After the Sunset Read Free

basically collected a monopoly that no one had wanted or given a damn about, and sold it for buckets of money that he was poised to do great things with.
    The Silver Spring, Twin Forks, and Bowman ranches, none of which had been working ranches in years, would all be converted into a huge, sprawling, hundred-acre monolith of wealth and prosperity. It would be a very posh, very exclusive, very expensive resort, catering to the rich and famous, that would be far enough from the ranch as to not adversely affect it or change the lives of the people who lived there. The Red Diamond would remain the same, and the land that Rand had bought would finally be put to good use. And even though the town of Winston itself would not see the boon directly, as there were no civic projects planned, the people who lived there would benefit directly from the hundreds of new jobs that were about to be created.
    If you didn’t work on a ranch, there was nothing to do in Winston. You had to drive to Lubbock, just like I had to, to work. But now, thanks to Rand Holloway buying and selling and Mitchell Powell building, there was about to be a great influx of employment.
    “Rand sold all three ranches to Powell?”
    “Yessir, he did,” I said, walking around him to the driver’s side door. “Now move the cruiser. I wanna go home.”
    The muscles in his jaw tightened as he followed me. “How could he do that to the town he grew up in?”
    “He just created thousands of jobs for the people of the town he grew up in,” I told him. “Buildings will go up, and when that’s done, there will be jobs at the resort to fill. This community just got saved.”
    “But where the resort would be…. Hillman will be the town the resort is located in, not Winston.”
    “Why does that matter? The people you serve will be better off for the influx of jobs.”
    “And Hillman becomes the point of interest between Midland and Lubbock while Winston is left as it is.”
    “What would you have Rand do about that, Sheriff?”
    “You’re a smart boy. You understand what I’m saying to you.”
    I squinted at him. “Papers have been signed, Sheriff. Mitchell Powell has come and gone with deeds and rights and more lawyers than Rand said he ever saw in his life. The people who sold their property to Rand did so under no duress. We both know that the Silver Spring and the Twin Forks have been dead for years, and the Bowman place… well, all Carrie wanted to do was sell and move to Oregon to be close to her son. Running a successful ranch in this day and age is hard work, and for some it’s easier to simply get paid and get out. Rand found use for land that was going to waste, and because of that, his own ranch can be that much bigger and that much more lucrative and even more capable of supporting the men and their families, who live and work on it. Now I understand that you’re concerned about Winston, but Rand had to do what was best for the Red Diamond, and in the process, he ended up doing right by the town.”
    “The mayor doesn’t see it that way.”
    “I suspect Rand won’t give a damn.”
    He scowled at me. “I suspect you’d be right.”
    I smiled back.
    He visibly deflated.
    “It’s not your fault, you know. I know that you weren’t one of those who wanted Rand off the board.”
    His eyes searched mine.
    “I know your only reservations with Rand stem from the fact that sometimes he can be kind of an ass.”
    “Sometimes?”
    I chuckled, smiling bigger, unable to stop myself. “It’s late, Sheriff. Are you not eating at home tonight?”
    “No. Mrs. Colter is visiting her sister in Abilene.”
    “Well, would you like to come by the house and have some dinner? I have more than enough for three.”
    “No thank you, Stefan, but I do appreciate the invite. I’ve got to go over to the Drake place and talk to them about Jeff.”
    It took me a minute because nothing at all ever happened in Winston. It was why Rand and I had been such big news.