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Travis heard Veronica’s gasp and felt it when her body trembled against him and she gripped his arms tightly.
The ladies whispered amongst themselves, obviously reacting to the confusion on his face. Veronica tugged at his shirt and he held up his hand for quiet. “Ladies, hold on for just one minute. I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”
Miss Farmer nodded and smiled at him, unperturbed, while the other ladies looked confused. He closed the door, silently slid the bolt home, and drew her away from it, relieved the drapes were already all drawn. The shock on her face said it all.
“You didn’t invite anyone out here did you?”
“No, Travis, I didn’t. Oh my gosh. If they see Grace—”
Travis said, “I’ll go talk to them.”
“And tell them what, Travis? Someone obviously intended this situation to turn out bad. I can’t have that. We can’t send them away.”
Travis nodded as she picked up her phone. “Ask them to give me five minutes. I’ll get dressed and then I’ll talk to them.”
“Jack and some of the guys were coming up the drive.”
“Okay, go out there and talk to them privately. Explain what has happened and ask for their help.” She pulled up the reader’s forum on her smartphone browser and looked at it. “I did a chat with these ladies right before my first erotic romance came out. I haven’t been back to the group forum since.” Her jaw fell open and she closed her eyes. “Here’s the invitation.”
He looked over his shoulder. Sure enough. It was there on the group’s home page in bold, colorful lettering. A meet and greet with Veronica Benedict, on that day and at that time. And to top it off the time for the event was all day, so more people might show up as the day progressed.
She tapped on the icon for the member posting the invitation and sighed. “Someone set up an account as V. Benedict and posted it. There’s no profile or contact information.”
Veronica looked up at him, worry in her eyes. “I don’t mind if they know that a troll did this but I can’t disappoint them. I won’t. Those ladies are on Facebook and all over the place promoting my books. I can’t pay them back by doing that.”
Travis nodded and said, “After I talk with the guys, I’ll call Hank.”
“Call Ace and Kemp, too. We need to get to the bottom of this.”
Travis stopped and turned back. “Whoever did this knows your location, Nika.”
She stopped in mid-stride and looked back at him. Fear making an appearance in her eyes before she firmed her lips and shook her head. “As long as I’m with you, I’ll be okay. After we take care of these ladies, we’ll figure out what to do.”
No more chats, for starters. One of those chats had to be how they’d pinpointed her location. And the GPS on her phone needs to get turned off, too.
She hurried down the hallway and he reopened the front door and stepped out onto the front porch. Tracy nodded understandingly as he explained he needed to talk to the approaching men before saying anything. He had the feeling the ladies were beginning to catch on that they’d been snookered.
Two minutes later, he wasn’t the only righteously indignant man on the ranch. Jack, Angel, Ash, and the ranch hands put their heads together and helped him come up with a plan, and then they all went about their tasks, some to take care of ranch business and others to set up an afternoon and evening of fun for the ladies who’d taken time out of their lives on a weekday to some spend time with Veronica.
Travis walked back to the group of ladies, smiling at three who’d just pulled up and were getting out of their car, and then waved to Tracy and Sue to come closer and for the others to gather around. “Okay, ladies, first of all, let me thank you for making the long drive out to Divine. Veronica and I want to welcome you to the Divine Creek Ranch—”
Lord, please don’t let Grace have ever mentioned online that she lives on the Divine Creek Ranch before. The last thing he wanted to do was out Grace’s location and true identity.
Several ladies nodded and smiled but recognition of that ranch name didn’t flicker in any of their eyes and he was profoundly grateful.
