When Roses Collide

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Some investigator cop you are," Travis snorted. Shaking his head, he went back to reading some of the papers laid out before him. His heart dropping down into his boots as he read the endless accolades pertaining to her astounding rodeo career. Had he seriously just asked her if she could ride this afternoon?

"She's a competition rider?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"She's more than that, little brother." Ethan let his feet slid to the floor and leaned in, resting his arms on the desk. "She's more like a superstar in the rodeo world. Miss Stewart started riding local rodeo's when she was around ten years old and won. A lot. Nothing major, just local fairs and few smaller off the circuit rodeos, but she was a force to be reckoned with even back then."

Travis glanced up and saw the obvious impressed expression on Ethan's face and scowled.

"Eventually, she joined the Women's Professional Rodeo Association when she turned eighteen."

"Isn't that a little young to be in the WPRA?"

"Nope," Ethan shook his head. "It's the legal age limit. Once Miss Stewart joined, she soared to the top and stayed there. Ranking in the ten of just about every event she entered. Won a bunch of titles, monetary prizes and trucks. Hell...I bet her belt buckle collection is amazing and I wouldn't mind letting her give me a peek." Ethan gave Travis a salacious grin, oblivious to the scathing glare he was getting for his efforts.

"See here," Ethan pointed to one of the clippings. "She even took Vegas with a history breaking run on barrels. It's the fastest recorded time in the last 30 years when she completed the course in 13.23 seconds on a horse named Thor."

Travis closed his eyes against the embarrassment rising up over his offer to let her join his team. Reaching up, he tore his cowboy hat off his head, slamming it down on the desk. Why didn't she tell him then? Why let him go on and make a fool of himself? His embarrassment quickly boiled over to anger when he pictured Harley, Desi and Becca probably having a good laugh at his expense.

"Give me your laptop."

Ethan's request momentarily distracted him and he shoved it over in his direction. "What do you want that for?" he grumbled.

"I want to show you something." Ethan's fingers started to stroke the keys as he continued with his report on Harley. "She also won the NCHA, National Cutting Horse Association World Championship, on the same horse she took Vegas with. Must be one hell of a horse to be the first NFQHA stallion registered."

"NFQHA?" Travis cocked and eyebrow. There were a hell of a lot of fucking alphabets being tossed around.

"National Foundation Quarter Horse Association." Ethan glanced up from the computer screen briefly. "Apparently, Harley and her dad have built a little empire around breeding top cutting horses with original foundation bloodlines. The Gypsy Rose is damn near fucking famous, little brother. And, before you can ask, yes...she owns it."

He leveled Travis one of his serious stares. "You can't imagine what that will do for our little town if they make this their home base, economically wise. People seek them out from all over the world to breed to one of their studs or to purchase one of their horses which means more traffic for our local businesses." Ethan cocked his head to one side and focused on Travis's face. "You can breathe a sigh of relief too. Because I am a damn fine cop, I actually do have connections and from what I found out...she's loaded. So, you can relax, your bank account is safe from her feminine nefarious wiles."

"It doesn't matter. I wouldn't care if she was dirt poor. It's not about the money," Travis muttered softly, looking like he had just sucked a dozen lemons.