Royce was behind it. Maybe T.D. didn’t put them up to hiring on with me. Maybe I’m just overly suspicious now.”

Angus nodded. “You’re not.”

“I should send them packing right now.” She met his gaze. “Problem is, we could use them. Especially with thunderstorms coming today. We only have two more days before we reach the high country if nothing slows us down.”

“If you’re asking my advice, I’d keep them where we can see them until then.”

Jinx sighed and smiled. “I was and you’re right. Fine, but I’ll be watching them.”

“You won’t be alone,” he said and walked back to where Max was still swearing as he stood looking at the mess in the wagon. “Let me help with breakfast.”

The older man turned to stare pointedly at him. “You ever cooked on the trail?”

“I have,” Angus said. “You want me to make the biscuits or the fire?”

Max’s face broke into a grin. “We got trouble enough without you making the biscuits, son. See to the fire.” He climbed back into the wagon, mumbling to himself.

“I make some damned fine biscuits, I’ll have you know,” Angus called after the cook. Inside the wagon, Max huffed, but he was no longer cussing.

Angus smiled as he set about making the fire. Brick joined him. Ella had gone down to the stream. She always carried fishing line and had a knack for catching things. Angus figured it was her infinite patience. Brick went to help Max clean up the mess the bear had made.

When he had the fire going, he looked up and caught Jinx watching him.

AFTER A BREAKFAST of fried trout and biscuits, they rounded up the cattle and traveled higher into the mountains. Ella had proven her skill at catching pan-size trout. This morning he and Brick cleaned them before turning them over to Max, who dusted them with flour and dropped them in sizzling lard.

“Good breakfast,” Jinx had said as she finished hers and thanked Ella for the fish before her gaze shifted to Royce and Cash. “I’d like the two of you to ride pickup again today. Keep an eye out for stragglers. If the thunderstorm is bad, I’ll need you to help keep the herd from spooking.”

Both men nodded. Angus had noticed that Royce and Cash had eaten plenty of fish and biscuits. There was nothing wrong with their appetites. What did surprise him was that they hadn’t asked about the ruckus this morning, keeping to themselves as usual. He found that strange. Also suspicious. He wondered if there was a reason the bear had been able to get into their supplies so easily. The men made him nervous, just like they did Jinx and Ella.

But after breakfast and the excitement of having a bear in camp, they’d gotten a fairly early start, riding out as they had the day before. The sun rose and moved lazily across the canopy of sky above the treetops.

As the morning and early afternoon slipped away, the sun began its descent into a horizon filled with gunmetal-gray storm clouds.

Just as Jinx had predicted, a thunderstorm was headed their way. Angus could hear the low rumble in the distance. He rode over to join her. “How far to the next corrals?”

She shook her head as she glanced at the storm moving toward them. “We can’t make it in time. There’s a large meadow a half mile from here. I don’t think we have a choice but to try to hold them there.”

As Angus rode point again on his side of the herd, he saw Jinx riding back to give the others the news. He could feel the electricity in the air. It made the hair quill on the back of his neck. He could smell the scent of rain.

Behind him, he felt the lightning strikes growing closer along with the thunder and rain as he found the meadow and circled back to help with the herd. He knew what could happen if even a few of the cattle spooked and took off. He’d seen a herd stampede in a thunderstorm and knew that was Jinx’s greatest fear.

Or maybe her greatest fear was what T.D. might do if he’d decided to follow them into the mountains. If T.D. took advantage of the thunderstorm to hit just then, Angus doubted they could keep the herd from stampeding.

PATTY HAD BEEN so sure that T.D. would have come by her apartment last night—if he wasn’t in jail. She needed to know what had happened so she dressed in her uniform for work, but left early so she could stop by T.D.’s favorite bar.

Sliding onto a stool down the bar from several regulars having their morning coffee, she asked Marty if he’d seen T.D. last night. She and Marty had gone to school together. He was older and had married young. He had three kids and another on the way with his wife of many years.

She’d always liked him. Always thought how different her life would have been if she’d married someone like him and now had a home and kids.

Marty poured her a fountain cola and set it down on a napkin in front of her before he answered. “He was here. I let him have one beer and then asked him to leave. From the marks on your neck, I probably don’t have to tell you that he was in one of his moods.”

Self-consciously, she touched her neck. She’d thought she’d covered the worst of it with makeup. “Did he say where he was going when he left?”

“Yeah, he wrote down his entire itinerary for me.” He shook his head. “He left with his minions, Wyatt and Travis.”

Well, at least he hadn’t been thrown in jail after going out to Jinx’s ranch. Maybe she hadn’t called the law on him. Or maybe he’d changed his mind and hadn’t gone. Maybe he’d just come here to the bar.

She took a sip of her cola. “So you don’t know where they went after they left? T.D. didn’t say

Добавить отзыв
ВСЕ ОТЗЫВЫ О КНИГЕ В ИЗБРАННОЕ

0

Вы можете отметить интересные вам фрагменты текста, которые будут доступны по уникальной ссылке в адресной строке браузера.

Отметить Добавить цитату