Hunter himself spent the next three hours on and off the phone with various employees having them do the research he needed done. He had even called his father and Harrison who’d conferenced in his son’s and they’d brain stormed for a bit. He told them he’d promised Angel he’d have information for her the next evening. Then he’d told them about the Kingsley situation and about Gwen confronting them in Angelo’s. Harrison cut in saying “Yes, I received a message from Giovanni saying Angelo refused to serve Gwen after her behavior. It appears Angelo thinks Angel is an angel and does no wrong.”
Angel spent the night setting up her home office; the furniture had been placed where she and Deanna had decided it would maximize the rooms appeal. She noted while she’d been away Deanna had hung the curtains and moved the rest of the furniture to the correct positions. Angel began setting up her new laptop and wiring in her TV and phone system to it. Once she had everything setup, she headed up to her room for a quick shower then headed to bed. Even, lying down didn’t shut down her brain enough for sleep to come. It was an hour later before she finally drifted off to sleep.
When her alarm went off at 5 a.m. she was still groggy, a quick shower later she dressed in a new pair of yoga shorts, a tank top and her velour track jacket. The home gym she had finished yesterday, was setup in what would have been considered a pool house, it was attached to the house but there was access from outside the house as well. She had told Grant he and the men could feel free to use it. When she strolled, in they were already working out.
She told them good morning briefly before getting onto the treadmill to run. She had learned early she could get out most of her frustrations by running or sparring. It was her outlets. Working out had taken up the extra time she’d had that she could have used to mess up her life. She spent an hour running on the treadmill she noticed that every once, in a while, they would glance over to see if she were still at it. When she climbed off it and wiped her face, Grant glanced at the digital display and said, “You ran a mile in under five minutes?” Angel laughed and said, “I had nothing better to do growing up.” No one even batted an eyelash when she began doing pull ups, it was when she started doing them one handed that the looks began again.
After she had finished, she said “Exercise is a good stress reliever, where I came from it was find an outlet or end up in prison. I preferred being on the outside.” It was Devon one of Grant’s men who said, “I just realized something.” At their questioning look, he said “Angel could probably kick my ass.” To which Angel laughed and said “I feel better, and my days go better when I have taken the time to work out.
Speaking of which, when you are all done come up to the house, I’ll have some breakfast ready.” That said she walked out the door. Grant looked at his men and said “That’s one tough girl going there. I know grown men who can’t do a single pull up much less one handed. She’s fit for sure; it’s good though she needs the outlet as hard as she’s running herself.”
Angel took a quick shower then dressed in jeans her boots and a t-shirt; she grabbed her leather coat to wear with it. She made a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage links, bacon, biscuits and some fruit before calling the men in over the two-way. She called Cody and told him to come up to the main house as well. By the time, they’d entered she had a fresh pot of coffee brewed and fresh squeezed orange juice. They all sat around the large island in the kitchen on stools eating. When she had everything cleaned up it was time to go.
She grabbed her jacket and purse and headed for the door. She was met by Grant who would be tagging along for the ride. Cody had hired several hands for the ranch and four of them would be coming along for the ride. They were just picking up the new trailers today. They had ordered five of them, Cody was driving one truck and two of the hands the others. She and Grant rode with Cody, to the dealership to pick them up.
When they arrived, they were led into the back of the warehouse where five brand new state of the art trailers were, they were two-toned with black and silver and the Wild Creek Ranch logo emblazoned on the side. They had cooling units so the horses wouldn’t overheat and heating units so they didn’t get cold, they were beautiful, but then again, they should be they’d cost enough. She noticed the hands were staring at them in wordless shock. She looked at Cody and asked, “Everything in order?” It was an hour later before they made it home and the hands would be unloading their trailers and heading back to get the other two.
When they arrived, she noted that her grandparent’s vehicle was here as well as her aunts, and Deanna. She excused herself and made her way inside. Her family were all sitting in the living area chatting, she imagined Deanna was off working somewhere.
When she entered all the chatting stopped and her grandma Belle said “We heard about the project you want to start. We’d like to be a part of that if you’d let us, it can be a joint venture for us all.” Ellen said evenly “We don’t want to control it, just to contribute to it, and help plan any fundraising it would need get awareness of it out there and let people know what its purpose is.” She’d never been more, proud to be part of any family in her life. She said, “I’m supposed to get the information from Dad tonight, so why don’t we meet tomorrow and discuss it when we have all the details, he’s supposed to find a listing of smaller ranch’s that are for sale that can be used for the therapy/rehab center.”
She paused then said, “I’m going to run this by Cody, and get his opinion as well; he might know someone who would be good for this project.” Once everyone was on board, her grandma Marigold asked, “Would you like to go to lunch with us today?” She told her truthfully, “I’d love too but I have so much to get done around here.
Why don’t we make that meeting tomorrow a lunch meeting? We can discuss everything over lunch. Where would be a good place to make reservations?” Belle said, “You just leave that to us dear and you get your work done.” Angel made her way to her office and then remembered she wanted to talk to Cody, so she headed out to the stables, he and the hands were getting the stalls ready for the horse’s they predicted would be bought that night.
She said “Cody, can I run something by you quickly?” Once they were outside the barn she said evenly “I’ve been considering a project, a therapy slash rehab center that at-risk kids, injured kids and adults can go to, they can take care of the horse’s their responsibility, and they can learn to ride. Albeit I know nothing about riding a horse, but I think it’d be a good way to help people.
I’m looking for a smaller ranch that can be used for this purpose, it would take a while to get it setup and places built to a specific standard, but I was kind of hoping you might know someone who would be good at this.” Cody stared at her in shock, the kid did like to get things going for sure, but her idea, and it was a damn good one. He did know someone who might be good at it too.
He said “I know a man, he’s an ex-rodeo man, he is married has a couple kids, their kids are at the age where rodeo isn’t so easy anymore. So, he’s looking to settle down somewhere to raise his family. He’s a good horse man he’d make a good riding teacher for western saddle. His wife she’s good with kids, maybe you could talk to them run your ideas by them. Kyle, he knows all about being a troubled youth, he got into a spot of trouble himself as a kid. He came from the wrong side of the tracks people said he’d never amount to nothing, but he proved them all wrong.” Angel nodded and said, “Do you think you could get him to come out here for a meeting?” Cody nodded and when they parted, she felt like she was accomplishing something finally.
She spent the next few hours doing research herself, on things they would need for the center, so she would have a better idea of size and concept. It was going on five when she heard a knock at the door; she glanced up to see Cody who said “We need to get going Angel, the auctions over an hour and half away. I figured we could grab something at one of the fast-food joints for a quick dinner. Angel nodded and grabbed her jacket and purse to follow him out.
She’d been researching good racing stock as well. With her photographic memory she would be able to tell if any of these horses took after their dam and sire. They were just reaching the door when her father walked through it, he said “Ready?” at their nod, they all climbed into the truck. And thankfully it was a crew cab truck with four opening doors.
Cody explained they were bringing three of the rigs in case they needed them. The drive was uneventful her father told her some of the things he had found out and Cody sounded off with his input at times. Grant was his usual quiet self, watching everything around them.
They stopped in at the burger joint closest to the auction house and ate before heading off to secure parking space for all three of their rigs. When they arrived, they followed Cody inside to register, where she paid the registration fee, and handed Cody their number. They walked around viewing the horses that would be up for auction, she saw several she thought would be good, but Cody would point out something that wasn’t right or good. Cody himself had picked out ten horses that would do well on the ranch, he’d picked out three mares he wanted for breeding, and seven males that had good racing stock in their blood.
None were winners yet, but they came from winners. She saw Cody’s eyes catch on two different horses’ that he didn’t tell her anything about, when she asked, he had told her that the bidding for them would go really high. To which she’d said easily “Cody let me decide what I can pay okay, you get us the best there is. I’ll worry about paying the bill.”
They had the top of the line, goose neck horse trailers that carried six horses each, he’d picked out ten horses and she wanted the two others Cody had liked. But two caught her attention, and Cody said “Their high dollar horse’s they’ve won races before. The owner is going bankrupt, mismanagement of their ranch, so their having to sell.” She leaned forward and whispered something into his ear his eyes got huge, but he nodded that he understood. When the auction got started, she sat next to Cody and her father, Grant himself sat behind them.
She hadn’t missed the fact that Mr. Kingsley and his son were there, and she knew they were going to try and drive up the bidding on her. So, she whispered to Cody who looked shocked then nodded, when he began to bid on a horse, they hadn’t chosen but was a decent horse Kingsley bid too, thinking to run the bid up on them. When it got to a range she and Cody had decided on, they dropped it on Kingsley who didn’t look at all thrilled. He had thought he would drop it on them; it had taken one look from her father to disabuse him of that notion. Getting the first ten horses they wanted was child’s play, getting those last four would be the test. As the bid for the first one rose high and higher she figured she’d better let them know she had unlimited funds.
The man Cody had been bidding against glared at them, when it came time for the next one on their list the man’s glare just got worse. Grant himself sat up straighter and returned the man’s stare letting him know we weren’t alone. When the man tried to jump, the bid trying to throw her off she nodded at Cody who beat it. It was at this point he seemed to get the point that she wasn’t giving in or up. The next two the ones she herself had wanted were the real test, the bids were high as Cody had said but they still didn’t exceed her limit.
Once the auction was over, they returned to the registers office to pay. While they were, in there settling up the man from earlier entered and said, “Such a shame when a grown man has to pay a girl to be with him.” He then glared at Angel and said, “Your sugar daddy will get tired of you soon.” Angel laughed, while Hunter, Cody, and Grant glared at the man. The lady at the counter said, “Miss. McDaniel’s here’s your receipt and paperwork for ownership of your horses.”
Angel turned to the man and said laughingly “You got half that assumption right, he is my daddy, but not my sugar daddy.” He stared at them in stunned disbelief his anger dying as he realized she was being honest, and he’d just insulted one of the richest women he’d ever met. When they were loading up their horses the Kingsley’s made an appearance. One look from Hunter and Grant had them moving on quickly.
She and Cody were standing there talking when she heard someone yell Cody’s name. When the man came over Cody said, “Angel this is the man I was telling you about, Kyle, this is the little lady who is the proud owner of all this horse flesh.” Kyle eyed the horses and said, “You got a good eye.” Angel said honestly “No, but I have Cody, he keeps me straight. Speaking of, is it possible for you and your wife to swing by the ranch sometime next week?” Kyle nodded and said, “Cody told me a little bit about what you want to do ma’am I saw you all here and just wanted to say I respect that you’d want to help those kids.” Angel shrugged and said honestly “It wasn’t too long ago I was one of them.”
At his curious look, she briefly explained about her past, by the time she was done he was staring in stunned disbelief. He said “You’ve done all this in a week? If we gave you the national debt to erase, you’d probably accomplish it in a year.” Angel smiled and said “I would damn sure try, but, my main focus is on, helping the kids, and rehabbing people who need that extra push, or the sense of responsibility. Don’t get me wrong it won’t be easy, there will be people who are belligerent and angry and wanting to take your head off, but the reward of seeing them thrive I think will be worth it all.” Kyle replied evenly “Your right, helping them fulfill their potential would be worth any price.”
Kyle watched as they left and couldn’t believe that someone like that existed in the world. He would take that job and thank his lucky stars; he’d be honored for his children to grow up helping other people. Cody had to call ahead on the ride home to get more stalls ready for the horses. No one had expected to come home with fourteen horses from the auction.