Page 22 of The Wrong Ride Home (Wildflower Canyon #1)

duke

I didn’t usually have meetings in paddocks, but this was a ranch—meetings happened where the work did, not in some polished office. Even Nash’s accountant—mine now—Amos Langley, had traded a suit for jeans, cowboy boots, a button-down, and a Stetson. Same as Hunt, Elena, and me.

The sun was high, the air dry and thick with the scent of horses, and it tickled memories of my time here.

The stable stood just beyond us, the sound of hooves shifting in stalls, the occasional whinny breaking through.

Hunt stood by the fence, arms crossed with Elena next to him, her posture relaxed.

There was no evidence of the woman who’d cried by the river. This woman was impervious.

Fiona, however, was not and stood out like a damn sore thumb. She was dressed for a conference room, not a ranch—sharp gray business suit, four-inch heels digging into the dirt .

“We have a meeting with Piper Novak at four,” she reminded me, her voice clipped. “So, let’s get through this.”

Amos snorted. He’d been with the Wilder family for decades, but right now, he looked about five seconds from walking away. I didn’t need him to say anything to know that he didn’t care for Fiona.

“Well, since we’re on the clock.” He turned on his tablet, his reading glasses perched on his nose. “I’ll keep it simple. Ranch operations are stable. Debt is minimal. The books are clean— thanks to Elena .”

Fiona barely glanced at her. “Yes, well, let’s focus on what matters. The land.”

I saw the way her mouth slightly tightened when she said it. She wanted to remind everyone that this wasn’t a discussion—we were getting ready to sell the ranch, piece by piece. It was my directive, so why the hell was I pissed off with Fiona?

“I’ve already outlined the parcels that can be sold immediately,” Fiona continued, not reading the paddock and the people there. No one gave a shit about what she had to say. They were here because I asked them to be and not because they wanted any part of this meeting or Fiona.

“We have offers from multiple developers,” she continued. “We’ll need to start liquidating assets, and Hunt, I assume you’ll handle the cattle sale?”

Hunt didn’t answer right away. His jaw flexed, and for a second, I thought he might just turn around and walk off. Instead, he shrugged. “Elena does that.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Fiona demanded.

Shit! The woman needed to calm her fucking tits before?—

“It means I do the selling,” Elena explained, no inflection in her tone. Nothing. Blank slate. She wasn’t rude or polite—just matter of fact.

Fiona’s eyes narrowed. “And why is that?”

Hunt huffed, already tired of this conversation. “Because she’s the fuckin’ expert.”

Fiona glared at him.

Elena didn’t rise to the bait, didn’t so much as blink. “I handle the buyers. I know which ones are serious and those who just want a tax write-off. I negotiate the prices, schedule the hauls, and ensure we don’t sell a single head to someone who doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing.”

Fiona crossed her arms. “We don’t have time to be picky.”

Elena looked Fiona in the eye. Not with anger—just with the kind of patience you gave someone too ignorant to know better. “We always have time to be picky.”

Hunt smirked, tilting his hat back. “Unless you wanna be the one explainin’ to the boss why we let top-dollar cattle go for half their worth to buyers who’ll run ‘em into the ground.”

Fiona’s nostrils flared. “You’re being dramatic.”

I cut in before Hunt could say something that would push this meeting straight to hell. “Let this go, Fiona.”

That got her attention. She turned to me, irritation flashing in her eyes. “Duke?—”

“I said, let it go.” I leveled her with a look. “We don’t dump the cattle just to be done with it.”

For a second, she looked like she wanted to argue, but she held it back. Barely.

“Fine. Just get it done,” she snapped at Elena.

“Please,” Hunt grunted.

“Excuse me?” Fiona was ready to kill the man.

“Please…it’s a word used when being polite. I’m sure people say please in Texas, don’t they, Amos?” Hunt wasn’t done being a jackass, and I couldn’t hold it against him. Fiona was being a bitch. She was always pushy; it wasn’t working for her here, not with this crowd.

“They sure do.” Amos grinned.

Before I could put my foot in it, Elena simply said, “It’ll be done. We’ll sell the prime stock to our regular buyers—the ones who know what they’re getting and are willing to pay for it.”

Fiona raised a brow. “Prime stock?”

Amos groaned. “Fuckin’ hell, Duke, does she know anythin’? Or are you just bringing her here to look good in a suit?”

“Amos,” I warned.

Fiona seemed to be on the verge of exploding.

This wasn’t the type of meeting she was accustomed to.

Usually, I was the top predator in the room, where my word held authority, and so hers did as well.

But out here, in ranch country, fancy talk didn’t mean a damn thing if you couldn’t back it up.

She could read a ledger, sure, but she wouldn’t know a steer from a bull if it was standing right in front of her .

Elena didn’t seem to be affected by the drama and kept on with her even tone.

“Prime stock are our top bloodlines, strong genetics, healthy weight, good frame, no structural flaws. These cattle were bred to work and last, not just stand around looking pretty in some rich man’s pasture.

Buyers like Kincaid Farms, the Jorgensen Ranch, King’s, and a few others know what they’re looking at, and they’ll pay what they’re worth. ”

Hunt nodded, backing her up. “That’s where the real money is. Buyers who care about quality, not just numbers.”

Fiona crossed her arms. “And the rest?”

Elena rolled her shoulders like this was tedious. “We’ll run the lower-end stock through auction. Send ‘em to Fort Collins or maybe Brush, depending on market prices. We cull the weaker ones, offload what isn’t worth holding onto.”

Fiona glanced at me, clearly irritated that I wasn’t stepping in. I just shrugged. Elena knew what she was talking about. And from the way Fiona’s mouth pressed into a thin line, she knew it, too.

“And the horses?” Fiona kept her tone high-end bitch.

I sighed, and Fiona gave me a look that said no pussy for you, and I was ready to say, thank you, I’ve had enough .

Nash would fucking hate Fiona. Is that why I was with her? Because she was everything that wasn’t Wilder Ranch ?

Elena’s expression didn’t change. “What about the horses?”

“How soon can they be sold?”

“Depends on the horse,” she replied emotionlessly.

“What does that mean?” Fiona gritted her teeth and sounded like a bloody fool for being arrogant when it was clear she didn’t know shit from Shinola.

“Do you want me to go through the pedigree of the horses?” Elena asked, her fingers on her belt as she straightened. “’Cause that could take some time.”

“She don’t need all that,” Hunt remarked.

“I doubt she’ll understand anything either,” Amos stated.

“Enough.” I raised a hand. “This ain’t a pissing contest.”

Hunt clapped his hand on his thigh in frustration. “No shit?—”

“Hunt,” I cut him off.

“Elena, I don’t need the damn pedigree. I need to know how fast you’ll sell the horses,” Fiona demanded, ignoring Hunt and me.

Elena didn’t react outright, but I knew her. Still did , I thought, elated. For a split second, irritation flickered in her eyes before she smothered it, reining it in like she always did.

“Some horses are already spoken for. The others will take time to place—unless you’d rather sell to the highest bidder, whether they know how to handle them or not,” she explained evenly. “The Wildflower Canyon Rodeo is coming up. We’ll get the horses in front of the right people.”

Fiona waved a dismissive hand. “I need a report on numbers and valuations before the end of the week.”

Hunt muttered, “Please,” and shook his head, clearly disgusted with Fiona’s attitude. I was right there with him—her casual disregard, the way she spoke like Elena would just do as she was told, made my teeth clench.

Fiona glared at me, demanding I do something.

Not going to lift a finger to help you, sister, ‘cause you’re off the fuckin’ deep end here.

Elena only nodded. She wasn’t giving Fiona the satisfaction of a reaction, and that was probably the smart move.

Definitely smarter than my girlfriend, who didn’t know when to fucking stop because she decided to cap the clusterfuck this meeting was with, “And, Elena, when I say the end of the week, I mean the end of this week.”

Amos let out a sharp breath. “Fuckin’ hell.” He looked at me with disgust. “You wanna talk business with me, you make sure she isn’t around. That woman doesn’t have the sense God gave her, and she for sure doesn’t know how to be respectful.”

Fiona took a step toward Amos, and it would have been a strong move, except her heel got stuck in the soft grass.

“You are an accountant, Mr. Langley, and you’re welcome to walk away. We’ll find someone?—"

“This meeting is over,” I snapped. “And, Amos, you need to work with Fiona…and, darlin’, you need to learn to wo rk with everyone here. Selling a ranch this size is gonna take a while, and if every meeting is gonna be like this, I’m going to need to put a bullet through my head.” Or yours.

Fiona’s phone rang, and she didn’t even bother excusing herself before stepping away to answer it.

Amos turned to me. “I repeat. You need to get yourself a new accountant or a new girlfriend, you decide. I’m talkin’ to you and not her.”

I drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “I need you, Amos.”

His gaze didn’t soften. “Then act like it and rein her in.”

I looked at Hunt, who was watching me like he was waiting to see what I’d do next.

“Same goes for you,” I said.

“And what does that mean?” Hunt asked lazily.

“Make it work with Fiona,” I responded patiently. This wasn’t on these guys; it was on Fiona. Amos was right; I had to remove her head from her ass, so she could see things clearly.

Hunt shook his head. “I’m with Amos on this. You make sure she treats me well; I’ll do the same for her.”

Then, finally, I faced Elena. She hadn’t looked at me once since this meeting started.

“Elena?”

She met my gaze, and held it for a moment before she said, “I got no problem with your pitbull, boss.”

Amos and Hunt busted out laughing, and I had to control myself not to ‘cause that shit would be inappropriate.

Fiona was angrier than I’d ever seen her on the drive to Kaz Chase’s place. I could feel it in the way she sat beside me—arms crossed, legs angled away, jaw clenched so tight she probably cracked a damn tooth.

I was pissed, too.

But unlike her, I wasn’t bothering to hide it.

“The way you talk to them isn’t okay.”

She let out a sharp, humorless laugh. “Excuse me?”

“You act like they’re disposable.”

“They are.”

I gripped the steering wheel a little tighter.

Fiona sighed dramatically. “Duke, I am trying to get this deal done. That is what you brought me here for. I don’t have time to play nice with a bunch of cowboys who don’t even want you here.”

She wasn’t done. I knew her well enough to know that, so I waited for her to spew whatever it was that was making her behave like a moron.

“Oh, I see,” she continued. “This isn’t about them . This is about her .”

Here it comes!

“She’s a farm girl, Duke, one with a chip on her shoulder. Why do you care what I say to her?”

My fingers flexed against the leather-wrapped wheel.

Because Elena took care of the ranch we’re about to gut, worked for a man who resented her, and stayed on land that wasn’t even hers because she’d promised her mother. Because I can talk all the shit I want to her—but no one else is allowed to do that.

“Because Elena knows this business, and you don’t. Show some damn respect.”

That shut Fiona up.

“You need to get your head out of your ass, and if you ever talk to those people as you just did, I’m going to fuckin’ fire your ass from this project.”

She gasped. “What?”

“Are you unclear about one thing I just said?”

She licked her lips. “Duke, you can’t talk to me like this.”

“Sure can. You work for me.”

“I’m your girlfriend,” she cried out.

“Not in a work meeting, you’re not. You make enemies out of people I need on my side to sell one of the biggest ranches in Colorado; I will have to take matters into my own hands. Your behavior is fuckin’ deplorable, so get your act together. This is non-negotiable.”

Also, I’m not sure I want to sell Nash’s precious, pristine land, Hunt’s prized cattle, and Elena’s horses…fuck!

The road stretched ahead of us, winding through land that wasn’t just property—it was history—miles of fields, hills, and open sky.

She shifted, glancing at me. “I’ll be careful from now on.”

“Good.”

“I just…I just want to move this quickly. I know you want to be done with it. I know this is your way out of…the past. ”

My way out? Yeah, that’s what I’d thought, too. And yet, right now, I was driving toward a deal I was no longer sure I wanted.

When we pulled up to Kaz Chase’s mansion, Fiona reached for my hand. “Can we make up now?” she asked softly.

It was an apology wrapped in silk—pretty but empty.

I glanced at her, feeling a wave of unease. Fiona was more like my mother than I’d ever wanted to admit. This was Mama’s way, too—lose her temper, cut deep, and then expect a neat little reconciliation as if none of it had ever happened.

“Of course,” I lied, my tone tight.

The truth was, I didn’t want to make up.

I wanted her out of my life. And that realization unsettled me ‘cause this wasn’t the first time I’d seen Fiona treat people like dirt.

But it was the first time it didn’t sit right with me.

And I knew why. Elena, Hunt, Amos, Nokoni, the ranch hands, the cowboys…

they belonged to the land. I was the interloper.