“No, please,” said Kayla. “I feel bad enough that you had to wait up for me. How about I catch you tomorrow morning? We can talk then.”
Isabelle nodded. “Sure, that works too. Breakfast is served every day in the main lodge between 6 and 10 AM.”
“I’ll see you there,” said Kayla.
She waited until Isabelle left to jump up and squeal. The cabin was gorgeous. There was a large wood burning fireplace, some cozy looking lounge chairs, and a snug little kitchen. She popped her head into the bedroom and saw that it had the same cozy feel as the rest of the cabin.
As excited as she was about being there, she was worn out from her travels. After taking a few pictures of the cabin with her new U.S. Marshal-issued cell phone, Kayla got ready for bed and slipped under the covers.
The next morning, she woke promptly at six. She still needed to get used to the time change. Even though she knew that she was just in a different time zone, it felt like she got back two hours of her life, like a little second chance. When she went back East, she’d have to return those two hours, but she planned to use them wisely now.
Kayla showered that morning and got dressed in one of the cute outfits that the wardrobe girls packed for her. She didn’t have a chance to pack much when she left her apartment. Plus, she didn’t know where she was going, so it was nice that the wardrobe girls gave her a bunch of clothing appropriate for a Wild West vacation.
She made her way to the main lodge, excited to see that it was alive with families chatting, laughing, and eating. She grabbed a plate and helped herself before taking a seat at a table.
It wasn’t long before Isabelle found her. “Good morning Ms. Smith, nice to see you up so early!”
“Oh please,” she replied. “Call me – Kayla.”
Ha! Take that Mitch. It only took one day and she was getting her name right and everything.
“I hope that breakfast is to your liking?”
Kayla replied with a mouth full of food. “Oh, it’s wonderful! I have a bad feeling that I’ll gain a lot of weight during this trip.”
Isabelle beamed. “It’s only time to end your vacation once you can’t button your pants anymore.”
“Is that time to end the vacation or time to buy new pants?” joked Kayla.
Isabelle laughed, taking a seat at the table. “Daddy said that you’re staying a while because you’re writing an article?”
“Yes,” replied Kayla, trying to chew through a big bite of biscuit while setting her mind to lie convincingly. “But don’t worry, I only write nice things. Basically it’s to convince people to take a vacation to Wyoming.”
A look of relief washed over Isabelle’s face. “Well that’s good to hear, I’ll admit that I was a bit…nervous.”
“Please don’t be!” Kayla silently cursed her cover story – she didn’t mean to scare these poor people! She wasn’t even a real journalist. “And besides, it’s not like I’m all that popular anyway. I write for a little online paper.”
“Oh, neat! Well – do you wanna hear about some of our activities now?”
It seemed like her lie passed. “Sure!”
Isabelle jumped up. “Give me a second and I’ll grab some of our brochures.”
Kayla spent the next half hour gushing over the colorful brochures that Isabelle gave her. They had archery, skeet shooting, river rafting, fishing, biking, miles of hiking trails, and of course horseback riding. Kayla wanted to do it all. On top of all of the activities at the ranch, Isabelle told her that there were a lot of attractions to check out in town as well.
“Are you doing a trail ride this morning?” asked Kayla.
“No, I’m not, but one of our wranglers will be. Let me grab him and I’ll see if he has room for one more.”
“Thanks Isabelle!”
Kayla finished off the last bits of her delicious breakfast. She really wanted seconds, but decided that being super stuffed so early in the morning wasn’t a good idea. As good as those biscuits were, they wouldn’t be great if she was supposed to get on a horse in the next hour.
Isabelle returned a few minutes later. “You’re good to go, follow me.”
Kayla followed her out to the stables. There were already six people, two of them young children, mounted on horses. Kayla had never ridden a horse before, but she decided that she could probably keep up with this crowd.
“Kayla, I’d like you to meet George Walters, one of our most experienced wranglers. He’s leading the trail ride this morning.”
“Howdy miss,” he said, tipping his hat.
Kayla felt her cheeks flush. Was he a real cowboy? He sure looked like one. He talked like one, too.
“Good morning,” she said in what she thought would be a cute voice, but ended up sounding dorky.
“I hear you’ll be joining us for a ride today.”
Kayla realized that she was smiling too widely. “Yes, I hope it’s okay that I’ve never ridden before.”
“You look like a natural,” he said with a dazzling white smile.
Kayla felt a butterfly take off in her stomach. His accent would be the death of her. “Oh, I don’t know about that.”
“Are you ready to find out? Do you trust me?”
Kayla felt the urge to giggle, but luckily was able to resist. Isabelle should’ve warned her that the wrangler wasn’t some grizzled old man, but this stunningly charming cowboy. Did she trust him? She’d follow him off a cliff at this moment.
“Of course,” she replied casually.
This vacation was turning out better than she could have ever hoped. He winked at her and turned back into the stables, motioning for her to follow. She practically skipped after him. No need to keep the man waiting.
Chapter 7
When Mitch first arrived at his new place, it looked kind of rough. He blamed it on the poor lighting and the late hour, and went to bed. The next morning, Mitch woke up early, hoping the brilliant sunlight would improve the state of his new rental.
It didn’t.
The laminate flooring in the kitchen peeled at the corners. The fridge looked ancient and refused to turn on; he worried that it was either plugged into a bad plug or that it was totally broken. The bathroom was small with pink tiles on the floor and up onto the walls, and the bathtub sported rust all over.
It wasn’t like Mitch expected to live in luxury or anything, but it seemed like almost nothing in this house was in working order. When he left Virginia, he was able to take a lot of his tools, but not all of them. Some were damaged in the fire.
He didn’t mind fixing things up, but he wasn’t sure how much modification he could do since he didn’t own the place. He’d have to talk to Marshal Turner about buying something nicer. He had some money saved up, and the FBI was supposed to help him sell his old place back in Virginia. When that went through, he could probably afford something better.
Mitch decided not to worry about that for now and instead focus on his new job. The Marshals arranged for some training on his role as an insurance salesmen. It was hardly a dream come true, but it was a way to earn a living. They said he had six months of salary from the US government before he had to earn his own income; he hoped it wouldn’t take him more than a few weeks to figure things out. Though he hated working at a computer, and he knew nothing about insurance, he wanted to give it his best effort.
He spent as much time as he could looking over some of the training documents and trying to familiarize himself with the computer programs. Two hours was all that he could stomach. Not only was it boring, but it hurt his back to sit at a desk so long.
His discomfort was easier to ignore when his stomach wasn’t rumbling – he decided that he should head into town and grab something to eat. He was supposed to meet up with Kayla that afternoon anyway for their first meeting. Mitch figured that he might as well get familiar with downtown Cody.
It was a gorgeous day and the wild blue sky almost made him forget that he dragged an innocent bystander into witness
protection with him. His first meeting with Kayla didn’t go as hoped, to say the least. In his head, he imagined that he’d get the chance to thank her for saving his dad’s life and that he’d apologize for how her life was being disrupted. Instead, he insulted her within earshot.
After his poorly timed comment, he held onto the hope that she hadn’t heard him. He felt too ashamed to speak to her the rest of dinner, yet she acted like everything was fine. Maybe everything was fine and she didn’t hear what he said?
Mitch decided to stop dwelling on it. He found a place to grab a light breakfast and took a seat at the window, watching the activity of the town. There were a lot of people milling about; it seemed like a lot of them were tourists. On the one hand, it helped him blend in. But on the other hand, it could also help some unsavory characters blend in, too.
After he finished eating, Mitch took some time to walk around town, admiring the charm of the various shops and restaurants. He stumbled onto the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and spent the next four hours exploring the museums. He found the history of the area fascinating. He felt like he could stay there all day, and in fact, he’d much prefer that to facing Kayla again.
The time came, though, to meet at a place called Pizza Fantastico. Mitch made sure to get to the restaurant fifteen minutes before their four o’clock meeting time. He ordered a soda and settled in. Four o’clock came and went.
About half an hour passed, he started to get nervous. Maybe something happened to her? Maybe she never made it to the ranch the night before? As he sat there debating what to do, his phone rang. It was Marshal Turner.
“Hello?”
“Hey Mitch, You got a second to talk?”
Mitch felt a tightness in his chest. Something must’ve happened. “Yeah, what’s up?”
“Nothing too exciting, but just wanted to let you know that Kayla’s workplace is under surveillance. They found her identity pretty quickly, so it seems like we got her out of there at just the right time.”
“Oh, okay. Well that’s…good?”
“Yeah, nothing to worry about, we expected this. They haven’t gone inside yet to make contact, but one of their guys did call asking for her. Colin Cragin. He’s a known entity to us, a fixer for a lot of these white collar guys.”
Mitch said nothing, eyeing the pizza shop employee who came out to restock the soda cooler.
Turner continued. “Listen, I figured you’d be with Kayla right now for your meeting, can you let her know?”
“I’m still waiting for her – but yeah, I’ll let her know. Should we be on the lookout here for…him?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “Always. We don’t expect him to find her, but, you know.”
“Right.”
At that moment, Kayla walked through the door.
“Hey, I gotta go. Kayla just got here.”
“Sure – call if you need anything.”
The line cut out.
“Sorry I’m late,” Kayla said, taking a seat across from him. “Our trail ride this morning went a little long.”
Mitch felt the tension leave his body – thank goodness nothing happened to her. “It’s alright, I was just starting to get worried that someone – ”
Kayla laughed. “All that happened was that one of the horses got spooked by a snake and took off. Took us half an hour to track her down. George, our guide, said that it was a younger horse. I think he regretted bringing her out.”
“I bet,” said Mitch. She was distracted with the menu, so he had a moment to look at her.
Despite having some dirt on her face and her hair being all messy, she was really pretty. Maybe even more so than he first realized. What puzzled him was how she managed to get involved in some type of group activity the first morning of being in Cody. He didn’t know how to ask that without being rude, though, so he didn’t say anything.
“So,” she said, setting down the menu. “Want to split a pizza?”
“Sure. But first, I need to tell you something.”
“Okay?”
He took a deep breath. “I got a call from – uh, Mr. Turner. Our friend.”
She nodded. “Uh huh, I know the guy.”
“He wanted me to let you know that…uh.” Mitch dropped his voice low. “Your workplace is under surveillance by a guy named – ”
Kayla cut him off with a tut. “I don’t want to know! La la la!”
Mitch pulled back, puzzled.
She continued. “As long as nothing is wrong,” she paused, looking at him expectantly.
He shook his head. “No, nothing’s wrong, but I think you should know that – ”
“Then I don’t want to know any details. I trust Mr. Turner to handle it.”
Mitch sat back in the booth. How odd. He was so anxious about this new development that he wanted to pack up and run. He wasn’t actually going to go, of course, but the instinct hit him. Fight or flight. And Mitch definitely wasn’t one to fight. How could she be so casual about it all?
“Alright,” she said with a smile. “Let me know if anything changes, but otherwise, I don’t want to worry needlessly. What kind of pizza do you like?”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I like pepperoni, but I’m not picky.”
Mitch liked pepperoni too, but it always gave him heartburn.
“Sounds good to me,” he said before getting up to place an order at the counter.
He returned to his seat and silently tried to think of something to say. He never had the talent of talking to people that he didn’t know; he worried about saying the wrong thing. It was one of the many differences between him and his father. His dad could talk to anyone about anything, and by the end they would like him, trust him, and probably even give him some money.
Mitch was never like that, and truthfully never wanted to be. His mom was not a smooth talker – she didn’t need to be, because she never did anything wrong and didn’t need to manipulate people. Though she had her own charm once you got to know her, it wasn’t something that caught people right away. Because of his dad, Mitch always distrusted charming people.
Kayla eventually broke the silence. “So, are you staying on a ranch too?”
“No,” said Mitch. “Not a Ranch. A rental house.”
“Is it nice?”
Mitch paused. He couldn’t think of a single thing that would count as nice, but he didn’t want to seem like a complainer. “Yeah, it’s pretty nice.”
Kayla nodded. “That’s good. The ranch that I’m staying at is nice too. It’s called New Morning Ranch, and it’s owned by this guy and his daughter. It seems like a pretty big operation. I have to ask later how many people are staying there…”
She looked up, as though she were adding that to an invisible list of tasks in her head.
“There are a lot of cool activities there, too. Like, I did the horseback riding today – I definitely think I want to do that again, it was my first time on a horse. It was harder than I expected, but we had a little picnic and overall it was amazing to see everything on horseback. I’m guessing you don’t have anything like that out by you?”
Mitch laughed. “No, it’s pretty much just me and then nothing for miles.”
“Oh,” she said, waving a hand. “Well that’s no fun. I’m sure you could tag along on some of my stuff. We could make it one of our…meetings.”
“Sure.”
She continued. “I’m not sure if you would be interested in all of them, but I mean, definitely some of them. Like maybe the archery, river rafting, or fishing? I’m actually not terribly into fishing, but if you really want to do that we could.”
Mitch nodded. “There’s lots of stuff in town, too. There’s a rodeo. And did you see the Buffalo Bill museum?”
“A rodeo!” she excitedly slapped a hand on the table. “That sounds awesome. I didn’t get to walk around town yet. But what’s up with everything being named after Buffalo Bill? Wasn’t he like a movie star?”
Mitch
forced himself not to laugh or even smile at her comment. “Well…I don’t know about the movie star thing. But his name was Colonel William Frederick ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody.”
Kayla narrowed her eyes. “Are you messing with me?”
Mitch shook his head. “No – I learned a lot about him at the museum. He was one of the founders of the city.”
“Well that explains a lot,” Kayla said, covering her eyes with her hand. “Good thing I learned that now and not with a local.”
“That’s one way to look at it,” replied Mitch. After the words escaped his mouth, he instantly regretted them. What he meant to say was that she had a good attitude about the whole thing. But the way he said it instead sounded like he was being judgmental.
The moment passed, though, and Kayla didn’t seem to flinch. Maybe it didn’t come across that way. He knew he’d be replaying it in his head all night.
The pizza came out that moment, and it was much bigger than expected. After eating their fill, there was still half of it left. Mitch wanted Kayla to take it with her, but she refused.
“All of my meals are included at the ranch. After seeing what they made for breakfast, I have a feeling that it’ll all be really good.”
“Are you sure?”
“Thank you, but I’m sure.” She stood up. “Let’s grab the check and get going?”
Mitch closed the pizza box. “Oh, I already took care of it.”
She frowned. “Alright, I’ll get it next time.”
They left the restaurant and walked down the sidewalk.
Mitch dropped his voice. “I never got a chance to thank you for saving my dad. And to tell you how sorry I am that you’re stuck here. Just to make sure that we discuss this too – has anything concerning happened to you since you got here?”
“Nope,” replied Kayla. “Everything’s been great so far. And don’t worry about it.”
He tried to think of how to reply but she was already onto the next topic.
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