“I ain’t wearing my gun or badge now so alls fair,” Cam retorted. He rubbed his hands together with anticipation. “Let the bloodbath begin.”
A lot of trash talking happened during the game. If anyone noticed Dalton didn’t join in it wasn’t mentioned. He just played until he ran Brandt out of chips. Cam took out both Cord and Colt. Kane eliminated Ben.
They took a break to grab snacks and more drinks, although they seemed to be drinking a lot less booze than they used to.
Gavin caught Dalton by the chips and dip. “Have you heard from my daughter lately? She told me you two have been in contact over the years. And yes, she confessed she owns the house you’re living in.”
“Now why would she do that?”
“A couple of my business associates contacted me and asked, if Sierra was my heir, then why she wasn’t buying property through Daniels Development. So I did a little research and found out she owns six properties. One here, one in Casper, one in Cheyenne and three in Arizona.”
“Girl’s got ambition,” Dalton admitted.
“She’s also got a financial backer. I’m sure she used some of her inheritance from her grandparents to fund this…venture. But she’d need someone older to partner with. Someone with solid credit. I’m assuming that’s you?”
He shot a look over his shoulder and lowered his voice. “Look, Sierra is a savvy young woman. Her ideas are sound. She’s grown up in the real estate business so she’s not some wet-behind-the-ears kid earning a business degree with no practical experience. My gut instinct was to back her and it hasn’t proven to be a bad investment. Return on investments are slow at this point, but I didn’t give her any capital I couldn’t afford.”
Gavin’s eyes remained skeptical. “Your brothers—no one in the McKay family has any idea how well-funded you are, do they?”
“Nope. And I’d like to keep it that way. You should be proud of Sierra. The whole reason she’s been doin’ this is to prove to you she’s a self-starter and she’s qualified to run the business with you.”
“Thank you for saying that. I’m damn proud of that girl and she’s a good judge of character.”
“What’re you two whispering about over here?” Tell asked.
“Issues I had fixing Rory’s doggie door. Gavin installed it six months ago and we’re brainstorming on how we can repair the broken seal,” Dalton lied with a straight face. “Why? What’d you think we were talkin’ about?”
“The two of you ganging up on me in the final round because I’m the real threat in this contest.”
Dalton and Gavin looked at each other and laughed. “Nice try, bro. See ya at the table.”
Keely, Gavin, Tell, Cam, Dalton and Kane made it to the final table. Ben offered to act as the dealer.
“So, we have any side bets goin’?” Kade asked.
“If I stay in longer than Cam, he’s taking all of our kids so me’n Jack can have a night out. If a miracle happens and he stays in longer than me, I have to take his girls and mine fishing. No men allowed, which means I’ll be baiting hooks and removing hooks.” She shuddered.
Laughter.
“No one else?”
Dalton and Tell smirked at each other but said nothing.
“Well, I ain’t gonna say who the odds on favorite is—Gavin cough cough—because he gambles with so much money every day. But if you’re feelin’ lucky, Ainsley is takin’ bets on who’ll take home the cash pot.” Ben shuffled the cards. “Here we go.”
At first everyone played conservatively. Then Tell bluffed his way to a win, which kicked in Kane and Cam’s competitive sides. Unfortunately for them, they were suckered in by Tell’s manipulation and they went out. Keely lasted a few more hands before she was down to zero chips. Gavin went all in with a full house eights high. But it wasn’t enough to beat Dalton’s full houses nines high over sevens.
So it came down to Dalton and Tell. Dalton let Tell think they were evenly matched as he kept dinging him for a few bucks here and there until Tell was down to two hundred bucks.
Dalton bluffed, knowing Tell would see through it. Tell won the hand and got a little overconfident. Dalton bluffed a few more times and lost several hands, but not in a row.
When Dalton was sitting on three aces and a pair of queens, he glanced over to see a hard set to Tell’s jaw, which meant he was trying his damndest not to grin.
Gotcha.
Odds were Dalton had Tell’s hand beat. Tell most likely didn’t have a royal flush since Dalton held an ace and a queen from two suits. So unless Tell was holding onto four kings or four jacks…
Dalton said, “Check.”
Tell looked at his chips and pushed them into the center. “All in.”
A chorus of oohs rang out.
Dalton looked as his cards, unfanned them into a single pile and set them on the table.
“To you, Dalton,” Ben reminded him.
He shoved his chips into the middle of the table. “All in.”
Tell spread his cards out and grinned. “Read ’em and weep, bro. Hate to hand you another public loss, but there it is.” Tell had a spade flush queen high.
“As purty as that little flush is? It don’t beat this, does it?” Dalton flipped over his cards one at a time…and his family alternately cheered and booed.
“Thank you.” Dalton scooped all the chips to his side of the table.
“But…” Tell said, completely shocked. “I know all your tells.”
“You knew all my tells. Been a long time since we’ve played cards.”
Everyone surrounded Dalton, congratulating him. Someone said, “Speech,” and Dalton knew the time had come.
“Thanks for inviting me to the poker game and handing over all your money.”
Boos rang out.
Kane drawled, “Whatcha been up to since you’ve been back besides practicing polishing your poker hand?”
“Usin’ my handyman skills renovating my friend’s house. And another opportunity has come along and I’ve already started to pursue it.”
He watched his brothers exchange a confused look.
“Which is what?” Cam asked.
“Remember that section of land I bought from the Fox family? The two hundred acres between Tell’s place, and where the upper half borders Quinn and Ben’s section, and the lower half borders Gavin’s land?”
“Yeah? What about it? You gonna put a casino on there?” Colt teased.
“No. I’ve applied for a permit for the state’s pilot program for commercial elk farming.”
Laughter broke out.
“Good one, Dalton, you almost had us there,” Cord said.
“I’m not kidding. I already filed all the appropriate paperwork with the state.”
“Please tell me you’re doin’ this so if you do get picked you can let it sit there fallow to show the state they can’t mess in our livelihood,” Quinn demanded.
Dalton shook his head. “I’m dead serious. That chunk of land is perfect. It’s rugged and hilly. I’ve got the means to build the required fence. I’ve got game supplier contacts in Montana.”
“Is that why you put a new paddle lock on the gate?” Tell asked.
“One of the reasons. I hauled some fencing down there that I didn’t want anyone messin’ with.”
“Do you have any idea how much damage a herd of elk can do to grazing land? Not to mention how freakin’ much feed it takes to sustain them. And if they can’t find that feed in the fenced-in area, well, where the hell do you think they’re gonna go lookin’ for it?” Ben demanded.
Colby, Cord and Colt jumped in to back Quinn and Ben. All talking at once, yelling at him about what a big mess he was making of everything.
Brandt and Tell stared at him, clearly unhappy that he’d brought this up in front of the entire family.
The words selfish and irresponsible and childish, vindictive and troublemaker were tossed around, hitting him center mass just like goddamned daggers.
He needed to get
the fuck out of here now.
The noise escalated to the point the only thing that cut it was Keely’s shrill whistle.
“Enough!” Keely shouted. “Hurling accusations isn’t helping.”
“Don’t see why the hell you’re even getting involved,” Cord snapped at Keely. “You don’t have a stake in the ranch and it ain’t gonna affect your life at all.”
Colby and Colt backed him. Then Quinn and Ben joined in and Cam had to break it up.
“Knock it the hell off! Jesus. I’da stayed home if I wanted to referee pointless bickering.”
“Then stay out of it, little brother. Because you don’t have a stake in the ranch anymore either,” Colt said hotly.
“Take a deep breath, Colt,” Kane said.
“The hell I will. And why are you and Kade sitting on the sidelines? This’ll affect you too.”
“It’s not like we could get a word in edgewise,” Kade said, “Which is par for the course lately. You, Colby and Cord just talk over the rest of us anyway, because your opinion is the only one that matters, right?”
Fuck. This was getting ugly and it was just the beginning.
Gavin stepped forward. “Let me speak.”
Dalton waited for someone to point out he didn’t have a stake in the ranch, and he wasn’t even technically a McKay. But no one chimed in.
That’s because they respect him.
“I’m not a rancher. But I do think you guys are getting all bent out of shape about something that might never happen. Dalton applied for the permit. That’s it. That doesn’t mean he’ll get it. So the time to hold the discussions about elk escaping and affecting grazing land and hay stores is not now.”
A few grumbles, but everyone quieted down.
But Quinn wouldn’t let it go. “So where do you stand, Gavin?”
It appeared Gavin would hedge and Dalton didn’t blame him. He didn’t want to get into it with his brothers either. So Gavin’s response shocked the shit out of him.
“If we’re making these lines or whatever purely on border issues, then this elk farm would affect almost my entire acreage. And to be honest, the land I own has been a point of contention in this family for a number of years. Everyone has approached me on how to improve it, how to make it cattle friendly. I listened. But no one actually stepped up and gave me a solid plan on why I ought to draw up an official lease agreement. Except for Dalton.”
Dalton felt all eyes on him while his remained on the floor.
“He drew up a workable, sustainable plan. Timetables for the clearing process, a growth chart of the number of head in the herd year by year, even when portions of it would remain fallow so it wouldn’t be overgrazed. He asked for a five-year lease, which would go into effect after the improvements were made on the land—improvements which were promised to be made on his dime.”
A moment of quiet. “Dalton. When did you do all that?” Brandt asked.
“Four years ago,” Gavin answered. “At the time Dalton was confident with the addition of Georgia and Jessie into the McKay workforce all the brush could be cleared and improvements made within six months.”
“Why didn’t we know any of this?” Ben asked.
“Because the contract was between me and Dalton, since technically he was the sole owner of the chunk of land that bordered mine.”
“Is that why you asked me if we had any plans for it?” Quinn asked.
“Yes. And you told me neither you nor Ben had the time nor the inclination to do what needed to be done to make that piece of land useable for your operation.” Gavin rubbed the skin between his eyes. “When a full year rolled around and no improvements had been made because Dalton couldn’t do it by himself and didn’t have the help he’d counted on, he approached me, requesting that we void the contract. He didn’t want me to be beholden to it and lose out on an opportunity to lease the land to someone else in case it came up.
“I’m sorry, that is not the action of a selfish man. Or a childish man. Or a vindictive man. Or a goddamned troublemaker. I don’t know who tossed out that accusation because that’s one thing Dalton isn’t. Maybe he was wild as a kid—I can’t say because I didn’t know him then. But I know him now, and in case you haven’t been paying attention, he’s not a kid anymore. He’s a man trying to make a living like all of you. Takes a lot of guts to show up here, after being gone from the family fold for a number of years, and share his plans. He didn’t have to. He did it out of courtesy and respect for all of you and you’ve shown him none in return. None.”
Maybe no one would notice if he dropped to the floor and crawled away.
“So if you’re truly asking me to pick a side?” His eyes met Ben’s and then Quinn’s. “I vote yes for the elk farm. I’d even re-up my lease agreement and give him a bigger acreage to work with because I know Dalton will make sure everything is done right.” Gavin set his hand on Dalton’s shoulder. Then he grabbed his coat and walked out.
To say the McKay family was stunned into silence was an understatement.
Before the arguing started again, Dalton snagged his coat and left.
Wasn’t until he was halfway home that he realized he’d left his poker winnings on the table.
Chapter Twenty
It was especially hard to go to work on Monday morning after her fun weekend in Deadwood.
When the stack of elk farm applications arrived from the Cheyenne office, Rory was tempted to crawl under her desk and hide. She hadn’t reached the land inspection part of her job yet—she was still mired in the permit process. But the cutoff date loomed. Hopefully she’d get out in the field soon.
No morning staff meeting meant Rory could dig right in and get to work. She’d cleared five applications—checking with the register of deeds that the applicant was the actual property owner, adding to her map which sections of land in which areas had applied and grouping the applicants by county.
Since it was almost lunchtime, she put everything aside and retrieved her sandwich and salad from the break room fridge. Most days she didn’t mind eating with her coworkers, but Hannah’s presence had Rory returning to her office. No need to end up with Hannah-induced indigestion.
Rory checked her phone. No missed calls or texts from Dalton. Very strange. He hadn’t contacted her last night after his McKay poker game. She’d fully expected to hear how he’d cleaned them out.
She and her mom were supposed to have an early supper since Gavin had also been at the poker game, but she’d called around five begging off. Left to her own devices, Rory snuggled up with her dog and watched a marathon of What Not To Wear.
After lunch she dug back in to work. No issues with the next two applications on the stack. But the third application? Rory had a big, big problem with it. Because the applicant’s name was Dalton McKay.
A thousand questions jumped into her head.
But the biggest question was why hadn’t Rory known Dalton intended to apply for an elk farm permit? Surely that would’ve come up in all the times they’d spent together. Then again, whenever she asked about his day, or what he’d been doing, he gave the same response: working on a few projects here and there. Which she’d always taken to assume meant remodeling projects.
That’s what she got for assuming.
First she checked the land deed. Dalton had owned that piece for four years. Then she looked at the proposed plat of land for the feeding grounds. It was wedged between the McKay Ranch on the left side, more McKay land on the right side and at the bottom, a small section owned by Gavin Daniels. Aka, the land her mother used to own; aka, the elk farm would be close not only to the house Gavin and Rielle owned, but to the cabin on the property where she lived.
She checked the application date. Dalton had applied the week after he’d returned to Wyoming.
The week she’d started the special project.
Well. Wasn’t that a coincidence?
Not.
Rory hadn’t talked specifics of her job with him, keeping the details
of her special project under wraps. She’d mentioned she had paperwork to sort through before she got into the fieldwork portion of the assignment.
So how had Dalton found out vetting elk farm applications was her project?
Easy. The man sauntered into the office frequently. That dimpled smile worked wonders—even horrible Hannah hadn’t been immune to his sexy cowboy charm. Since he usually cooled his boots in the reception area, he could’ve overheard the project info from any number of sources. Or someone—a female someone—could’ve told him just to get an up close look at his amazing blue eyes.
Which begged the question: why had Dalton applied?
To screw with his family after they’d screwed with him?
Nah. He wasn’t that kind of guy.
Or maybe it was the opposite. Maybe this application was a sleight of hand orchestrated by his family? The McKays were one of the most vocal opponents to the program. Had they figured since Rory was in charge of the project, if Dalton applied, she’d choose him? Then the McKays would let the project molder and die.
Rory pawed through the rest of the applications but didn’t see any with the last name McKay. Wasn’t a surprise that the ranchers with land bordering the McKays hadn’t applied for the temporary permit. No one wanted to tangle with the McKays. They’d chew you up and spit you out like an old wad of tobacco. Then they’d grind you into nothing beneath their boot heel as they walked away.
No more. She’d had her fill of being walked on.
Since she had autonomy with this project, she backed up her files, made a copy of Dalton’s application and shoved it in her purse. Then she locked everything else in her filing cabinet and left the office.
By the time she arrived at Dalton’s house, she’d worked herself into a lather.
Dalton answered the door but his smile dried up immediately. “What’s wrong?”
“Like you don’t know.”
“I don’t. That’s why I asked.”
“Let me in and I’ll tell you.” Rory practically shoved him aside.
She started for the kitchen, only to wheel back around so fast Dalton ran right into her.
Redneck Romeo (Rough Riders) Page 23