Dalton and Gavin looked at each other and laughed. “Nice try, bro. See ya at the table.”
Keely, Gavin, Tell, Cam, Dalton and Kane made it to the final table. Ben offered to act as the dealer.
“So, we have any side bets goin’?” Kade asked.
“If I stay in longer than Cam, he’s taking all of our kids so me’n Jack can have a night out. If a miracle happens and he stays in longer than me, I have to take his girls and mine fishing. No men allowed, which means I’ll be baiting hooks and removing hooks.” She shuddered.
Laughter.
“No one else?”
Dalton and Tell smirked at each other but said nothing.
“Well, I ain’t gonna say who the odds on favorite is—Gavin cough cough—because he gambles with so much money every day. But if you’re feelin’ lucky, Ainsley is takin’ bets on who’ll take home the cash pot.” Ben shuffled the cards. “Here we go.”
At first everyone played conservatively. Then Tell bluffed his way to a win, which kicked in Kane and Cam’s competitive sides. Unfortunately for them, they were suckered in by Tell’s manipulation and they went out. Keely lasted a few more hands before she was down to zero chips. Gavin went all in with a full house eights high. But it wasn’t enough to beat Dalton’s full houses nines high over sevens.
So it came down to Dalton and Tell. Dalton let Tell think they were evenly matched as he kept dinging him for a few bucks here and there until Tell was down to two hundred bucks.
Dalton bluffed, knowing Tell would see through it. Tell won the hand and got a little overconfident. Dalton bluffed a few more times and lost several hands, but not in a row.
When Dalton was sitting on three aces and a pair of queens, he glanced over to see a hard set to Tell’s jaw, which meant he was trying his damndest not to grin.
Gotcha.
Odds were Dalton had Tell’s hand beat. Tell most likely didn’t have a royal flush since Dalton held an ace and a queen from two suits. So unless Tell was holding onto four kings or four jacks…
Dalton said, “Check.”
Tell looked at his chips and pushed them into the center. “All in.”
A chorus of oohs rang out.
Dalton looked as his cards, unfanned them into a single pile and set them on the table.
“To you, Dalton,” Ben reminded him.
He shoved his chips into the middle of the table. “All in.”
Tell spread his cards out and grinned. “Read ’em and weep, bro. Hate to hand you another public loss, but there it is.” Tell had a spade flush queen high.
“As purty as that little flush is? It don’t beat this, does it?” Dalton flipped over his cards one at a time…and his family alternately cheered and booed.
“Thank you.” Dalton scooped all the chips to his side of the table.
“But…” Tell said, completely shocked. “I know all your tells.”
“You knew all my tells. Been a long time since we’ve played cards.”
Everyone surrounded Dalton, congratulating him. Someone said, “Speech,” and Dalton knew the time had come.
“Thanks for inviting me to the poker game and handing over all your money.”
Boos rang out.
Kane drawled, “Whatcha been up to since you’ve been back besides practicing polishing your poker hand?”
“Usin’ my handyman skills renovating my friend’s house. And another opportunity has come along and I’ve already started to pursue it.”
He watched his brothers exchange a confused look.
“Which is what?” Cam asked.
“Remember that section of land I bought from the Fox family? The two hundred acres between Tell’s place, and where the upper half borders Quinn and Ben’s section, and the lower half borders Gavin’s land?”
“Yeah? What about it? You gonna put a casino on there?” Colt teased.
“No. I’ve applied for a permit for the state’s pilot program for commercial elk farming.”
Laughter broke out.
“Good one, Dalton, you almost had us there,” Cord said.
“I’m not kidding. I already filed all the appropriate paperwork with the state.”
“Please tell me you’re doin’ this so if you do get picked you can let it sit there fallow to show the state they can’t mess in our livelihood,” Quinn demanded.
Dalton shook his head. “I’m dead serious. That chunk of land is perfect. It’s rugged and hilly. I’ve got the means to build the required fence. I’ve got game supplier contacts in Montana.”
“Is that why you put a new paddle lock on the gate?” Tell asked.
“One of the reasons. I hauled some fencing down there that I didn’t want anyone messin’ with.”
“Do you have any idea how much damage a herd of elk can do to grazing land? Not to mention how freakin’ much feed it takes to sustain them. And if they can’t find that feed in the fenced-in area, well, where the hell do you think they’re gonna go lookin’ for it?” Ben demanded.
Colby, Cord and Colt jumped in to back Quinn and Ben. All talking at once, yelling at him about what a big mess he was making of everything.
Brandt and Tell stared at him, clearly unhappy that he’d brought this up in front of the entire family.
The words selfish and irresponsible and childish, vindictive and troublemaker were tossed around, hitting him center mass just like goddamned daggers.
He needed to get the fuck out of here now.
The noise escalated to the point the only thing that cut it was Keely’s shrill whistle.
“Enough!” Keely shouted. “Hurling accusations isn’t helping.”
“Don’t see why the hell you’re even getting involved,” Cord snapped at Keely. “You don’t have a stake in the ranch and it ain’t gonna affect your life at all.”
Colby and Colt backed him. Then Quinn and Ben joined in and Cam had to break it up.
“Knock it the hell off! Jesus. I’da stayed home if I wanted to referee pointless bickering.”
“Then stay out of it, little brother. Because you don’t have a stake in the ranch anymore either,” Colt said hotly.
“Take a deep breath, Colt,” Kane said.
“The hell I will. And why are you and Kade sitting on the sidelines? This’ll affect you too.”
“It’s not like we could get a word in edgewise,” Kade said, “Which is par for the course lately. You, Colby and Cord just talk over the rest of us anyway, because your opinion is the only one that matters, right?”
Fuck. This was getting ugly and it was just the beginning.
Gavin stepped forward. “Let me speak.”
Dalton waited for someone to point out he didn’t have a stake in the ranch, and he wasn’t even technically a McKay. But no one chimed in.
That’s because they respect him.
“I’m not a rancher. But I do think you guys are getting all bent out of shape about something that might never happen. Dalton applied for the permit. That’s it. That doesn’t mean he’ll get it. So the time to hold the discussions about elk escaping and affecting grazing land and hay stores is not now.”
A few grumbles, but everyone quieted down.
But Quinn wouldn’t let it go. “So where do you stand, Gavin?”
It appeared Gavin would hedge and Dalton didn’t blame him. He didn’t want to get into it with his brothers either. So Gavin’s response shocked the shit out of him.
“If we’re making these lines or whatever purely on border issues, then this elk farm would affect almost my entire acreage. And to be honest, the land I own has been a point of contention in this family for a number of years. Everyone has approached me on how to improve it, how to make it cattle friendly. I listened. But no one actually stepped up and gave me a solid plan on why I ought to draw up an official lease agreement. Except for Dalton.”
Dalton felt all eyes on him while his remained on the floor.
“He drew up a workable, sustainable plan. Timetables for the clearing process, a growth chart of the number of head in the herd year by year, even when portions of it would remain fallow so it wouldn’t be overgrazed. He asked for a five-year lease, which would go into effect after the improvements were made on the land—improvements which were promised to be made on his dime.”
A moment of quiet. “Dalton. When did you do all that?” Brandt asked.
“Four years ago,” Gavin answered. “At the time Dalton was confident with the addition of Georgia and Jessie into the McKay workforce all the brush could be cleared and improvements made within six months.”
“Why didn’t we know any of this?” Ben asked.
“Because the contract was between me and Dalton, since technically he was the sole owner of the chunk of land that bordered mine.”
“Is that why you asked me if we had any plans for it?” Quinn asked.
“Yes. And you told me neither you nor Ben had the time nor the inclination to do what needed to be done to make that piece of land useable for your operation.” Gavin rubbed the skin between his eyes. “When a full year rolled around and no improvements had been made because Dalton couldn’t do it by himself and didn’t have the help he’d counted on, he approached me, requesting that we void the contract. He didn’t want me to be beholden to it and lose out on an opportunity to lease the land to someone else in case it came up.
“I’m sorry, that is not the action of a selfish man. Or a childish man. Or a vindictive man. Or a goddamned troublemaker. I don’t know who tossed out that accusation because that’s one thing Dalton isn’t. Maybe he was wild as a kid—I can’t say because I didn’t know him then. But I know him now, and in case you haven’t been paying attention, he’s not a kid anymore. He’s a man trying to make a living like all of you. Takes a lot of guts to show up here, after being gone from the family fold for a number of years, and share his plans. He didn’t have to. He did it out of courtesy and respect for all of you and you’ve shown him none in return. None.”