“The office isn’t going to pay for you to go on vacation at home.”
Of course, the little weasel would make this difficult. He’s still overly butthurt that I broke up with him.
My main title is Bovine Disease Research Veterinarian, and I’m the head veterinarian of our lab in Billings, Montana. It is private, but we have government contracts because we deal with a lot of things to help the FDA stay up to date on testing. My job is pretty mundane most of the time. It’s rare, but there have been a handful of instances where I’ve had to go out into the field to collect samples and figure out what we’re dealing with. I can only do so much in a lab, especially when a lot of these diseases don’t take on the typical textbook symptoms.
“Well, you could put me on vacation for the foreseeable future. I don’t care. I have plenty of time on the books. However,you and I both know that I’m going to get to Hicks Creek, stop the epidemic that’s happening and then, because I was on vacation, your company won’t get any of the glory from it. If you think I won’t make sure the entire world knows that you wouldn’t let me go willingly, you’re wrong.”
“You have to—” he starts.
“I’m not going to argue with you, Ronnie. I’ll take it above your head if I need to. This isn’t a ploy to get free time off; you know that’s not how I am, and it’s irritating that you’re insinuating as much. You know what my relationship is with my dad.”
“I have plenty of others that I can send into the field. You’re too good to be doing this. You should be running an entire lab somewhere else, Sutton. You shouldn’t be answering to me or anyone else, but you don’t want that responsibility.”
I sigh inwardly and shake my head in disgust. He says that probably because our calls are recorded, or his secretary is nearby, but he doesn’t believe that. Ronnie is the type of man who doesn’t think a woman should work, and heaven forbid that the same woman be smarter than him. He’s a misogynistic pig, and I’m still disappointed in myself for how long it took me to see that.
What Ronnie fails to mention out loud is that his father, before he passed, gave me the opportunity to run a new lab in South Dakota. He had everything set up for me to do so and, because I was with Ronnie at the time, he begged me not to go and I stupidly listened. When I broke with him months later, the position had been filled.
I blow out a long breath. “I’m not asking for permission. This isn’t just affecting my dad; all the Hicks Creek ranching community is having similar symptoms and problems. If we don’t contain it, we’ll have a statewide problem, if not nationwide. Besides, if my father swallowed his pride enough tocall and askmefor help, it’s bad. I’m not going to let my town lose everything when I could have gone to stop it myself. I’m going to my family ranch to figure this out for my dad. Put it in however you have to.”
I hang up the phone quickly and continue getting things together before I start the trek back home.
Ronnie is such an asshole and I wish that I didn’t have to deal with him so much. Of course, any other boss would probably fire me for the way I talk to him. I let out a long groan and shake my head.
He’ll put it in as me being in the field, because he knows I’m right. He’ll never admit it, though. However this goes down, he’ll make sure that he gets all the credit for it.
It’s been five years since I stepped foot in Hicks Creek, on my family ranch, and I’m sick to my stomach thinking about what happens next.
This is going to be the longest drive ever.
Chapter Four
Wade
Iwalk up to the weathered barn, where some of the ranch hands are chatting about the latest repairs on the fencing out by the south pasture. Dust hangs in the air, kicked up by the horses milling around in the nearby corral. None of them look too concerned about the situation we’re dealing with, but then again, they probably don’t realize they should be worried.
Internally, I’m starting to panic about things, but I have to remain calm and collected around everyone else. I can’t let these guys think I’m not in control or on top of the situation, even though I’m not.
My dad hasn’t seen an outbreak like this before, and that’s saying something as he’s been ranching for seventy years. The cattle are our livelihood; with them getting sick and dropping like flies, it’s a problem. We’re not the only ones with issues, though. All the ranches in our small community are dealing with the same problems: cattle not wanting to eat, respiratory issues, and cattle dying in the field overnight with no real warning.
Callahan Ranch, my family ranch, is one of the biggest in Hicks Creek, which means if I’m starting to panic then the smaller ranches around us are probably close to bankruptcy and shutting down. If we start losing ranches, the town is affected overall. It’s a slippery slope, and things will go downhill fast.
“How many did we lose overnight?” I ask.
“Just a couple, but that brings us to fifteen head of cattle gone from this,” says Benny Malone, one of my ranch hands.
“It doesn’t sound like a big number,” I say gruffly, tallying the total again in my head.
“But it is,” Benny says as he shakes his head in disbelief. “I ain’t never seen anything like this, boss.”
“Me neither. We’ve quarantined all the sick ones, right? Nothing slipped through?” I ask.
“Yes, sir,” Benny says as he takes his cowboy hat off and scratches his head. “I done it myself. Even had Jared and Tommy take all their temperatures. If they were even one degree elevated, they were quarantined in a different pen than the ones showing symptoms.”
“That’s smart. I did some research and saw that a different antibiotic combo has worked for similar symptoms in the past. I’ll see if Doc Lucy can get us some. I made up clipboards for the different pens so we can keep the cattle separated by symptoms.”
“Speaking of nerd…Heard they called in some fancy doctor from Montana?” Jared Stallings adds as he shoots me a funny look. “Some doc that works in a lab or something.”
I roll my eyes. They can call me a nerd or make fun of me all they want, but this ranch is my livelihood, and there are too many people counting on me not to take this seriously.
