Chapter 1 #2
Mav pondered the unusual request. Despite Jordyn’s question, it wasn’t unheard of for them to have to sign NDAs.
Hunt Ranch was one of the few luxury guest ranches in California.
They were located on two thousand acres in beautiful Santa Barbara County, less than three hours from Los Angeles.
So, they had their fair share of photoshoots and film location bookings.
Their prices reflected the value of the amenities, which, at least in Mav’s mind, included the guests’ privacy.
But the NDAs were usually only for those staff who would be directly working with the celebrity guests, not the entire staff, which included over one hundred full- and part-time employees.
‘While we are not expecting any trouble, I need you to be aware of everyone coming and going while she’s here.’
‘Why?’ Lucas, their event planner, asked.
‘She was assaulted in her home last week.’
Lucas raised both brows. ‘Well … shit.’
‘I don’t know much,’ Sierra continued, ‘but according to her agent, the police haven’t identified her attacker yet. They suspect he might have been a stalker. Or just plain crazy. Probably both.
‘If any of you feel uncomfortable with the situation, I need you to say so now. Otherwise, from the moment she arrives to the moment she leaves, you’re all deaf and dumb.’
‘We need to be able to tell the wranglers.’ Benji didn’t even bother addressing Sierra. He spoke to Mav. ‘They’re always armed. They know this land. And no city nutjob could one-up any of them.’
‘This is not a protection detail,’ Sierra argued instantly. ‘We’re only guaranteeing her privacy while she’s here. Everything else, including security, is up to her—’
‘Before you two start,’ Jordyn interjected, ‘could you wrap this up for the rest of us?’
Sierra didn’t even bother denying it. She passed out the wads of printed NDAs. ‘I need these back by tomorrow, prior to check-in. If any staff are off and coming in later in the week, get them to sign them the moment they step foot on the property.’
‘Now I’m super curious,’ Deb, Lucas’s assistant, commented. ‘Who is it?’
Sierra smiled. ‘Nina Keller.’
Confused by the stunned silence that followed, Mav looked over his shoulder, and seeing the awestruck expressions on nearly everyone’s faces, spoke for the first time since the meeting had started. ‘What?’ When no response was forthcoming, he added, ‘Who is she?’
Jordyn slowly turned to gawk at him. ‘You live under a rock?’ She seemed to remember who she was talking to and added, ‘You know what, never mind.’
‘She’s only like the Hollywood golden girl right now!’ Deb exclaimed. ‘Oh my God!’ She clapped her hands together excitedly. Stopped almost immediately. ‘Wait. You said she was assaulted?’
Sierra held up both hands. ‘I don’t know the details.
But she’s coming here to take some time off, which means,’ she said, looking pointedly at Deb, ‘no fawning, no gawking, no harassing for pictures or autographs. As far as we are concerned, she is just another guest, paying to stay at our luxury resort.’ She zeroed in on Mav.
‘I asked her to arrive around two-thirty so she could check in discreetly. She already signed the liability waiver via email, but if you could check her in, show her around?’
Mav nodded.
‘That’s it for today,’ Sierra said, ending the meeting. As people started filtering out of her office, she called after them, ‘Please read the notes on each guest! Jordyn! David Morgan is allergic to peanuts!’
‘Got it!’ Jordyn called back before disappearing down the hall.
Benji was last to leave, and it was only when he already had one foot out of the door that Sierra snapped, ‘You don’t want to discuss the wranglers?’
Benji stopped in the doorway. He turned slowly. He searched Sierra’s face for a long moment, but when his look was met with cold, unflinching resistance, he turned to Mav. ‘Let me know about the wranglers.’
Mav nodded. He waited for Benji’s footsteps to sound down the hall before standing and closing the door.
This time, when he took his seat, Sierra dropped her head into her hands. ‘I know,’ she murmured. ‘You don’t have to tell me. I know. I’ll try harder.’
There were so many things he wanted to say, so many things she needed to hear.
Only, when faced with the burden of it, Mav couldn’t bring himself to open the conversation.
His own guilt weighed his tongue down, stopping those particular words in his throat.
‘It’s not a bad idea to bring the wranglers in,’ he said instead. ‘If this woman—’
‘Do you really not know who Nina Keller is?’ Sierra asked, her frustration as clear as her desire to change the subject.
‘Does it matter?’ Mav countered.
She ignored his question. ‘Escaping Juárez? Killer Mistress? The Dogs of Despair?’
‘Movies?’ he guessed.
‘Very good, Mav,’ she replied sarcastically.
‘Sierra, the last movie I watched was Barbie. It was two hours long. And Poppy didn’t even understand most of it. She just liked the songs and colours. So, unless this Nina Keller played Barbie—’
‘Oh my God, you don’t even know who Margot Robbie is.’ She looked genuinely devastated.
‘… Barbie?’
Sierra let her head fall back on a groan. ‘I worry about you. Truly.’
Maverick pushed to his feet, Sierra’s neat notes and the NDAs rolled in his hands. ‘I’m going to ask Benji not to come to the meetings anymore,’ he said, redirecting them momentarily. ‘I think the distance will be good for you both.’
‘It’s been eight months.’ Her eyes glassed over instantly. ‘Time isn’t going to fix anything. Just leave it alone.’
Mav didn’t walk around her desk and hug her as he might have once, knowing Sierra wouldn’t have welcomed it. She wanted – needed – to pretend that everything was fine. But pretending only got a person so far. Sierra was a dam wall in a flood; she was just waiting to break.
Still, because he would always be on her side, he asked, ‘Do you want me to tell him to leave?’
‘No. I wouldn’t do that. To him. Or to you.’
‘I would understand. Shit, so would he.’ But his heart broke for her. For both of them. Sierra might have been his little sister, but Benji was his brother in every way that counted.
He and Benji had been best friends since first grade.
They’d laughed together, cried together, bled together.
A decade ago, when Maverick had decided to diversify the ranch after his parents’ death, it had been Benji who had come back to help him build.
When his ex, Shannon, had left him with a newborn, it had been Benji who had been the first to come and help, even though he’d known as much about babies as Mav had – zero.
So, while Mav’s loyalty belonged to his sister, his heart had torn equally in two when they had broken up.
‘Was there anything else?’ Sierra asked, but she turned back to her computer and began clacking away without waiting for a reply.
Anything else? Mav thought. There was everything else. But one glance at his sister’s rigid posture and tightly composed face had him replying, ‘No. Nothing else. I’ll see you at home later.’
He whistled, waking Shadow and calling the dog to his side.
And he left.
Needing to get away from the tightness in his own chest, Maverick went straight to the barn.
The familiar smell of the horses was enough to ease some of the pressure, as always. Mav, who wasn’t very talkative or very social, had always preferred animals to people. Animals only gave. And if you understood them and were kind to them, they gave you their all, always.
He watched as the horsemen – women included – worked, cleaning out hooves, brushing out coats, manes, and tails, and stalling and feeding those horses that were on grain or various supplements.
He joined in, working alongside them wordlessly until the last horse had been seen to, and only then did he detour to the new rescue.
The mare had been stalled to keep her fed and safe from the other horses until they could figure out which of the various herds she could be turned out with.
There were bound to be some bites and kicks as the animals reconfigured their pecking order to accommodate her, but Mav wouldn’t put her through it until she could hold her own.
The mare stood in the corner of the stall, her head hanging low, her bony hipbones nearly poking through her skin.
Her pale coat was covered in mud, her white-blonde mane and tail knotted in ugly bunches.
Superficial slices and gouges marred her, and Maverick knew he would only find more once he eventually got her clean. Her eyes …
Her eyes were so soulful and sad – until she saw him. Then she arched her neck back, moving her face as far away from him as she could, even though he hadn’t opened her stall door yet. Her eyes rolled back until he saw their whites. It was pure, wild terror.
Looking at her didn’t even make him sad. It made him angry. He knew that pain begot pain and that some people were never given the chance to be kind, and still, he didn’t understand how anyone could break a spirit so routinely, so thoroughly.
‘No need to be dramatic,’ he said at plain speaking volume.
He talked to her while he mixed her food and supplements. When he was done, he opened her stall door. He stepped inside, all the while breathing deeply and audibly, and without looking at her, emptied her grain into the feeding tray.
He stood with his back to her as he mixed it with his hands, but it was only when she edged closer to him and snorted that he angled his body, creating a wide opening for her to access the grain.
Maverick talked to her the entire time, saying useless things like, ‘I know you’re hungry,’ ‘You’re so pretty.
’ And when she took that last step and came abreast of him to eat, ‘Good girl.’
He saw Benji standing at the stall door out of the corner of his eye, said, ‘She’s not feral,’ as he reached out one hand and patted the mare’s neck. ‘Someone loved this horse once – before she got passed down the line.’
‘Yeah,’ he agreed. ‘She’s only hurting.’
‘Did you manage to do her hooves yet?’
‘Cleaned them myself. Took me a goddamn hour, even with the sedative.’
‘Are they in bad shape?’
‘Mostly looks like a bit of overgrowth. No bad chipping or abscesses.’
Maverick nodded as he continued to stroke the horse’s neck. ‘We should name her at some point.’
‘Let one of the guests do it,’ Benji suggested. ‘They always get a kick out of it.’
‘Yeah. Good idea.’
A silence followed, and Mav, knowing that Benji was very rarely quiet, calmly stroked the horse as his friend figured out what he wanted to say.
It didn’t take him long.
‘I’m moving on, Mav. She needs space, and I can’t … I can’t be close and not reach out.’
Maverick nodded slowly, though the pain came back in full force. ‘Where will you go?’
‘I don’t know. Haven’t figured that out yet. But I have enough saved up to get by for a long while. Figured I’d travel, maybe wrangle a few temp jobs along the way to keep Diablo in work.’
At mention of his name, Benji’s dun Mustang, Diablo, poked his head over his stall door behind them. He snorted.
Benji turned to face him. ‘I wasn’t talking to you. Don’t be nosy.’
Diablo stared at him for a long moment before turning his butt pointedly in Benji’s direction.
Maverick laughed. ‘That horse has you wrapped around his hoof.’
Benji only shrugged. ‘He always has.’ He dusted the stall door distractedly. ‘Anyway, I figured I’d work through the summer. Give you time to find my replacement. Head out at the end of August.’
‘I hate to see you go.’
‘Yeah.’ Benji glanced away, cleared his throat. ‘But we both know I can’t stay.’
‘I think you and Sierra need to sit down and talk. Fight. Just speak to each other! It might help.’
Benji only shook his head. ‘Our kid died, Mav. Nothing is going to help.’ He tapped the door once before stepping back, repeated, ‘August,’ before turning and walking away.