A Cowboy To Keep

Poor, sweet girl. She’d been born and raised on this ranch. Deserved a better fate than what awaited her. From her own experiences, Dani knew how just one incident could be enough to derail your entire life. She hadn’t stopped praying for divine intervention to get Milly back on track and save her, since Dani hadn’t been able to do it herself.

To her surprise, Jack extended a hand, an apple in his palm. Milly’s head rose and she eyed the fruit down the length of her muzzle. After a long minute, where Dani held her breath and Milly stood still, Jack dropped the treat on the ground and headed for his mount. Milly watched him leave before she edged closer, snatched up the fruit and retreated to the corner of the pasture she preferred.

Phew.

That could have gone very badly. Horribly, considering the thrashing she’d once seen Milly give an overconfident groundskeeper who’d ignored the signs of her agitation until he found himself on the wrong side of her hooves.

What inspired Jack’s daring, unexpected act of kindness?

She puzzled over it while they finished tacking their horses, mounted, then headed out of the corral.

“This is the main house where our guests eat. There’s also a rec room and the second floor has rooms, too.” They passed a large, two-story log-cabin-style building with a wraparound deck that expanded on the side to a thirty-by-fifty-foot space. “We hold our barbecues, line dancing and bingo nights out here.”

A riding lawn mower, driven by a red-faced man, hummed by on the field separating the main lodge from the pasture. It kicked up the smell of fresh-cut grass and gasoline with each passing sweep. Pokey jerked his head and stepped sideways. Whatever Jack’s reply might have been evaporated as he worked to control the spirited animal.

At last the machine droned farther downfield. “Pokey, huh?” His narrowed gaze flicked her way.

“Not having trouble with him, are you?” Innocence oozed from every syllable.

“No. Enjoying the ride, thanks,” he insisted through gritted teeth, his words sounding a bit winded as he settled the horse.

“We aim to please.”

“So...Pokey...”

“It suits him, don’t you think?”

A quick laugh escaped Jack, a low, husky sound that set off a fluttery feeling in her stomach. “He’s a little hot, but nothing I can’t handle.” His knowing look got her flustered.

With the horses in hand, they continued past the hay barn, Pokey and Storm brushing noses. She lifted a hand to one of the grounds crew, Todd. His eyes went wide when they landed on Jack. Openmouthed, he returned her wave and wiped his wet brow with a rag before he went back to planting bright petunias around their flagpole.

“How many staff members work here?” Jack asked, as the horses stepped slowly on the packed dirt roadway.

“I’ve got seven wranglers, and they stay there, at the old railroad station—” she pointed at a converted, single-story structure “—with the kitchen crew, which is another three.”

“That doesn’t include Tanya, right?” He shot her a sharp, assessing look and pulled in a fidgeting Pokey. The belt buckle tattoo she’d spied earlier caught her eye.

“Right.” Her throat dried as she imagined what he thought—or conjectured, given Tanya’s relationship with Smiley. “She pays rent to stay in her own cabin. Over that hill.”

He turned his head and squinted at the distant building on the edge of the Pike National Forest.

“A couple of the groundskeepers lodge with the wranglers, as well, but a couple commute,” she hurried on, not wanting him to dwell on kindhearted Tanya, her best friend on the ranch. “As for the cleaning staff, they mostly live off site except Nan, who’s been with the Mays forever as a kitchen and housekeeping supervisor. I believe she’s mostly retired, though don’t tell her that. If you’re lucky, she’ll make her green chili stew while you’re here.”

“Till I catch Smiley.”

“He’s not guilty.” Her hand tightened on the reins when Jack didn’t respond. “He’s not that type.” A defensive note entered her voice.

It irked her when people got labeled for something they didn’t do. The sooner he found Smiley and cleared up this mess, the better. She needed Jack off this property ASAP.

“So these are all guest cabins?” Jack asked, smoothly changing the subject. The horses’ hooves splashed through a puddle left over from an early morning rainstorm. A woman with a mop and bucket emerged from a large stone structure. Behind her rose Mount Logan, its pine-covered incline cut through with a brown switchback trail.

“Some. They’re scattered on the property. That one’s Stonehenge. It’s our biggest. The one farther down with the balcony is the Homestead. We can have up to fifty guests a week when we’re full, and most of the season’s booked solid.”

Pride filled her, temporarily washing away her angst over Jack and the very real danger he represented. As the newly promoted stable manager, she’d worked hard over the winter to ensure their usual bookings returned and to attract new customers with her updated website.

This season was supposed to be perfect—a corner turned from her troubled past—and then the bounty hunter appeared. “You’ll stay with the wranglers.”

“I’ll find my own spot.”

At her surprised intake of breath, Storm’s ears flicked backward and her gait picked up as they entered the orientation trail used on day one of the guests’ arrival. “And where’s that?”

“Don’t know yet. I’ll be on the lookout.”

“All my wranglers bunk down together.”

He tugged at his shirt collar, creases appearing in the corners of his eyes. The strengthening sun beat down from the vast arc of blue overhead and a trickle of wet pooled at the base of her neck. “I’m not part of your crew.”

“You are while you’re undercover. Guess that makes me your boss.” She enjoyed the extra white that appeared around his dark eyes a little too much. “Do you mind having a lady in charge?”

“Got a problem with anyone telling me what to do. Look, boss, we need to get one thing straight. I only take orders from one person—myself.” He held the reins loosely in his left hand, his body swaying along with Pokey, his ease in the saddle evident.

She opened her mouth to mention he’d have to hide his tattoo as part of the dress code but decided to put off that argument for another day. Hopefully he’d locate Smiley quickly and leave before their first guests arrived. She’d do everything she could to facilitate those events, though strangely, another part of her felt let down at the thought.

Her mama had always said she attracted trouble like a fiddler attracted square dancing. And her mother had never been wrong. A long sigh escaped her.

There was the time she’d lost a school year’s worth of playground privileges for taking Frankie Joe’s dare to walk on top of the monkey bars. Another was when the church youth group leader had personally brought her home after Dani brawled with an older boy who’d called her “chicken legs” the first time her mother had gotten her to wear a dress.

She’d been a ponytail-wearing, makeup-avoiding, bruise-and-scrape-covered, bone-breaking horse fanatic who’d surprised everyone by cleaning up good once in a blue moon...and those only happened every other year.

How her mama had despaired of her. If only she could see Dani now. She still wore her hair back and didn’t so much as own a tube of mascara, but she’d walked straight since her huge mistake years ago. Would this brush with the law yank her back to that time? Undo all of her hard work to steady her life?

They rode along the sloping path, following a trail that came up the back of a bluff, through a clump of aspens with white trunks and green fluttering leaves, and led across a level patch of lush grass and wildflowers to the rocky edge.

She dismounted. Storm, used to being petted, rubbed her sleek, silver head against Dani’s arm then dropped her head to graze. “If you’re not leading groups out on horseback, taking them down the Arkansas rapids, fly fishing, zip-lining—”

“Zip-lining?” he interrupted, his tone incredulous, as he eased off Pokey and joined her at the ledge.

“Oh, you’ll love it.” Her voice rose as she warmed to the thought of the Goliath dangling from a line and speeding over treetops. “Nothing but you, a harness and pine trees. We have the longest and fastest zip lines in Colorado. Six in total, from 850 to 1,900 feet. Right out there.” She pointed to the high peaks rising across the valley that comprised this section of the Continental Divide.

He stared at the steep inclines then back down to the flat, muddy water of the South Platt River below. “Thanks for the invite. I’ll pass.”

“If you don’t fit in with the rest, they’ll question it. You don’t want to alert anyone, do you?”

A hawk wheeled overhead in lazy circles. “I don’t think there’s much chance of me fitting in, is there?”

“Why not?” she insisted. When she turned to look at him, he was disturbingly close, her senses alive to the brush of his shoulder against hers.

He gazed out at the valley. “You know what I look like.”

It wasn’t a question—just a statement of fact with a hint of resignation at the edges. It made her soften toward him.

“Lots of people have, uh, scars,” she floundered, trying to find a polite way to describe the deep ridge that looked bad enough to have gone bone deep. “It adds character. Makes you interesting. The guests will want to know about you.”

A humorless laugh escaped him. “A character? Interesting? Well. That’s something. Consider me your newest attraction.” He grabbed Pokey’s reins and mounted in a move so agile it aroused her deep, feminine appreciation. There was something about a man who rode well.

She watched as he and Pokey disappeared around a bend.

Her next attraction indeed...

CHAPTER FOUR

JACK RODE ALONG the trail, alert for signs of Smiley and possibly a partner passing through. Another horse trotted up behind him and he found himself smiling. Dani Crawford.

He had to give it to her, she didn’t intimidate easy and he liked that. Too much. Although he shouldn’t make a lot out of the way she dismissed his scar. She hadn’t looked him square in the eye since he arrived. Clearly he made her skittish, no matter what tune she sang. He pulled his hat brim down against the low sun and nudged Pokey up a steep incline.

As for his following her rules, that wasn’t happening.

“Where’s that lead?” He pointed at a yellow-painted wooden arrow that marked a new trailhead on their right.

“Coyote Ridge.”

He looked over his shoulder and glimpsed the pretty picture she made in her white tank top tucked into worn jeans, her braided red-gold hair grabbing every bit of light leaking through the forest canopy. The stubborn tilt to her chin caught his eye, as did her unabashed gaze. Cute was too small a word to describe a fierce woman like Dani, though it came to mind. Then again, he had no business deciding which word suited her best.

He slowed Pokey as they neared the opening. The trail sloped upward into denser forest then turned out of view.

She and the gray quarter horse pulled up on his left side and he angled his head to see her. Her big eyes swerved out from under his. Why the guilty flash in them? His instinct not to trust her the way the Mays did returned.

“It also goes to one of the old mine shafts,” she added offhandedly, her tone a little too casual for his taste. “They used to dig for copper here, and the railroad stopped on our property for it up until a hundred years ago.”

His shoulders tensed, his senses alert to every sound. His target could be hiding nearby, and he wouldn’t be caught unawares, especially with a woman present who could end up in the cross fire. Of course, Dani seemed more than able to defend herself, though he’d be sure never to put her in that position. “Let’s check it out.”

He’d already guided Pokey up the path when he heard her say, “But you need to know the orientation trail. It’s where we take guests on their first day.”

“I’ll study the map. Go ahead without me.” Pressing on, he guided his horse around a steep turn, hoping to leave his jabbering “boss” behind. He’d have no chance of surprising anyone if she was along chitchatting. More important, he wouldn’t risk putting her in danger.

An old mine shaft would make a good hideout, though its proximity to the trail made it doubtful Smiley would use it, unless he was dumb. And overconfident. And Jack liked dumb and overconfident. He liked that combination a lot. It made his job easier.

Hooves sounded behind him and Pokey looked backward and blew. Jack held in a sigh. Dani was turning out to be his hardest tail to shake. Resigned, he asked, “Does Smiley carry a .45?”

The path emerged into a grassy patch and she brought Storm up beside him. The heat waved the air around them. “I’ve never seen him touch a gun. He’s a nice guy. Responsible. Since he didn’t let me know he wasn’t working this season, I believe he’ll show up.”

“Let’s hope he does.” Jack pressed his knees into Pokey’s sides when the horse dropped his head to graze. The tall grass bent with each stride, leaving a trampled track in their wake.

“So, what? You’re just going to take him in...no questions asked?” Her expression was indignant.

He shrugged. “I’m not a detective or a judge.”

“You carry a gun.” She pointed at his plaid shirt, as though she could see the shoulder holster under it that held his Glock.

“Goes with the job.”

Her eyes traveled over him, making his pulse pick up. They passed out of the sunny spot and continued upward on the rocky track.

“But are you a good guy or a bad guy?”

“Let me know when you’ve figured it out. Been wondering that myself.”

He caught her head shake out of the corner of his good eye. “Irritating. You’ve got that part down.”

His lips twitched. “Was thinking the same about you.”

A huff escaped her and he flat-out grinned, enjoying this exchange too much.

“Tell me about Tanya.”

“Why do you ask?” Her voice rose, defensive. Was she protecting Tanya? Had Dani helped Smiley when he’d shown up at the ranch? He couldn’t rule out she just might be shielding them both.

“Her association with Smiley. How long has Tanya worked here?”

“Five years.”

“And Smiley?” He ducked under a low-hanging branch and breathed in the earthy smells of the spring forest.

“He was here before I started.”

“Did they meet here?”

Dani rode through a bright strip of sunshine and her hair turned to fire. “I believe so. Am I being interrogated?” Again, a defensive note sharpened her tone.

“Gathering information, is all.” He clenched his thighs, urging Pokey up another incline.

“So, are you from around here?” she asked, turning the tables. Rocks rolled beneath the climbing horses’ hooves.

“Carbondale.”

“Does your family live there?”

“Yes.”

“Who? Mother, father, siblings?”

His throat closed around his answer and his eyes watered slightly as he squinted up at the sun. “My brothers, sister and mother,” he said when he was sure of his voice. “My father died a few years back.”

“Sorry about that. My mother died ten years ago.”

He peered at her for a moment, absorbing her stoic expression, impressed by her quiet strength. “My condolences, as well.”

“She had breast cancer but didn’t tell anyone until the very end. My sister called me while I was touring with a show-jumping group and told me to hurry home. I arrived at the hospital half an hour after she passed.” Her voice sank lower and lower before dropping away completely.

They rode for a few minutes in silence as he thought of her loss. It’d been two years since his brother died, but the pain felt as fresh as a newly dug grave. “That’s tough.”

“You don’t realize how quickly everything can fall apart until it does,” she murmured, and her eyelashes swept her cheeks. “It makes you never want anything good ever again.”

He looked at her sharply, hearing his own thoughts come straight out of her mouth. It unsettled him, this connection he suddenly felt to her.

Time to return to easier topics. “Where are you from?”

“Texas. My father owns a bull ranch there. He’s been fighting to keep it after he had a stroke last year.”

“It’s hard giving up land.” He pulled up when a wild turkey darted across the path. Three more followed, necks outstretched, legs and feet a blur. With deep-throated cackles, they disappeared again in the rustling brush.

“I know.” She blew out her cheeks. “The doctor says Dad’s got to slow down and my sister, Claire, and her fiancé, Tanner, are there helping out. He quit bull riding to help save the ranch and they’re getting married in a few months.”

“Good man.”

“It’s not as simple as that.” She shooed away the swarming gnat cloud they’d entered.

“Nothing ever is.”

“Do you ever string more than five words together?”

“Yes.” He bit back a grin at her eye roll when he didn’t elaborate. Then he spotted a boarded-up entrance over a rocky outcropping. “Hey. There’s the mine.”

They pulled up, dismounted and tied up the horses. Wooden slats crisscrossed the space, but a couple had fallen off at the bottom. Could a man crawl in through there? Only one way to find out.

“What are you doing?” she hissed when he dropped to the ground and pressed his good eye against the opening. Light filtered through the cracks and pierced some of the gloom. Nothing inside stirred. It appeared empty.

“Looking for Smiley. You?”

“I told you. He’s not here.”

“No?” He straightened and studied the remains of a campfire. “Someone stayed here. Only one set of tracks. Whoever it was didn’t stick around, though.”

If Smiley was on his own, did that mean he and the other guy, maybe Everett Ridland, had split up? If so, an explanation could be that Smiley’s partner worked on the ranch and would be able to hide in plain sight as long as he used an alias.

She blinked rapidly. “Could be a camper. We adjoin the Pike National Forest. Sometimes people get confused and pass through.”

He poked at the cinders with a twig, his gaze sweeping the bare dirt patch. “That’s a nice theory.”

“You don’t know him.”

“I hope to know him, soon.” He pointed at a set of fresh tracks leading away from the campfire onto a small footpath. “Where does that trail lead?”

Her large eyes traveled from the foot impressions to the small trail. “The ranch.”

“Where, specifically?”

“Excuse me?”

“Where does it come out?”

“Behind Tanya’s cabin.”

“Huh.”

A deep rumble sounded above them and he instinctively dove for Dani. He swept her into his arms and covered her just before the first rocks of the avalanche rolled down the bluff and smashed into his shoulder, head and back, the dirt rising up around them in a blinding cloud.

The horses neighed as the stone shower continued on and on, his mouth, his nose, his lungs filling with gritty, bitter earth. As for his heart, it bumped hard in his chest. Drummed in his ears. Then, suddenly, all was still and quiet.

Dani’s clutch on his shoulders eased and he felt her stand. He shoved to his feet but couldn’t see anything, his eyes now burning.

“Good girl, Storm. Pokey. Luckily the horses were just out of reach.”

He nodded, unseeing.

The crunch of Dani’s boots on the stone-filled area grew louder as she approached. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He rubbed his eye, clearing away the grit.

“Can you see?”

“Not at the moment, exactly.” A couple more swipes and Dani’s outline swam into focus. Her brow furrowed as she stared directly at him, her gaze questioning.

“You didn’t wipe your left eye,” she observed.

He jerked, realizing his mistake, and brushed dirt off his eyelashes and lid, the damaged nerves there making it less sensitive, according to the doctor who’d treated him.

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

His hands stilled then dropped to his sides. “Can I stop you?”

“Probably not.”

“Okay. Shoot,” he answered, guessing what she wanted to know...information she might figure out sooner or later.

“Are you blind in your left eye?”

Tension coiled between his shoulder blades as he braced for the pity his brothers had given him after the injury. “Legally blind, but I can see some,” he muttered through clenched teeth. “Still want me as a wrangler?”

His jaw worked at the memory of his brothers making unconscious allowances for him, how that’d made him feel less than he’d already felt after letting the family down in the worst way a man could. His chest burned. At last his good eye cleared and her features popped into sharp focus. Instead of looking sympathetic, a line appeared between her lowered brows.

“I never wanted you to begin with. With that scowl, you resemble an extra in a Coen brothers’ movie—one that doesn’t end well. And you clearly have an issue with authority, but your skills...” She trailed off and looked upward at the cliff. “You know how to handle a crisis. Thanks for saving my skin.”

A strange sensation swelled in his chest. “I like Coen brothers’ movies.”

She headed for the horses, glanced at him over her shoulder and grinned. “Why am I not surprised? We’d better go. I need to tell grounds keeping about this.”

He nodded, studying the outcropping. It looked stable enough. What had set off the avalanche? “How often do those happen?”

“It’s the first one I’ve seen since I started here. Why?”

“Just thinking.”

“Do you believe someone started it?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll find out,” he said grimly. He gestured toward the horses. “After you.”

He needed to get Dani out of the area if his target lurked nearby. Once he spoke to Tanya, he’d explore the foot path and see if he couldn’t flush out his quarry.

He swung his leg over Pokey, settled in the saddle and followed Dani. If an armed, reckless Smiley skulked this close to the ranch, Jack’s job here had just changed. He wasn’t just hunting on the property anymore, he thought, eyeing the graceful sway of Dani’s back as she rode ahead. He was now protecting it, and the woman who both irritated and fascinated him, too.

CHAPTER FIVE

DANI KNOCKED ON Tanya’s door an hour later, Jack by her side. The cowboy’s proximity made her senses fire to life and become acutely aware of the hard brush of his biceps against her shoulder, his looming height and rugged good looks. She inhaled the scent of him—a slight hint of woodsy pine, horses, leather and bar soap, a cowboy’s version of fancy aftershave that worked on her.

Not that she had any business noticing a man who looked like the kind of trouble she avoided. The old Dani would have flirted up a storm with this dangerous man, but her new, wiser self knew better than to trust her attraction.

The aroma of fresh-baked corn bread seeped through a window screen, breaking her from her thoughts, and Smiley came to mind. He usually ate at least one pan himself and declared the dish his favorite. Had Tanya baked it for her runaway boyfriend?

She sealed off the traitorous thought. Tanya was good people. Smiley, too. If he’d been caught with drugs, there had to be an explanation. Maybe he’d been wearing someone else’s coat or driving their car. Whatever the reason, this must be a mistake. Still, she’d promised to introduce Jack and ask Tanya for the information he needed.

Was she betraying her friend? Yes.

Did that make her a hypocrite? Yes...considering her own past.

The door swung open and Tanya appeared in the frame. Her quick smile faded when she glimpsed Jack. She tucked her dark hair behind her ears, slid her tank top strap up her thin arm and fidgeted with one of her leather bracelets.

“My first visitor. It sure is good to see you. How’ve you been, girl?” Despite her friendly tone, her eyes kept darting to Jack. Knowing him, he read everything into her uneasy expression. Yet Dani knew Tanya. Her friend was the worst liar, one of the reasons Smiley never let her play poker with them on weekends. Her twitchy right eye always gave her away, as did her tendency to repeat herself when she was nervous.