Page 14 of Wild As Her

When we return to my truck, we throw the empty cage in the back and take off, not wasting time. Ollie laughs. “He’s gonna be so pissed. That truck was his pride and joy.”

“Good,” I say with a grunt. Nothing worse than a thief. He has no respect for anyone.

I drop Ollie off at his property line and call out, “Thanks for your help today, man.”

“No problem. You still need help with branding coming up?” he asks as he leans against the truck.

“If you have time, I’d appreciate any help you can give. I know you’re busy, though,” I say, running my hand over my jaw.

“Just say the word, and I’ll be there. I can see if Cami wants to help, too.”

I shake my head. “She has enough going on. Don’t bother her.”

“Probably for the best, anyway. You two would probably end up branding each other or worse.”

He grins as he claps the cab of the truck, and I take off for the ranch. I need to get ready for the meetings I have today. It turns out that running a ranch is a lot of meetings on top of the usual ranch work. Not glamorous, by any means.

When I get home, I look around and realize how much I hate staying in my father’s house. It doesn’t feel like a home, and everywhere I look, I see and feel his presence here. If I could move somewhere else, I would. It’s just not practical right now when I’ve got so much work to do.

I grab my steaming mug of coffee and carry it to my father’s old office, my new office that I share with my brother, Weston. He’s been up in Montana for a few weeks at his house, but hecomes back to work on weekends a few times a month. We’ve been working together to try to make sense of everything and get the ranch operating more smoothly.

About a year ago, the FBI raided our ranch, arresting my father. To say it was embarrassing is an understatement. My father has been an absolute menace to society all our lives. He manipulated, conned, stole, and did whatever he could to climb to the top and bring this ranch with him. He didn’t care who he stepped on to do it. He’s the worst of the worst and the reason why I left after high school and joined the Navy.

I specifically joined the Navy because I knew I’d be working with water, and bodies of water are furthest away from Wyoming, so that seemed like a good fit. I wanted to get as far away from here as possible. It worked, and I was gone for ten years. When I had enough of military life and my contract was up, I came back a few years ago and became a horse trainer at a ranch about an hour from here. I kept in touch with my brothers and sister. It was over a year and a half before I ran into my dad at a horse sale before he was arrested, and he figured out that I was out of the Navy. And hell, he was spitting mad that I hadn’t come home to work horses on his ranch.

I didn’t come back until after my dad was arrested. My two brothers have done their best to keep him at a distance as well. My sister Jenna moved out to LA not long after high school. She’s been working in reality television. I don’t understand exactly what she’s doing, but she seems happy, so that’s all that matters. She’s always loved it, and I’m glad she’s happy.

She’s back now, working part-time in town at The Black Dog and working remotely on a project. She comes and goes. None of us like staying here at the ranch. Too many memories, and not good ones. Since I’ve been back, I haven’t slept well until the night I was at the Wilder Ranch. That was the first night of peaceful sleep I’ve had in, I couldn’t tell youhow long.

I pore over the reports that Weston emailed me. Surprisingly, after the FBI shut us down, they were willing to help us get back what we needed to keep the ranch going with promises of cooperating with them, of course. It came with a price, as it usually does.

But it hasn’t been easy to run a business in a town that doesn’t trust the Jessop name. My dad did too much damage here. And now we have to try and build a better reputation. It feels impossible most days. Grudges seem to run deep around Bridger Falls.

Luckily for us, none of us give a shit about our father. Him being in prison is the best gift he could have ever given any of us. Weston worked to get everything pulled out of his reach and safely into ours. So, between Weston, Jenna, Tucker, and myself, we’ve all pooled together to pull the ranch back to better than where it was – at least when it comes to the legal side of things.

We’ve had our struggles. Weston wants little to do with the day-to-day operations. He’s an attorney up in Montana, and he loves paperwork and financial crap. Which is fine with me. Tucker doesn’t mind ranch work, but he’s the youngest and not ready to run anything yet. He works as a wrangler and runs cattle most days. But if he's being honest, he loves the rodeo circuit, and that's where his heart is. I know he’d get back to it if he could.

I do horse training and keep up with the day-to-day stuff that the wranglers don’t keep up with. Which is a lot, because they’re lazy and still have a strong allegiance to my father. They don’t seem to like listening to what I have to say. But that’s about to change.

Tessa is the longest employee at the ranch, along with Hank. Those two carry the brunt of the work on daily operations with me. And both are like family.

Jenna can ride and do everything a wrangler can, but she refuses. Our dad worked her as hard as an adult ranch hand when she was a teenager, and she still resents it. She put in full-time hours along with school, and it didn’t leave much time for her to be a kid. The ranch is a source of pain for her, and she can’t even bring herself to sleep at the lodge here at the ranch most nights. I learned from Walker that she stays at the bar some nights and sleeps in his office. I’m doing my best as the oldest brother to pull this place together and salvage what I can for all of us. I want to make this place safe, so everyone feels comfortable here.

My phone buzzes, and I look down to see it’s Weston. I put him on speaker when I answer.

“What’s up?” I ask as I sip my coffee, which has now run cold. Just great. I make a face because no matter how hard I try to make it taste like Cami’s, it never does. What is her secret?

“I met with our father yesterday,” he says, as if he’s telling me that he stepped in a pile of shit.

“How was that?” I ask, pretending to care as I shuffle some papers around the desk.

“Oh, the same old usual shit. Just another day. Still trying to control us from prison. Failing miserably,” he adds. “I had to get him to sign a few papers. Luckily, he did it.”

“Good,” I muse. “You staying at the ranch this week?”

“Nah, I have work up here in Bozeman. Jenna talk to you, yet?” he asks, and something in his voice catches my attention.

“No. Why, what’s up?” I ask as I pinch the bridge of my nose, not sure if I even want to know.

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