Wildfire (10 page)

“I’ve got a removable brace in the truck, but figured it wouldn’t work for riding. You need some extra help, and I’m coming along.”

She shook her head firmly. “Bad idea. This’ll be a long, hard day, even for me. That leg of yours has to be tender, and I can’t slow down or quit to bring you back here when it starts to hurt.”

He grinned. “The horse will be doing the moving, not me.”

“So you think. Do you have any idea how exhausting this can be? It’s not like sitting on a couch. We’ll be riding on rough ground. Moving fast. The cattle don’t exactly fall into a nice, easy line, so your horse might suddenly slam on the brakes, pivot, and want to chase after a straggler. You think you’re ready for that?”

“Absolutely,” he lied. Just walking from the truck to the barn had made his tender leg ache and had shown him just how weak those muscles were.

But he had a roll of Ace bandaging in his pocket, courtesy of the medical clinic in town, and that ought to offer plenty of support. If it didn’t work well enough, so be it.

Tessa did need help whether she wanted to admit it or not. And even if it killed him, he wasn’t going to let her down.

“They’re gone now. Let’s
go.
”

The smaller man sank back into the shadows. “You don’t hear that dog? It’s barking its fool head off!”

“And who’s gonna hear it? The kid’s in jail. The old guy is laid up in town, and that’s where his wife goes everyday. There ain’t anyone here.”

Still, they waited. Five minutes. Ten. From this vantage point above the house and barns, one could see a cloud of dust boiling up behind any vehicle traveling the mile-long ranch road leading out to the highway, and the air was crystal clear. Off to the right, Josh and Tessa had become small specks on the landscape and had long disappeared into the foothills.

“You got the list? I don’t want to mess this up.”

“Got it. Now, let’s
go.
”

The dogs had made it too risky last night. With all that barking, it had been better to retreat than to risk the business end of Tessa McAllister’s rifle.

But daylight had its own risks, even with everyone at the ranch gone. They’d had to come across country on foot to avoid being seen. It would be a long hike back with what they took.

But it was worth it…every last step. Debts needed to be paid, after all.

And this would be the perfect repayment of one that was long overdue.

R
iding Jasper out to the pasture with Tessa and her horse Dusty was an easy trip. They crossed gently rolling land, passing through a series of gates between the various pastures, with the warm June sun high overhead and a growing, easy camaraderie that had them laughing most of the way.

The tricky part was when they actually
reached
the cattle in question. Tessa promptly disappeared over the next hill, heading toward the western reaches of the pasture at a lope.

She’d shouted directions as she rode off—nothing that Josh had heard clearly over the thunder of Dusty’s hooves and the bawling cattle, but the goal seemed clear enough: gather all of the cows and drive them north.

Only it wasn’t obvious to the cows.

They were scattered over hundreds of acres, standing in shady draws to escape the flies, spread out on the hillsides, or having little one-on-one chats deep within nearly impenetrable thickets.

As soon as he had a few of them heading in the right direction, a couple of them would veer away. If he got a few dozen cornered and went off to gather some more, the original group declared recess and trotted off.

It had to approximate trying to herd cats or goldfish, and both the tenderness in his leg and his impatience were growing. Where were the obedient, well-trained herds of the old John Wayne movies, that moved en masse like dark, thick molasses?

Even Jasper seemed irritated by the whole process.

He tossed his head and danced sideways, obviously disagreeing with Josh’s supervision. He could only imagine that Tessa, alone with her horse, was facing the same problem.

That misconception was promptly dispelled when he heard the rumble of hooves approaching, and looked up to see a solid flood of beef pouring over the hill with Tessa and her horse neatly maneuvering the herd from behind.

“Open the gate!” she shouted, cupping one hand at her mouth.

The gate? He pivoted Jasper toward the north and, following the direction she pointed out, kicked him into fourth gear, and reached it with seconds to spare. As soon as the cattle went through, he pushed the heavy pipe gate shut.

Tessa pulled to halt next to him. “There’s fifty,” she said, pushing up the brim of her hat and wiping away the sweat on her brow. “How about you?”

“Mine are…taking a break.”

“You’ve got
none?
”

“I had quite a few, now and then, but I didn’t know you wanted me to drive them into that other pasture, and the cows lost interest in standing around. They can’t be too far, though.”

“That other ‘pasture’ is a two-acre holding pen. Since they’ve had a little practice heading this way, we shouldn’t have any trouble if you’ll just watch the gate. Shall we?”

She gave her horse an almost imperceptible signal, and it did a hundred-eighty degree pivot, then took off at a lope, swinging wide around a half-dozen cows and calves.

She and Dusty made it look effortless as the horse ducked his head low and darted back and forth as gracefully as a ballet dancer, blocking escape attempts and working cows and calves into a tight bunch, then sending them on through the gate.

In another hour, Tessa had rounded up the rest of the cattle, counted them off, and the herd was on its way down a narrow gravel lane that wound up into the foothills, until it reached the government allotment where they would summer on better grass.

Once the herd was through that final gate, Tessa padlocked it, then rested an elbow on her saddle horn and propped her chin on her palm. He thought she was just resting, until he realized that she was counting the slowly dispersing herd one last time.

“They sure are far from home up here. Is theft a big problem?”

“It happens. My ten head of missing mother cows haven’t turned up yet. Eight were our own breeding stock, which we’ve been carefully developing for decades, but two came from a herd genetically engineered for top production results, and I hate to add up what we lost.”

“Ballpark?”

She winced. “I had around $4,000 in each of the two new ones, and the others were easily two grand apiece at auction. If they’re sitting in someone’s freezer, it’s a tremendous waste of breeding potential.”

He looked out over the cattle they’d just brought up here. “So, what’s to prevent someone from taking these?”

“The more often I can get up here to count ’em, the better. If anything takes a walk—unplanned—I call the sheriff right away, and then send notices to him and all of the sales barns. The auction houses watch out for them, but sometimes it’s one of the bidders who happens to see a flyer on the wall and calls in a report. Anything that works, right?”

For so much of the time since he’d come here, Tessa had been busy from dawn to dark, and he’d barely seen her, much less spoken to her for any length of time.

Now, they slipped into casual conversation about the weather, the auction coming up next week and her plans for expanding her breeding program for high-yield Angus cattle, and it took him back to the days when they’d sat in his old Chevy Malibu, talking for hours.

He studied her animated gestures and shining eyes as she discussed ranch business, realizing for the first time just how much knowledge and expertise she had to possess to make this place float.

“So, any news about Gus?”

“After rehab, he and Sofia can stay as long as they like at the ranch. I think they want to move to Colorado, though, because they have a daughter in Denver.” She smiled sadly. “It just won’t be the same if those two leave. They’re like my family.”

“What about Danny?”

“Still in jail, and that’s such a waste. He should be out here, working and doing what he loves best.” Her eyes sparked with anger. “If he wasn’t set up, I’ll eat my boots.”

“There were fingerprints, though. And there were stolen goods in Danny’s truck,” Josh said gently. “Word has it that the state has a strong case against him.”

She twisted in her saddle to look over at him. “But think about it.
Really.
Edward was Danny’s stepfather for a few years, so Danny may well have been in that cabin a number of times as a visitor. So there you go—fingerprints. He probably handled Edward’s gun collection many times. He might’ve even visited Edward that day—and the real killer saw that, and figured out the perfect way to shift the blame.”

“But the stolen goods?”

“
Were
they stolen? Danny says no—that they were a gift. And I believe him.”

She seemed so absolutely loyal to her young friend, despite the evidence against him, that Josh smiled.

“Do you ever wonder what would’ve happened if we hadn’t had that last fight, back in college?” he said. “How life would have been different if we hadn’t lost touch?”

“Lost touch?”
She shot an unreadable look at him. “Do you mean—if you hadn’t just dropped off the face of the planet and disappeared?” She turned away to stare at the horizon. “Yes—I suppose I thought about it a time or two.”

Her words were light, but even after all these years, her voice vibrated with a depth of emotion that surprised him. “I was devastated when we broke up,” he said quietly.

She laughed. “Oh, I can imagine how much. I tried to find you, but you were gone…and you sure never came back.” She slid a cold glance at him. “It didn’t take long to realize that I’d just been another foolish little girl with stars in her eyes, and had read
way
too much into that relationship.”

“What?” He blinked, trying to sort out a version of the past that was different from everything he remembered.

“But as one of our presidents said, ‘mistakes were made’ and both of us moved on.”

“You said you never wanted to see me again, and you made that
crystal
clear. I did try calling a couple times, but your roommates said you refused to come to the phone. Then my father died and I had to move back East, because my mom just fell apart. I had younger brother and sisters to worry about, so I transferred to a college out there.”

“And I tried to find you, too. But my letters were returned, and back then we couldn’t search for old friends using the Internet.” The anger in her eyes faded to infinite sadness. “Then I guess that’s just how it was meant to be. Two people at cross purposes…ending up on different paths. Things always end up for the best, right?”

Maybe she thought so, but he’d had an aching, empty place in his heart for years afterward. He’d relived their last argument a thousand times, trying to figure out how things could have been so perfect between them—yet suddenly crash and burn in a single, devastating evening, over a minor disagreement about the future that had escalated out of control. She’d hinted at wanting commitment. He’d been startled into some sort of off-hand dismissal that had set her off.

“I barely remember what we argued about, Tessa, but I’m sorry.” He grinned at her. “I’m sure I was totally wrong.”

“I’m sure you were,” she retorted, a faint, sad smile touching her lips. “But I had a lot on my mind right then, and I was in a touchy mood. It doesn’t matter now, anyway. Race you to that boulder?”

Without waiting for a reply, she nudged her horse and took off, her long, shimmering hair flying behind her as her horse thundered down the path.

Jasper danced in place, impatient to follow, until Josh gave him his head and let him fly.

By late evening, Josh knew two things: that he’d be willing to empty his bank account for a good, hot shower, and that he couldn’t wait to put on his removable leg brace.

Tessa had been right.

Twelve hours of herding cattle over rough country was nothing like a leisurely ride in Central Park. Maneuvering cattle through boulder-strewn pastures and keeping them together across lush, inviting meadows involved speed, agility and endurance, and he was pretty sure that every single muscle he owned was strained to the limit.

But he would’ve done it all over in a heartbeat.

No matter what she said, he couldn’t imagine Tessa being able to handle all those cattle without any help. And now, her cattle were on the summer range, and two dozen market-ready steers were in one of the pastures close to the barns, ready to be hauled to auction.

At the barn, Tessa dismounted lightly. Josh eyed the ground with some trepidation, then eased carefully out of the saddle to avoid landing on his injured leg.

“I’ll take care of him for you,” she called out as she lugged her tack into the barn.

He unsaddled Jasper on his own, dropped the saddle on the hitching rail, and led the horse into the corral. As soon as he was free, Jasper circled with his nose to the ground, then rolled vigorously, sending clouds of dust into the air.

Josh knew exactly how he felt. Smiling, he turned, then stopped.

Tessa stood in the doorway of the barn, her face pale, and her cell phone at her ear. And given her agitated gestures, something was terribly wrong.

It wasn’t just the sense of violation at finding her tack room in disarray, with bridle leather slashed and saddles damaged and the phone jerked from the wall. It was the sheer waste of it all. Beautiful equipment, destroyed.

And then there was her beloved saddle. It had been a gift from Uncle Gray that she’d lovingly preserved, and rarely used. It was the one she’d sacrificed for the ranch, by selling it online, and it was to be shipped tomorrow.

Only it was gone—stolen by the vandals who had ruined almost every other piece of equipment in the tack room.

Michael had arrived several hours later to take her statement and write up a report, though that had seemed like yet another exercise in futility. There were far bigger cases to pursue in the county. Arson and burglary and domestic abuse, and she could hardly expect him to be at her constant beck and call.

What was that report, but just another document that would just sit in a file cabinet? Nothing would change.

“I don’t understand,” she said bitterly as she and Josh arrived back at the ranch after the cattle auction on Wednesday night. “I’ve done nothing underhanded to anyone. I try to be a good neighbor, and I couldn’t work any harder. Yet every time I turn around, something else happens.”

Josh reached across the bench seat of the pickup and squeezed her hand. “It’s going to end. Sooner or later, this guy is going to slip up, and he’ll be caught. It’s going to take him a long time to pay restitution, while sitting behind bars. Have you heard anything more from Michael?”

“Nope. I did an Internet search of tack stores, commercial stables and sales barns in a six-state area, though, and faxed a description of my saddle to every one of them. And, I’m monitoring the online auction sites for saddle listings.”

“What did your saddle buyer say?”

“He e-mailed back and said not to worry, but I still have to refund his money. And if the saddle does turn up, it would only be fair to offer it to him again.” She stared out the front window at the dizzying flash of road signs illuminated by the headlights. “At least the cattle sold high enough that I can pay off that bank note tomorrow. Good news, right?”

It
was
good news. She ought to be happy. But today, a motorcycle shop in Jackson had called Josh with the news that his Harley was ready to roll…which meant he was closer to leaving.

Leigh had come out again to check on the pack horses, and one of them had gone into liver failure. If things didn’t improve by tomorrow, it would have to be euthanized rather than to let it suffer. And Danny was still refusing to talk about where he’d been on the day of Edward’s murder.

So really, what else could possibly go wrong?