Chapter Sixteen

Reba

Odessa, TX

Reba alternated between being pissed off and being depressed. She hated that she couldn't give Shane the time he wanted. But if someone died or an animal was killed, she'd never forgive herself. And yet, what if she did the right thing and told the UPRC everything she knew and they didn't believe her? She'd be doubly fucked. At least if she had given Shane the few days, he wouldn't be hating her right now.

"We can trust Shelby, right?" Reba said as they pulled into the Marriott parking lot where they were meeting her.

"For the tenth time, yes." Dolly checked her makeup in the rearview mirror. Flawless, as always.

"You believe Shane didn't do it, right?"

"Of course," Dolly said, sliding out of the driver's seat. "But someone did. And we need to report it before another bull rider gets hurt. Before LeAnn gets hurt."

The thought of LeAnn getting on a tampered bull made Reba want to bite her nails down to the quick. How Dylan could watch her ride after everything he had been through was beyond her.

"What if they already know about this and don't care?" LeAnn said. "What if they think we're troublemakers?"

"They better not know, because we will be troublemakers. I can guaran-damn-tee you that."

She needed to be fearless like Dolly, but Reba's knees were shaking and she felt like she was on the verge of tears. She wanted to talk to Shane. She wanted to run the hell out of here and give him the few days he asked for. She owed him her loyalty more than she did this organization. But it wasn't about her right now. It was about the safety of all the athletes and Reba needed to put on her big-girl panties and suck it up.

They walked through the lobby and got directions to the boardroom where the UPRC had set up a meeting area for pre-rodeo business.

Reba stopped Dolly from opening the door to the suite. "She needs to be discreet. Shane's livelihood is at stake. And LeAnn's life is at risk."

"Shelby will handle it," Dolly said. "She'll get to the bottom of this."

"I hope you're right," Reba muttered.

Dolly pushed open the door and walked into the room. But then she stopped dead and Reba nearly bumped into her.

"What are you doing here?" Dolly asked.

Reba peered around her shoulder and saw Nash Weaver talking with Shelby.

"Close the door and lock it," Shelby said.

That didn't sound ominous at all.

Reba locked the door as Dolly moved into the room.

"Nash is my brother," Shelby said. "He also used to be a federal agent."

"What?" Dolly stopped in her tracks.

Reba crossed her arms over her chest. "We didn't do anything wrong." This was utter bullshit.

"It's not you two I'm worried about. I don't have anything solid, but I think Jackson Blevins is doing some illegal things. Nash recently took an early retirement from the bureau, and he's helping me out."

"You're undercover?" Dolly said. "Of course. That's why I couldn't find a damned thing about your past. And why you're such a shitty bull rider."

"Hey," Nash said. "I'm not that bad."

"Yes, you are," Shelby and Dolly said together.

If Shane's family's future wasn't on the line this might actually be amusing. "So that's why you were in the restricted area," Reba said. "What were you looking for?"

Nash gave her that smile again but didn't answer her.

"Have a seat," Shelby said. "Based on what Dolly hinted at in her phone call, I wanted Nash to hear this, too."

Great, now her palms were sweating. She and Dolly sat down at the conference room table. "What exactly did Dolly tell you?" Reba asked, side-eyeing her sister.

"She said that LeAnn was in danger, and you had proof."

"And you think Jackson Blevins is trying to harm her?" Reba asked.

"Why don't you tell us what you came here to say?" Nash said.

"Why don't you back off my sister?" Dolly snapped.

"It's okay." Reba put a restraining hand on Dolly's arm. "We went to see Sverre. Dolly because she needed some footage for promo, and me because Shane Calland asked me to give his bull an exam to see why he was acting out."

Shelby leaned forward. "And what did you find?"

"I examined his blood and urine samples and there were traces of an undetermined substance along with anabolic steroids."

"What type of substance?" Nash asked.

"What do you think undetermined means?" Dolly asked.

"Dolly, please. I don't know. What I do know is that the Viking Ranch was not behind this."

"How do you know this?" Shelby asked.

"I've been to their ranch, and I've seen no sign of tampering. I also know that Shane is violently opposed to it."

"I need a sample of the blood and urine. I can get access to more sophisticated equipment that might be able to narrow down that substance," Nash said.

"I have samples in my RV under refrigeration. I can bring those to you." Reba started to get up.

"When we're done here," Shelby said. "Why did Sverre's original tests come back clean?"

"I don't know if they did," Reba said. "I wasn't allowed to complete any of them."

"You weren't?" Nash exchanged a look with his sister. "What would you have done if you found evidence that Sverre had been injected with a foreign substance?"

"The same thing that happened yesterday," Reba said, trying to keep a grip on her temper. "I would have reported it." Of course, she would have told Dolly first and freaked out about the decision.

"And Diane knew that?" Shelby asked.

Reba scoffed. "Actually, she thought I'd cover for Shane. That's why she pulled me off the testing. Dr. Victor Lance did the tests."

"Are you sure?" Nash asked.

"He was working on them when I left," Reba said. "Whether he concluded them, I don't know."

"Who else could have analyzed the samples?" Nash asked.

Reba was beginning to feel cross-examined. "Me, Victor, or Diane."

"So, either Diane or Victor are in on this," Shelby said. "Otherwise, we would have received the positive test back before now. I'm calling in an independent lab to do the tests for this weekend."

"I think that's a good idea," Reba said. "And I think that you need to call off the exhibition with LeAnn on Sverre."

"I can't completely do that," Shelby said. "We sold tickets based on Sverre and we need to give the audience a show that they'll appreciate."

"Not at the risk of my baby sister," Reba said.

"Who is another top athlete that you can't afford to risk on a bull that you know has been shot up with a substance," Dolly said.

"Although," Reba said reluctantly, "it will be out of his system by the time the rodeo starts."

"Whose side are you on?" Dolly said, exasperated.

"Look," Shelby said, "I'm going to modify Jackson's ad campaign that he wanted you to do. Instead of Killer on a killer, I want you to do a comeback story with a twist."

"What type of twist?" Dolly asked.

"I spoke to Shane Calland this morning. He's agreed to ride Sverre."

"Shane can't ride a bull," Reba said, feeling like she heard wrong. "His leg is messed up."

"He was actually eager to do it. I think he plans on beating his own bull's undefeatable streak."

Reba shook her head. "It's not safe."

"This will work out for us in several ways," Shelby said. "It will satisfy Jackson's need to cash in on Sverre's notoriety. It will satisfy our fans' need for drama. They get to see a rodeo hero come back from retirement and the stakes are either he will beat his own bull's record or Sverre will continue to be undefeated. Shane gets to assuage any rumors about tampering by agreeing to ride Sverre. If he didn't think he was safe, he wouldn't risk his life. And it gives us time to protect our athletes, both human and animal, while we investigate if any others have been drugged."

"But we know Sverre was tampered with," Reba said. "And we don't know how many others have been. The only safe thing to do is skip the bull-riding event for Odessa until we can get your independent lab results back."

But Shelby was already shaking her head. "I can't do that. The fans bought their tickets based on the bull-riding events. We can't disappoint them."

"She's right," Dolly said.

Reba glared at her sister. She hadn't wanted to trade LeAnn's safety for Shane's.

"Besides," Nash said, "I'll be more focused on your boss Diane and Dr. Victor for this rodeo. If they are covering up for the doping, we can nail them if their findings don't match what the independent lab come up with. In the meantime, I'll see if I can find out who is injecting the bulls," Nash said. "And then see if they know how Jackson is involved."

"Shane's agreed to give Nash access to his area and not to add any additional security," Shelby said.

"What makes you so sure Jackson Blevins is behind all this?" Reba asked.

"He's been making some decisions around here that are not in the best interest of the rodeo," Shelby said. "If I had known some of the things he had been planning, I wouldn't have merged the two organizations. If we can't make up some of the money that we've lost and if I can't stop the egregious spending and bad policies, the UPRC could go under."

"You may want to reconsider only having three exclusive breeders providing the stock supply then," Reba muttered.

"Wait," Shelby said. "What are you talking about?"

Reba stared at her. How could she not know about this? "Shane was offered one of three exclusive contracts to be the UPRC's sole stock supplier for bulls for the next five years."

Shelby was already shaking her head. "That's not something we've discussed or agreed on."

"I'm not lying." Reba stood up in anger.

Shelby looked puzzled. "I believe you."

Shock replaced anger and Reba sat down. "You do?"

"Yes."

"About everything?"

"Yes."

Reba took in a shaky breath. "Just like that?"

"Just like that," Shelby said and the kindness in her voice had tears pricking at the corners of Reba's eyes.

"As far as I know, Shane's already signed the contract though," Reba said.

Nash and Shelby exchanged another one of their grim looks. "Who are the other two breeders?" Nash asked.

"I don't know," Reba said. "Shane was asked to keep it quiet until they announced it."

"Thank you," Shelby said. "I'll look into it. And thank you for being so open and honest. It couldn't have been easy to report your boyfriend's bull."

It hadn't been, but not because Reba didn't want to be open and honest.

"We need you to keep quiet about the false reports so you don't tip our hand and spook the bad guys," Nash said.

It was working out just how Shane wanted it. The doping report would be kept under wraps, and the UPRC would be actively searching out who did this.

"I can help with the testing."

Shelby shook her head. "Not this time. We don't want them to know about the independent lab either until it's too late for them to do anything about it. Just do whatever Diane tells you to do. You can keep an eye out on Victor if you're discreet."

"I can do that." What she really wanted to do was keep Shane off that bull, off any bull really.

"Because of the nature of Nash's involvement, we're not going to be able to keep you informed. Please keep this meeting and Nash's purpose a secret. If Jackson is involved in something more serious than trying to make the rodeo more exciting—" Shelby used finger quotes to offset the last word. "I want to make sure we can obtain solid evidence before going to the authorities."

"We can keep our mouths shut," Dolly said.

Nash snorted, which earned him a death glare from Dolly.

"When Jackson has a shit-fit about it being Shane instead of LeAnn on that bull, I'll make sure he knows it was me who overrode his decision. You shouldn't see any fallout from it, but if you do, let me know immediately, and I'll put a stop to it," Shelby said to Dolly.

"Thanks," Dolly said.

As they got up to leave, Reba decided to put all her cards on the table. "One other thing," she said.

Shelby raised her eyebrow. "I'm almost afraid to hear this."

Almost as much as I'm afraid to tell you.

"There's a new bull breeder who may be looking to work with the UPRC. His name is Chuck Kilgore."

Shelby frowned and then clicked a few keys on her laptop. "Yes. I see his application right here."

Reba froze. Her boyfriend was a rival breeder. No one in their right mind would believe her. They would think she was trying to hurt Shane's competition. No, that was Dr. Kilgore still renting space in her head. It didn't matter if they didn't believe her. It was past time that she told her truth. And she would keep telling her truth until someone believed her. "I used to work for him. He's got anger management issues and his office was toxic. He got violent and would throw things. He…" Reba swallowed and looked at Dolly. Dolly reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. "He threw a vase that shattered against the wall. It cut my face. While I was still recovering from the shock, he grabbed my shoulders and kissed me."

"He fucking did what?" Dolly shouted.

"He had always been handsy, giving unwanted shoulder massages and shit like that. I think when he kissed me, he was trying to control me rather than anything sexual, but…" Reba shrugged. "I don't know."

"Did you press charges?" Nash growled.

"I reported him to the veterinarian bureau. They didn't believe me and closed the case against him. He threatened to ruin my life if I pursued it. So I didn't. I'm bringing this up now because if you do hire him as one of your breeders, make sure he isn't alone with any women workers. And I wanted you to have a heads-up about his behavior."

"Thank you," Shelby said. "For what it's worth, I believe you. And I will be very careful in my dealings with him."

This time, a few tears slipped out. Reba didn't call attention to them by swiping them away. But she didn't trust her voice either. So she just nodded.

Dolly didn't let go of her hand until they were back by the RV. Nash had followed them out to get the samples. While Reba was getting them from inside, she heard Dolly ask Nash, "I don't suppose you can give me advice on how to set up a sting operation to nail that asshole's pecker to a wall?"

"Are we talking figuratively or literally?" Nash asked.

Reba came out carrying the samples in a cooler. She saw Dolly shrug one shoulder. "Whichever."