“Then this is the only Dry Creek Ranch?” the driver finally said.
“Yep.”
When it was clear it was all he was going to get, the man got out of his car and approached the porch. That’s when Sawyer got a good look and instantly recognized him. Medium height, medium build, medium shoe size.
It had probably not been his dick in the picture.
“Is this where Gina DeRose is staying?” Danny Clay flipped up his designer sunglasses.
Jace started to respond but Sawyer stuck out his arm.
“Why do you want to know?” Sawyer asked.
That seemed to throw their uninvited guest off. “I have business with her.”
“No, you don’t. Want to try again?”
Danny appeared flummoxed. “Are you a friend of Gina’s?”
“Yes, and you’re on private property.”
“I need to talk to her. It’s imperative.”
“Okay. Tell me what you’ve got to say and I’ll pass the information along.”
“It’s of a personal nature.” Danny squinted up at Sawyer with the sun in his eyes.
“Sorry, that’s the best I can do.”
Danny took a look around, first at the house. Then he turned in a circle, taking in the pasture, the horse barn, and the mountain range in the distance. “What is this place?”
“Cattle ranch.”
“Is there a hotel around here?”
“A few,” Sawyer said. “Want directions?”
“Not until I talk to Gina.”
“We already went over that.” Sawyer leaned against the rail, crossing his arms over his chest. “Who told you she was here?”
Danny contemplated the question, giving Sawyer the sense he was deliberating on how much information to disclose. “A tabloid photographer. He said he’d been here and that a couple of cowboys roughed him up. At the time I thought he was using the termcowboyfiguratively.”
“Nope,” Jace said.
“Are you friends with this photographer?”
Danny gave a mirthless laugh. “No, my wife—soon to be ex-wife—is.”
That caught Sawyer’s attention. “And she sent him here to take pictures of Gina?”
“That’s what I need to talk to her about.”
Sawyer had absolutely no reason to believe him. If the rumors were correct, Danny was a vindictive son of a bitch, who’d had no qualms destroying Gina’s career just so he could get even with his wife. But something about the defeated way he was standing there, like a boy who’d just lost his dog, made Sawyer willing to listen to the man’s story. Then he could kick Danny’s ass all the way back to Los Angeles.
“Why don’t you come up on the porch, have a cold one, and tell me what this business is you have with Gina?”
“You’re not going to tell me where she is, are you?”
