AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Willard Vesper,” he replied, turning from his task momentarily to give her a little nod and bow. “I have a ranch about fifteen minutes from town. I can’t say I venture in often.”
“Right. Vesper.” She muttered the name a few times, while trying to remember if she knew him. The name wasn’t familiar. “And what are the flyers for? Hosting a cattle show at your place?”
He laughed, but like his smile, it sounded hollow. “The overproduction of cattle ranches and farms is one of the key reasons our world is in such bad shape. I would never commercially operate a cattle ranch, though I own a few rescue cows I’ve saved from slaughter houses.”
Her eyebrows shot up. His voice had a preachy quality to it that made her want to grab one of those tacks and stick it in his forehead. “Oh.”
Maida stood and grabbed one of the flyers from the corkboard—Willard was starting to cover flyers that had already been there with ones of his own, as though he planned to dominate the entire board. As Espie looked around the empty café, his minions had practically wallpapered the place in neon sheets of paper.
“You can’t be serious with this…” The tremor in Maida’s tone drew Espie back, and she quickly joined her best friend’s side, scanning the document in her hand. Slowly, with each word processed, her eyes widened to the point that they were ready to pop right out of her head.
“What the fuck is this?” she demanded, grabbing the paper from Maida and placing her body between Willard and the corkboard. “My family runs the resort you’re blasting, here.”
While the paper color may have suggested something far less ominous, such as a rave at the town bar Saturday night, Willard Vesper was on the Angel Fire committee that was protesting the presence of the mining corporation and her family’s resort.
“Oh, really?” He scanned her up and down, almost brazenly, but wouldn’t step out of her personal space—after she had invaded his, of course. “I take it you’re Espie Ruiz? The daughter?”
“Yeah, I’m the daughter.” She turned and yanked down all the flyers within reach. “And our resort is an Angel Fire institution.”
“It’s an ecological nightmare,” he snapped before finally easing away. “And the community has a right to fight its insipid encroachment on the mountain range and the false ownership it claims over the natural hot springs. There are many of us who are also against your continued construction of cabins into the natural forest on the edge of your property. We have every right to protest it.”
As if he had snapped his fingers, his minions flocked back to his side. Espie stood silent, trembling, her inner bear snarling and eager to wipe the foul look off Willard’s face.
With one final up and down sweep of his eyes, Willard turned and stalked out of the café, lackeys at his heels. The silence that followed only heightened the thunder of her racing heart.
“What the hell was that?” Maida demanded. They both appeared to be in equal states of shock, although Espie wore her anger more plainly than her best friend.
Without a word, they both hurried around the café, gathering up every slip of neon bullshit they could find, dumping them all into the back office’s shredder pile. Espie could get behind people protesting the mining corporations that were honing in on Angel Fire’s natural local landmarks. Hell, they were stealing and ruining the environment. She would lead the protest parade if there was one. But she wasn’t about to let some jerk spread lies about her family’s business. Not on her watch.
