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🕑 Added 2024-09-27 18:42:56 +0000 UTCWind in the Smoke
Chapter 7: The Result of Bad Decisions
The next morning, Dante woke up early, put on boots, jeans, and a jacket, and went down for breakfast, wearing a black cowboy hat he had bought for twelve hundred dollars.
At first, he never thought he could find luxury accessories that only cowboys, or those wanting to imitate them, would wear. But anyone unfamiliar with this world would be surprised at how easily one can spend a lot of money on things that others might say are unnecessary.
However, for someone who doesn't lack money, showing off a little has its advantages both in and out of the field.
It was dawn, and no one except the cowboys had woken up yet, so Dante took advantage of the morning to have a heated conversation with those who had disobeyed his orders.
"Listen up, Ben. You know perfectly well I don't like delays, so you'd better deliver, or you'll be feeding the worms from now on." Dante hung up the phone, but before he could even turn toward the kitchen, he noticed a figure.
The only question that came to his mind was: Who the hell heard him?
"I made coffee. You can help yourself to a cup. The whiskey’s in the cabinet next to the butter cookies. Leave the cookies alone." Beth walked past Dante, still sleepy, without mentioning anything unusual.
She was curious about who Dante was talking to but not enough to ask questions.
"I need to speed up the plans. Before that snake arrives, I have to have the businesses up and running." Dante not only had a plan to launder money but also to hide his cannabis farms and the distribution.
Everything was tied to the peat business, a mineral he could find in tons on this ranch, and he could use it to create farms to process the mineral, which would eventually become refined coal.
Peat blocks filled with product? Dante had come up with this—it was the perfect plan to create a business as clean as water.
Of course, to keep his family uninvolved, the farms near Yellowstone were being set up to grow cannabis.
"I got up way too early..." Dante, with all those thoughts swirling in his mind, walked outside the house and sat on a rocking chair.
If, for some reason, he got caught, his family wouldn’t suffer any repercussions since they would be completely clean from his underground business.
Only he could get into trouble, but for every problem, there are solutions to keep him from rotting in jail.
After many plans and thoughts on what to do, Dante made some final calls to those handling the creation of the farms.
As the sun slowly rose over the mountains and its soft light shone on Dante, he got up and walked toward the barn.
Once he arrived, he led a horse out of the stable. "This is the one, right?"
Lloyd looked at Dante, who was having trouble getting the horse out, and said, "Good morning, Dante. Yes, that's the wild son of a bitch."
"Then I'll take him to the corral." Dante firmly gripped the reins of the horse, which kept pulling back. His muscles tensed as he used all the strength his body held; no doubt, this horse was incredibly fierce.
Crack!
After a while, the horse finally calmed down, so much that one might think the horse was well-behaved for whoever rode it. However, only those who had tried to tame it knew that once mounted, hell would begin.
"If you hadn’t offered to try, this horse would have been separated from the others long ago. Your father says this horse is a pureblood gray, but it's a shame it was sold wild."
Dante smiled as he patted the horse's back. "Really? Then we're pretty lucky!"
Lloyd raised his eyebrows and said, "If we manage to tame him, he’ll be a good stud for breeding or selling. Otherwise, he won't be of much use."
"Indeed."
If this black horse were sold and participated in competitions, it wouldn’t end well. It would get injured, and that would lead to its death, turning it to nothing but ashes at the end of the day.
As for letting it go back to the wild, it would be free for some time, but nature is far more dangerous than the arena. Wild wolves or bears are everywhere, and if that didn’t kill it, the most dangerous thing would be humans.
The two of them walked to the horse training field. Dante observed Lloyd following him curiously: "Is there work to do on the ranch? I heard the cattle will be moved to a new pasture soon."
"Indeed, but today is Sunday."
Dante nodded, realizing that Saturday was the cowboys' day off.
They arrived at the horse training corral, where other cowboys, including Rip and Lee, were waiting.
Dante immediately knew why they were there—they were here to see his disastrous attempt at training horses!
Lloyd opened the gate to the training field, and Dante led the horse inside.
The training field was a small, circular open corral surrounded by a fence, covered in sand specifically used for horse racing.
As soon as Dante entered and closed the gate, a cowboy he didn’t recognize shouted:
"Hey, Dante, I heard you're great at horse training, but that was years ago. Do you still remember how to ride?"
Dante looked closely and realized it was a cowboy named Ryan, who had been on the ranch for a while. "In the city, I rode a different kind of horse every day; I think you understand."
"We all get it, Dante," Rip yelled with a grin on his face.
Cowboys came and went freely on this ranch, but there were some special ones with a certain brand on their chest. Those cowboys were family, the ones that mattered, and now Dante didn’t know if there were more of them.
"Can you do it today?" Lee looked at his younger brother curiously.
"If I can, I'll manage in an hour. If not, then this horse can’t be tamed." Dante first tried to calm the horse.
"I bet fifty he does it in an hour." Ryan saw the gleam in Dante's eyes and, for some reason, thought he could pull it off.
Lee looked at Ryan and said, "I want to win easy money; I’m in."
"Damn, I wanted to be the one to win money," Lloyd said, focused on what Dante was doing, having no time to place a bet.
Meanwhile, Dante began tiring the horse by making it run around the circular corral. Five minutes quickly turned into twenty as the horse just ran.
All he did was observe the horse, feeling as though he belonged in this place, reassuring his decisions. And while the others made bets, Dante connected with the horse on a spiritual level—if such a thing even existed.
John, who had woken up, watched his youngest son becoming the center of attention and, seeing his daughter Beth also watching, asked her, "Did you find out if Dante’s gotten himself into trouble?"
"I made some calls, and from what I was told, Dante was a model student—never went to parties."
"Anything else?"
"He gambled, spent a lot of time at casinos all over the city, and with his winnings, he apparently bought a nightclub. That was a year after he started college, so you can imagine how far his moves have escalated."
John put on his hat and muttered, "Ambitious, but with initiative. I know he’s here for a reason, and soon we'll find out."
"I hope so. In the meantime, I’ll head back to work," Beth said, eager to return to her duties and avoid staying here a moment longer.
