Page 3 of Hard To Fall
Her smile turns wicked. “No promises, cowboy.” She faces me as she backs up. “Sometimes a little trampling is needed to turn things around.” She turns on her cowboy boot heels, hips swaying as she walks away.
I know one thing for certain. That bull wasn’t the most dangerous thing in the arena today.
CHAPTER 2
COLT
The woman hiredto save this rodeo.
Those words keep replaying in my head like a bad karaoke song.
I shove through the back doors of the arena, and the noise drops from chaos to echoing metal and a shit ton of dust. My knee throbs with every step, and my patience is already gone. I don’t limp—I refuse to—but I walk stiff, my mood black as a storm cloud.
I spot my brother first.
Levi is leaning against the rail near the stock pens, hat tipped back, arms crossed, looking way too damn calm for someone who should be explaining things to me. He sees my face and winces before I even open my mouth.
That tells me everything I need to know.
“Tell me,” I say flatly.
He pushes off the rail. “How’d the ride feel?”
I stare at him. “Don’t,” I warn. “Don’t change the subject. Who is she?”
Levi exhales slowly. “Colt?—”
“Who,” I snap, stepping into his space, “is the woman who just told me she was hired to save my rodeo?”
“Our rodeo,” he corrects, and it makes my eye twitch.
“Not the point.”
Before he can answer, I hear boots behind me—slower steps, familiar ones.
Mom and Dad.
Great.
Dad stops beside Levi, arms folded, too, expression unreadable. Mom’s got that tight little smile she gets when she knows something I don’t and thinks it’s for my own good.
Which is never true.
Okay, maybe a little true.
“She’s Lily Mercer,” Mom says gently, like that name should mean something to me.
It doesn’t.
“And?”
“She’s a consultant,” Dad adds. “Marketing and sponsorships. Public relations, that sort of thing.”
That sort of thing.I scoff. “You hired a PR girl.”
“She’s not just PR,” Levi says. “She’s?—”
I hold up a hand. “No. I don’t care what fancy title she uses. You hired an outsider, without telling me, to come in and save Hearts RoundUp like we’re some busted-up county fair.”
