Rafe asks as if we don’t all already know.

“Sorrels,” Beau confirms, rubbing his temple. My lips press into a thin line.

“Of fucking course,” Chance mutters. “I’ll bet anything that they had something to do with the vandalism, too.”

“We can’t just go around making accusations,” Rafe argues.

“You’re joking, right? You can’t tell me that’s a coincidence.

Mike and Rhonda lose the barber shop last year after random water line damage sends them into bankruptcy, Tony sells the trailer park after mysteriously ‘falling down the stairs’ and breaking his hip, and now vandalism?

All properties that the Sorrels were trying to buy.

Come on, we’re all thinking it,” Chance insists, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

There was no doubt in any of our minds what was going on around here ever since the resort was announced. But the ranch was already struggling as is, and the four of us were working overtime to make ends meet while also helping as many of the families around town as possible.

“Rafe’s right. Even if that’s the case, we have no proof,” I tell him.

“Then we need to get proof!”

“We’re not vigilantes, Chance,” Beau tells him. “Trust me, I wish there was something we could do. Wes and I grew up in this town, you don’t think we want to help? But you’re the one who went to law school—”

“Business school,” Chance corrects.

“Business school. You know that without any sort of evidence, we don’t have shit.”

“Well what about the trailer park?” he asks, turning towards me. “Didn’t you say they keep raising the rent to try to get everyone to default so they can cut all of the contracts? We can start by reporting them for that.”

“They found a loophole,” I admit, the feeling of defeat washing over me once more.

“They’re not technically raising the rent, but they’re tacking on all of these bullshit fees for shit like trash fees, landscaping fees, fines for having more than one vehicle or for trailer homes that are falling apart and aren’t meeting the ‘aesthetic requirements’.

Trust me, my mom checked. She’s been fighting tooth and nail but there’s nothing that we can do since it’s technically legal. ”

With all of the random charges that had been getting tacked on to my mom’s rent, she’d had to pick up a second job just to keep the roof over her head, and that was still proving not to be enough, even with my continued help.

“We’ll figure something out,” Rafe mutters, his face remaining expressionless as usual.

“Guarantee they’ll go after Sonny’s next,” Beau comments.

“So let’s do something about it,” Chance insists.

“We can’t just camp out there every night to keep an eye on the place.”

“For now, we keep helping Sonny how we can.” I join in. “It’s gonna be a good breeding season, and we can all pitch in from some of our winnings each rodeo. We’ll make him a cushion in case something happens.”

“You mean when something happens,” Chance mutters, taking another sip of his beer.

“Listen, can we not talk about this around Kota?” I ask. “Sonny’s was her favorite place growing up. She already took Lisa’s death hard enough. If she knew what was going on around here, she might insist on staying to help.”

“You want us to lie to her?” Beau asks.

“No. But I don’t want her to worry too much.

She’s got a job all lined up as a registered nurse in River Valley next year, and she’s been over the moon about it.

She was already super homesick after graduation and her internship and all, and I don’t want her to feel like she needs to stick around here because of all of this shit. Y’all know Kota—she’d want to help.”

“You’re right. I remember how close she was with Lisa. It might be best if she doesn’t know the extent of it, for now at least,” Beau agrees.

“We’ll keep it lowkey,” Rafe nods.

“So when is she getting here, anyways? And more importantly, is she hot?” Chance asks, and it takes everything in me not to punch the fucker.

“You even think about trying anything with my sister, and I’ll fry your balls off with a branding iron.”

“Geez, relax. I can have some self-control,” he tells me.

“Right,” Rafe snorts.

“Clearly, I haven’t told you about the time that Julie Holbrook’s mom came up to me at the rodeo last year, and little Chance managed to turn her down. Do you know how much self-control that took? Have you seen her new boob job?”

“You let her give you a blowie in the gas station bathroom,” Beau deadpans.

“Yeah, but I didn’t fuck her!”

“Wasn’t she married?” Rafe asks.

“And didn’t you sleep with her daughter?” I add, Rafe and I exchanging a playful look.

“Okay, I see how it is—gang up on me. You guys are the worst,” he rolls his eyes at us.

Beau lets out a chuckle that doesn’t meet his eyes, a solemn look on his face as he takes in the three of us. He’s the oldest out of the group, and other than Rafe, the most level-headed here. This town means everything to him—to both of us .

“We’ll find a way to fix this,” he tells me, the two of us exchanging a look.

I nod my head, trying to convince myself that it was true. I would do anything for this town that I call home. We just had to find a way to stop the Sorrels before they drove everyone out completely.