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The latest incident was by far the most serious. It could prove disastrous for the ranch’s continuation and was the reason Nate and Althea had made a trip to Cheyenne.
“Thank God our brother has friends in high places, or we would have been up the proverbial creek,” Holt said, a hard edge entering his voice.
Nate had been tipped off by a friend who worked for the USDA that a someone anonymous had made accusations that Wyoming Wilde Ranch was knowingly selling tainted meat.
With that, the men now knew that all the previous accidents hadn’t been coincidences. Someone … more accurately, Rolling Hills, had taken the game to a whole new level, and the threat could prove fatal for Wyoming Wilde.
“I spoke with Nate this morning. Before any of this goes further, Nate’s friend has arranged an outside contractor to come to the ranch and review our facilities.”
Shilah frowned, thoughts of Ellie momentarily placed in the back of his mind.
“Review our facilities? What the hell for?”
Holt shook his head. “Hell, at least they didn’t shut us down. Actually, it’s a good thing. This way we can prove no tainted meat is coming from Wyoming Wilde.” Before Shilah could comment, Holt continued. “Speaking of which,” he said, standing and carrying his plate to the sink. “I don’t know if you remember Doc Crandall’s daughter, Ellie?” At that, Shilah’s gaze flew to his brother’s, narrowing.
Blithely, Holt continued, “Check this out. This could either be a good thing for the ranch or bad. Depending on how it all pans out. Anyway,” he said, wiping his hands on a dishrag after cleansing the plate and placing it in the drainer, and with only a raised brow accepting Shilah’s plate as well. “Turns out she followed in her old man’s footsteps and became a vet.”
Shilah hid his surprise at the announcement. He realized that during his earlier exchange with her he never asked Ellie what she did for a living, or what had brought her to the ranch. The thought that he might be seeing her on a more regular basis, that she might be helping her father out, filled him with a heady anticipation.
“Damn, no, I didn’t know,” he said, hiding his reaction.
“Gets better than that.”
Shilah impatiently waited for Holt to continue, gritting his teeth when his brother frowned over the plate he’d just cleaned and tsked at himself, before wiping away a smudge of food he’d missed.
“When the hell did you become Betty Homemaker? Give me the damn plate!” Shilah said, snatching the plate and placing it in the drainer.
“Hey, what’s up with you?”
Shilah exhaled a breath, knowing his behavior was odd and not wanting his brother, known for his … unusual sense of humor, to discern the reason.
“Just nerves, man. This whole thing with Rolling Hills is getting under my skin,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief when his explanation seemed to appease Holt.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. Same here. Sorry about that. Guess my baby is having an influence on me when it comes to the kitchen. She pitches a fit if everything isn’t cleaned up,” he said with a shrug.
Although he wanted nothing more than to turn the tables and rag on Holt for his newfound domestication, Shilah’s mind was divided between concern for the ranch and what, if anything, Ellie had to do with it.
He ran back through their conversation in his mind. When he’d first asked her the reason for her return to the ranch, he’d wanted to bite out his tongue, seeing the laughter flee from her eyes, replaced by the somberness that she often seemed to carry around her like a stone weight.
After that, he’d managed to bring the smile back to her face, making her laugh outright a few times, and he’d been happier than he should have been. She was just a girl from his past, he reminded himself, and immediately his inner voice mocked him with the memory of how good she’d felt … how right she’d felt against him when she’d stumbled and he’d pulled her close for a moment.
No. She was a woman from his past, one he hadn’t seen or thought of for years, and nothing more.
“Yeah, well, anyway, our little Ellie has grown up and is working for the USDA. And apparently she’s the vet they assigned to come and investigate.”
“Wait a minute … back up. Ellie is investigating us?” When his brother stared at him as though he had grown two heads, Shilah realized that he must have lost a thread of their conversation, his mind on Ellie.
“Uh … yeah. We just talked about that. USDA is sending out their own investigator about the report?”
“Yes, I got that part. I missed the part about what Ellie has to do with that. How exactly … when …did she get involved with the case?”
“Now, that I don’t know. But I’m sure Nate will fill us in when he gets back home.” A glance at his watch and Holt cursed. “Damn, I was supposed to leave ten minutes ago to pick up Yaz from town.”
With that he bolted out of the kitchen, leaving Shilah with his thoughts.
Left alone, Shilah thought back to his conversation with Ellie. Each time he’d been set to ask her about what she’d been doing, somehow the conversation had turned and he’d been doing the talking. A seed of doubt crept into his mind. Had she been so absorbed in him … in the conversation, to distract him away from asking what she was doing at the ranch?
He shook his head. No, not Ellie. Besides, she wouldn’t do anything to harm the ranch, he reasoned. She loved it as much as any of them did.
But why hadn’t she told him why she was on the ranch? The question nagged at him as he left the house, turning over in his mind Ellie’s reason for not mentioning her role with the ranch.
Chapter 4
“Is that you, baby girl?”
No sooner had Ellie walked inside her parents’ house, than she heard her mother calling out to her.
With a tired sigh, she placed her bag down on the hallway table and walked farther inside, spying her mother in the kitchen, an apron tied around her ample hips.
“Is Dad home?” she asked.
“No, he got a call from the Petersons. Seems one of their prize goats has gone into a difficult labor,” her mother replied, casually.
Ellie laughed. To any other person that would have seemed like an odd statement, but she’d learned it all in stride, having grown up with a father who not only worked as the veterinarian for the Wilde Ranch, but also served as a veterinarian to farm animals and pets … and goat farmers. Although many of the local farms and ranches had been sold to major corporations, her father maintained a thriving practice.
She walked into the kitchen, leaned over her mother’s shoulder and inhaled.
“Hmm … that smells great, Mom. What are you making?”
“Oh, just a little something I threw together.”
Ellie opened the refrigerator, pulled out a can of cola and grinned at her mother.
“Something you just threw together, huh?” she asked, seeing the small smile playing around the corners of her mother’s mouth.
“It’s your favorite—pot roast. It’s not every day my only child returns home,” she quipped. Although it was said lightly, Ellie frowned. She opened her mouth to remind her mother that she didn’t know how long she’d be home, but just as quickly closed it.
That was just it. She herself didn’t know how long that would be.
Her return home had come at a time when she was deciding the next course in her career, her life.
Instead of joining her dad in practice after graduating, Ellie had chosen to do an extended study in animal husbandry at an overseas tertiary institution. Although her parents had been proud of her, having been chosen among thousands of applicants, she knew her father had also been disappointed that she hadn’t joined him in his practice.
But, as much as she loved her parents, appreciated them, after the accident she’d suffered as a child and the looks of pity she’d come to abhor as she’d grown older, Ellie knew that she had to leave Lander, the home she’d grown up in.
Even if that had meant leaving her parents, and the community, the only home she known for all of her life.
Completing the extended study, she’d elected to remain for a period of time as an associate professor as well as vet for the small rural community she’d come to love. But, after her last visit home, she’d been struck by how much her parents had aged despite their active lifestyle, and decided it was time to come home.
Not only for her parents, but for herself, as well.
A ghost of a smile graced Ellie’s mouth as she watched her mother fussing over the food she’d prepared. Ellie had been home for almost a week, and every day her mother had “thrown together” something special for her for dinner. And breakfast, as well as anytime Ellie walked into the house.
She glanced around the immaculately kept home. Nothing was ever out of place. From the crocheted doilies set on the highly polished kitchen table that her father had made when he’d first married her mother, to the cherrywood floors and every knickknack in between, everything was neat and orderly.
Her mother turned toward her, a small smile on her face, “It’s good to have you home, baby. We’ve missed you.”
A wealth of emotion passed along the older woman’s features and Ellie paused before moving toward her mother near the stove.
“Have a seat, Mom. Let me do that,” she said softly. But when she tried taking the plate from her mother’s hand, she was gently, but firmly, moved away.
“You go sit down and tell me how your day went. I told you … I enjoy doing this,” her mother replied. Ellie shook her head, but lifted her cola can from the counter and sat at the table. Her glance went over the table set with silverware. In the middle of the table a basket was filled with bread, a large bowl of salad nearby.
“How’d the first day go? Did you get to talk to the boys?” Leandra Crandall asked, as she went about filling two plates before walking to the table and placing them down. Immediately she walked to the refrigerator and removed a pitcher of tea and brought it to the table.
Running a critical eye over the table, making sure she hadn’t left anything out, finally Ellie’s mother sat down next to her.
Ellie reached over to remove a roll from the basket, her stomach growling. Her mother’s sharp tap on the back of her hand and scowl stopped her from taking a healthy bite. Ellie bit her lip to prevent a laugh at the silent admonishment.
“Oops, sorry, Mom,” she mumbled, and bowed her head as her mother said grace.
Once her mother had blessed the food to her satisfaction, she turned to Ellie, raising a brow.
“What?” Ellie asked, swallowing down a sigh. If her mother didn’t just let her eat, she would scream.
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Did you get to talk to the boys?” Leandra asked.
“If by boys, you mean Nate or Holt, the answer would be no.”
“And what about Shilah?” her mother replied, as she began to eat.
“No,” Ellie replied shortly, after a brief pause. When her mother stared at her she felt like a deer caught in the headlights.
“What, Ma?” she asked, around a bite of food.
She felt as she had as a child whenever her parents caught her telling a lie. She felt the tips of her ears burn, something that happened whenever she hedged on the truth.
“Hmm,” was her mother’s noncommittal reply, and Ellie’s ears burned even hotter.
After a few moments of silence, Ellie reluctantly spoke. “Okay, so I did run into Shilah. But we didn’t get a chance to talk about the ranch, at least not about my involvement with the USDA.”
“Oh, really? So, if you didn’t talk about the ranch, what did you talk about?” her mother asked, a gleam in her eye. Ellie quickly picked up her glass of tea and took a deep drink.
“Oh, nothing important. Mainly just caught up. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other,” she said with a shrug, forcing a lightness to her expression she was anything but feeling.
“He didn’t bring up the troubles going on at the ranch?” her mother probed.
Ellie inhaled a deep breath, thoughtfully chewing. At that point she would give every one of her advanced degrees to make her mother just drop the subjects of both the Wilde Ranch and Shilah.
“No. Like I said, we just caught up on old times. Hmm, Ma, did you put cinnamon in these rolls? I really have missed your cooking,” she said, smiling.
Although her enthusiastic reaction to her mother’s rolls was feigned, she mentally held her breath, hoping her mother would at least take the hint that Ellie didn’t want to discuss the ranch.
“Hey, thanks again for setting up my office for me, you and dad did a great job.”
“Do you really like it? I didn’t go overboard with all your plaques? As soon as it was official, I couldn’t wait to get may hands on it and decorate,” Leandra said, a smile splitting across her face. Ellie let out a long breath, relieved that she’d managed to shift the topic away from Shilah.
When she’d accepted the job offer from Jasper and Brant, a subcontractor to the USDA, along with it she was offered an office in town, set up with facilities for her to do rudimentary tests on the ranch’s equipment. She’d declined, choosing instead to work out of her father’s office.
Still active, her mother continued to serve as her father’s assistant at his clinic. Her barely lined face belied her age, yet she, as well as Ellie’s father, was in her mid-seventies.
Ellie thought back to her decision to return home, a decision she’d made well before accepting the offer to work for the USDA. She knew that, although she wasn’t sure how long she’d stay here at home, she’d made the right choice.
“Do you think the boys will be okay?” her mother asked. She was pulling Ellie out of her thoughts and managing to drag the subject back to the very one Ellie was determined not to talk about.
She glanced over at her mother and saw her shifting the food around her plate with her fork, a frown marring her otherwise smooth forehead. Ellie placed her fork down and sighed.
“I’m sure they will, Mom. But you know I can’t discuss the case.”
She knew that her mother wanted the best for the men, for their ranch, their shared history stretching back to the days when Ellie’s father and Jed Wilde had been young men. They’d both set out to accomplish goals with odds stacked against them. But Ellie couldn’t discuss the case with her mother, or anyone else, outside of her direct supervisor.
Ellie didn’t want to chance any sort of taint on her investigation, and the best way to do that was to keep the topic away from her involvement.
Her mother reached over and patted Ellie’s hand, nodding her head in understanding.
“You don’t have to say another word, baby girl. I understand. I’m sure everything will work out in the end. It always does.”
“I’m sure it will, Mom.”
As the two women silently finished their meal, Ellie’s thoughts turned to the investigation, and she silently prayed that her mother’s wish—a wish she shared—would prove true and her investigation would lead to clearing the ranch.
Chapter 5
“So, that about sums it up. With this information at least we know where we stand.” Nate paused and glanced around the room. “We have an idea of what we’re up against and a plan to beat it.”
Althea, who stood close to Nate as he briefed the family, leaned over and grasped his hand in hers, squeezing it, giving him an intimate look. Shilah saw his brother immediately turn her way, the hard look on his face gentling, as he pulled her tighter against him before he turned back to face the family.
“The accusations aren’t founded on anything more than rumor and hearsay. Good thing for us that’s all they’ve got going right now. Whoever the hell is behind this—”
“As though we don’t know who the hell that is,” Holt broke in, disgusted, pacing the length of the living room. “We all know Rolling Hills is behind this.”
Nate ran a hand through his short, thick hair and sighed. “Yeah, well, the truth is the USDA knows, as well. There was a leak within Rolling Hills that linked them with the allegations against us. None of that really matters now. USDA has no choice but to investigate all rumors—”
“Then why don’t they go to the source? Stop with all the accusations against us. They know it’s all bullshit, anyway—”
