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“I was hoping you could show her around today, Eddie. You know more about the books than I do. Give her a bit of a tour of the mess you made and then we can see if she can help us get out of it.”
“I have chores to do first.” I turned to Eliza. “Are you too delicate to get your hands dirty?”.
She took that as a challenge. “I used to take care of bison. I’m not afraid of getting dirty.”
I sent her to go get some feed buckets, and when she was gone, I asked Calvin, “What the hell was are you doing?”
“She is one of the Bransom Country pack, but they kicked her out yesterday. She was supposed to be the queen and she was rejected. I don’t know how I was supposed to just turn her away after hearing her story. I didn’t want to promise her anything, but she knows bookwork, which is what we need. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. She could be useful.”
I agreed with him in a lot of ways, but I it was going to be hell if Sterling found out. Sure, Calvin was part owner, but like all the other ranches, Sterling owned the biggest portion. They were all his when it came down to it. He was the alpha and he led the pack with an iron fist. If something was going on, he would find out about it. I thought about going to him and telling him what was going on, but I was loyal to Calvin as well because we’d worked together for years.
“Are you that desperate for a mate?” I asked, only half kidding. Eliza was gorgeous, but she was the enemy. And taking a chance on her was playing with fire.
Calvin shrugged. “Don’t act like you weren’t the first person to notice her.”
He was right, of course. When we were at Dottie’s, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. But I didn’t know who she was, and now that I did, now that he did, how could he suggest anything but to tell Sterling she was here?
“We have the former queen of our enemy,” Calvin said when I stayed quiet. Don’t you think that is going to come with a little bit of leverage?”
“How do you know she would be of any value to us? They got rid of her, remember? What could she know?”
“People have value in all kinds of ways. I know that you can see the immediate value of her. She needs help and we can help her. I couldn’t turn here away. I’m not going to go to Sterling now and offer up the information, but he will know about it soon enough. Then he will see that it is good to have our enemies close. Don’t you think that her high level of breeding gives her access to some valuable information on our enemies? I have to believe she knows something, even if by mistake.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted her here or not, but I definitely didn’t want us to use her and put her in harm’s way. Plus, I was attracted to her.
When she came back with everything I asked for and a big smile on her face, I waved Calvin off and tried to see the bright side of things. If nothing else, at least I got a little bit of help with today’s chores.
“Eliza, we need to go feed a lot of animals. You can help me with that and then I’ll show you to the office. You might find that you prefer outside work—it’s less of a mess out here. Nobody can make heads or tails of what’s going on in that office.”
Eliza’s nose crinkled a little bit, and her smile was huge. “I’ll get it straightened out, don’t you worry.”
I sure did hope she knew what she was talking about. If I had to go in there and try my hand at it again, I was likely going to have a permanent headache. There was a reason I worked with animals and not inside with numbers. I wasn’t built for it.
When we were away from the main house and it was just me and her, Eliza asked me, “You don’t much like me, do you?” She was so direct about it, and that surprised me the most.
“Why would you ask that? I don’t even know you.”
“Is it because of what I am, your enemy?”
“I wouldn’t say that you’re my enemy, but you certainly come from our enemies, and that makes me a little hesitant. I don’t know if you’ve been sent here to collect information on us or if what you’ve told Calvin is your real reason for being here is. How can we trust you?”
“Well, what if I told you that I hated them more than you do? You hate them because someone tells you to, some arbitrary reason that makes sense, but you don’t even really understand it. I hate my people because I know them, and I know what they are and what they’re capable of. So, when I say that I am not your true enemy, you should believe it.”
She was such a small woman, but her voice was clear and loud, and she came across perfectly strong. I could feel the rage inside her and I knew that the words she spoke were honest. Eliza had no desire to gather information for them. She was part of our pack now. When she looked at me, our eyes met, and I knew for certain it was true.
I chuckled. “I don’t know what to think of you exactly.” That was the truth. She was not at all what I had thought, and I was starting to realize that she was even more special than I had imagined.
I could tell she was used to hard work when she helped me with everything without asking for a break. When it came time to show her what all needed to be done in the office, she quickly took to that, and she was asking all the right questions, which told me she knew what she was doing here too. I was so happy that everything was going as it should.
At the end of the day, I was downright smitten with Eliza. It was nice, our time together and when it was over, I asked her if she
“Do you want to go out for a drink?” I worried that she was going to say she was too tired. She should be because she had work so hard, but she didn’t use that as an excuse.
Instead, she got this big smile and said, “I thought you’d never ask.”
I didn’t know what was going to come out of this, but hell if I wasn’t going to ride the wave. We were almost out of there, when we were stopped at the gate by Calvin. He had one hell of a look on his face, and he knew exactly what I was doing. Before I could tell him to piss off, he asked Eliza nicely if he could come with. She said yes, so I couldn’t be the asshole who told him no. I wanted to be that asshole, though. I was going to make the best of it. I was determined to have her one way or another. There was no other option.
5
