Page 36 of July’s Cowboy Dallas

“You think this started with me?” His laugh came out dry and mean. “Those papers were old before your daddy was born.”

The words hung in the air. Holt went still. Tanner's eyes narrowed. Sadie didn't move, but something in her face had gone very carefully blank—the look of someone recalculating everything she thought she knew.

Roy wasn't the beginning. Just the most recent chapter.

Roy looked at all of them, his mouth twisting. “You want to dig into Cedar Draw? Fine. But don't pretend you're going to like what you find.”

He turned like he meant to walk away, but Cody stepped into his path.

Holt's voice came low and hard. “Don't.”

Roy stopped.

The crowd noise rolled on behind us, bright and oblivious, but inside that circle of dirt, no one moved.

Because Roy Pritchard had just told us the truth. He wasn't the beginning. He was only the man who'd gotten caught.

CHAPTER 10

SADIE

By the time we got the brindle steer settled in quarantine, my hands had almost stopped shaking.

He stood in the shade with cool water at his feet, overheated and stressed but upright. His injured leg still needed watching, but Dallas’s catch had kept a bad situation from turning into a disaster. Nobody had been hurt. There was no loose stock in the middle of the rodeo royalty staging area. We’d avoided a headline that would bury the rodeo before Mustang Mountain had even finished proving it could pull one off.

The Fourth of July Rodeo kept moving around us like nothing had happened.

The announcer called the next event. The crowd roared. Somewhere near the concession stand, Ruby Nelson was still clapping loud enough for three people.

But I couldn’t stop hearing Roy’s voice.

Those papers were old before your daddy was born.

I tugged my sleeve back down and checked the latch on the quarantine pen for the third time, even though Cody had already secured it. My body knew what to do. Work the problem in front of me. Check the animal. Give instructions. Keep moving.

My mind was still standing in the dirt near that trailer, trying to make sense of what Roy had said.

He wasn’t the beginning. He was just the man who’d gotten caught.

Dallas had been beside me through all of it. Not in front of me. Not speaking over me. Not deciding what I could handle. When the steer bolted, he’d moved fast, but he’d waited for my call after. Held steady when I told him to. Let me do my job like he trusted I knew how. That was what I kept coming back to.

Every time the ground moved today, Dallas Miller had been right where I needed him. And I was running out of reasons to pretend I didn’t want him there for more than emergencies.

Holt found me twenty minutes later, after the deputy had arrived to take Roy’s statement and the rodeo had settled back into its rhythm.

He didn't say anything at first, just stood there, his hands on his hips, his face hard and unreadable.

I crossed my arms and waited.

“This will follow us,” he finally said.

“Then maybe we stop giving it something to follow.”

His jaw tightened. “You understand what walking away from Hollister work costs?”

“Yes.”

“Independence is expensive, Sadie.”