Chapter Fifteen
From a quaint Croatian coastal town to a ranch in the middle of nowhere West Texas. Jet lag was not Alex’s main concern, but culture shock certainly was. He had been to a lot of places and seen a lot of things, but the amount of flat prairie around him at this moment wasn’t just overwhelming. It was frightening.
“It’s kind of big and empty,” Maddie said as she drove.
The two of them had given the rental car agent quite a show as they’d argued about who was going to drive. Maddie had pointed out repeatedly that Alex had no idea where he was going and that he should definitely just leave the navigation and transportation to her. He had finally relented, but it felt a little odd to be sitting in the passenger seat of the rental SUV as they tooled down the highway at almost eighty miles per hour.
She glanced over at him. “You’re pouting.”
“Excuse me?” He raised his eyebrows. “I don’t pout.”
“You’re totally pouting!” she crowed. “You’re mad that I’m driving.”
“It’s disconcerting, yes. But I can handle not being behind the wheel. As you repeatedly pointed out, I don’t know where we’re going.”
She exited the highway on a ramp that led seemingly nowhere. They went down a hill, back under the freeway, and then started down a long, lonely, two lane road. He had seen plenty of oil rigs, a few cows, yards and yards of barbed wire fence, and no other signs of civilization.
“How much longer until we arrive?” He checked his phone and noted that he had barely one bar to indicate service.
“About an hour.”
“An hour?” He was more than a little shocked. “Where is it that we’re going?”
“Dry Gulch Ranch.” She said it cheerfully. “It belongs to my family, although my aunt is the only one of us that actually lives out there. Everyone else is in Dallas.”
“And you didn’t want to go to Dallas?” he asked hopefully.
She snorted. “No thanks. Maybe we can go into Dallas some night and go to a club or something, but I don’t want to stay with my father or my sisters.”
“Wait.” He was trying to piece together the geography of what she was saying. “We flew into Dallas, correct?”
“Yes.”
“So we will have to travel another two hours back to town anytime we need something?” That wasn’t going to work for him. Not at all.
“Don’t be silly.” She glanced over and giggled as though he’d just told her the best joke ever. “Evergreen is only a few miles from the ranch house. That’s where we get our supplies and stuff.”
“Oh.” He felt relieved. “How big is this Evergreen?”
She shrugged. “Maybe two or three thousand people.”
“Two or three thousand?” He was starting to panic again.
***
MADDIE WAS HAVING a very difficult time not laughing her ass off at this city boy. Alex had always seemed so calm and in control. That was one of the things that had drawn her to him from the beginning. Now he was certainly a fish out of water. He even looked out of place in his suit and tie. Nobody wore a suit out here. Alex was going to find out why for himself when he got out of the SUV and found himself coated in dust before he’d taken two steps.
“Maybe this was a bad idea,” she said aloud. “Maybe I should take you back to Dallas and I’ll go to the ranch.”
“No.”
The firmness in his answer was enough to at least give her hope. “So you’re not freaking out?”
“I’m not some pampered prince.” The irritation in his tone was almost enough to burn. “I can handle being in a small town. I’ve been to Siberia. I have a house there.”
She did not add that his house in Siberia probably included servants, reliable Wi-Fi, and a host of other luxuries that he wasn’t going to find at the ranch. She was certain that he absolutely considered being in Siberia roughing it. It sounded like roughing it. However, West Texas was very different from West Siberia.
The familiar scenery bored her the same way it did anyone else, but she also felt a strange jolt of familiarity that was soothing. The stalks of dry prairie grass waving in the wind reminded her of every single summer she’d spent with Aunt Lori. There were wild yellow roses growing in the gullies and some purple aster alongside the verge on the road. This was home, and it had been a long time since she’d come back to visit.
“So tell me about your ranch,” he suggested. “Just so I’m prepared.”
“There’s something like thirty thousand acres.” She pursed her lips. “I think that’s the case anyway. You’d have to ask Aunt Lori. She could tell you. I know we own land, and we also lease it from the government for grazing.”
“Okay.”
She couldn’t tell if he was impressed or not. “We run a combination of Angus and Hereford cows. We also breed Quarter Horses.”
“I believe I’m familiar with that breed.”
She had a sudden thought that left her a little nervous. “Do you ride?”
“Of course.”
Why was she not relieved? “You ride. Like how? Frequently?”
He raised his brows. “I own several dozen hunters and several dozen more Akhal-Tekes that we breed and race. I learned to ride before I was five years old.”
That sounded all right. At least he would be able to sit a saddle. That would make life a little easier. “I’m not trying to be rude, but everyone on the ranch is expected to pitch in. Have you ever driven a team?”
“Do you know what a troika is?”
“One of those weird Russian sleds?” she guessed.
He nodded stiffly. “We drive them three in hand.”
“Cool. Then hopefully a chuck wagon won’t be too much of a stretch.”
***
THEY TURNED OFF the paved road onto a dirt road. Fine, pale brown dust billowed up behind their vehicle as they roared down the stretch of rough gravel. Alex tried to remain relaxed, but Maddie didn’t even slow down to account for the change in terrain. She just tooled along as though they were still on the highway. He managed to catch a glimpse of the speedometer and was shocked to see that they were still traveling at over seventy miles per hour.
“So,” he said to try and cover his unease with conversation. “You said ‘pitch in.’ What sort of things does that entail?”
“Well,” she drawled. Her accent had become more and more pronounced the farther they got from the airport and civilization. “We have to feed and move cattle. There’s the branding, the worming, giving shots, and rounding up the young stock to either send to sale or to breed back for next year. It’s summer, so a lot of that is done. It will just be moving cattle and then taking care of horses. My aunt likes to raise and train good ranch horses, so they’re taught to sort and cut cows. The ranch hands do a lot of roping. They head and heel and try to teach them to work cattle so the fall round ups won’t be such a pain in the ass.”
“I don’t know any of that terminology,” he admitted with a laugh. Even the notion of “cutting” a cow seemed foreign. “My race horses are of course trained for stamina as well as sprinting. I spend a lot of time teaching hunters to properly gauge a fence. And if I field hunt any of my horses, I want them surefooted, of course.”
“Yeah,” she mused. “We don’t do a lot of jumping. Or any really.”
“How about equipment repair?” he asked. “Surely that must fall under chores.”
“Sure.” She spun the wheel to keep them on the road as she made another turn and they passed under a sign announcing DRY GULCH RANCH. There was even a brand with a D and a G twined together. It was like a movie. Then she chuckled once again. “And I suspect our cattle lack some of the fur that you might be used to.”
“That seems reasonable,” he admitted. “Your climate is far more temperate here.”
“So you think you can survive for a few weeks?”
Alex began making plans in his head to eliminate whatever threat his mother was concocting. He had a feeling he was not going to necessarily enjoy “ranch life.” His brain also began calculating what it might cost to ship his favorite horse here to Texas. The cost was rather prohibitive in its own way, but it was more the paper trail that it would leave for anyone who might want to do him and Maddie harm that made the notion unreasonable. They were supposed to be hiding from his family, not advertising his presence by providing an address.
“Here we are,” Maddie said with enthusiasm. “You can see the house now!”
***
MADDIE SAW THE familiar A-framed roof and gables of their old ranch house emerge from the dust and hills around the ranch. The red barn was looking even more faded these days. It was pretty big and had been converted many years ago to accommodate horses instead of just cows. The bunkhouse sat not far behind the barn. Corrals zigzagged across the property, and she could make out the shapes of horses as they nosed the dry grass in the pasture.
She hadn’t told her aunt that they were coming for fear of someone intercepting the email or the phone call. It seemed bizarre that her life had turned into some weird action movie complete with a Russian prince, a conspiracy to overtake the throne, and assassins trying to kill her. It was all pretty crazy.
By the time Maddie pulled the SUV up into the ranch’s yard and parked in front of the house, the ranch hands who weren’t out on the range had already gathered. They were pushing and shoving like errant little boys as they jostled for the best position to see her. Maddie had to chuckle as she recognized some of the worst offenders. Those were the guys who had been at the ranch the longest. Curly, Lefty, and Sideways had been working for Aunt Lori since the first summer Maddie had spent at the ranch when she was eight years old. The grizzled old veterans still looked the same to her.
She threw the vehicle in park and jumped right out. “What are you all gawking at? Don’t you have chores to do? If you can’t find something better to do with your time, I bet Aunt Lori has something she could use help with!”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Curly drawled. With each word he spoke, a toothpick dipped and bobbed on his lower lip. “I swear this looks like that little redheaded kid that used to hang out here every summer.” Curly looked up at Sideways. “You remember that little gal?”
“Hell yeah.” Sideways took off his hat and slapped it against his thigh. “She growed a bit though.”
Someone came out onto the porch of the ranch house. The house sat a good eight or nine feet above the ranch yard and was accessed by steps. It allowed a grand view from the porch, and it let her aunt keep an eye on what the men were up to down at the corrals.
“Madison Castillo!” Her aunt’s voice carried across the yard. “You get your backside up here and give me a hug! I can’t believe you didn’t even call!”
Maddie grinned as the passenger door opened and Alex stepped out of the SUV. The ranch hands all took a step back before sharing a look of utter surprise. It was apparent that none of them knew exactly what to think of Alexander Stepanov.
“Aunt Lori,” Maddie began. “I think I’ve got some explaining to do.”