Page 6 of Roots of Redemption (Hicks Creek #4)

I almost growl. I swallow the anger that’s wanting to explode out of me. I take a few deep breaths, grabbing onto the pillow next to me on the couch. I grip it tightly, taking all of my frustration out on it.

“Doc Lucy can have the samples sent to me here in Billings. That would be more feasible. My team and I could…”

“That ain’t good enough. I told Doc I’d call and ask you to come home. She offered, but I knew I needed to make the call.”

Whoa. I gasp, shocked by his admission.

Yeah, this is definitely a pod person. It has to me. My father would never say this.

“Dad, I don’t know that…”

“I know that I was a bastard to you for most of your life. I just…your mama warned me time and time again that I was too hard on you. That’s how my parents were to me and…” He coughs in the middle of his babbling before he continues. “Can you please come home?”

That scared little girl inside me who always needed her dad’s love and affection responds to his request before I can think too much harder about it.

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a few days.”

“I don’t know if we have a few days.”

“I’ll have to drive, Dad. My field truck has all the supplies I will need while I’m there. In the meantime, I’ll call Doc and have her get samples to send in to my team.”

“It’ll have to do, I guess. Thanks, Sutton. I really appreciate it.”

I start throwing things into a suitcase while also looking for an Airbnb in the area.

I’ll be damned if I’m staying at the ranch with my dad.

Maybe I’m crazy for doing this insanely long drive to the East Coast, but taking all of my supplies with me is far better than ordering them and risking them not arriving on time.

I don’t want to prolong this trip any longer than necessary.

As I’m going through the motions of checking off what needs to be done, I call Doc Lucy’s cell phone. She’s been the veterinarian in Hicks Creek for as long as I can remember. She used to let me help her when she’d make house calls.

“Sutton,” she greets me on the other end. “I didn’t actually believe your father when he said he’d call you.”

“I’m a little shocked over here myself,” I chuckle drily. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I offered. Honestly, I should have listened to him from the start—as soon as the first course of treatment didn’t work and the other ranches started having similar issues. He kept telling me that I needed to call you or that he would.”

“That’s surprising.”

“I thought so, too. I thought it was a little premature, but he was right. I think we have an outbreak on our hands, and it’s way beyond my scope of expertise.

They’re threatening to send in a health officer.

I’ve heard horror stories about what they do when they get to a ranch.

It could ruin your father and these other ranches.

I get that they’re trying to protect the cattle and…

” She blows out a long breath. “But they don’t care about the consequences of those actions. ”

“I’ve heard the same horror stories, although I’ve never met any of the officers.

I can reach out to my boss, too, to see what he knows.

I’m packing now. I’ll be there in a few days.

I still want you to send samples to my lab.

I’ve already emailed you the protocol and what I need.

If you could do that today, it would be great.

Then by the time I get there, maybe I’ll have an idea of what’s going on.

Can you email me what you’ve tried and tested for so far?

I don’t want to repeat anything and slow this down. ”

“Absolutely. I’ve got it in a Google Drive, and I’ll send it over. I think your dad and the Callahans have been hit the worst. Wade has not slept in days as he’s trying to do as much research as possible on this.”

Wade Callahan. It’s been a while since I’ve heard his name out loud.

It’s not been a while since I’ve thought about him, though.

Our little sexscapade is on a loop in my brain a lot. I haven’t found another man who could fuck me like that in the last ten years.

Sad, really.

“My friend is in North Carolina, and she said they’re having a similar outbreak of sorts. I’ll reach out to her for her research, too. Maybe we can get ahead of it.”

“Perfect. I’ll reach out to more colleagues to see if they’re having the same issues. In the tri-county area, we’re the only ones. I’ll be in touch with you, but do let me know when you’re close, and I’ll meet you out at your dad’s ranch.”

“Perfect, thanks, Doc.”

I hang up the phone and start packing while multitasking to let my work know I’ll be out in the field indefinitely.

I find a nice little guest house on the Airbnb site that’s not far from my dad’s ranch and book it before calling my boss—and ex-boyfriend.

I still don’t know what I was thinking when I started dating him.

“Hey, Ronnie,” I say into the phone.

“Hey, Sutton, to what do I owe the pleasure of a Sunday morning phone call? Are you missing me?”

“No,” I say a little too quickly. “It’s strictly business, Ronnie. That’s all it can be.”

I’ve said those words a dozen times since I broke off our two-year-long relationship. He still doesn’t listen.

“Why are you working on a Sunday?”

“I just got a call from my dad. He’s had some sort of outbreak with the cattle on his ranch. I talked to the local vet and it’s not just his ranch either. It’s most of them in the area. I’m going home to figure it out. Put me on fieldwork for the foreseeable future.”

“The office isn’t going to pay for you to go on vacation at home.”

Of course, the little weasel would make this difficult. He’s still overly butthurt that I broke up with him.

My main title is Bovine Disease Research Veterinarian, and I’m the head veterinarian of our lab in Billings, Montana.

It is private, but we have government contracts because we deal with a lot of things to help the FDA stay up to date on testing.

My job is pretty mundane most of the time.

It’s rare, but there have been a handful of instances where I’ve had to go out into the field to collect samples and figure out what we’re dealing with.

I can only do so much in a lab, especially when a lot of these diseases don’t take on the typical textbook symptoms.

“Well, you could put me on vacation for the foreseeable future. I don’t care.

I have plenty of time on the books. However, you and I both know that I’m going to get to Hicks Creek, stop the epidemic that’s happening and then, because I was on vacation, your company won’t get any of the glory from it.

If you think I won’t make sure the entire world knows that you wouldn’t let me go willingly, you’re wrong. ”

“You have to—” he starts.

“I’m not going to argue with you, Ronnie. I’ll take it above your head if I need to. This isn’t a ploy to get free time off; you know that’s not how I am, and it’s irritating that you’re insinuating as much. You know what my relationship is with my dad.”

“I have plenty of others that I can send into the field. You’re too good to be doing this. You should be running an entire lab somewhere else, Sutton. You shouldn’t be answering to me or anyone else, but you don’t want that responsibility.”

I sigh inwardly and shake my head in disgust. He says that probably because our calls are recorded, or his secretary is nearby, but he doesn’t believe that.

Ronnie is the type of man who doesn’t think a woman should work, and heaven forbid that the same woman be smarter than him.

He’s a misogynistic pig, and I’m still disappointed in myself for how long it took me to see that.

What Ronnie fails to mention out loud is that his father, before he passed, gave me the opportunity to run a new lab in South Dakota.

He had everything set up for me to do so and, because I was with Ronnie at the time, he begged me not to go and I stupidly listened.

When I broke with him months later, the position had been filled.

I blow out a long breath. “I’m not asking for permission.

This isn’t just affecting my dad; all the Hicks Creek ranching community is having similar symptoms and problems. If we don’t contain it, we’ll have a statewide problem, if not nationwide.

Besides, if my father swallowed his pride enough to call and ask me for help, it’s bad.

I’m not going to let my town lose everything when I could have gone to stop it myself.

I’m going to my family ranch to figure this out for my dad. Put it in however you have to.”

I hang up the phone quickly and continue getting things together before I start the trek back home.

Ronnie is such an asshole and I wish that I didn’t have to deal with him so much. Of course, any other boss would probably fire me for the way I talk to him. I let out a long groan and shake my head.

He’ll put it in as me being in the field, because he knows I’m right. He’ll never admit it, though. However this goes down, he’ll make sure that he gets all the credit for it.

It’s been five years since I stepped foot in Hicks Creek, on my family ranch, and I’m sick to my stomach thinking about what happens next.

This is going to be the longest drive ever.