Every Breath She Takes (9 page)

“Damn straight I will.”

Lauren strove for the right words. “Underneath her…exuberance, she seems very…I don’t know…emotionally shaky. Do you think it’s fair to set yourself up as her keeper when you’re planning to cut her loose?”

“Fair?” He pinned her with that gray gaze. “How about just keeping her alive? With a stash like this, we could find her OD’d in her bed any morning. Or she could kill herself pulling some
reckless trick like she did yesterday, flying down that bluff.” He pushed his coffee cup aside and blinked. “Shit, what if she hurt someone else while under the influence? It would ruin me.”

Of that she had no doubt. He’d do everything in his power to keep Marlena safe while she was on his ranch. With so much on the line, he wouldn’t let bad publicity kill his business.

“Hell, Lauren, I know what you’re thinking, but this isn’t some kind of power trip.” He stood and deposited his empty mug in the sink, then turned to her, his posture rigid. “I can’t give those drugs back to her. Besides the fact I don’t want to see her kill herself, I’d be putting other people at risk every time she put a foot in a stirrup. The ranch…”

“I understand.”

“And there’d be no confining her to the house. She’d sooner give herself up to that thug who’s chasing her than to sit around inside.”

“I know. You’re right.”

“She’s a good horsewoman, but ripped out of her head on—” He stopped, blinked at her. “Wait a minute, did you say you understood?”

“I did. You’re right.”

“I am?”

“The stakes are high. I guess I can understand.”

His smile started slow, then spread over his face. “Saints be praised. A woman who can admit she’s wrong.”

The smile was devastating. Because she felt dangerously close to grinning foolishly back at him, she turned away, picked up the carton of eggs from the counter and shoved them at him. He accepted them reflexively.

“You still owe me an egg. Easy over, one slice of toast. I’m gonna go pack.”

His surprised bark of laughter followed her into the bedroom, where she had trouble wiping the grin off her own face as she regarded her reflection in the mirror. Lord, the man could
make her insides melt with a mere smile. Imagine the kind of fire he could start if he really tried.

The face in the mirror sobered. In the interests of her mission, she sincerely hoped he wouldn’t try.

At least the
rational
part of her mind hoped he wouldn’t. Unfortunately, the rest of her longed to taste him. She studied her own eyes in the mirror and read the truth—the urge to press her body against his was growing. What had started as a pulse of awareness had swelled to a drumbeat in her blood.

God help her, she didn’t think she could resist him.

Cal pulled the brim of his hat down against the glare of the sun. So far the trip back to the ranch had been quiet. Marlena’d been spitting mad about being made to vomit in front of lover boy, and her mood hadn’t improved when she found out her drugs had been confiscated. She had since graduated to full-fledged seething, but at least she was doing it quietly. Brady was subdued as a whipped puppy, and Lauren was in her own world.

For a change, Cal’s mind wasn’t on Lauren as he followed the small train of riders. For once it was where it belonged, on the herd. The cattle were in the high pasture now and would be until fall when the men rode out to round them up and drive them back to the homestead. It was a dusty, miserable job driving cattle, yet Cal couldn’t wait. He loved that part of ranching.

The summerlong race to put up enough winter feed to see the cattle through until spring wasn’t so wonderful, though. It was hard, endless work, but he’d take it over babysitting doctor-cowboys and lawyer-cowboys any day.

Hell, he’d take it over managing the ranch, or at least the business end. He liked the office part little enough to begin with, but now, with the big agribusinesses moving in and further destabilizing things, he was really starting to hate it.

It was just like his daddy said when Cal had left home for good at the age of sixteen. “You’ll never amount to nothin’, boy, ’cause you can’t settle to nothin’. You’ll wind up broken in that damned rodeo you love so much, or busting your hump for wrangler’s wages.”

Well, the bulls hadn’t done him in, and he
paid
the wages around here as opposed to collecting them, but his father had been right about one thing. He was a wrangler at heart, not a cattle baron.

But just because the old man had been right in some respects didn’t mean Cal couldn’t prove him wrong about the rest. He’d make a success of this ranch if it killed him.

“Cal,” Brady called, dragging him out of the past. “Rider at two o’clock.”

“I see him.” Brady had stopped, and the others pulled up too. Cal reined in Sienna, cursing as the rider on the handsome palomino changed course to intercept them. Just what he needed to cap the day. He shot a glance at Brady. The kid’s face was stony, eyes hard. Clearly he recognized the rider now.

“Well, come on,” Cal growled. “Let’s keep moving. It’s not a ghost rider. Just my neighbor, Harvey McLeod.”

Cal’s irritation grew as Harvey closed the gap between them. White Stetson, white hair, white teeth—he looked like a Hollywood cowboy.
A Hollywood cowboy who coveted Cal’s ranch.

“’Morning, Cal,” called the other man.

“McLeod.” Cal nodded an acknowledgment. “You looking for me or are you just lost?”

Harvey flashed those preternaturally white teeth in a fierce grin. “Just passing through to visit my new property.” He gestured vaguely to the northeast. “Hope you don’t mind.”

Cal glanced in the direction Harvey indicated. Shit. “MaKenny’s spread?”

“Yep.” Harvey nodded. “Hinchey place too.”

MaKenny and Hinchey both. Poor bastards. Both men—each easily fifteen years his senior and with a lot more ranching experience—had been clinging to their ranches by the skin of their teeth, just as Cal was. A chill went up his spine as he realized he was now sandwiched between McLeod’s holdings and the mountains. Not that it made any difference to his operations. But it still gave him a bad feeling.

“Well, don’t let me keep you. It’s a long ride.”

McLeod bared his teeth again. “Just thought I’d let you know my offer’s still open. Your land and your herd.”

Anger leapt, but Cal was careful to keep his expression flat. “The answer’s still no.”

“Times are tough. If you change your mind, let me know. I’ll give you a fair price.”

That much was true. He
had
made a decent offer. If he’d offered as much to Tom and Dan, they probably counted themselves lucky. They could have lost it all to the bank and gone away empty-handed. Still, Cal couldn’t feel terribly well disposed toward a man who made no secret that he wanted his land. “Appreciate your concern, McLeod. That’s right neighborly of you.”

His sarcasm appeared to be wasted on the older man, whose attention had shifted to Marlena and Lauren. With a gallantry that grated on Cal’s nerves, Harvey swept his hat off. “Ladies.”

Gritting his teeth, Cal realized he wasn’t going to get away without introductions.

“This is Lauren Townsend, a guest here. Lauren, my neighbor, Harvey McLeod.” When they’d exchanged greetings, he nodded toward Marlena. “And you’ll remember Marlena. She’s here for a short spell of R & R.”

“Marlena Taggart?
The
Marlena?” McLeod’s perfect smile widened. “I’m afraid I never had the pleasure. You left just after I bought the Hoyt place, but I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Hadn’t had the pleasure?
He was one of a select few, then. And Cal could well imagine what he’d heard.

With effort, he clamped down on the thoughts. It was done and over.

Marlena took her own hat off and shook her hair free, running a hand through it. “I certainly would have remembered a cowboy who sits a horse as nicely as you do, Mr. McLeod.”

“Call me Harvey, please.”

“Harvey. Now that’s a fine, a masculine name.”

Cripes, Marlena was turning it on. Beside her, Brady was going red in the face. Just like old times. Life wasn’t interesting enough for Marlena unless she had at least two men in a lather.

Unfortunately, things could get uglier than usual between
these
two men, seeing as Harvey was Brady’s father.

Well, not really. But Harvey had raised Brady as his own until a couple of years ago, when he’d abruptly cast out both his wife and son. Evidently a paternity test had revealed that Brady was not his progeny after all. Not content merely to jettison them, McLeod had stripped them both of his name by making that a condition of a quick, easy divorce settlement. It was either accede to that demand or live hand to mouth for years while the lawyers duked it out in the divorce courts. So Brady Harvey had become Brady Hirsch. Cal knew he had his own daddy issues—Zane Taggart had deliberately destroyed the one thing Cal had loved above all else—but all of that paled in comparison to Brady’s issues, he suspected.

“Nice seeing you, Harvey. I expect you’ll want to be moving along. You got a fair piece to cover before you reach McLeod ground again, and daylight’s burnin’.”

Harvey’s smile was a slash of white in his tanned, handsome face. “So it is, Taggart, so it is. Ladies.” With a nod to the ladies, he jammed his white Stetson back on and galloped off.

“What a charming man.” This from Marlena, whose gaze was glued to McLeod’s retreating back.

“He’s a bastard. And a vulture,” pronounced Brady. “Just waitin’ for another cattleman to go down so he can swoop in and pick the bones.”

Cal wished he had a cigarette, an indulgence he rarely allowed himself. “He’s waiting for his chances all right, but he does pay a fair price. Can’t fault him there. And at least he’s a rancher, of sorts.”

“Yeah, the sort that puts men out of work,” Brady scoffed.

“I don’t get it.” Marlena wrinkled her nose. “How can running a lucrative operation put people out of work?”

“Technology.” Cal lifted his hat and let the breeze cool his sweat-soaked hairline. “You don’t need a branding crew, for instance, if you can staple a computer chip in a newborn calf’s ear.” He squinted against the sun, then replaced his hat. “But it could be worse. They could have sold out to a developer for a helluva lot more money.”

Marlena snorted. “What’s wrong with development? I’d sell in a minute if it was mine.”

“Don’t I know it,” Cal muttered under his breath.

“What
is
wrong with development?” asked Lauren. “Don’t you have to accept a certain amount of it?”

He shot her a sharp look. Oh Christ, she was just like the rest of them, knowing nothing about this ancient ecosystem and caring less.
And she wondered why he hated this gig.
The rawness of his disappointment surprised him. Somehow he thought she’d share his position.

“What’s wrong with development?” His disappointment lent his voice a sharper than usual edge. “How about because this is one of this freaking planet’s last intact bioregions? How about because we need agricultural balance for clean watersheds, wildlife, even weather? Developers would throw up fences, and the big game would disappear overnight. There’d be more recreational vehicles and people disrupting things. Few years, it would be ecological disaster.
California North
.”

“He must be awfully rich,” Marlena said.

Cal suppressed a sigh, not because his rant had flowed around his self-absorbed ex-wife like so much prairie wind;
he’d expected nothing less. No, he sighed at Brady’s reaction, a reflexive fisting of the reins. His mount jumped at having her bit bumped for no good reason. Christ, why’d Marlena have to pick herself a kid? Especially
this
kid?

“Harvey McLeod can likely afford everything from the prairie grass to the Rockies, but he’s not getting this piece of Alberta.” Cal spat, but he couldn’t quite get the taste of fear out of his mouth. “Let’s go.”

Without looking back to make sure they followed, he urged Sienna into a ground-eating gait.

It was midafternoon before they got back to the ranch. Lauren felt limp as soggy lettuce, and Marlena looked worse. Out of the corner of her eye, Lauren watched the other woman tend to her mount. Cal was right. She was a good horsewoman, and even in her hungover state she didn’t stint on the rubdown. The mare gleamed by the time she was done. Afterward, to Lauren’s surprise, Marlena stopped to talk to her.