Yellowstone: Wind in the Smoke

At noon the next day, Dante drove home leisurely, carrying the large trout he had caught before his brother Kayce arrived.

The land is so vast and sparsely populated, which feels like a real shame at times like this.

Normally, when someone catches something impressive, they want to show it off. But here, there weren't many people around to admire a trout.

That's why Dante made a detour to a barn where Lloyd and Lee were sweating profusely as they continued repairing the roof.

Proudly holding up the big fish in his hand, Dante shook it with a grin and shouted, "How's your day going?"

When neither of them responded, he raised his eyebrows and asked bluntly, "Is no one going to congratulate me for catching this beauty?"

Lee glanced at him and lazily replied, "What? Are you spending your mornings fishing now? If you put as much energy into fixing this shed as you do into fishing, the roof would've been done a long time ago."

"Come on, brother, we all know you love grilled trout. Look at the size of this fish! If I'd been helping with the barn, you wouldn't get to enjoy something like this."

"Did you catch only one? The rest of us cowboys would also like some grilled fish," Lloyd said on behalf of the others.

Lee turned to Lloyd and said, "Don't compliment him for this. He hardly does any work, so don't let him feel proud of it."

"Should I remind you of what I was doing at his age?"

"No, let's leave it at that." Lee sighed, handed a hammer to Dante, and said, "How about staying here and working with us for the rest of the day? That would be fantastic!"

Dante waved his hand dismissively. "That's not on today's schedule. I'm busy—I need to take some pictures with this fish and take care of a few things with Jamie."

"Oh, that's a shame."

"But I'll help you move the cattle to the farthest part of the ranch to graze. Doesn't that sound good?" Dante checked his phone and, after finding something amusing, asked, "Can our cows do this?"

He showed them a video where a cow jumped a fence and ran off.

"It's a good thing the cows on our ranch haven't learned that trick," Dante said with a chuckle. "If they had, they would've escaped a long time ago."

"Cows that escape usually don't have as much space as ours do here. That won't happen—we have the perfect setup for the number of cattle we manage," Lee said, stopping to glance at the odd video his brother was showing.

Dante nodded slightly, acknowledging Lee's point, but added, "We haven't set up cameras in the outer areas of the ranch yet. We've only covered the closer ones, so I hope you didn't choose the farthest spot for grazing."

"We did pick the farthest area. The grass is plentiful there," Lloyd said as he continued hammering nails into the wood.

"Is that a good idea? Lately, it seems like those who want to ruin us are becoming more active. It would be a headache if they tried something against us." Dante was worried—his private agents had been more active than usual, and he hoped to avoid any surprises.

Even though he had increased security, he knew trouble could strike at the most inconvenient times.

Lee, aware of what had happened to their father recently, said, "We've got it under control. Nobody would dare mess with us openly."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Lloyd added with a wry smile. "Plenty of foolish men with big egos have tried to prove otherwise—and I've buried many of them on this land."

Dante admitted to himself that Lloyd had a point. After discussing recent events a bit more, he left.

John had gone to purchase more grain, while Lee planned to continue monitoring the cattle to select which ones to sell.

Cattle meat remained the ranch's primary source of income until Dante came along, and despite his innovations, some traditions didn't change.

As Dante walked back to the main cabin, dressed in the cowboy outfit Beth had prepared for him to blend in at the ranch, he found his brother Jamie sitting on a bench outside.

"Was it a good morning?" Dante asked, setting down a heavy cooler filled with a few more fish.

Jamie looked at Dante and said, "I won the case for our family as always, but if things keep going like this, I'm not sure I can keep protecting this land for Dad."

Dante knew Jamie safeguarded the family's interests through legal battles—essential to keeping corporations' claws away from Yellowstone's land.

"Well, congratulations, brother. Is there any gift you'd like?"

"Now that you're making the money we need to avoid selling land, I wonder how you managed all that in just two years away from home."

"Not luck, of course. It's more skill than anything else." Dante reached into his pocket, pulled out a card, and handed it to Jamie. "Go to this tailor shop—they'll make you some excellent suits for free."

"Here in Montana?" Jamie studied the card, wondering what kind of tailor shop it was.

"They make the best suits in the world. They'll treat you well." Dante didn't mention that the shop was his, but he wanted to give his brilliant brother a meaningful gift—and the best suits came from his tailor.