Page 16 of Cowboy in Colorado

I head up for the room—there’s only the one, with a bathroom beside it. I check the bathroom first: a toilet under the low-angled eave, a pedestal sink, and a spotted, pitted mirror. Nothing else. Serviceable, for a night. The bedroom is…about the same. A full bed filling most of the space, centered under a high, narrow, filmy window. A chest at the foot of the bed, an old hand-woven rug covering creaky floorboards. Low ceiling, a coating of dust, cobwebs in the corner. The bedding is flannel, and eminently worn. Annie Oakley would feel right at home. Me? Not so much. But, it’s what I have, and it’s only for a night.

I summon my courage, and refuse to wonder what may have occurred in this room, if it’s primarily used to let sauced locals sleep off their booze.

To say I don’t sleep much would be an understatement.

5

Theo calls me at nine the next morning, saying she has an update for me, and for me to meet her at the Big House. I drive over, and find Theo waiting at the bottom of the front steps.

I park my Z4 and approach her with a hopeful smile. “Good morning. So. You have an update for me?”

Theo’s smile in return is not encouraging. “Yeah, unfortunately it’s not good news for you. He doesn’t want to hear it.”

I sigh. “Did he at least seem to understand what we’re proposing?”

She shakes her head. “He’s such a bullheaded bastard.” She makes anoopsface. “I shouldn’t say that. But he’s just stubborn.”

“He said no?”

“He didn’t even want to hear it.”

I feel that old familiar steel resolve hardening in my gut. It’s the grim determination that’s gotten me this far. “Can I talk to him myself?”

Theo smirks, an outright expression of amusement. “I’m his sister, and he wouldn’t even hear me out. What makes you think you’ll get any further with him?”

I smile, and I know it’s the barracuda smile that’s made crusty, snooty old men in boardrooms shudder and call me names under their breath. “Because dealing with grouchy, ornery, stubborn old men, set in their ways, who won’t listen to anyone, is my specialty.”

“Yeah, well, there’s those men, and then there’s my brother.” Theo shrugs. “If you are really determined to speak with him yourself, the only way to get to him is to ride out to Alpha camp.”

That sets me back on my heels. “Um.”

Theo holds up her hands. “That’s a rule nobody, and I meannobodydares break. So, you want to try your hand at talking to Will, be my guest. I’ll have Jared saddle you a horse and I’ll point you in the right direction. I’ll even send someone with you—I can’t go myself, seeing as I’ve got plenty of my own work to do and I’ve spent more time than I rightly had on this business with you.”

I lift my chin, and stiffen my spine. “Fine. I’ll ride.”

She snickers, her eyes raking over my outfit. “In that? Inthoseheels?”

I definitely regret my choice of shoes, but I won’t say that to her. “I walked down sixteen flights of stairs in Hong Kong in these shoes. I chased down a purse thief in these shoes.” I will show no fear. “I can sure as hell ride a horse in these shoes.”

“You sure? I can lend you some boots. We gotta be around the same size—eight and a half?”

I sniff. “I’m a seven, actually, and I think I’ll be okay.”

She shakes her head. “Suit yourself. I think there’s a lady who boards here who’s a seven, though, and I really think you ought to borrow some boots. It’s not about fashion.”

“Everything is about fashion,” I say. “I’ll be fine.”

We get in the ATV again and head to the barn. Hector happens to be standing outside and we drive up beside him. Theo glances at Hector. “Can you have someone saddle Tinkerbell for Brooklyn?”

If I hadn’t been looking right at him, I’d have missed the way his eyebrows shot up briefly. “I think Tinkerbell is maybe—”

She cuts in over him, meaningfully. “The perfect horse for our guest, Hector.”

He nods, his face placid again, and mutters into the walkie-talkie, this time in Spanish. “Okay. You’re the boss, boss.”

Theo grins at me, and heads for the door. “Come on, I’ll show you where to go.”

I follow her out of the barn around the front, across a huge gravel lot, to a fence line running right up to the corner of the huge barn. In the distance, behind the barn, horses graze under the shade of a stand of trees. Theo gestures at another line of fencing leading away from the barn into the distance. “You’re going to follow that fence. Just ride right up alongside of it for, oh, maybe forty-five minutes to an hour.”