Focus, man. This is your chance. This is the thing that sets you free of your past. That sets you up for the future you want.
For both of you.
Casey’s hand is on my wrist, stopping me from making the third call to my future wife in the ten minutes since we got to the bar. “Carrie is right next door, bro. She’s fine. They’ll spend the time while we’re here making our fortunes watching reruns of Drag Race or something.”
He’s right. This is priority one right now.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and raise my shot glass to the bartender, then nod at Casey’s as well.
“Not for me.” Casey hits me with a hard stare, then shoots a look over his shoulder to the entrance of the bar area. “This Emmett Smith guy will be here in less than five minutes.”
“We’re signing a deal on a gambling app that allows people to bet on rodeo outcomes. These are not monks we’re dealing with. Cowboy mobsters connected in the casino world will be far more likely to take kindly to you if your breath smells like whiskey.”
The bartender tips the bottle and fills both the tiny glasses, setting it down and tipping his head to the side, looking at me.
Here it comes.
“Ain’t you Roman Marshall?”
I throw back my shot, letting the burning liquid do its work before I nod, churning over in my mind the ten ways I’m going to need to hold myself back if he pops off about the whole doping bullshit that went down at the reining finals this last May that ended my white-hot career with a planted syringe and a jealous competitor with an evil streak he inherited from his father.
Casey has my back. He always does. “Yes, he is, and we are done here.” He throws an arm around my shoulder, nods at thebartender, and spins me around. “Time to sit and wait for this guy to show up.”
He looks back to the bar. “Send over a bottle of whiskey and three glasses.”
We work our way to a corner table, and my eyes catch a black Stetson coming through the front door. Everything freezes. I squint, making sure I’m seeing what I’m seeing.
“You said the guy’s name was Emmett Smith.” I tense, and Casey knows me well enough to know something’s up. The timbre of my voice, the energy in my body...
“Yeah, Emmett Smith. So what?”
“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I hustle Casey to the corner just as a waitress with red curly hair and white Tony Llamas sets down the bottle and glasses on the table.
I snatch away one of the shot glasses as Casey throws up his hands.
“Dude, what the fuck?”
“Take a look at who’s walking through the door, bro. He said he’d be wearing a gray hat, brown blazer, and Lucchese’s with silver tips?”
I bob my eyebrows as my brother plays catch-up, eyes connecting to the man in the doorway. “That’sEmmett Smith.”
His face turns whiter than Wonder Bread. “What? I don’t?—”
“That’s Emmett Smith.” Luckily, the guy’s paused in the doorway, talking on his phone. “Fucker. That’s alsoBuck Ryder, Colt Ryder’s dad. Shit. It always sounded like an alias, but I never cared enough to look into it. We’re screwed. He fucking hates me, ever since I knocked out a couple of his son’s teeth for talking shit about Emily. Does he know I’m your partner?”
I raise my eyebrows, backing toward the other exit to my left that leads to the hotel pool and elevators. If I exchange words with Buck Ryder, fuckingEmmett Smith, it won’t end well. Ifucking know it. He’s an asshole who’s in love with his own rodeo legend, and his son’s a motherfucker.
And if I’m placing bets, the two that set me up at the finals.
Casey is shaking his head. “Naw, I didn’t give a name. Since you had the problem, you said just keep the corporation in my name. I told them I was bringing along someone who helped me build the app, but that’s all. I don’t think they even asked for a name. I’m it.”
“Good.”
The two of them ended my riding career, even if I can’t prove it, and I won’t let Buck Ryder, Emmett Smith, or any other name he chooses to use fuck up this deal as well.
“Land this deal. He obviously doesn’t know who you are, or that I’m in it with you. We shook hands five years ago on this. I trust you. But if I’m here, this shit is not gonna go the way we want. I’ll send Carrie down to be your…silent app partner. All you told him is your partner would be with you, right?”
Casey nods, jaw hanging unhinged.
