The Man From High Mountain

THE SUN WAS HOVERING just above the horizon as Cole pulled the truck up to the metal gate marking the ranch’s northwest boundary. A low line of blue clouds hung above them, their ominous darkness coloring the vista with threatening shadows. In the background, near the mountains, flashes of lightning darted across the sky. The cold front was definitely heading their way. Cole turned to the woman sitting beside him. With each passing mile, her tension had risen a notch. He’d sensed it in the closeness of the truck’s cab, just as he’d been aware of her perfume.

“This is it,” he said, nodding toward the dusty terrain beyond where they sat. “Look familiar?”

She leaned forward, her hands on the dashboard, the pink, buffed ovals of her nails glimmering in the dusty dawn light. “Not really. I don’t remember much about that morning.” She pointed to the metal sign above the cattle guard. “Was that there?”

“The sign? Yeah. It’s always been known as Rancho del Diablo. I guess the previous owners must have put that up.”

Black metal stretched in an arch fifteen feet above the cattle guard. The letters that spelled out Rancho del Diablo were weathered, polished into a shiny finish by the constantly blowing winds. Miniature pitchforks decorated each end of the sign.

She suddenly looked uncertain. On the way over, she’d repeated Pearson’s gossip. It was clear she didn’t actually believe it, but the story had her spooked. Cole could have used her nervousness to try and change her mind, but he knew it would have been a pointless exercise. He’d just done his best to settle her down. If the truth was known, he had plenty of questions himself about Rancho Diablo. He didn’t believe in ghosts, but something was wrong with the ranch. His own place bordered Diablo, and he’d never gotten accustomed to seeing lights moving across the landscape at night or to hearing the occasional bark of a rifle. All he’d finally done was ignore it.

“It’s not too late to forget about this,” he said softly. “We can drive right back to High Mountain. It’s your call. We can stop and—”

She stared straight ahead and shook her head. “No.” Her voice was faint. “I want to go on.”

He nodded without a word.

The truck bounced over the cattle guard, the horse trailer behind it echoing the sound a moment later. Taylor gripped the seat and leaned forward. Every muscle in her body was tense and knotted—he could tell by the way she held herself.

“How far does this road go?”

“All the way across the ranch but we’ll only take it to the top of that plateau.” He pointed to the ridge in front of them. It was the beginning elevation to the mountains behind. “We’ll ride in from there.”

“How far to the canyon after that?”

“An hour or two, depending on the weather.”

She seemed to notice the growing clouds for the first time. “Do you think it’s going to get bad?”

“Could happen.” He glanced northward. The billowing blackness was beginning to roil. “I brought slickers. We’ll be okay.”

“It was really hot that day, wasn’t it?” Her voice was detached, remote.

He shot her a look. Her profile was soft, almost blurred. Lavender shadows darkened the skin beneath her eyes, and under her cheekbones, there were hollows he hadn’t seen two years ago. He wondered suddenly what Jack Matthews would have to say about her returning.

She turned when he didn’t answer. “It was hot, wasn’t it?” This time her voice was sharper.

“Yes,” he answered quietly. “It was hot and that was bad. It made you lose more blood than you would have if it’d been this cold.”

She fixed her gaze back out the window, and for the next half hour only silence filled the truck. Which was just fine with Cole. The road hadn’t gotten any better over the years, and at times, it took all his concentration to follow it, the trailer bouncing along behind them, Lester adding an occasionally sharp bark to the rattle and jingle of their very slow progress. Cole stole a look at Taylor now and then, but she seemed to be in another world altogether.

Or in another time.

After what seemed like a long stretch, he finally turned the truck’s wheel sharply, then eased it up the last incline. Taylor’s fingers were now digging into the upholstery, her knuckles white with strain. Brackets had formed on either side of her mouth, and Cole found himself wanting to reach over and smooth them out with his thumb. They were just too painful to see. Instead, he directed the truck into a stand of mesquite and cut off the engine.

Instant and total silence enveloped them, quiet so thick Cole was sure he could hear Taylor’s heartbeat if he listened closely. Turning toward her, he spoke, breaking the empty stillness.

“This is the end of the road. We’ll have to saddle up and ride from here.”

CHAPTER FIVE

COLE GOT OUT of the truck and circled back to the horse trailer. Taylor sat perfectly still.

Ever since they’d crossed the cattle guard and come onto the property, she’d begun to second-guess her decision. What did she think she was going to find out here on this vast, unforgiving land? Peace and quiet? A calm acceptance? Tranquility?

Her heart began to pound and a wave of dizziness hit her. From behind the truck, the dog’s excited whines and the soft whinny of one of the horses broke the silence. The sounds seemed to be coming from a long way away, and unexpectedly the warm enclosure of the truck turned stuffy. Pushing up the sleeves of her sweater, she rolled down the window, propped her arm on the cold metal and sucked in the sharp, clean air. Without any warning, Cole appeared beside the door. He peered in the window at her.

“You okay?”

Her voice was terse. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

She turned and met his gaze. His eyes were as black as ever, but there was something else in his stare...something that looked suspiciously like concern. She swallowed hard. “I—I’m a little shaky, I guess.”

He’d put on leather gloves to saddle the horses, worn gloves with the fingertips cut out. Lifting one hand, he placed it on her arm, the rawhide soft as cashmere, the exposed ends of his finger unexpectedly warm against her skin. “What did you expect?” His voice was not unkind. “This place holds a hell of a lot of memories. You’re stirring up some powerful stuff.”

She nodded and bit her lip. “It’s what I wanted, but I wasn’t prepared, I guess.”

He stared at her a moment longer as if he were trying to decide what to do. Finally he reached inside and opened the door. “Come on out, then,” he said with a sigh. “We might as well get started before that front gets any closer.”

She slipped out of the truck, her boots sinking into the soft, red dirt. A movement near the rear of the pickup caught her eye, and she saw that he’d already unloaded the horses. A black quarter horse stared curiously back at her, twin plumes of steam coming out his nostrils. He snorted softly then nosed the smaller, gray Appaloosa beside him as if to point out Taylor’s appearance.

“Kinda late to ask, but you do ride, don’t you?”

Nodding, Taylor looked up at the man beside her. “It’s been a while, but yes, I can ride. I grew up on a ranch in Montana.”

He raised his dark eyebrows in surprise. “I thought you said you were a city person.”

“I am. I left Montana when I was eighteen and never looked back. I imagine I can still ride a horse, though.”

He looked down at her as though he wanted to know more, but he wouldn’t ask. Cole Reynolds was the kind of man who respected privacy. Taylor liked that in a person. Especially if it was her privacy at issue. An image of Richard flashed into her mind. He’d wanted to know everything about her. How she and Jack had met, where she’d lived before they’d married, where she’d gone to school. Everything.

Without dwelling on the thought, she brushed past Cole and went to the small, gray mare. Taylor allowed the animal to smell her palm, the velvety nose of the horse dry and warm against her skin. The touch brought back memories of her childhood, of rocky crags, and deep snow, and endless sky. Other memories came, too, some of them not as nice.

Cole appeared behind her, patting the smaller horse. “This is Honey, and this fellow over here—” he walked to the black horse and scratched him behind his ears “—is Diego.” At Cole’s touch, the horse neighed his pleasure then lowered his massive head and nudged Cole’s shoulder. “We’ve been a team for quite a while.”

“Why didn’t we ride to the canyon that day? Why did we walk?”

Cole pulled a saddle out of one of the compartments built into the side of the trailer, then reached in for the harness and tack. “Your husband didn’t want to ride. He told me he wanted to walk the land, said he’d get a better feel for it.” Slipping the reins over Honey’s head, he stared at Taylor. “Maybe I should have insisted on horses.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Things might have gone differently. It would have been a damned sight easier to get you out of there, that’s for sure.”

Taylor’s chest tightened, seemed to close around her heart a bit. She told herself this was exactly why she’d come back—to hear things like this—but that didn’t make it any easier. She took a deep breath. “How did we get from the canyon back to the truck? I...I don’t remember.”

Draping a second bridle over his arm, Cole reached in and pulled another saddle and blanket from the trailer. He walked over to the black horse and dropped the gear by the animal’s hooves. Finally he looked up and met Taylor’s eyes, speaking reluctantly. “I carried you out.”

For a moment, all Taylor could do was stare at Cole. Then she found her voice. “You carried me out? How in the world did you manage that? You’d been shot—we were miles out. How—”

“I slung you over my shoulder and walked.” His voice was matter-of-fact. “When that didn’t work any longer, I made a travois.”

She gripped the edge of the trailer, the cold metal biting into the palm of her hand. When that didn’t work any longer... He didn’t have to elaborate—she knew exactly what he meant. When he’d lost too much blood himself to carry her. When he’d turned weak and filled with pain, too. The image left her feeling ill.

“How did you manage?” Her voice was a whisper.

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. The horse standing between them neighed softly, feeling the tension. “I did it like I do everything,” he said. “I took it one step at a time.”

“But you were wounded.”

He turned back to the horse, waited a moment, then pulled the cinch. When he stood up and looked at her again, his expression was closed. “Don’t make it into more than it was, okay, Taylor? I did what I had to do to get us both out of there—what anyone would have done. There weren’t any other options.”

He was obviously uncomfortable with the conversation, and Taylor didn’t know if it was because he was being modest or if he hadn’t come to terms with what had happened, either. She nodded slowly. “I don’t know if I agree with you—that it was what anyone would have done—but I do know one thing.” She paused, waiting until his eyes met hers. “I appreciate it. You saved my life. I—I don’t think I ever really thanked you as I should have, and it’s long overdue.”

For a heartbeat, all they did was stare at each other, the wind at their backs, the quiet stillness of the land surrounding them with an intimate and silent vista of isolation. It felt as though they were the last two people on earth.

“You’re welcome,” he said finally, his deep, rumbling voice echoing through the emptiness.

A FEW MINUTES LATER, Cole watched as Taylor grasped the horn of the saddle and swung herself up to Honey’s back. She seemed a lot calmer, a lot more at ease, and he began to wonder if part of her nervousness had simply been an uneasiness at being around him. They were like two strangers who’d been trapped in an elevator during a storm and then suddenly freed. People didn’t always know how to handle the bonding that came with sharing a trauma, especially when the trauma was over. He’d seen the same thing happen between men in his unit during his time in the military.

Eventually, though, she’d have more questions and he didn’t want to give her the answers. Remembering the details did nothing for him. He didn’t want to have to explain how he’d ripped off his shirt and bandaged both their wounds. How he’d waited out the endless hours for the cover of darkness. How he’d then taken painful step after painful step and gotten them back to the truck, struggling to stay conscious himself, sick with concern that she’d die before he could get them out or that whoever had been shooting at them would come back and finish the job.

It didn’t take much effort to recall the agony of driving them to the hospital, veering from one side of the road to the other, praying—for the first time since he was a kid—for help.

He didn’t want to remember any of it.

Cole put his boot in the stirrup and swung himself to Diego’s back. His memories of their time together two years ago were mostly hellish, but the parts that weren’t... well, he didn’t want to remember them, either, but they haunted him even more.

When he closed his eyes at night, he could still see the creamy white shoulders, the rapid rise and fall of her breasts, the painful look of tragedy those beautiful green eyes had held. He’d felt like the worst kind of creep when the memories had first come to him. At the time, when he’d bandaged her with the remnants of his shirt, he’d been too concerned about keeping her alive to notice anything, but later, much later, the details had come back to him. The lace of her bra, the blue veins beneath her skin, the perfection of her body. What kind of man wouldn’t have noticed? Only a dead one, he’d decided later.

Now, watching Taylor rein Honey into a turn, her jeans stretching tight against the curve of her buttocks, her arms lifting gracefully, he realized once again what a beautiful woman she really was.

And just how different their two worlds were.

He touched Diego’s flank with his heel and set the horse into an unexpected trot, Lester beside him. Within minutes, Taylor had Honey cantering beside them. They spoke little over the next hour or so. Cole concentrated hard on making sure he was taking them the right way and not having thoughts he shouldn’t. Taylor was clearly concentrating on keeping Honey in line, the horse a gentle one but a handful for someone who was out of practice riding. From time to time, Cole glanced over at Taylor. She’d disappeared into another world, just as she had done earlier in the truck.

By midafternoon, a steady, cold rain had begun to fall. Cole dug out slickers and tossed one to Taylor. She draped it over herself, the bright yellow coat covering her completely. An hour later, his hip screaming, Cole reined Diego to a halt and spoke over his shoulder. “There’s a cave about three-quarters of a mile up ahead. I think we need a break.”

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