Page 18 of Trickster King

Compassion meant a great more to me than justice most days of the week. I hadn’t needed any justice, but that man had needed a great deal of compassion.

Still, I needed to make sure my wife never learned how Defiance had come to join our home, why the feisty filly was on my list of horses never to be sold, and how she came about her name. I thought I’d done a good job of being defiant, resulting in her unusual name.

Defiance preferred to cuddle rather than create equine mayhem in the stables, and she was a favorite among the stable hands, who appreciated how little trouble she gave them.

One day, Defiance would become a school horse for my children, although she might excel at dressage and go the distance—assuming I could find the time to train her along with the rest of my animals.

“Quite possibly. But you’re my prized boot scraping, so anyone who complains might get the shock of their life.”

My wife’s comment dragged me back to the present, and I worried for those who might earn a shocking from yanking on her chain. “I thought we weren’t teaching the babies to shock people while in the womb.”

“I’m willing to make an exception or two.”

I bet she was. “Try not to shock anyone. I give it a few months before Deidre takes after you.”

“I’d get mad, but it’s true.” My wife giggled again. “We’re going into the phone store, and Avery just asked for five phones at the counter?”

“I told him to get you extras to save the RPS from multiple trips a week thanks to the New Yorkers foolish enough to upset my beautiful wife. One phone is just for me to reach you if you break your phone, so don’t break that one.”

“I think I can manage that much. Avery? Get the gaudiest color of phone you can for the one I need to use to call Pat on. I might not lose or break it that way. And get Pat a gaudy phone he uses just to talk to me, too. We need to match.”

I chuckled at her request. “I’m fine with carrying around a second phone just for you.”

“Good. It wasn’t optional.”

Hmm. “Are you upset because of Eddie or is there something else bothering you?”

“The next person to tell me I’m too old to have another baby is getting shocked, and I don’t care how many bad habits I teach the food-thieving tyrants.”

Goodness. If my wife did that, she’d have a severe case of talent exertion by the end of the day. “Can we start with teaching the food-thieving tyrants they have to save you some dinner before we add talent exertion to the complications list?”

Jessica grunted, made me wait for an answer, but she finally snorted like one of our horses before saying, “Fine, but only this once.”

“I’ll make you cake once I get home,” I promised. “And I will ignore the doctor’s advice and make sure you get all three flavors of icing. We’ll teach the food-thieving tyrants to love cake long before they enter the world.”

“Okay. I accept your terms. I’ll use Avery’s phone to text you my new personal number once we’re done in here. They’re waiting for me to admit I’m horrible with phones again and really need a collection of new ones.”

“All right. I love you, get cases this time to hopefully extend the phone’s lifetime by a few days, and enjoy building a cushion fort.”

“I love you, too.” Jessica hung up.

I grinned over the whole cell phone issue. “New Yorkers are taking the blame for her latest phone being broken. I have been instructed to stay at the ranch with Eddie tonight and tomorrow night, which buys us more time to make our plans and get a head start before she realizes I am up to no good.”

Randy made a thoughtful sound. “I’ll tell the missus. Can we involve our women in this?”

“I don’t think six men are capable of defeating my queen, even when working together, so I think we should accept all the help we can get,” I admitted. “I don’t suppose you have any extra trailers kicking around, do you?”

“No, but I have a wife willing to drive a rental trailer, and rentals are easy enough to get this time of year,” Geoff replied. “Randy?”

“I bet my wife would be willing to drive a rental trailer the instant I inform her the queen is pregnant with twins,” the head of my detail replied. “It’s trivial to get trucks and trailers this time of year. We’re between seasons, and there aren’t any notable auctions for a few weeks. We can probably get at least eight large trailers and trucks on short notice without much work. I can make arrangements for our accomplices and their wives to join in. That should give enough vehicle room for horses and cattle from the acquisitions.”

“And my horses for sale?”

“I can finalize the sales tonight and have the wires hit your account tomorrow. It’s trivial to get the banks to play ball, and we can make certain your wife isn’t notified prematurely,” Randy promised.

“Then let’s get this show on the road. Oh, and Geoff?”

“Yes?”

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