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because her father was an asshole.
    “I’ll take a look at the bull. Unless you’re afraid I’ll kill him.”
    Jodie’s eyes flashed up. “I’ll pay you well,” she replied automatically.
    “Damned right you will.”



CHAPTER FOUR
    S AM DROVE HOME , knowing for a fact he’d lost his mind. Okay, he needed the money—as would anyone with oversize eating machines in their home—and he honestly hated to let any creature die. But he could have talked Stan into driving up to the ranch tomorrow. Deep in his gut Sam knew the real reason he was going was because he felt for Jodie.
    Crazy. But it had also been crazy to see a woman who’d quite possibly never owned a pet in her life arguing passionately for him to come save a bull. More than that, though, he’d gotten a sense of something else…a sense that Jodie truly dreaded her father coming home and finding the bull dead. She’d been on the edge of desperation, trying to hold back tears.
    He felt sorry for Jodie De Vanti. Go figure.
    “You’re coming with me,” Sam said to Beau as soon as he got back home to switch his personal truck for the utility one.
    “Where’re we going?”
    “To the Barton ranch.”
    “But…” One look at his uncle and Beau shut his mouth.
    They rode most of the thirty miles in tense silence. Sam still wasn’t certain how he was going to handle this cheating situation, but he wanted Beau to be available when he figured it out. Yes, he was probably overreacting, but what if he screwed up raising these guys? He owed it to his brother to do it right.
    What would you do, Dave? How about a nudge in the right direction…?
    “What’s the case?” Beau finally asked.
    “Sick bull.”
    “Oh.” Another long silence ensued.
    Finally Sam couldn’t hold in the question any longer. Even though he knew the answer, he had to ask. “Why’d you cheat on the math test?”
    “Because I wanted to play.”
    “I’m glad they caught you.”
    “Everybody does it,” Beau grumbled.
    Sam at last understood why parents asked their kids, “If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?” He’d just come damned close to saying those exact words.
    His nephew shot him a look when Sam didn’t reply. “I know it doesn’t make it right.”
    “More than that, it makes it so I can’t trust you.”
    “You can trust me.”
    Sam’s jaw tightened. “Cheating on a test is the same as lying. I don’t trust people who lie.”
    Beau looked as though he wanted to argue the point, but after a few seconds he turned to stare out the window when Sam drove onto the wide gravel road leading to the Barton property. They passed under the arched metal sign announcing the Zephyr Valley Ranch. Sam would always think of the spread as Boggy Flats, its original name, but a guy like Joe Barton wouldn’t live on a place called that. The locals still smirked about the name Zephyr Valley.
    Jodie was waiting for Sam on the steps of the glassed-in back porch, hands shoved in the pockets of her coat, her body held stiffly, though whether from cold or nerves, Sam had no idea. She stepped out onto the freshly shoveled path as the truck slowed, and walked briskly to the barn. By the time he parked she was waiting for him next to the door.
    “Grab the kit,” he said to Beau before getting out of the truck. Jodie watched him approach, then opened the door and preceded him inside. The barn was wonderfully warm and smelled of fresh straw, animals and earth. Most people could barely afford to heat their houses this winter and Joe had a toasty barn. Sam had to appreciate that.
    “The bull’s down here,” Jodie said, all business as she motioned toward the paneled corrals at the back of the huge building. Sure enough, a handsome Gelbvieh bull stood hunched in a pen filled with clean straw, his head down. He didn’t move when they approached.
    “How long’s he been like this?”
    “Since this morning. Lucas found him in the pasture and brought him in.”
    “Lucas