Double the Trouble (Texas Trouble 3) (30 page)

Cole went that way and stopped at the gate.  "Luke around?" he asked the cowboy.

"He's out with Karlie and Wade trying to round up the stock," he said tiredly, then added, "There's still a lot out there."

"We're going to help them...hopefully, we can find them.  Of course this would happen when there's only a sliver of a moon," he said with a laugh.

"That's the way of it," the cowboy agreed nonchalantly.

Cole walked his horse through the opening, then Gabe went behind him, and they
walked the horses
across a deep ditch and onto the blacktop road. 
Gabe wondered again what the hell he was doing out here, he didn't know a damned thing about rounding up cattle, he barely knew how to ride a horse. 

You're out here to make sure Karlie is okay
, he reminded himself
, then added with more than a little trepidation as he looked down at the road,
even if you get your ass thrown off this horse and crack your skull on the concrete
.

Gabe breathed a sigh of relief when Cole took them off of the road and onto a grassy shoulder to ride.  "They should be around here somewhere, I hear some cows mooing up ahead.
  They probably have them on the unfenced acreage that's for sale up here.
  The cows probably went there to graze on the overgrown grass.
"

When they got close to the lot Cole was talking about, Gabe saw the body of a cow, her head all squashed
,
laying on the road, and he cringed.  Then his gaze traveled up the road and he saw another smaller one, a calf, he thought
, half on and half off the roadway
, obviously dead as well
.  The edge of the trees opened to a huge field of overgrown wheat grass and he saw what he thought were cow's heads poking above it here and there. 
What he didn't see was Karlie, Wade or Luke.

"They're probably getting strays out of the woods, I think I see Luke back there making sure they stay herded here
.
" Cole pointed over to the left, and Gabe could barely make out the outline of a horse and rider.
  "I'm gonna head over there, real quick and talk to him," Cole said then kicked his horse to a gallop, heading across the field toward where he pointed.  Gabe held his horse back to a walk, and moseyed to the edge of the grass. 

Suddenly, a gunshot cracked in the stillness of the night and the cows
scattered
, then another gunshot sounded and they were in full out stampede mode
,
heading directly for him.
  Gabe looked toward where he thought the gunshot came from
down the road
and headlights came on and blinded him
,
right before a big truck pulled out of the woods
and headed right for him.

All he saw was a
fancy chrome
grill with a bull before his horse reared then took off like a bullet away from the truck and across the field, toward the oncoming herd. 
Leaning low over the out-of-control horse's neck, Gabe held onto the saddle horn for dear life, and pulled back on the reins with the other hand.  He knew if he
fell
off th
e
horse going this fast, he was a dead man.
  I
f he didn't die from the fall, the stampeding cattle would crush him beneath their hooves.

Faintly over the roaring in his ears, and the adrenaline soaking his brain, Gabe
heard someone yelling behind him, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.
His
sole focus was staying in the saddle and trying to stop the horse.
 
Gabe
didn't even hear the horse's hooves as Karlie pulled up on one side of him, and Wade on the other, matching their speed to his horse
, before
they squeezed
the mare on either side
, then gradually
matched
their speed and hers. 
Together
she and Wade
worked, until they managed to slow
the mare
down, then finally Karlie leaned over and grabbed the rein and
yelled
, "Whoa
...
"

Gabe's heart was pounding out of his chest and he could barely breathe, when the mare finally came to a stop. 
He knew his knees were too weak to stand, so he didn't try to slide down, he just sat in the saddle and tried to find his voice.
  Now, he remembered exactly why he didn't like to ride, and why he never would again, once he got off this beast.  It wasn't
the horse's
fault he knew, she got spooked, but that didn't make dying any easier to accept.

"Gabe, say something, sugar...are you okay?"  Karlie slid off her horse and put her hand on his calf.  "You scared the bejeesus outta me," she told him.

Wade chuckled then said, "Scared me too...and that's saying something...I imagine you need to go change.
  I wonder what idiot fired those shots...they had to know it would scare the cattle.
"

Gabe
gave
Wade
a
heated
look, then
gazed
down at Karlie and asked, "Did you see what happened?"
  Gabe wondered if she'd seen the truck.  He hadn't
because of the headlights, b
ut he knew that custom grill, there was no mistaking it.  He didn't think now was the time to bring it up though, even if he could force out the words.  Cole already thought he had it in for Johnson.

She shook her head, "We were in the woods, and I heard the gunshots, then saw the cattle stampede, and came out to try to corral them, then I saw you...
thank goodness you had that vest on.
"
  Karlie got back on her horse, then said,
"You sit tight, we need to go help, Luke...we'll be back in a second.  Will you be okay here?"

"Yeah, I'm just going to sit and watch, if that's okay with you..."
Gabe told her weakly, finally able to take a deep breath.

She chuckled, then told him
,
"I think that's for the best, sugar...we'll be back."

Karlie and Wade
kicked their horses
then took off at a gallop across the field toward the herd
. 
Gabe just watched dumbfounded at how easy that looked when they did it.  She and Wade looked like they were part of the
ir
horse
s
, not a passenger along for a hair raising ride
like him
.

Gabe was still sitting there when the sun came
up.  He could see Wade and Karlie now dragging a stubborn calf out of the woods with a rope around its neck from each
sid
.  Once they had it back with the herd, Karlie hopped down and removed the ropes, then slapped its ass and it ran back in the group
, then
she remounted
and
headed across the field where he was
then
stopped beside him. 

She leaned over and kissed his cheek, then asked.  "You okay?"

"Yeah, now I am," he told her with a smile.  "Is that all of them?"

"Yeah, I think so...now we have to get them down the
road and back inside the fence, she told him and he saw Luke move to one side of the herd and Wade to the other
, and Cole went to the front
.  "We're bringing up the rear, riding drag as t
he old cowboys used to call it.  C'mon I'll show you how to do it," she told him then nudged her horse to walk toward the rear of the herd.  Gabe followed her, so tired, he almost wanted to fall out of the saddle on his own.  His ass and his legs hurt and all he wanted to do was lay down in his bed and sleep for a few days...with Karlie of course.

She rode to one end of the herd and pulled her rope off the saddle then started waving it and whooping, moving along the line then back again when a cow would move toward her,
or try to run past,
the horse almost moved
and pivoted
on its own staring down the cow
,
until it turned
back
forward
again
and started moving.  She did this all the way down the line
,
until
all of the cows in the back were pushing the ones in front
of them
to move forward
.  L
uke and Wade set the boundary on the side
s
,
and Cole in the front,
keeping the
cattle
moving as
a group.
  Gabe
rode a little behind her staring in amazement as he watched her work.
  Then he nudged his horse up beside her once they were going toward the road.

"How the hell does watching you work cattle turn me on?" he asked in a low sensual tone.  It was unbelievable to him, but seeing her and her horse dance together in such perfect unison made him think of other places he and Karlie were in perfect harmony.

"Probably the same reason you breathing turns me on," she told him
with a laugh, then asked him, "You feeling better on that horse now?"

"I'll feel better once I get off this horse," he replied with a chuckle.
  Gabe was pretending light-heartedness, but he was far from feeling it. 

He may have been sitting in one place most of the night, but he'd been far from idle.  His eyes were busy scanning the road, the woods and everywhere else to make sure he didn't see Jake Johnson or his black truck again.  It
had been
really dark out there, but after a while his eyes adjusted and he could see pretty well. 

Now that the sun was coming up,
Gabe
could see even better and scanned their surroundings as he rode beside Karlie.
  When they got back to the barn, he was going to have a talk with Cole and with Karlie to make sure they were aware of what he'd seen
, regardless of whether Cole believed him or not
.

"I have a question for you..." Gabe told her, sobering.  He'd been thinking while he was sitting for all that time too.  A thought had occurred to him as to how he could get more information on Jake Johnson.  "Do you think you could contact those lawyers for Jake's grandpa today and get any information you can on him?  They had to send him tax forms and notices, so they must have his mailing address and social security number, and probably date of birth.  If you could get that for me, it'll help me track him down."

She glanced over at him then back at the herd.  "That's a great idea...I'll do it as soon as their office opens, and let you know.
  If that doesn't work, I'll call my bank, they might have that information, because he was on my account.
"

"You had them take him off, right?" Gabe asked her shortly, hoping she had enough presence of mind to get him off as soon as he bled her account dry, but she'd been so busy running from him, who knew.

"I
didn't bother, because the account is empty.  I wasn't using the card anymore
."

Gabe smiled as another thought hit him
.
"That might work in our favor then," Gabe said with a chuckle then clarified, "We'll track him just like he tracked you to
Bowie
and
Amarillo
."

"But the account is essentially closed, and his card is useless," she said with a look of confusion.

"You got your first check from those lawyers, right?" Gabe asked her and she nodded then her face brightened.  "We'll deposit it in the account, and maybe he'll make a withdrawal or use the card, then we'll know where he is.
  As soon as I have more information on him, I can probably check his accounts too.
"

"He always got his checks cashed at the administrative office, so I'm not sure he has one.  He used my card and account, a lot."

"Well maybe he still is...hopefully, anyway
,
"
Gabe told her and then guided his horse up the slight incline to the road.