The Black Cat Knocks on Wood Read Online Free

me.”
    “Surely Mr. Devlin doesn’t approve of your endangering the lives of senior citizens. I’ll speak with him about this.”
    Ace laughed. “Good luck with that. Lance came up with the senior rodeo idea, little lady, and I believe I know what he’d do or not do better’n you.”
    The man didn’t stand more than two inches taller than me, and I didn’t appreciate the “little lady” tag. And boy oh boy did I ever want to wipe that smug expression off his face.
    “Then I’ll speak with Crystal,” I said. “I’m sure she has more influence over him than you do.”
    “That woman don’t care about nothin’ ’cept herself,” Ace said. “Never has, never will. You finished with your weak threats now?”
    Tyanne came through the gate, walking fast toward us.
    I straightened and kept my eyes on Ace. “I’m not finished talking about the cruelty of roping goats.”
    He threw back his head in a deep laugh, then pinned me with a dark-eyed stare. “You have a problem with goat tyin’, ma’am, you got no business livin’ in Texas. I have work to do. Good day.” He turned and headed for the gate.
    Tyanne put a restraining hand on my arm, but I couldn’t hold back a retort.
    “You haven’t heard the last about this.”
    Ace glanced over his shoulder and kept walking. “Knock yourself out.”

3
    “ That man could ruin the good name of cowboys all over Texas.” I had fumed about Ace McKinney the whole way back to Tyanne’s bookstore, and I wasn’t finished yet. There were no customers in the store, and I was glad for the opportunity to freely speak my mind while I paced the length of the sales counter. “McKinney ought to care about safety. If he doesn’t, he should at least be concerned about lawsuits ’cause if one of these senior citizens falls and breaks a hip—”
    “He probably makes them sign something.” Tyanne arranged and rearranged books in a display by the front door.
    I crossed my arms over my chest. “The jerk
did
say something about a waiver, but still. I want Aunt Rowe to be safe, Ty. Her friends, too.”
    “I know,” she said. “I’m a bit surprised the ladies are all on board for such strenuous activity.”
    “They’re blindly following Aunt Rowe, their ringleader. If you ask me, she’s too fearless for her own good.”
    “Better than being a scaredy-cat, isn’t it?” Ty grinned.
    “I’m not sure. Can you seriously see my aunt dealing with that McKinney yokel?”
    “I’m sure Rowe can hold her own with the patronizing cowboy.”
    “What cowboy?” Ethan came from the storeroom carrying an armload of new paperbacks. The teen knelt to arrange the books on shelves near the checkout counter.
    “A man at the rodeo,” Tyanne said.
    “Mr. Devlin?”
    “No,” I said, “an unlikeable guy who works for him.”
    “Oh,” Ethan said. “Mr. Devlin is no prize himself, least not according to Cody.”
    “Lance Devlin’s son?” I said.
    “Yeah.” Ethan placed the last of the books on the shelf and stood. “Cody’s not my best friend or anything. Kid has issues, but seems like he also has two sorry excuses for parents.”
    “What makes you say that?” I walked over to the window seat and perched between the bookstore cats, Zelda and Willis. I ran a hand down each cat’s back, and their motors started up.
    “Cody had the lead in the school play,” Ethan said. “My mom would have had a front-row seat, taken like a thousand pictures, you know.”
    Ty nodded. “Sounds like me.”
    “That’s a normal mom,” Ethan said. “Proud of whatever the kids do.”
    I thought about my own mother, who didn’t fit the normal mom model.
    “I’d expect Crystal Devlin to be a very proud mother,” Tyanne said.
    “Maybe about other stuff,” Ethan said. “Not when it comes to acting. That’s what Cody wants to do with his life. His parents don’t approve, and neither one of them came to see him.”
    “Maybe they had a prior engagement,” Tyanne said.
    “The play ran