Elsie’s stomach tightened with dread as she turned her horse around and headed over the small rise. As she reached its crest, the large ranch house that she shared with her dad came into view. Elsie trotted Goat over to the barn by the house, taking her time to remove the saddle and brush him down.
“Goodnight, Goat,” she whispered, petting the horse’s soft nose as he whickered softly. She was stalling, she knew that. The last thing she wanted to do was go into the house. Because she knew Lorenzo was probably right. Her dad probably would be waiting for her. And the last thing she wanted to do was get into another argument with him about her future.
It’s my future, damn it, she thought angrily to herself as she kicked at a stray pile of straw. Shouldn’t I be the one who gets to decide it? But she knew her father didn’t see it that way. She had already spent more hours than she’d liked trying to convince him that Veterinary School was what she truly wanted, but he just wouldn’t listen.
Finally, after stalling for as long as she could, Elsie threw her shoulders back and walked towards the house as if she were marching off to war. In a way, she was. Mark McLaurel had an iron will and was stubborn as hell. For all their differences, Elsie could be just as stubborn if she needed to be.
She stopped for a moment as she reached the white-washed porch steps that led up to the large house. Her father had put almost a million dollars into renovating the old farmhouse when he’d first bought the ranch. She and her father had lived there ever since, although the six-bedroom home felt too large for just the two of them sometimes. At other times, it seemed far too small.
As frustrated as she was, she still had to stop a moment and appreciate the beauty of the land that surrounded her. Rolling hills covered with bright green grass and dotted with trees that rustled slightly in the soft breeze. Even after all the years she’d lived there, West Texas still found a way to awe her with its majestic beauty.
The stars were just starting to wink into life all around her. Elsie forced herself to take another deep breath of the sweet evening air before she opened the door and walked inside. The inside of the house was just as opulent in the outside, but Elsie hardly noticed.
She crept through the foyer and into the living room, sighing in relief when she didn’t run into her father. She didn’t stop as she tried to walk as quietly as she could to the large wooden staircase that led up to her own bedroom on the second floor. She made it as far as the fourth step before her daddy’s terse, rough voice stopped her.
“Elsie, don’t think you can just sneak in here unnoticed. I need to talk to you.”
She turned around slowly with a sigh. It wasn’t we need to talk; it was just I need to talk to you. As if she wasn’t really involved, just some passive observer. Forcing herself to take another calming breath, she turned and faced him.
“Hi, Daddy,” Elsie said softly, staring at the man who had raised her single-handedly. He wasn’t a particularly big man, the top of his head reaching just a hair under six feet tall. But to her, he’d always be a giant. His features were hard in a face that was starting to go soft with age, but he wasn’t portly. His hair had more grey than blonde in it now, but his blue eyes, just like her own, were still just as bright, just as piercing, just as all-knowing as always.
“Elsie, what did I tell you about running around with the animals? Look at you! You’re covered in mud and God knows what else.” He threw his hand out to emphasize the casualness in his words, but Elsie still felt the embarrassment reddening her cheeks as she glanced down, taking in the ripped, dirty jeans and shirt, sweat-soaked from her long day’s work.
“Daddy, I had to go check on the herd. There’s been this infection going around…”
“And that’s why we hire Dr. Compton. He’s a real, trained veterinarian, not some kid who doesn’t know what she’s doing,” her father said dismissively. Elsie bristled at his words.
“Well, I’ll be a ‘real’ vet soon enough, won’t I?” She started to turn back around to walk up the stairs, but she only made one more step when her father spoke again.
“The hell is that supposed to mean?” Mark McLaurel's face was growing red. Elsie looked over her shoulder, trying to keep her anger under control as she spoke.
“I already sent my applications in, Daddy. We’ve talked about this before. I want to go to vet school. I want to learn how to take care of the animals.”
“You hire people to do that, Elsie! And we did talk about this,” he huffed, his own voice growing tenser with every word. “You are going to stay and apprentice with me, learn the ins and outs of the business. That’s the plan.”
“No, Daddy, that’s your plan. Not mine.” She shook her head, tired from the same old argument, the one they always got into. “It’s my future. I want to be a vet. Then I’ll be able to take care of the animals and you won’t have to hire Dr. Compton.” Elsie remembered the last time she’d tried to give advice to the elderly vet and he’d nearly snapped her head off.
“Now you listen here, Elsie,” he started, shaking his finger in her direction, his blue eyes flaring at being disobeyed. “You are the heiress to the McLaurel corporation, and – damn it! – you will learn how to run the business. I’m not going to have some slick bastard come in and steal everything from this family, do you understand?”
Elsie stared at him for a long moment, feeling a pang of regret at the angry look on his face. She shouldn’t have said anything. But her heart wouldn’t let her back down. Neither would her stubborn pride. At least she knew where she got it from.
“I know you always regretted having a daughter instead of a son,” she said softly. Then her voice firmed and she threw her shoulders back, refusing to look away as she continued. “But I have to make my own choices, Daddy. I have to make my own life. I love animals. I love treating them, taking care of them. That’s what I want to do. Not sit in some office all day, balancing numbers and looking at profit and loss.”
“Well, that won’t be a problem if you decide to be this foolish,” her father shot back. “You won’t make a dime as a vet.”
“It doesn’t matter, Daddy. At least I’ll be happy,” Elsie said earnestly, trying to get him to understand.
“And you won’t get a lick from me either,” he snapped as he took a step backwards, his eyes shooting blue fire. “I give you two weeks without money from me and you’ll come running back with your tail between your legs.”
Elsie just shook her head, knowing that nothing she said would convince him. He just didn’t understand, and that was the crux of the problem. When it came to Mark McLaurel, the only thing he understood was money. He never understood anything else. Elsie had spent her entire life arguing with him, and she knew a lost battle when she saw it. Silently, she walked up the rest of the stairs, biting back every retort her mind hurled at her.
“Just you wait, Elsie. You’ll see. You’ll come around,” he shouted from the bottom of the stairs.
“Goodnight, Daddy.” She didn’t look around as she spoke, didn’t look back at all as she made her way to her bedroom and shut the door firmly behind her. She had barely finished stripping off the button-down shirt when her cell phone rang. Elsie couldn’t keep the slight smile off her face as she glanced at the caller ID. She walked over to the small desk in the corner, pulling out the grey chair as she answered.
“Hi Rae!” Elsie said, not noticing the mud stains she left on the chair as she took a seat. She opened her laptop and waited for it to power up as her best friend spoke.
“Els! Thank god. I’ve been trying to reach you for hours.”
“Sorry, Rae, I was out in the fields with Lorenzo,” Elsie said, grinning at her friend’s penchant for the over dramatic. “What is it this time?”
“Mmm… Lorenzo. What’s that hunk been up to?”
“Rachael! He’s at least fifteen years older than you!” Elsie grinned.
“Age is just a number after eighteen, Elsie. Besides, I’ve always been attracted to older men. These country boys just bore me.” Rachael sighed dramatically over the line, and this time Elsie laughed out loud.
She had been best friends with Rachael Donohue since the fifth grade. Elsie had been terrified of moving to a new place, but Rachael had immediately taken her under her wing, showing her around the small Texas town of Mayville that was her new home. They’d been inseparable ever since.
Rachael always said she was going to get out of Mayville, Texas, even if it killed her, and Elsie never doubted her for a second. Rachael never stopped dreaming of leaving the small town behind and moving to a big city like New York or L.A. Somewhere exciting, she’d say. She was a daredevil and a born troublemaker, which made things tough for her father, who just happened to be the town’s sheriff.
In a lot of ways, they were total opposites. Where Elsie tended to be more quiet and introverted, Rachael was the life of the party. In school, Elsie had always been the serious one. While Rae was sneaking off with some boys to smoke cigarettes behind the bleachers, Elsie had been busy in the library.
Rachael always had a way of making trouble for herself, which prompted Elsie’s next question.
“Rae, what did you do this time?” she asked, laughter still edging her voice as she typed in the computer’s password.
“Me? Why would you assume that I’d done something? Why would you assume it was me?”
“Because it’s always you, Rachael,” Elsie chuckled, shaking her head. “What is it this time?”
“Well, I may have snuck into the Lucky Dog last night,” Rachael started hesitantly. Hesitant is one word that seldom applied to Rachael and it made Elsie sit forward a little as she prompted her to go on.
“And? Rachael, you sneak into that bar all the time.”
“I know! But last night… now, I don’t quite remember all the details, but I’m pretty sure I may have started a bar fight.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Well, I’ve got one hell of a shiner. And this morning old Joe at the bar called my daddy and served him a bill for three thousand dollars of damages.”
“What? Jesus, Rachael!” Elsie exclaimed.
“I know! They’ll never let me back in there. Now where am I supposed to get drunk in this lousy town?”
“You start a bar fight and that’s what you take out of it? What other bar are you going to sneak into?” Elsie shook her head at her lecturing tone, but she couldn’t help it. “Rae, you’re nineteen years old. Here’s a thought. Maybe… don’t sneak in to bars when you’re underage? You could get a lot worse than a fine.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Rachael shot back casually, and Elsie could only shake her head again. “Besides, my daddy said he’d take care of it.”
“What happens when he decides he’s done with doing that? What did he say to you this time?” Elsie asked.
“Same old, same old,” Rachael replied as she put on her best impression of her father. “I’m the sheriff of this town, young lady, and as sheriff I demand respect. People won’t respect me if my hooligan daughter is running around town, sneaking into bars underage and starting fights.”
“He called you a hooligan?” Elsie laughed, and Rachael let out a little chuckle too, but a moment later grew serious.
“He kept asking me why I couldn’t be more like Hannah,” she said after a long pause.
“Oh, Rachael. You’re never going to be like your sister…”
“I know that!” Rae cut in, “I know that! She knows that! Everyone knows that but him. She’s super smart, polite, never does anything wrong. Perfect! And I’m… well, I’m definitely not perfect, am I?”
Elsie winced at the bitter cynicism in her friend’s voice. “Well, I think you’re perfect just the way you are.”
“You have to say that, El, you’re my best friend.”
“And as your best friend, I’m ordering you to stay out of trouble. At least for one night, alright?” Elsie pleaded. “Can you promise me just one night?”
“Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m under lock-down here. Next thing you know I’ll be locked up in a jail cell at the sheriff’s office.”
Elsie rolled her eyes. “Please! You know you can talk your dad around on anything.”
“I hope you’re right,” Rachael sighed. “Well, I gotta go. I’m not even supposed to make any calls. I just needed to talk to another real live human being besides my perfect twin sister.”
“Goodnight, Rae. Be nice to Hannah.”
“You know I love her, it just… it’s hard, you know? Always being the screw up. Always being compared to her.”
“I know. You got this, though. You are amazing, Rae. That’s why you’re my best friend.”
“You’re pretty amazing yourself. Bye!”
Before Elsie could get anything else out, Rachael had already hung up the phone. She tried to put her friend’s problems out of her head. Knowing Rachael, she would wriggle her way out of it and be back in her dad’s good graces before sundown tomorrow. She had a way of charming people into forgetting what sort of trouble she’d gotten into.
With a sigh, Elsie pulled up the program that mapped where all the trackers were for the cattle, still thinking about the three that had gone missing earlier in the day. A frown wrinkled her otherwise smooth forehead when she finally located them. There they sat, in a cluster near the southernmost point of the ranch’s property. And they weren’t moving.
Elsie watched the flashing dots for a long while, waiting for any sign of movement, but after a half hour she knew something was wrong. Maybe they were sick. Maybe they’d gotten into some plant that they shouldn’t have while out grazing and needed help. She glanced down at her watch. It was almost midnight. She could make it out there in about under an hour and be back before her daddy realized that she was gone. Besides, anything was better than replaying his words over and over again in her head.
She hastily threw on the same dirt-stained shirt that she’d worn all day. Out of habit, she grabbed the straw hat that she always wore when she was out in the field, taking the time to tuck her long, golden blonde hair up inside it so it wouldn’t get in her way. She looked at the revolver on her table for a second but decided against it. It’d be a quick trip out anyways. A moment later, she was sneaking out the back door. Her father was still enclosed in his office, oblivious as he ran through what Elsie knew would be an inexhaustible list of numbers and figures.
It took fifteen minutes to get Goat saddled once more and another five before she was trotting out over the rolling expanse of the ranch towards the spot where she’d spotted the unmoving trackers. Elsie had a feeling that they would still be there and just hoped that she had whatever she needed to help them. She had some antibiotics and some natural painkillers in the rucksack she had slung over her shoulder. She just hoped she’d get there in time to save them.
There was a moment of doubt as she drew near the spot, and Elsie wondered if she shouldn’t have just given in and called Dr. Compton, but then she stopped herself. She cared more about the animals than that old grouch. She knew each one by name, had been there for nearly all of their births. He did not.
Minutes later she pulled Goat to a stop on the top of the rise where the GPS had shown the cows to be, but as she scanned the empty area a feeling of unease settled over her. There were no cows.
In fact, there wasn’t anything at all.
A coyote’s sharp howl broke through the darkness that settled around her and Elsie flinched, jerking on the reins in startled reaction. Goat turned instantly, following her unconscious command, snorting his displeasure at the sharp tug. She patted him on the neck and had just opened her mouth to apologize to the offended horse when, suddenly, something big came barreling towards her. All she could get out before it reached her was a strangled shriek of panic. Her hand flew instinctively to her hip where her revolver would be, and her heart stopped in her throat when she grabbed nothing but the empty night air.
Elsie pulled hard on the reins once more and Goat, in his typical disagreeable way, whinnied loudly before launching his two front hooves into the air. She lost her grip on the reins as Goat bucked wildly. Her world tilted and the last thing she saw before flying off Goat’s back was a broad shouldered, tattoo-covered man with piercing dark eyes rushing towards her on the back of a massive horse.