Canyon Shadows by Harper Vonna Page B

repositioned the holster that was nearly a twin of the one Maco wore. “It’s a shame that’s not all we have to worry about.”
    “No shit. Everything from manpower to payroll to—”
    “Hell, that’s the easy part. We’ve done that before.”
    Maco wiped away more sweat, then settled his hat back into place. As often happened, touching the wide brim mentally returned him to the Durant Ranch of his childhood. Before winter, somehow, he’d return to the three hundred–plus acres of mostly fenced land and soak in the awe-inspiring Gore Range to the west. Fill the emotional well, so to speak. “Don’t tell me you’re talking about those letters to the editors.”
    “Unfortunately. Those jokers call themselves environmentalists, but that’s because they’re hoping they won’t get labeled terrorists. How the hell many of them are there? Threatening to blow things up—does it occur to them that people could get killed, people like you and me? Besides, it’s not as if the water’s going to feed some damn urban sprawl.”
    “We’ve had this conversation,” he pointed out. “The two of us aren’t going to change their minds. If we try, they’ll probably turn our words against us.”
    “Which is why we decided not to talk to the press. I don’t know. Maybe we’re right to let the politicians handle the PR, but maybe we need to put a human spin on the whole situation. If we don’t step forward and present ourselves as two ordinary men who happen to be providing jobs for two dozen locals, the environmentalists won’t get that part. To repeat, someone could get killed.”
    Reminded of the need to protect the site, he echoed his younger brother’s concern. “What about the guard dogs?” he asked. “Until yesterday it didn’t occur to me that they could be in trouble.”
    “Occupational hazard? Forget I said that. It isn’t funny. It takes a long time to train a dog. No wonder they cost as much as they do. More to the point, we’re both saps for dogs. We’d hate to have anything happen to them.”
    “What choice do we have?” He’d already been asking himself the question but wanted to run it past his brother.
    “None,” Jason muttered. “Short of surrounding the place with armed guards, which wouldn’t exactly endear us to the locals and cost more than we can afford. Do you think ... ?”
    “Do I think what?” Maco pressed.
    “Shari Afton nearly lost a dog yesterday. Maybe she’s changed her mind about having anything to do with us.”
    “Maybe. She said she’d be out here mid-afternoon. I don’t know whether to ask her that. I was afraid the engineers would still be here and I couldn’t give her my full attention.”
    “Oh, I think you’d find a way.”
    Catching the change in his brother’s tone, he turned from the canyon. Born fifteen months after him, Jason was an inch taller and maybe twenty pounds heavier with lighter hair and a nose that had been permanently rearranged during a college wrestling match. For reasons no one in the family could figure out, Jason was the only bowlegged one in the bunch. After all, they’d all spent equal time on horseback.
    Beyond the physical, Jason was quicker to jump to conclusions and usually first to come to a decision—not always the right one but close. Jason also found it harder to admit when he’d made a mistake, not that that often happened. Although he’d never tell his kid brother, Maco believed Jason had more gray matter under his skull. That’s what had made Jason his first choice among the four other Durant sons to join him in Mustang Construction. As he’d once told their father, Jason could be scary smart, but that meant his sibling often knew what he was thinking.
    “This is business,” Maco reminded Jason—and maybe himself. “The only thing that matters is making sure she provides us with the dogs we need and that they do their part.”
    “That’s why you kept talking about her last night? As I recall, her