The Champion family had come to Vegas bringing two bulls from their Arizona ranch—Whirlwind, a rising star in the rankings, and his younger brother, Whiplash, here as a last-minute alternate.
The rest of Val’s family—big sister Tess, and adorably pregnant little sister Lexie, with her wheelchair-bound husband, Shane, were down in the arena watching the event live. Val had tickets, too. But she’d gotten cold feet. Pleading a headache, she’d locked herself in the room she shared with Tess and opted to watch Round 1 on the big screen TV.
She’d told herself she could handle this. But watching Casey almost die had been enough to convince her she’d misjudged. She’d be smart to sell her tickets for the remaining four nights and spend the money on a flight back to Tucson and a long Uber ride to the family’s remote mountain ranch.
Standing, she switched off the TV, turned off the lights, and walked to the window. The darkened room offered a view of the nearby T Mobile Arena, lit up like the Fourth of July. Northward, as far as Val’s eyes could see, Las Vegas glittered like an endless dumping ground for used Christmas lights and gaudy costume jewelry.
Tacky but strangely beautiful, it called to her with a siren’s seductive voice. The hotels and casinos, which she knew by sight, whispered names that resonated like islands in a tale from Sinbad the Sailor. Bellagio . . . Mirage . . . Aria . . . Paris . . . Venetian . . .
Val turned away from the window. Out there, beyond the glass, was everything she’d left behind, everything she’d run away from to save her body and soul. Four months ago, she’d come home to her family and the ranch, hoping they could make her whole again. She was doing better now. But something was missing. She’d realized it the moment she saw Casey on TV.
Casey. Her first love.
The man she could never be with again.