"Jorge and Isaac took a voluntary leave," Mr. Merrill said.
I scoffed at that. "Yeah, because they don't trust these idiots either."
Mr. Merrill snapped and pointed at me like he was trying to call me out. "That's unprofessional."
"So is this!" I screeched, not caring if my voice came out shrill. "To have the president of the PBR stand here, telling us what we will and won't do? Do you think that makes this sport look fair? Do you think it instills trust in us? No, so why don't you worry about your half of this bargain, and we'll worry about ours!"
"What she said," Jake added, jerking his thumb at me. "But now you know the deal. We'll ride when we're safe. Until then, the PBR will lose money." Then he raised his voice. "And today, when the reporters ask why we're throwing rides, we willalltell them it's because the president of the PBR pulled our safety team, and we feel the risk is too high."
That made the other guys in the room murmur in agreement. Clearly, they'd all just taken that one little phrase to heart, and from the look on his face, Mr. Merrill didn't like it at all. Even worse, none of us were backing down. Not the veteran riders, nor the rookies. Nope, we'd just become a united front.
"This," Ty said, sounding calm and completely in control, "is a strike, Mr. Merrill. Meet our terms or wait us out. Those are your only two options."
"We'll see about that," Mr. Merrill snapped, spinning around and storming off like he'd somehow won the argument.
I just sighed and turned back to my own rope.
"You ok?" Ty asked.
I nodded my head slowly. "Yeah. In truth, it's kinda nice to not be the problem for once. Part of it, sure, but not theonlyproblem."
"Cody," Jake said, leaning in so he could keep his voice down, "you've never been the problem. You're just the catalyst that made half these guys pull their heads out of their asses." And he not-so-subtly pointed over at Ty.
"Fuck off," Ty said around a chuckle.
"You saw a pretty little blonde," Jake teased, "and went full stupid."
"Entirely possible," Ty admitted. "I also had that pretty little blonde make me aware of it. Believe it or not, I can be taught."
So Jake bumped my shoulder. "See? He can be taught. Just something to keep in mind for later, hm?"
I gave Jake a tired look. "What are you doing?"
"Helping out my arch neblesis." And Jake grinned.
On my other side, Ty groaned, sounding like that phrase meant something to him. "Why don't I hate you, Jake?"
"Because I'm right," Jake said.
"Yeah, ok," I agreed, just to shut him up. "But what I want to know is if we're really going to start riding again if those guys get trained up?"
"Because you want Tanner back?" Ty asked.
"Well, of course!"
Jake simply reached up to rub my shoulder reassuringly. "Cody, it's harder to train them up than to bring back the wolf pack. It will cost the PBR more money to train them, and while they're out, who will work the shows?" He winked. "The wolf pack."
"That name's going to stick, isn't it?" I asked.
"Has for a while," Jake assured me. "They're fast, they're feral, and they do work like a pack. And yes, Cody, we want them back too."
"Most of the guys do," Ty added.
I turned to find him watching me. "Yeah?"
Holding my eyes, he nodded. "Yeah, I've been asking. Rumors or not, quite a few of these guys have eaten enough dirt to make them not care about any of that bullshit."
"And it's no one's business," Jake said from my other side. "We've been saying that too. So you pass that along, ok?"
