Chapter 11: Tall, Dark, and Handsome
Arched Q Ranch
Near Tulsa, Stockton County, Oklahoma
8:12 A.M. June 19, 20—
The dirt road off US-412 ended at a hand-carved wooden sign weathered by seasons of rain and snow, hanging from rusty chains. It read “Arched Q Ranch” and swung creakily in the rising June wind.
Cord Darringer’s ranch sprawled across Oklahoma’s “Green Country,” green fields rolling for miles. I’d Googled the spread before I’d left Naples, so I knew that it covered thousands of acres. In a fenced turn-out to my right were a number of Quarter Horses, along with some Palominos and Paints. To my left was a red wooden barn. Next to the barn was a sky-reaching silo painted in the same red hue. At two o’clock in the distance stood a blinding white farmhouse. Outbuildings surrounde
