Leroy Watches Jr. & the Badass Bull (Bloodsong Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

of girls were watching him. Girls or women, whatever they wanted to be called. They were real pretty, wearing tight clothes cut way down. That was how they dressed in Las Vegas, he guessed. They tempted him with sandwiches and chocolate cake and themselves. Not one of them was right.  They flaunted themselves and brushed against him. He didn’t want any of them. His wife wasn’t among them.
     
    “Well, better get back to work.” Snow was flying all over outside the perimeter of the arena and spectators. He trimmed the horses’ feet. They stood without moving or being tied. “You gotta make sure a horse’s feet are balanced and don’t have any problems. If you don’t do that, it’s like trying to go on a hike in some of the shoes you ladies wear. Torture and an invitation to injury. I’m not going to shoe these horses even though I brought my anvil and forge. It’s going to be enough for them to compete in the rodeo, much less having nails in their feet for the first time.”
    Then the process moved faster. He rubbed the mare all over with his saddle blanket, and then carefully set his saddle on her back. She tolerated it well, so he tightened the girth a bit, then more.
    “Easy does it. Don’t want to crowd her much.” He stepped up and walked around the ring on her back, no bridle, just a rope around her neck. “I do this because I can. Don’t you try it.” The mare picked up the jog, and then the lope.
     
    “He’s the horse whisperer, Tina. You know the magical trainer that guy wrote the book about. Look at what he’s doing.”
    Leroy stopped the mare. She settled on her hind end and slid like a horse that had been doing it for years. He touched her with his outside leg and she spun away from the contact, swiveling on her hind feet.
    “He is the horse whisperer!” Tina replied. “But I didn’t know he was African American.”
     
    Leroy did enough with the palomino to have the cowboys looking at him with envy and suspicion. “That’s enough for today. Now I’ll start the other horse.” Which he did. The rough, bucking horse never made a crow hop, the little buck that said, “Watch out. You’re about to take a ride on a rocket ship.” When he put him away, Leroy knew he had a horse that would win the championship.
    “OK, folks. I’m going to do some roping on them tomorrow and teach them their jobs. We may go over to the Thompson & Mack and show them around before the rodeo.”
    “Can we come tomorrow?”
    “Sure.”
    “When will you start?”
    “Dawn.”
     
    Reason walked up to him when he was putting the horses away. “Leroy, did you keep the snow off the arena and the people? And keep them warm?”
    Leroy thought, looking around at the cleared arena and mounds of snow elsewhere. “I guess so. Must have.”
    “And you made paths to everyone’s houses and cleared their driveways? And kept the driveway to the tobacco shop clear?”
    He looked around, noticing that snow a foot deep had been cleared, making it easy for folks to get to their houses. “I guess I did.” Leroy frowned, perplexed.
    Reason dropped his voice, to a low whisper, “Are you a spirit warrior, Leroy? And a weather-changer?”
    His nod was barely perceptible. “I guess so. I’m good with rain, an’ I guess snow, too.  Mostly I heal, but I can do other things if I need to. Don’t tell anyone.”
    “Right, I won’t. But there were hundreds of people here today, Leroy. I expect that most of them noticed. Did you know that a hundred year snow hit the City Las Vegas today? Snowed for miles around.”
    Leroy’s brows contracted. He sucked in a breath. That’s why he wasn’t going to be Grandfather’s successor. His power was unpredictable and sometimes made things worse.
     
    He had the horses ready Friday. The tribe advanced him his entry fees. He intended to enter the palomino mare in tie-down roping and the  pinto in bulldogging. Those suited the abilities they’d shown in training. Reason was