Rodeo Rancher

by Lauren Wood

  When Amy left that night, I was a little tired but I couldn’t sleep. She had put more crap in my head and it wasn’t helping my state of mind. I didn’t want to think of him that way, but I knew when I saw him next I was going to check out a particular part of him, just to see.

  I giggled to myself thinking about what Amy had said earlier. “What, you haven’t bulge-checked him yet!?”

  She was incredulous and all I could do was laugh. Amy was a little crazy, but man she made me laugh.

  ***

  Caroline gave me a file about as thick as my arm and told me to have at it. “I know this is a lot, but I am sure you will do fine.”

  We went over briefly what they were looking to find and I sat down to do just that. It was Wednesday and I only had a couple of days until I had to turn in my report. I was supposed to somehow find where the company was bleeding money and profits.

  It didn’t take long to conclude that I was going to need more time. The sheer volume of paperwork to go through was too much for such a short time. I tried to categorize and go through the numbers like I had learned in all of those college classes, but in the end I decided to go about it another way. This was a challenge and so was the time line. I had a feeling that they had given me till Friday to figure out, so there would be ample time for someone else to go over it.

  I wasn’t going to let that happen. I was going to surprise them all, namely Rick that thought so little of me so far. I wanted to prove myself, still thinking that if I did, he would see me more as an equal, than a lemming that he can turn his nose up at.

  So instead of going over the numbers until I was blue in the face, in an amount of time that wasn’t going to be sufficient for the kind of report I wanted to turn in, I decided that I would do something a little unconventional. I found out where the closest factory was a few hours outside of Atlanta and I called to set up an appointment. They sounded surprised that I wanted to come there, but the factory manager was actually on site and eager to talk. He was eager to help in any way that he could. The stockholders were not happy with the last quarter earnings and the whole year had seen far too much in waste and labor. Something was going on and I promised him that we were going to get to the bottom of it.

  When I got off of the phone, I was feeling a little more optimistic than before, but I still wasn’t sure what was going to happen. I felt like it was a now or never kind of situation and I wanted to make sure that I was able to rise to the occasion. I just had to.

  I made my way down to the factory and met with Johnson Grey. He was a nice man, but he wasn’t sure where to start. I wasn’t either, but I had made some notes of certain product lines that were suffering the most. It had to be somewhere and since the factory was tens of thousands of square foot, I decided that it would be easier to check there, than needle in the haystack style.

  “Are you going to look at the books?”

  “I have Sir. Now I wanted to get a sense of how everything works here and see if I can spot any areas that can be changed to give you a better result. That is why I’m here.”

  Johnson smiled at me and asked me again if I was single. This wouldn’t happen if I was a man, but I just smiled and told him that I wasn’t. I didn’t want to lie, but I needed time to get productive. I didn’t have time to make goo-goo eyes with the factory manager.

  I started with a couple of the production lines that showed the most loss. I didn’t know much about all of it, but soon I had several helpful gentlemen helping me understand everything. Scott walked me through every machine that he worked in the area of French fries. I would never have known how much went into making a fry. I would never look at them the same again, that much I knew for sure. Apparently there was an art to them.

  “So where do you think the waste is coming from? This area was the highest percentage wise.”

  He shrugged and told me that all of the waste was the same as before. “We have tons of scraps left over, but the boss isn’t interested in trying to use it. If we chipped it up in the T-32, we could make tater tots or even hash browns.”

  “Introducing another product to use up the waste is a great idea Scott. I will make a note of that.”

  Scott blushed a little and his face almost was the same color as his shirt. I thanked him for his time and went on to the next area that was causing trouble. There was a strange amount of maintenance going on in one area and there were several wrecked fork lifts that were years from scrapping.

  It didn’t take long to see why that was. The man driving one almost ran me over. He was smoking a cigarette and talking on his phone. He wasn’t paying attention at all and once I noted his name on a notepad, I knew that he was going to be the name I found on the incident reports.

  Maintenance in general was an issue, but I saw that by the lack of maintenance on some machines, the ones doing poorly, they were actually losing money from losing the machine way before it was supposed to become useless. This was due to a low labor cost in that sector. The loss of production made it impossible for the same amount of people to keep up. It was all starting to make sense to me.

  I found Johnson and asked to see his journals for the last year. He didn’t ask any questions, but he did seem anxious when he handed them over. I don’t know why he was worried, but I had a feeling that if he was audited right now, there would be a lot of discrepancies that would be found.

  “Is there any problem areas that you would like me to look at?”

  He shook his head and I had to wonder how he seemed to know so little about his factory all of a sudden. I talked to him about the labor costs, but again he was very ambiguous with his answers. He only made me look harder, though I am sure he was hoping for the opposite to occur.

  I left the factory and instead of going straight back to Atlanta I took the evening off in a hotel close by. I had found some things in their accounting that was questionable at best, but I didn’t know what I was supposed to do about it. I couldn’t tell the boss that he was getting reamed by his own employees, but yet that was very much my job to do that very thing.

  So I spent most of Thursday pouring over everything that I had gone over and then I made another trip to the factory. Caroline called me about mid-day, worried that I had already quit, but I told her where I was. She was surprised, but happy to hear that I would be back in the morning with results.

  “Did you find the problem?”

  “I found several that will save them close to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more with very little changes. There is also an opportunity to turn three hundred from waste into about a half a million in useable product. I think I have everything I need here.”

  I sounded a little more sure than I really was. I wasn’t sure if all of those things were going to be enough. I told Caroline that I was going to check all of my numbers again. She sounded happy to hear that it went so well. I had a feeling that she was just happy to have some help. She had made that clear before when I was being interviewed.

  I just hoped I had enough to prove Rick wrong. I wanted to see his face when he saw my report, so I had to make sure that everything was perfect. I was not going to be able to prove my point if it wasn’t perfect. My reputation in the firm and maybe even my job was on the line. It was a lot of pressure as I drove back to Atlanta. I called Amy to see if she was working. She was, so I took the rest of the night in to write the report. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

  **END OF PREVIEW**

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  BE MY BRIDE: SNEAK PEAK

  PREVIEWS

  Be My Bride

  A Billionaire and Virgin Romance

  Blurb

  I had a decision to make, that would change everything.

  Could I say ‘I’ do for business?

  I had one rule in life, don’t fall in love. Now I have fa
llen for my wife.

  I had everything that a man could want.

  My bank account was stuffed, I had a new woman every night of the week and every guy wanted to be me.

  Life was perfect.

  I thought I had everything that I wanted.

  Then something was offered that I hadn’t been able to secure myself.

  I wanted to win the favor of the best investor in the country and learn his ways.

  Ronald Gary was a hard man to get a hold of.

  When I did, he had a proposal that I couldn’t refuse.

  I was to marry his daughter.

  A woman I had never met.

  I met her on our wedding day and she was beautiful.

  Long legs and a curved body called to me from underneath the veil.

  I fell for her charm and wit, but I wanted more.

  I wanted the real marriage, the real wife.

  I wanted my hands on her.

  Once I knew that she was to be mine in all ways,

  I had to figure out a way to convince her.

  All I had to do was get my hands on her and I would show her what I could do.

  Her innocence was intoxicating and I was drunk from my own need.

  I was going to be her first.

  Her only.

  I was going to be the man to make her scream.

  Chapter 1

  Keenan

  “Sir, can we please have a picture?”

  I tried not to look annoyed as I got out of the vehicle. I was here for a charity event, but there was never a situation in this world that didn’t involve the press. I smiled for the cameras and then put my hand out to get Ashlyn out of the limo. She was my date for the night and I might as well get the picture part over with.

  We stood together for a few moments while the flashes blinded my eyes before I told them that it was enough. I was there to give away a large amount of money, the last thing I needed was to be blind for the rest of the night. As I walked into the banquet hall, there were still bright colored blotches in my eyes that I was trying to blink away.

  “It is so beautiful Keenan, don’t you think?”

  I looked around and agreed. It was a nice place, decorated to the hilt and I had to wonder how much of the donations tonight were going to pay for that. It would have been more fiscally responsible to just send the money in, but this was how the charity world worked. Half of the money raised was spent to congratulate the ones that donated. It was a vicious cycle and I was only here because my father insisted. He didn’t insist much, but tonight was for him. He had even remarked that I should bring a lady of class with me as well. When I found out about those on the guest’s lists, I heeded his warning.

  Ashlyn was as close as I could get on such short notice. Most of the women that I saw were models and debutants, but that didn’t make them any kind of classy when a few drinks were in them. My father had asked that I didn’t bring one of my whores with me. Ashlyn was a woman I had met through the family years ago. We had a few dalliances until we realized that we were better as friends. She was the only one that I knew I wanted around that long and I loved the look on her face.

  “You act like you haven’t seen a place like this before.”

  She gave me a look that reminded me what else I knew about her. She hadn’t come from the same world as me and I was sure that was part of why I got along with her so well. She had none of the airs that the usual women I dated did. She didn’t care what designer she had on or what kind of drink was in the glass. I didn’t have to spend all of my time trying to impress her and she could just enjoy herself. I was almost envious at the way that she could see everything in a positive way.

  “Sorry, I didn’t think about it.”

  Ashlyn waved me off and was going for a tray of drinks. She looked back at me and asked if I wanted one. It was rather ridiculous for her to ask, but that was just how she was. Ashlyn didn’t have time for how things were supposed to be.

  “Here. At least they have good food and drinks. I don’t know why you were so hesitant to come. It looks like it is going to be a good time.”

  “Only you would think so.”

  “Only you could be a sour puss in the middle of all of this. Come on, let’s get something to eat. Is there going to be any bands playing or anything like that? I really want to dance.”

  Her brown eyes were alight and I wished for a moment that there was something more than a friendship between us. For all intent and purpose, we should have been more. My father would have hated me not marrying a rich woman, but that would almost be a bonus. There just wasn’t that chemistry between us that a woman and man needed to be more. It really was a shame. She was perfect, just not for me. I almost felt more like her brother, protective of her in that way.

  I told her that we would dance in a little while after we ordered our plates. I was just tired of the same people around me all of the time and it was shocking how many of the same people I had seen at the last charity drive. That one was for children’s relief fund. I really couldn’t be sure because all of these things seemed to run together.

  When we found our names for the seating, I saw that I was going to be next to Ronald Gray. He was a business man that was old to the investing game. He was a man that I had tried to get ahold of several times, but I was never able to secure an appointment. It didn’t matter that I was worth a few billion. He had more money than God from what I heard and I wanted a piece of it.

  It was one of the main reasons that my father had told me to make an appearance and Ronald was literally the only reason that I had. To my chagrin though, the man wasn’t there yet. I had to hope that he hadn’t sent someone else in his stead. It would be my luck.

  Ten minutes later, I saw the older man coming to the table and I started to relax. Everything was going to be okay. I really needed to listen to Ashlyn about that sometimes. She was convinced that I wished bad things on myself always expecting them to happen.

  “Well I didn’t expect to see you here Keenan.”

  I stood up a little to shake his hand and cover up the surprise that he actually knew who I was. He was like an investment guru and anyone that was taken under his wing was made richer in days. Ronald had the magic touch and I hoped for that now.

  His hand was firm and I smiled at the woman that he had with him. She was an older woman and I was as equally shocked that he would take his wife to one of these things. Most men his age would have taken a beautiful young woman, most likely the mistress. If I had to guess, they were about ninety percent of the women that were in this room.

  “This is my wife Evelyn.”

  She was beautiful and had kept up well with her age. I don’t know why, but her being in our midst puzzled me so much that I had to have it pointed out that I hadn’t introduced Ashlyn. When I did, I felt a little embarrassment.

  “This is my friend Ashlyn.”

  The older woman smiled at Ashlyn and I could tell that she found me rude. It was not very often that I was looked on that way and I knew I was going to have to win her back if I wanted to work with her husband. I had heard that he was a family man and now I was starting to see how real that assertion had been.

  We all sat down and the waiter was there almost immediately for Ronald. I didn’t like to point out in my mind that we had been sitting here for several minutes and was still not waited on. It was a humbling moment if nothing else that just drove me to want to get to know him more and figure out how I could make the money that he does. I had the capital. I just needed a nudge in the right direction.

  “You know, it’s funny Keenan.”

  “What is that Sir?” I hadn’t been paying too much attention, too much in my own head.

  “I think that it is strange that you are here tonight. I had my assistant check and see who would be at this table and I was told a few extras that don’t seem to be here at all in attendance. Mr. and Mrs. Winchester.”

  I looked away for a moment and took a drink of the wine in front of m
e. I had made sure that I was at his table. I didn’t care how it happened. I didn’t know what to say and I figured that if Ronald was saying anything, then it would be because he already knew what was going on.

  “What can I say Sir? You are a hard man to get a hold of.”

  Evelyn agreed with me and told me that she liked my initiative. I was surprised that she had anything good to say, however her and Ashlyn had been talking for some time. Leave it to Ashlyn to make me look good. She was the reason that I had brought her here, not knowing how much I was going to need her in the end.

  “Yes, I suppose you are right dear. Not much of a loss I must say. The Winchesters would have most likely gotten drunk and fought the whole time anyways.”

  Evelyn gave him a look like he was saying more than he should, though she didn’t disagree with him. I had heard the same thing about them, though I had only met the husband a few times and never with his wife around.

  I was just glad that he hadn’t taken it as underhanded, even though that was exactly what it was. Ronald had a high moral compass and I was sure that I would have to tone down a lot of my actions if I was going to go into business with him. I was so sure that it was going to happen. I had convinced myself that all I had to do was meet him and I would be on my way. Ashlyn’s optimism seemed to be rubbing off on me.

  ***

  “Wow Ashlyn, you were magnificent.”

  She giggled and pushed me away. “I am serious. I have never been attracted to you as much as I am right now.” Her brown hair was coming down in waves and she had the most beautiful smile on her face. She had done well and I was thankful moreover that I had come and I had brought her with me. She charmed the couple enough that my first few missteps were quickly forgotten. Not only did I get the face time that I wanted, I also got him to agree to see me later in the week. Ronald hadn’t agreed to take me on, but he had agreed to let me run a few ideas that I had by him.