Free Colorado Hitch by Sara York Page A

slipped to September. Grant wondered if news had spread about Duff’s desire to leave his leadership position at the ranch. It was silly to think anyone else knew about Duff’s departure from his old role, but they’d not received one request for help.
    The days began to tick by like a loud clock set to signal their demise due to pure uselessness. Men like Zander, Tucker, and Billy needed action to keep them entertained. The obstacle course had served its purpose. They were stronger, but no one was taking it as seriously as they had in the beginning. New rules for running the course were implemented. When someone suggested running the course blindfolded, he put his foot down. At the moment, they were on a kick to best the current group of men enrolled in the BUD/S SEAL development program in California. How they’d found the scores and not gotten caught wasn’t something he cared to know.
    Grant was about ready to go looking for something to get them some action when Duff received a request for a mission. The lead had promptly been turned over to Grant and Marshal to research. They were huddled together in the control room studying maps and the phone logs of a man who had spent years manipulating the government in Saudi Arabia. The dude had done some rather nasty stuff, but Grant didn’t think his crimes should be punished by death, nor did he think the guys of Wild Bluff should be the ones to deal with him.
    “I don’t like it,” Grant said for the third time in the last hour.
    Marshal threw up his hands and blew out a harsh breath. “Fuck, sitting around here is going to drive me crazy.”
    Grant sat back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. “I know. I’m not sure what we can do.”
    “Research who was helping Craig,” Marshal said.
    Pain knifed Grant in the chest, twisting through his heart. That Craig had been manipulating the system and them for years was a crap-ton of terrible to have to face. The guy had used all of them, but mostly he’d used Grant to further his own gains.
    “Sorry to bring it up, but you know we eventually have to look into it,” Marshal said.
    Grant nodded and stood, moving to the other side of the room before he turned back to face Marshal. “I hate this.”
    “I know, but we need to look into it. We’ve ignored the Craig angle long enough.”
    He nodded then made his way over to his seat before dropping into his chair. “You’re right and I hate it. So we agree that we’re not taking this mission?” Grant asked.
    “Nope, we’re not going to take this one. I think the reasoning isn’t strong enough. Their government can take care of him, and we don’t need to bother ourselves with this type of trash.”
    Grant squared his shoulders, ready to take on the one thing he didn’t want to deal with. “Okay, so Craig, where do we start?”
    Marshal rubbed his neck and leaned back in his chair, chewing on the end of the pen as he thought about what he wanted to say. “Before we involve anyone else in this discussion, I need to make sure you’re willing to go the distance on this without running off to jump on some wild trail on your own.”
    Grant nodded, angry with himself for going off halfcocked the last time. “I’ll be good and I won’t go chasing half-formed leads.”
    “Good. We’ll inform the current contact that we’re saying no and then tomorrow we’ll call a meeting and explain what we want to do with Craig.”
    “The first phase needs to be information gathering,” Grant said.
    “I agree, which means some people will need to go on road trips.” Marshal bit his lower lip, looking at Grant like he wanted to add something.
    “You want to go, don’t you?” Grant asked.
    Marshal smirked, and Grant shook his head. This was just the type of trip Marshal could go out on. They wouldn’t run into danger, and no one would have to get into a physical fight. It would be perfect for him.
    “Most likely there won’t be any guns, so yeah, I