“Who’s Dr. Reed?”
She sighs and shakes her head. “Ag officer. He’s in town because someone called him about the outbreak. It may be protocol with the issues everyone’s been having, but…I don’t know. I met him at Mack’s today, and he seems to think that I can’t handle it alone. He wants to take over.”
I frown. “Take over? Like, shut us all down?”
She nods, her jaw tight. “Exactly. He’s convinced that the local ranches can’t handle the protocols, that we’ll screw it up and make things worse. But I’m not letting that happen.”
“Why’s he so sure we can’t manage?”
“Ag officers are notorious for being arrogant and judgmental. If he takes over, it’ll be a disaster. He’ll shut down operations, impose fines, make it impossible for anyone to recover. They will ruin everything.”
I watch her as she talks, her eyes blazing with determination. She’s got that fire in her, the kind that makes you want to stand back and let her burn. It’s impressive, really, how much she cares about this. She’s not just doing this because it’s her job; she’s doing it because it matters to her.
“Sounds like you’ve got your hands full,” I say.
“You have no idea, Wade. He’ll insist on a cull. He’ll force you to kill off all your cattle, sick or not. I remember my mentor telling me that an ag officer stayed at a ranch for three days while the owner had to kill five hundred head of cattle, cattle that were on the mend from antibiotics, but he wasn’t willing to listen or even look at the reports. That ranch owner filed for bankruptcy and lost everything.”
“Doing that would be fifty-k minimum of a loss. Most insurances don’t cover disease with special coverage. We’re one of the biggest ranches in Hicks Creek and we won’t recover from that kind of hit. Your dad, these other ranchers won’t either. Hicks Creek will be a ghost town within a year if the ranches all go down.”
“Exactly. It’s too expensive to carry for most ranchers. My dad will lose everything.”
I shake my head in disbelief. “What’s this ag officer like?”
“I’m going off my gut feeling about him, but he seems like an ass.”
“Great,” I reply sarcastically. “What can I do to help?”
“I’ve already started putting together a plan. I’ve got data, protocols, everything we need to prove we can handle this. But it’s going to take everyone working together, and that’s the hard part. Not everyone’s on the same page.”
“Including your dad?” I ask, unable to resist.
She glares at me, but there’s no real heat behind it. “Like I said, he was tolerable today. But he’s not exactly helpful.”
“Sounds about right,” I say with a shrug.
She sighs, rubbing her temples. “I just… I can’t let Reed win. If he takes over, it’ll ruin everything. And not just for me. For everyone.”
I nod, leaning back against the tractor. “It’s good to see this fire in you.”
“Of course I am,” she snaps. “This is my job. My responsibility. I’m not going to let some outsider come in and…”
She stops abruptly as her voice breaks. She looks away, but not before I see the tears in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I ask as I take a step toward her.
“I’m worried that since our ranch has seen the worst of it, the first to start showing the symptoms that…that Reed will…” she says in a gruff voice.
“Everyone is having the issues, though. There’s no way to tie Nance or Taylor back to your dad. Us, maybe, but not the others,” I tell her as I take another step toward her, reaching out and touching her arm.
“I…” She shakes her head again. “Dad told me to go through his paperwork to see if he missed anything or if I could…I found something he wouldn’t have known to look for. He took out a …”
Her voice starts to trail off because the two of us are standing millimeters apart. My arms go around her waist and I dip my head low, ready to capture her mouth with mine.
Lights pan across the barn, and a car I don’t recognize is barreling down the gravel driveway. She pushes away from me gently.
“Who the hell is that?”
She lets out a groan. “I didn’t think he’d show up here now.”
