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Chapter Thirty-Nine
Stone
“I toldyou to answer when I call. Instead, I’ve had to track your ass down.”
Kane Zegas sauntered into my dressing room like he owned the place.
“Some of us have to work. And that work doesn’t require having a phone strapped to us like another appendage.”
“Look at this.” He tossed down a stack of papers in my lap. “You ever heard of a prairie chicken?”
I flipped through the stack. “Yeah. What’s that got to do with anything?”
Zegas stabbed at the top sheet. “Six months ago, one county over from your ranch, an eminent domain case was thrown out after the discovery of prairie chickens.”
I sat up. “Are you sayin’ if we’ve got those things, they might not take our land?”
He folded his arms over his chest and nodded smugly. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“How do we find out if we’ve got them.”
“I’m going to contact the USDA, but wanted to check with you about it first.”
“Why the hell would you wait? We don’t have time.”
He perched on the arm of the chair opposite me. “Those birds are close to being on the endangered list, so this could be complicated. If they find them on your property, it may cause some problems with the operations of the ranch.”
“What kind of problems?”
“They might not allow certain activities on the ranch if they find it to be a habitat.”
I yanked on my hair. “You mean like oil production?”
“That and potentially the use of the land for grazing or farming.”
“So basically everything.” I tossed the papers on the coffee table and propped my feet on it. “So if we find the damn things, we might get past eminent domain but lose everything else in the process.”
“That’s why I didn’t approach the USDA. Once we get that ball rolling, we won’t be able to stop it.”
I covered my face with my hand. “Let me talk to Granddaddy. See what he wants to do.”
“When you do, see if he’s got the napkin Hedley gave him spelling out the terms of the deal.”
“I’ll ask.” I felt in my pocket. No phone. I glanced to the dressing table in front of the mirror. No phone.
I pressed a hand to my forehead. I couldn’t recall having it with me all day.
“Are you going to call him?” He tapped the arm of the chair impatiently.
“I think I left my damn phone at home.”
“Have one of your minions go get it before you take off for the interview.”
I dropped my feet to the floor. “You interviewing to be my manager?”
“Sounds like you need one,” he shot back. “Get me that napkin. And charm the hell out of Drusilla. Do you have any idea what kind of favors I had to call in to get that interview arranged?”
“All you had to do was drop my name.”
