“Hell being the operative word.” I tilt my head and give the crowd that we’re away from a thoughtful look. “Wildflower Canyon’s small, but it sure can fill a yard.”
“Yeah.” He studies me for a beat. “Funny thing about crowds—they’re a lot like cattle—push from the right angle, and they move where you want.”
I side-eye him. “And which way are you trying to move them, Kaz?”
He chuckles low. “Now that would be telling.”
“I hear you’re real cozy with Senator Jessup and all in on converting Wildflower Canyon into a golf course.”
His gaze hardens, the blue burning away whatever amusement lingered there. “Is that really what you think?”
I shrug. “It’s what I hear around town. You made a lot of money, and no one knows?—”
“I started a tech company and sold it,” he interrupts me. “No mystery there.”
I nod once. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m being bitchy with you.”
“Maybe that’s why?” He jerks his chin toward Cade and Noelle. They look like they’re having a heated discussion.
I want to laugh and wave him off, but it catches in mythroat.
It’s a lie, and I know it, and he knows it.
“Good thing Landon didn’t make it, right? Otherwise, you’d have skedaddled, I assume.”
At the mention of Landon, I turn away from Kaz and wrap my arms around myself.
I’m hurt. Joy and Aria know the truth, and yet Mav was comfortable inviting a rapist over.
It’s how the world works, isn’t it? Your morals are constantly at war with survival.
“When Aria found out that he did,” he continued almost gleefully, “she ripped him a new one, according to Bree.”
I smile at that. “I’m that obvious, huh?”
“Actually, you’re not. You have one hell of a poker face, but I read people for a living.” He leans in, his face close to mine. “Heard you had a chat with Marnie Evans.”
My pulse stutters. I take a step back from him. “Who?”
He huffs out a snort. “Like I said. Poker face. Anyone else would think you really don’t know who Marnie is.”
Is he on a first-name basis with the journalist? Or is he just fucking with me?
I hold his gaze and reveal nothing.
I don’t know Kaz well. I don’t trust him. I don’t trust anyone. I trusted Joy and Aria, and now I find that Joy’s brother and Aria’s fiancé would have happily broken bread with Landon.
We are quiet for a moment. The senator’s laughbreaks the silence. Our gaze lands on him. He’s having a rather lively conversation with Mav and Duke.
“Strange bedfellows, wouldn’t you say?” Kaz coaxes.
I ease forward, elbows braced against the railing. “I thought Mav and Duke had better…judgment.”
“They do.” Kaz imitates my stance, brushing his shoulder against mine. “This is how they keep Wildflower Canyon a ranching community, how they make sure it doesn’t turn into Jackson Hole or Bozeman.”
I’m not convinced, though I can’t deny he makes sense.
I know Duke turned down millions to keep Wilder Ranch out of developers’ hands and lost a fortune by refusing to carve it up into vacation lots. Truth is that the land itself is worth more to outsiders than the cattle or horses on it. That’s the sad part.
