Cowboy Brigade

Anxious to leave him, but not wanting him to know just how he affected her, Lindsay strode forward and reached for the dappled gray gelding. “Come on, Stormy. You’ll be wanting your feed.” When her hand touched Wade’s, that same old shocking electric current coursed through her veins, headed directly south. Heat flared throughout her body, igniting a flame she’d thought burned out five years ago.

She jerked the reins from Wade’s hand and practically ran for Stormy’s stall. Why did she have to be so aware of this man? He’d broken her heart more than once, hadn’t she learned her lesson?

After she got Stormy into his stall, she shoved the latch closed and turned to run for the house.

Before she could take two steps, Wade had the mare’s stall door closed and he’d spun to face her.

Lindsay sidestepped him, but he didn’t let her pass, grabbing her by the arms.

“Look, Lindsay, I’m not here to start something between you and me. I know that’s over. I’m just here because I need a job.”

Where his fingers curled around her arms her skin tingled, reminding Lindsay of the last time he’d held her. The magic of their lovemaking and how much she had wanted to be with him always. The depth of all that emotion pressed against her chest, making it impossible for her to breathe, much less talk.

Her eyes blurred and she realized in horror that she would cry if she didn’t get away from him. And no matter what she did, she refused to cry in front of Wade Coltrane. She’d done enough crying over this man and, as her grandfather would lecture, Kemps don’t cry.

Forcing air past her vocal cords, she said, “I don’t want you here, no matter what your reasons.”

For a brief moment, a sadness so deep it almost hurt her to see flashed in his blue eyes. Then it was gone and his hands fell to his sides, his lips firming into a straight line. “I understand. And I hope you’ll understand that I work for your grandfather.” He spun on his heels and walked out of the barn.

Lindsay stared at his back, anger replacing sadness and the lingering waves of lust of a moment ago. “How dare he talk to me that way?” She pushed her sleeves up and stomped toward the house. Her grandfather would see it her way and fire Wade Coltrane’s butt quicker than he could say I’m sorry.

When she reached the house, the girls waited in the kitchen clean and ready to start cooking supper. Her grandfather was nowhere to be found.

Damn.

WADE FED the horses and turned them back out to pasture before he grabbed his worn, military duffle bag from the truck and headed for the bunkhouse to clean up. Frank beat him there, his booted feet propped on the footboard of his bunk.

“Surprise, surprise,” Wade muttered to himself. Out loud he asked, “Where are the other hands?”

“Out with Old Man Kemp, shoring up the cattle chutes, gettin’ them ready for roundup. Why do you care?”

“I care because I work here and, if they need help, I should be out there.”

“They’ll be back any minute for supper. Lindsay sure can rustle up some fine grub. Not only is she good-lookin’, she’s a good cook. Everything a man could want in a woman.” Frank stuck a hay straw in his mouth, his gaze narrowed as if waiting for a rise from Wade.

Wade tamped down the anger quick to rise when Frank made mention of Lindsay in any way. He ignored the guy and stared around the bunkhouse. “Which bunks aren’t taken?”

“Those.” Frank jerked his head past his bunk to the ones where thin mattresses lay bare on the bed frames.

Dorian’s gaze followed him as Wade moved past. “Hear you used to live on the ranch.”

Wade found a wooden footlocker beside the bed, opened it and shoved his duffle bag into it without unpacking. “You heard right.” He unbuckled the lock on the bag, grabbed out a shaving kit, towel and clean clothes.

“Prior Army?” Dorian asked.

“Yup. What about you?”

“Same. Did some time on active duty.” Frank crossed his arms behind his head. “Why come back to this podunk town?”

“Needed a job.” Wade gathered his things and straightened.

Wade could care less about Frank and his past but, as a new hired hand, he had to try to fit in, even if he didn’t plan to stay long. As soon as he had the evidence he needed, he’d be gone from the Long K Ranch. “What’s your story?”

Frank shrugged. “Same.”

The bunkhouse door opened and two men walked in shaking dust from their cowboy hats.

The first guy, a short, grizzled older man, with a scraggly white beard and skin as tough as leather, tossed his cowboy hat onto the first bed. He held out his hand to Wade. “Roy Kingery, folks call me Dusty.”

Wade smiled, shook hands with Dusty and introduced himself.

The second man, tall, thin as a rail and with facial features as gaunt as Abraham Lincoln, strode in, head down, still wearing his cowboy hat. He didn’t say anything, walked straight to his bed and unlaced well-worn leather chaps.

Dusty jerked his head toward the tall lean man. “That’s Billy Moore. He don’t talk much, but ain’t a man who can out-rope, outride or outshoot him in the county.”

Wade nodded toward Billy. “Good to know you.” He glanced pointedly at the items in his hands. “Dinner’s at six-thirty, right?”

“Yup, and you don’t want to be late for Miss Lindsay’s cookin’. She might ride as good as the rest of us, but she also knows her way around the kitchen.”

“Guess I better get cleaned up.” Wade strode the length of the bunkhouse aware of the men’s gazes following him, summing him up.

The bunkhouse reminded Wade of old World War II barracks with a neat row of bunks on each side and a communal latrine and shower facility at one end. If he hadn’t been through all that he had, he’d almost feel like a new recruit at boot camp.

He wasn’t the green trainee he had been all those years ago. The months he’d spent fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq had sharpened his fighting skills, but the time he’d been held captive in a Taliban terrorist camp had marked him for life.

His fingers rose to the scar near his right eye, memories flooding in to remind him of what he’d been subjected to. The body had a way of forgetting pain, but he could never forget what he’d done. Neither could he forgive himself for cracking.

He showered quickly, toweling off as the other men wandered in naked, bars of soap in hand.

Wade hurried through shaving, dressed in jeans and a clean black T-shirt, and pulled his boots on. He wanted a chance to speak with Old Man Kemp before supper. If Lindsay had already gotten to him, his mission could be over before it even started. No matter what Lindsay said, Wade would keep this job if he had to trick Old Man Kemp into agreeing to it.

With the three ranch hands still washing up, Wade climbed the slight rise to the ranch house. As he passed by an open window, Lindsay’s voice carried to him on the warm, late-summer breeze.

“We don’t need another ranch hand, Gramps. We can’t afford the ones we have.”

Wade stopped outside the window to Henry Kemp’s office and stood beside a tree, out of view, tamping down the surge of guilt he felt for eavesdropping on a man who’d done him a favor by hiring him.

Yet Old Man Kemp was his target. He had to eavesdrop to know what he had planned. If the man really did want to harm Governor Lockhart, Wade had to find the evidence that would put him away before he succeeded

“Roundup is next week,” Henry said. “Surely we can afford to keep him at least one week. Besides, I liked the Coltranes. It was a sad day when his old man died in that flash flood. Wade’s daddy did good work for us. It’s the least I can do for an old friend.”

Wade remembered that day when Henry Kemp came to the high school. Wade had been a senior then, staring out the window at the rain clouds. The guys had been excited that football practice would be wet that day. Coach never skipped practice. They’d be playing in the mud and, just like when they were all kids, they loved playing in the mud.

Henry had taken him out of that classroom that day to tell him that his father had died at a low-water crossing. He and his horse had been swept downstream. The horse made it, but Jackson Coltrane didn’t.

His chest tight, Wade forced himself to listen to the conversation.

“Gramps, what will we pay him with? The bank account is down to nothing. We haven’t been paid for the last ten steers we sold at auction, and I’m not having any luck getting a bank to loan us money to tide us over until roundup. We’re broke.”

Wade leaned out enough to catch a glimpse of Lindsay’s face. With color high in her cheeks and her green eyes flashing, she’d never been more beautiful.

Henry slammed his palm flat on the desk. “Damn Lockharts!”

“Oh, please.” Lindsay flung her hand in the air and spun away from her grandfather. “Why bring them up? What happened with them was years ago.”

“Yeah, but they tricked me into selling that land to them. While they’re sitting all fat, rich and happy, we’re struggling to put bread on the table.”

Lindsay turned and stalked toward her grandfather’s desk, where she planted her fists on her hips. “You really have to get past that. Fifteen years is long enough to hold a grudge.”

Her grandfather’s back straightened. “Yeah, but I remember it as if it was yesterday. That land had oil. We were sitting on a gold mine and didn’t even know it. Somehow the Lockharts knew. They just knew it. And now look at them, richer than Midas, and lording it over everyone else!”

“You can’t undo what’s done. We have to move on and make the best of our lot in life.”

“And that’s my plan.” Henry Kemp stood and walked around the desk, taking his granddaughter by the hands. “Mark my words, things are gonna change around here.”

Lindsay’s brows wrinkled, her eyes narrowing. “What do you mean?”

“I’m workin’ on something.” Old Man Kemp dropped her hands and spun away, his lips turned up in a ghost of a smile.

Wade moved around the tree and ducked behind a bush. If Henry saw him spying on him, he’d fire him on the spot.

The old man looked out the window, past the tree where Wade had been standing to something far beyond. “I’m going to make things happen that should have happened a long time ago.”

“Gramps, you aren’t planning something crazy, are you?”

The old man’s lips pressed into a firm line. “I ain’t tellin’, but it’ll make things right around here. And about damn time.”

Lindsay moved up beside her grandfather and laid a hand on his arm. “I don’t like that you’re keeping secrets from me.”

“This is one I had to keep, darlin’.” He patted her hand. “It’s for your own good. There are people who might try to stop me.”

Voices sounded from the bunkhouse.

Wade doubled back around the house and came in from the opposite side, his mind churning through all he’d heard.

Henry Kemp had a plan. Question was, did it involve killing Governor Lockhart?

Wade had to find the evidence, and fast, of previous attempts to kill the governor, before another attempt met with success.

Chapter Four

“Suppertime!” Lindsay called out from the kitchen. She carried the heavy platter of roast beef and potatoes to the table and set it in the middle, the fragrant onions and spices wafting up, assaulting her senses. She hadn’t eaten since early that morning and the way her stomach churned now didn’t bode well for a satisfying meal, no matter how well prepared.

The girls had eaten macaroni and cheese while she’d prepared the meal for the adults. They’d play in their room while the men discussed the day’s progress and plans for the next. Sometimes Lacey and Lyric joined them when they had a special meal, but not tonight. Until Lindsay had the opportunity to tell Wade he was a father, the less he saw of them the better.

Her heart thudded against her ribs as boots clumped on the porch outside the open front door. The ranch workers knew to be on time for dinner if they wanted a heaping helping. If not for the garden, the milk cow and the side of beef they’d put in the freezer a few months ago, they’d be facing beans and cornbread every meal.

With the bank account down to nothing, Lindsay didn’t know where she’d come up with money to buy pantry staples. They had run out of tea and flour and the coffee supply neared empty.

Gramps led the men into the dining room where they assembled around the table. Gramps stood at the head of the table, leaving a seat at his right for Lindsay. Frank aimed for the seat beside Lindsay, but Dusty beat him to it, resting his hand on the back of the chair, staking his claim.

Frank grabbed the seat across from Lindsay.

Gramps raised a hand. “Take the chair at the end, Frank. I want the Coltrane boy to sit here and fill me in on what he’s been up to.”

Frank’s eyes narrowed, but he backed away, purposely bumping into Wade’s shoulder as he passed him and took the seat at the end of the table. He plunked down.

Gramps’s mouth tightened and he remained standing as did all the other men and Lindsay. “You know the routine, Dorian.”

Frank’s cheeks reddened and he climbed to his feet. “Damn stupid, if you ask me.”

“I didn’t, now, did I?” Gramps nodded at Lindsay.

The tension in the air was thick enough that Lindsay could cut it with a knife. How the hell could she sit through an entire meal across from Wade? She might as well forget about eating. With her head bowed, she quietly asked the Lord’s blessing for the food. As the men all muttered a rumbling amen, she added a silent prayer for help in handling this latest of crises on the Long K Ranch.

Lindsay sat and the men all dropped into their chairs reaching for the nearest platter of food. Gramps served himself a portion of the roast beef and potatoes and offered to serve Wade at the same time. “How long has it been since you’ve been home, Wade?”

Lindsay could have answered her grandfather’s question down to the year, days and hours. Her gaze crossed over the bowl of corn she was scooping onto her plate.

“Five years,” Wade replied, his gaze meeting Lindsay’s.

Lindsay broke the eye contact first, her cheeks burning. The last time Wade had been to the Long K Ranch, she’d been engaged to Dr. Cal Murphy, certain Wade Coltrane would never step foot in Freedom, Texas, again. When he’d left to join the Army, he’d said he never wanted to come back to this two-bit town.

Lindsay had moped around for years, praying he’d return. Her heart broke a little more with each passing day. One year passed, then another and she’d given up hope that Wade would come back for her.

Her friends encouraged her to date other men to get Wade out of her system. Desperate to shake the depression, she’d gone along with them when they set her up on a blind date with the new doctor in town, Cal Murphy.

He’d been everything Wade hadn’t. Cal had a calming effect on her, where Wade stirred her blood and made her heart race. Cal was easy to date, demanding little from her, and not pushing sex. Wade made every female hormone in Lindsay’s body light up like fireworks.

When Cal had asked her to marry him, it seemed like the natural progression. She said yes, knowing deep down that her heart still belonged to another.

Then Wade had blown into town on leave from the military. He’d been angry about her engagement, they’d argued out by the barn, she’d ridden off in a huff on her favorite mare.

Wade had followed.

He’d declared his love, swept her off her feet and they’d made love long into the night.

Not until the cool mist of dawn did Lindsay realize her mistake. She’d made love to Wade while engaged to another man. Guilt made her sick to her stomach. Angry at herself and at Wade for confusing her, she’d told Wade to go away and never come back.

A little over five years ago…

“Didn’t you join the Army?” Gramps asked.

Wade jabbed a fork into his food, but didn’t bother to lift it to his lips. “Yes, sir.”

“What were you, Infantry?”

“No, sir. Special Forces.” Wade pushed his food around, his jaw tightening.

Lindsay didn’t have to avoid his gaze; Wade didn’t look up from his food as Gramps asked questions. Why so evasive? He’d been so proud to be a member of the Army and that he’d been selected to be a part of the Special Forces.

He’d been deployed to Iraq when he’d left Freedom five years ago. Had his deployment changed all that? Had it changed Wade?

Lindsay allowed herself to study him for the first time since he’d returned.

Wade Coltrane had always been lean and muscular. Although his shoulders were broader, he seemed even thinner than usual, the shadows beneath his eyes, the scar over the right eyebrow and a nick in the curl of his ear were new. How had he gotten those? Had he been injured by a roadside bomb?

Her heart squeezed in her chest. All those years she hadn’t received news of his exploits. With no family left in Freedom, news about Wade dried up.

Had he found another woman? Someone who would have worried about him, sat with him in the hospital and held his hand through the nightmare of recovery? Or had Wade been on his own like he’d been since his father’s death when he was only seventeen?

“I was in the Army once,” Frank boasted from the other end of the table. “Fighting a losing war over there in the Middle East. Damn waste of time. Just need to nuke them all and be done with it.”

“That your answer to any difficult situation, Frank?” Dusty asked. “Nuke ’em?”

Frank shrugged. “Beats standing around in boots in one-hundred-and-thirty-degree temps.”

“You can’t blow things up and expect everything to work out in the end,” Lindsay said. “Killing doesn’t resolve anything.”

“No, but it makes you feel a whole lot better, don’t it?” Frank laughed. When nobody else did, he frowned and muttered, “It’s an eye for an eye. Don’t you believe in payback?”

Gramps slammed his hand on the table. “Hell, yeah, I’d like to dish out a little payback.” Lindsay cringed. Here he goes again. Not a day went by her grandfather didn’t moan about the greatest wrong ever done to him.

“Wouldn’t be hurtin’ for money if the Lockharts hadn’t stolen our oil,” the old man grumbled.

“Gramps, they didn’t steal our oil. They bought that land from you. They didn’t discover oil on it until later.”

“One year later.” Gramps snorted. “Practically gave them that land.”

“And we needed the money.” She handed Gramps the platter of roast beef, hoping he’d change the subject. “Have some more supper, Gramps.”

Wade looked up from his plate. “On my way through town this morning, I heard Lila Lockhart was involved in an accident last night.”

Lindsay wanted to throw something at Wade. He knew the score. He’d lived here as a child. He knew how enraged her grandfather got at the mention of the Lockharts. Why feed the fire with more tinder?

“Serves her right.” Her grandfather snorted. “Goin’ around like royalty with money that should have been mine. Probably driving too fast, no respect for the speed limits the rest of us have to follow.”

“They said someone booby-trapped the road with horseshoe nails.” Wade looked directly at Gramps with piercing blue eyes.

Her grandfather harrumphed. “Might have thrown a few myself if I’d thought of it first.”

“Gramps!” Lindsay slammed her fork down and shoved to her feet so fast that she almost toppled her chair. She’d had enough. The stress of sitting at the same table with Wade had finally gotten to her. Her grandfather’s rant on the Lockharts just tipped her over the edge. “Excuse me while I go anywhere I don’t have to listen to this nonsense.”

Her grandfather clamped a hand on her arm. “Oh, Lindsay, girl, calm yourself down. I’ll quit talkin’ about those yahoos. Sit.”

Wade sat at the other side of the table, a hint of a smile tweaking the corners of his mouth. He was laughing!

Heat boiled up her neck into her cheeks. Lindsay shook Gramps’s hand off her arm. “I love you, Gramps, but I can’t sit here another minute.”

She took her plate and stormed out of the dining room. In the kitchen, she went to work cleaning the pots and pans she’d used preparing the meal. Scrubbing at the baked-on food did little to work off the anger and frustration that had built throughout the day.

How dare he come back now? And why? Obviously Wade hadn’t come back because of the girls—he hadn’t even recognized them as possibly being his own.

Her hands paused, buried in soapy water. Both girls had his black hair and blue eyes. After delivering them she’d gazed down at her baby daughters, ecstatic and heartsick at the same time. They’d been the spitting image of their father even then.

No wonder she’d never gotten over him. She saw him every day in Lacey and Lyric.

Hands reached around her and dropped plates into the soapy water.

The hair on the back of Lindsay’s neck stood on end. The scent of soap, leather and denim let her know the man foremost in her thoughts stood close behind her. His breath stirred the hair curling against the side of her neck.

Her pulse sped, her breathing became labored. If she moved just a little, her back would touch his chest. He could wrap his arms around her and hold her in his warm embrace. The years would fall away, they’d be that happy couple making love into the night.

And pigs could learn to fly.

Lindsay dropped the pan she’d been scrubbing, soapsuds splashing over the sides of the sink. She ducked around Wade and reached for the dry towel hanging from the oven handle. “What do you want, Wade?”

“I came in here to help wash dishes.”

“I don’t need your help washing dishes.”

“Then let me dry.” He closed the distance between them, reaching out.

As if her body had its own ideas, she swayed toward his outstretched hand.

He snatched the towel from her fingers, twirled it and popped her hip.

“Ouch!”

“You know you hate doing dishes.” That sexy smile that had always made her toes curl, tipped his lips upward. Although the trim beard hid a lot of his face, it couldn’t hide the sparkle in his eyes.

Lindsay steeled herself from reacting to his charm. “Not as much as I hate someone helping me.”

He didn’t budge. “You used to love it when I helped in the kitchen.”

Lindsay grabbed a glass from the dish drainer and plunked it into a cabinet just to keep busy, to focus on something other than the man she’d hung all her dreams on only to be disappointed time and again. “We were kids.”

“Not so much.”

She spun toward him, her fists clenching to keep from touching him. “Okay, we were young and stupid.”

“We used to have a lot of fun.” He whipped the towel around her, caught the other end and yanked her against him. “Remember this move?”

Her breasts pressed into his chest, her heart slamming against her rib cage, threatening to beat right out of her chest. “No,” she said, her mouth inches from his. God, she could still feel the warmth of his lips on hers, kissing her as she lay naked in the starlight with him.

“Let me remind you.” He leaned closer, his mouth descending to hers.

A plate clattered in the dining room, the noise snapping Lindsay out of the stupor and back to sanity. She shoved Wade away. “If you want to help do the dishes, you do them. I have other work that can be done.”

She passed Gramps on her way out of the kitchen. She pointed a finger at him as she hurried away. “We need to talk after I get the girls down for the night. Don’t you go off to bed until we do.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Gramps replied. “What’s got your knickers in a twist, girl?”

Lindsay didn’t bother to answer. She needed someone to hug. Two someones who loved her unconditionally. She needed that hug now.

For the next hour, she coaxed the girls through their baths and into their pajamas. After they cleaned up their toys, all three of them settled in Lyric’s bed to read a story. It was Lyric’s night to choose. She chose Beauty and the Beast.