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“Keith Kilgore.”
The name rang a bell and for a moment he couldn’t place where he had heard it from. Then it hit him. The creepy guy’s nephew.
Shane grunted. If he was anything like his uncle, they deserved each other. He wasn’t sure what the deal between the creeper and the pretty vet had been, but he knew the doc hadn’t liked the jerk.
“Well, I wish them both the best,” Shane said, and he did.
He and Abigail had tangled in the sheets a few times after their divorce. That had never been a problem area for them. But Abigail wanted to be married to a rodeo star. She hadn’t wanted to take care of a man with a broken foot and a broken attitude. He supposed he couldn’t really blame her for that. They hadn’t married for love, they married for fun and when he stopped being fun, their marriage had been over.
“Your bulls are looking good,” Barney said.
“Thanks. We’re proud of them.”
“Competition is going to get fierce,” Barney added.
“It always does. But it’s still early in the season. Any one of these guys could be in the finals in Las Vegas.” Shane gestured to the bull riders who were hanging around the fences, waving at the crowd, waiting for the announcers to open up the event.
Some of them didn’t even look old enough to be in the arena by themselves. And now he sounded just like his old man. Next thing you knew, he’d be starting his sentences with, Kids these days.
“I don’t mean about the bull riders,” Barney said. “I’m talking about the bulls.”
“I’m not following.” Of the five bulls Shane had brought today, Sverre was the only one that had never let a rider go the full eight seconds. The other four were tough sons of bitches, though. He hoped they all put on a good show. If the UPRC liked what they saw, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that they’d ask for ten bulls next year.
“You haven’t heard yet?” Barney leaned in, rubbing his hands in glee.
Shane had a feeling he wasn’t going to like this.
“The UPRC is getting more paranoid about who they’re willing to contract with.” Squinting up at the sun, Barney shook his head. “Not to mention that they think it’s a waste of time and resources to test the bulls before every event.”
“I agree.”
“But their insurance company isn’t letting them go back to the way things were.”
“Where are you getting this from?” Shane wondered how much of this was gossip and how much of it was true.
“One of the girls in the head office and I go out for drinks now and then. And she tells me things.”
“Go on.” Shane was amused, in spite of himself. Older cowboys chattered and gossiped like little old ladies at a bridge game.
“In the near future, they’re going to have just three breeders supply them with all of the bulls.”
Son of a bitch. After all his hard work and sacrifice to get this contract, it was all going to go up in smoke because some bean counters were trying to save a buck. The Viking Ranch needed the UPRC contract. Shane had deliberately not gone with the large or mid-size rodeos this year because he wanted to give the UPRC their best bulls. Although he hadn’t burned any bridges, the other promoters weren’t happy about not getting any of the Viking Ranch’s premium bulls this season.
Maybe he shouldn’t have put all of his best eggs in one basket, but Shane had wanted to impress the UPRC so they would contract more bulls from them next year. If they were no longer interested in the Viking Ranch, Shane might have to start from the bottom of the waiting list for the larger rodeos. He couldn’t expect them to hold his place when there were several eager ranches waiting to step in and fill a gap. Hell, Shane had been one of those ranches, so he knew how it went.
“Seems to be a little short-sighted of them,” Shane said, making sure that he kept the concern out of his voice. “Part of what makes things exciting is you get different types of animal athletes depending on where they were raised, by whom, and how they were trained.”
“I think it’ll go back to the way things used to be as soon as the doping scandal isn’t so fresh in everyone’s minds, but you didn’t hear that from me.”
“It’s been a year. You would think people would have other things to talk about.”
“Well, as long as Mick Mickelson is shooting his mouth off about his career-ending injury, it’s going to be a hot topic of conversation. Although Dolly Keller seems to be on a mission to get things back on course.”
“Who?” Shane asked.
“She’s the UPRC’s head PR person. She’s Killer Keller’s sister.”
“You mean Killer Porter?”
