"He means to stop a major accident," I clarified. "Atthisevent."
"Ah." Gustavo scoffed. "Because they fucked up even more back in Boise." Then he looked at Ty. "So you make sure no more Americans ride."
"Not sure they'll listen to me," Ty countered.
"Then make Jake help!" I snapped. "Ty, it is time for you to step the fuck up, so do it. No one else rides, do you hear me?"
The man reached up and tipped his hat at me, but the corner of his mouth was curled slightly. "Yes, ma'am. Although I'm starting to think Jake isn't the one who should be helping me."
And he headed away, unaware of how he'd just mimicked Jake's point earlier. Still, I was arookie!I hadn't even been on this tour a full season! I was one of the new guys, so why would anyone listen to me?
But Jackson did. The other Jaxon and his buddy Kaleb had been lately. Tim Moore was pretty cool with me, as were a few of the other middle-of-the-rankings riders. Wes was one I'd even consider a friend. So maybe I hadn't been giving myself enough credit either.
And that thought added just a little more weight to the pressure already piling up on my shoulders. No one had put it there but me, yet I felt it. This was my fault. This was my responsibility to fix. This was one thing I was suited to handle which they weren't, and now these guys were starting to make me feel like they actually respected me?
I wanted to reject that, simply because no one had ever respected me before. I'd been the laughingstock, but I'd pushed through it. I knew how to ignore the laughing, the taunts, andthe harassment. I'd learned how to "man up" when things got hard, and how to knuckle down when everyone else expected me to quit, but this?
This felt big.
Eventually, Jason was helped off the dirt. He could only limp, held between Doc and Anthony, but that was a good sign. It meant he would recover. I didn't know if he'd ever ride a bull again, but he'dlive, and lately that wasn't a guarantee.
And when the next bull came out of its chute, it didn't have a rider.
Nor the one after. At first, the crowd gasped to see a bull on the loose, but by the first break, they were bored of it. When the second set of animals were released the same way, someone in the upper level booed at us.
Beside me, Gustavo flipped them off. No, they couldn't see, but it didn't matter. His little gesture of defiance was noticed by the men around us. They chuckled, but the sound felt like the resolve we all needed. Four more bulls went out riderless, then four more
Then the cattle began to file into my chute again. It was our turn.
"Rope!" the man before me demanded.
I passed over my pink thing. "Tie it off," I commanded.
He grunted. "Do you kids realize what this is going to do to the bull scores?"
"Do you think we care about that right now?" I shot back.
But Gustavo had heard. "Maybe the stock contractors should be a little more worried about how poorly we're riding. That's not helping the bull scores either!"
"Yeah, good point," the man said. Then, "Call it when you're ready, Cody."
"Open the gate!" I yelled at the man working the latch.
I heard the clank. I saw as my bull began to swing that way, knowing his job as well as the rest of us did, but I also spotted the head-gate that blocked him from the bull before him. On impulse, I pushed forward and stepped onto it, putting me just a bit higher than the men around me.
Then I lifted my hand into the air in a fist.
Across the arena, I saw when the cameraman found me. I could almost feel the murmur of confusion rushing through the packed stands. And from over at the side, J.D. and Tanner both jumped to their feet, matching my pose.
"Cody..." Gustavo breathed.
"It's time for a revolution," I told him. "This is me starting it."
"Then I'm stealing your move," he said as they turned my bull for the gate, sending him back to his pen. "If nothing else, because it'll take some of the heat off you."
So I climbed down, patting the man's shoulder as I moved behind him. "Owe you one, my friend."
"No," he assured me. "You don't. Go get your rope, bull rider."
