No Ordinary Cowboy (Mills & Boon American Romance) (Rodeo Rebels - Book 6) by Marin Thomas

sloppy kiss. “Hey, girl.”
    Maddie wagged her tail.
    “Did she eat breakfast?” Lucy asked.
    “I picked up a bag of dog food on the way to the station this morning.”
    “You took her into work with you?”
    “Yep.”
    “I hope she wasn’t any trouble.”
    “Maddie was on her best behavior.”
    Lucy snapped on her seatbelt, and Tony hit the gas.
    “Does your father know we’re going out to the mine?” he asked.
    “I didn’t have a chance to tell him. He flew to California on business this morning before I got out of bed.”
    The bumpy dirt road made driving a challenge, so Lucy kept quiet. Tony’s head swiveled from side to side taking in their surroundings. He stopped the truck twice to get out and study the ground. After a few miles, Gold Dust Ridge came into view. “Wait here,” he said. He grabbed his binoculars and left the truck.
    As soon as he shut the door, Maddie whined.
    “Big baby.” Lucy rubbed the dog’s neck. “He’ll be back, don’t worry.”
    Tony surveyed the area, then bent over and picked up an object from the ground.
    “What did you find?” Lucy asked when he returned to the truck.
    He handed her a Mexican peso, then drove on.
    Hopefully an illegal immigrant crossing the property had dropped the peso and not a member of a Mexican cartel. When Tony got closer to the ridge, she said, “Go left. It’s a shortcut to the entrance.”
    “If left is the fastest way, trespassers will take the opposite route to throw off anyone following them.”
    “Okay.” Tracking illegals was Tony’s area of expertise, not hers. Lucy counted only a handful of saguaro cacti in the area and was saddened that the landscape had been desecrated decades ago when gold was discovered. Years of environmental abuse had left Gold Dust Ridge scarred and ugly.
    As soon as the truck drove past the ridge, Tony slammed on the brakes and Lucy grabbed Maddie’s collar to prevent her from flying into the windshield. Tony put the truck in Park and got out to investigate a small pile of debris littering the ground. Curious, Lucy joined him and Maddie whined in protest at being left behind.
    Tony sifted through the trash—gallon-size water jugs, food wrappers, torn clothing and threadbare shoes. He lifted a jacket by his fingertip. “Look at this.”
    “It belonged to a young girl.” The smaller size and pink color were dead giveaways. All the items appeared to be girls’ clothing, including a dirty athletic shoe with sparkly purple laces.
    “They’re driving the girls in here.” Tony pointed to the faint tire tracks left in the sand after the early morning shower.
    “The lock on the gate wasn’t tampered with,” Lucy said.
    “They’re not using the west entrance.” He pointed southeast. “They’re driving from that direction.”
    “There’s no gate along that side of the ranch.”
    “I’m guessing they take down a section of fence then put it back up after they’ve gone through.”
    She and Tony returned to the truck and he drove by the debris, careful not to run over any of the discarded items. When they arrived at the mine, Tony let Maddie out of the truck and the dog went off in search of lizards. Lucy and Tony discovered more trash and a smashed cell phone.
    “I’d say you have enough evidence to support your claim that the girls are being transported through our ranch,” Lucy said.
    “Your father will want more than garbage before he admits there’s any illegal activity on his property.”
    Not if Lucy had anything to say about it. If young girls were being kidnapped in Mexico and marched across the ranch right under her family’s nose, she’d do everything in her power to convince her father to cooperate with the border patrol in order to stop this heinous crime.
    The mine entrance remained boarded up and showed no signs of vandalism. “Is there another way in?” Tony asked.
    “If there is, I don’t know about it.” Lucy followed Tony, stepping carefully over the rocks scattered