He heard her quick intaken breath. “What did it look like?” she asked, her eyes intent on his.
“Gray and brown,” he answered. “Small, sort of. It paid a lot of attention to Caitlyn, then Axel chased it off.”
“Oh, my God.”
Neil stared at her as she put her hands over her face, her elbows on the table. “What is it, Jordan?”
“That wasn’t a dog, Neil,” she said slowly. “It was a coyote.”
“Uh, what’s a coyote?”
“A wild canine,” she answered, snapping her fingers for Axel. “They usually don’t attack people, but sometimes they will attack small children.”
Neil suddenly felt the need to sit down and did so. “You mean, it was looking to kill her? And I sat there watching it?”
Jordan rubbed on Axel, praising him as he gazed up at her in adoration. “Neil, you didn’t know,” she replied, her tone gentle. “Out here, we have lots of wildlife. You haven’t been among us to know what’s dangerous and what isn’t. But you were there, and so was Axel.”
Kicking himself for almost letting a wild animal attack Caitlyn, Neal stared at Caitlyn, who carried on a conversation with her doll. “She could have been hurt.”
“Now you know why I have a rottweiler and not a Chihuahua.”
“What’s a Chihuahua?”
Jordan started to laugh, and held her chest with her arms, forcing her laughter back. “I’ll tell you sometime. But really, that’s why I picked the dog breed I did when I chose Axel. To protect my little baby.”
Chapter Nine
“C’mon, Knox, we have to be to work in the morning.”
Scowling dangerously, Knox tossed back another shot of Wild Turkey and rapped the bar for another. “You’re a pussy-whipped asshole Darren?” he asked, his upper lip curled in a sneer. “Gotta run home to Mama?”
“Quit it, Knox,” Jimmy said. “You’re drunk.”
The bartender, Fred, from the Mule’s Shoe, where they sat, drinking, poured Knox another shot while staring at him in disillusion. Knox paid for his shot, daring the bartender to cut him off. Then the man did.
“That’s it for you, Knox,” he said. “No more.”
Knox opened his mouth, started to stand and deliver a foul-mouthed stream of swearing that included Fred’s ancestry, when Jimmy put a hand on his shoulder. “He’s done,” Jimmy assured the bartender.
“He’d better be.” The man stared Knox coldly in the eye. “Unless he wants to get eighty-sixed again.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Knox growled.
“Try me.”
The big man, who Knox knew carried a shotgun under the bar and itched to use it, leaned on the mahogany wood. “Don’t threaten me, Knox,” he rumbled. “You want to drink in my bar? You behave yourself. Now finish your drink and get out.”
Knox tossed back the Wild Turkey and glared at the man’s back as he went down the bar to get another beer for someone else. “I’m gonna kill that shithead,” he grumbled under his breath.
“Or he’ll kill you,” Jimmy replied. “Don’t mess with him.”
Staring at the bottles on the shelves behind the bar, Knox recalled the previous day. He was about to take Caitlyn from that bitch when the big redhead stepped in. He also recalled how the stranger’s cold stare almost made him piss himself, and how easily he disarmed and held the switchblade to Knox’s throat.
Wishing for another shot to help curb the memory, Knox almost shuddered when the big stranger spoke of roasting him and he clenched his fists on the bar’s top. “She won’t keep her,” he growled.
“Who won’t keep what?” Darren asked.
“Jordan. She won’t keep Caitlyn from me.”
“Oh. Just keep trying. The judge might give you shared custody.”
Darren tilted his head back and drank his beer, making Knox want to shove that bottle down his stupid throat. “Lawyer says I can’t have even that,” he groused. “Because of my record.”
“That sucks, man,” Jimmy told him. “A father ought to be able to see his kid.”
“Lawyer says he’ll make me pay child support, too.”
Knox recalled the attorney’s smarmy voice informing him that he had little choice but to pay the court-ordered child support. Or he’d be arrested and jailed. Knox was never going back to jail. Ever.
“Jordan got herself a big shit boyfriend,” he went on, his head spinning with Wild Turkey and the grievances that piled up, one atop the other until they threatened to topple and bury him.
“A boyfriend?” Darren asked. “Who?”
“Some big dude,” Knox answered. “Red hair, mean sucker.”
“From around here?” Jimmy asked. “Not too many big red-haired dudes around Livingston. And it ain’t that big of a town.”
“Never seen him before. But I’m gonna kill him. Jordan, too.”
Both his friends fell silent at that. Knox knew they knew he meant what he said. “You boys with me?”
He stared from Jimmy on one side of him to Darren on the other. Darren refused to meet his eyes while Jimmy drank his beer. “You with me?” he demanded.
“No, Knox,” Darren answered. “I ain’t. I ain’t going to jail for life.”
He slapped money on the bar and stood up to walk out the door. Knox sneered at his disappearing back. “Coward.”
“He’s right,” Jimmy replied, slouching at the bar and staring at him. “Killing your ex and her new chum ain’t smart. You’ll be back in prison if you don’t get the chair.”
“I’ll be in Canada.”
“Canada has an extradition treaty.” Jimmy finished his beer and stood up. “You’ll be caught, sent back, and executed. Not worth it, pal. Let it go.”
Knox watched him walk a straight path toward the door to vanish into the night and wondered why he picked such yellow-bellied pigs as his friends. “I’ll kill them both,” he muttered. “And take Caitlyn to Canada.”
Stumbling, reeling from the Mule’s Shoe, Knox reached into his pocket for his truck’s keys, then remembered the bartender had taken them an hour ago. Swearing, Knox turned back for the door, only to find it shut and locked.
“I’ll fix you, too, asshole,” he muttered and started to walk home.
Fortunately, he didn’t live far from the bar and staggered home after a short while. He also kept a spare key under his mat and used that to let himself into the place. Scenting old beer and piss, Knox didn’t care that it stank, or that he hadn’t cleaned since he’d moved in a year ago. His clothes lay on all the furniture, dust covering surfaces that didn’t have dirty clothes on them.
Switching on the TV, he stumbled his way to his tiny kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge. A cockroach scurried from the light, and he cussed it out while trying to stomp on it. It escaped under the stove, then he glanced, uncaring, at the moldy dishes that had piled up in the sink and counters. Since he ran out of clean dishes, he started eating out and never stopped.
Kicking a pizza carton with a dried up, week-old pizza rattling in it out of his way, Knox sat on the couch and stared at the idiot box for a while. The alcohol finally seeping into his brain, and he fell asleep. The beer in his hand spilled onto the carpet and soaked his boots, but he didn’t discover either until the following morning.
Knox heard his name called and turned. The big boss, Old McKenzie, crooked a finger at him. Knox was busy directing the laying of a concrete slab and knew this was not a good time for him to be away. The idiots under his direction couldn’t find their own asses without a flashlight and a map, and McKenzie calling him into the office might mean a crooked foundation.
But he had no choice but to obey.
With a sigh that did his impressive hangover little good, Knox headed for the construction office and his boss. The small trailer held worktables and blueprints, a few rolling chairs, and not much else—it also held no cool air. It was hotter than a whore’s twat, and Knox started to sweat immediately. “Yeah, boss?”
McKenzie waved a paper at h
im. “The court is garnishing your wages as of this week.”
Knox gulped, staring. “What? They have no right.”
“You ain’t been paying your child support?” McKenzie demanded. “What kind of man are you?”
“Hey, that’s not fair—”
“If I wasn’t up to my asshole in alligators right now, Knox,” McKenzie shouted, “I’d fire your ass. You come to work hungover, late, and do shitty work. But you do have a few good points, which is why you ain’t been fired yet. But now the court is taking three-fourths of your paycheck and sending it to your ex.”
Knox stared. “How am I supposed to live on that?”
“You should have thought of that before you refused to pay child support.” McKenzie glared. “I can’t abide a man who don’t take care of his kids.”
“I’m trying to get custody of her.”
“Good luck with that. Now you get to pay what you owe without going to jail. Now get back to work.”
If this company hadn’t been the only one to give him a job with his prison record, Knox would have told McKenzie where he could shove his paper. But no other company would hire him, and Knox knew that without a job, he’d never get custody of Caitlyn.
Swallowing his anger, and his pride, Knox bowed his head and left the sweltering trailer. In a numb haze, he returned to his crew and inwardly cursed Jordan and her new boyfriend.
Chapter Ten
Two days later, Jordan woke to a morning that was reasonably pain-free. Feeling happy and excited, she emerged from her shower and almost galloped to the kitchen. As had become his habit, Neil was up before her and busily cooked breakfast.
“Can you watch Caitlyn again today?” she asked.
Neil glanced around from the stove. “Of course. Where are you going?”
“I have to ride up to the pastures and check the cattle,” she explained. “When I do this, I usually have a neighbor watch her. But as long as you’re here—”
Neil grinned. “I wish I could go with you.”
Really liking his sweet, boyish grin, and his warm, affable nature, Jordan wished he could come as well. “Maybe you can, after I give you a few riding lessons,” she said. “But for now, will you?”
“You know I will.”
“Thanks. I hate to just use you as a babysitter.”
Neil flipped the hash browns with a spatula. “Bodyguard, babysitter, what’s the difference?”
“Right now, not much. But I feel as though I’m taking advantage of you.”
“You’re not.”
Jordan brightened. “I tell you what. Tomorrow, why don’t we pack a picnic and ride into the mountains. All of us.”
Neil’s smile faded. “Will a horse carry me?”
Jordan snatched a piece of bacon from the plate and crunched it. “Why not? They don’t look at you as a dragon anymore.”
Shaking his head, Neil threw a towel over his shoulder. “Maybe you two ride and I’ll fly.”
Jordan contemplated the idea for a moment. “Let’s see how you handle a horse first. Then if it doesn’t work, you fly.”
Neil pointed the spatula at her. “Deal.”
Jordan studied him for a long minute. “Can you carry a passenger?”
“Flying?”
“Yeah.”
“I never have,” Neil answered, flipping hash browns in the skillet. “My people all fly, so there’s no need to carry one another. I know my wings are built to carry me and only me, but that doesn’t mean they can’t carry someone else. If they’re light enough.”
Jordan stared at the table. “I’ve always wondered what it was like to fly. Not in a plane, but with wings. Like an eagle.”
She caught Neil’s grin. “That was why I was sent away.”
“For flying?”
“Yeah. My friends and I, we all craved the need to fly, to feel the wind beneath our wings. For that, we were exiled.”
Jordan scowled. “But you’re dragons. You’re flying creatures, meant to be in the air.”
“True. But elders declared the need to hide ourselves from humans and said flying in our dragon forms was as forbidden as letting humans know we exist.”
“How stupid is that? People have no idea, if you’re way up north.”
“They didn’t until they started exploring about a hundred years ago.”
Jordan gulped. “So, you had to hide.”
“Yeah.”
“That bites.”
Neil shrugged. “Many of us live among you,” he said. “Owners of big corporations that send money to us.” He patted his pocket. “That’s where I got this cash.”
“I confess I did speculate how you got it.”
Neil stared into space for a moment. “I wonder where my friends are right now, those that went into exile. We all scattered as we came south.”
“So, there are more like you? Who were condemned for your love of flying?”
He nodded. “We will connect in a year’s time.”
Caitlyn ambled in with Axel at her side, interrupting the question Jordan had—how were they to get together in a year. I never saw him with a cell phone.
“Hi, baby.”
Caitlyn leaned against Jordan as she sat in the chair. “Hi, Mommy.”
“Did you sleep good?”
Caitlyn nodded but seemed overly tired to Jordan’s eyes. “I have to ride out today,” Jordan said. “Neil will watch you. Take a nap this afternoon, sweetie.”
Jordan knew she was tired when she didn’t protest that she wasn’t a baby anymore, and thus didn’t need naps. Neil set plates of hot food in front of them both, then poured milk for Caitlyn and coffee for Jordan. “I’ll make sure she gets a nap in,” he said.
“Thanks.”
Jordan absently wondered why Caitlyn seemed so tired and pondered making an appointment with her pediatrician. She met Neil’s eyes as he sat down at the table with his plate, and he nodded.
“I’ll look after her.”
“I appreciate it, Neil.”
By the time Jordan had saddled up, Caitlyn seemed back to her old self. “Bye, Mommy,” she called, waving, leaning against Neil’s legs.
“Bye, baby. I’ll be back soon.”
With a quick smile toward Neil, whom she was trusting on such short acquaintance with her child, Jordan kicked the tall buckskin gelding into a canter. Riding him toward the mountains, she pondered how easily she had come to trust Neil. Since the incident with the coyote, Neil had made certain he watched every bush and tree and threatened to flame rabbits who ventured too near Caitlyn.
Though a dragon, Neil held a sweet innocence about him that endeared Jordan to him. His naivete regarding people and animals to his south made Jordan want to laugh but didn’t out of respect for his feelings. “He’s like a sweet, gentle kid out on his own for the first time,” she said to the gelding. “Doesn’t want to hurt a fly.”
Checking the cattle, Jordan rode the fence lines for any breaks, rode among the pastures of cows and their calves. The bulls in their respective fields lay on the thick grass, chewing their cud, and placidly watched her ride by. Thinking it was time to sell a few of them, Jordan contemplated the auction coming up next month. But I need help with the bulls. Will Neil be able to help me?
Laughing, she thought of Neil flying low overhead and herding the bulls from the air. Oh, yes, she would have the help she needed to get them below and to the sale. They were good breeding bulls, and she had six more than she needed. “Selling them will put some money in the bank,” she mused, leaving the bulls’ pasture and heading toward the broodmares.
Forced to dismount and open the tight wire gates, Jordan wrestled with it, then led the gelding through and forced it closed again. Mounting up, she trotted toward the small herd of mares grazing peacefully on the lush mountain grass. Of impeccable bloodlines, these mares were worth thousands, their foals more. Cade’s offspring stared with huge liquid eyes as Jordan rode among them.
Most were bays like he was, but a few
sorrels romped among the grazing mares, as well as a couple of liver chestnuts. The mares, friendly and sociable, followed her gelding until Jordan dismounted. Leaving him ground tied, she walked among her mares, rubbing noses, inspecting legs for injuries, and stroking necks.
“Hi, girls,” she said to them, offering treats from her pockets. “Any trouble up here? No cougars, no wolves? Oh, good. I’m glad you’re all doing so well.”
Come the fall, Jordan would round them up and herd them down to the ranch, where they would spend the winter inside the barn. She would work with the babies until the spring, then sell them as halter broke yearlings. Some she would keep for a few more years and break to saddle before selling them for a much higher price.
Meanwhile, the mares would deliver Jordan’s new crop of foals in the spring, then be driven up to the mountains to graze and raise their babies on green pastures. Cade would spend his time with them, getting them pregnant, before coming back down to the ranch.
“Cade misses you,” she cooed at them as they nuzzled her pockets for more treats. “He’s such a cutie, isn’t he?”
That made her think of Neil and how her attraction to him was growing. I really like him. I think he’s attracted to me, but he’s a dragon. “Listen, girls, I must be going. I’ll be back in a few days to check on you.”
Mounting the gelding, Jordan rode back the way she had come, opening the wire gates, then fighting to close them again. Riding through the beautiful Absarokas, she listened to the crows squabbling, watched deer bolt from her presence in a panic. The afternoon waned as she rode down out of the mountains toward the ranch.
Jordan reined in to gaze down at her home at the base of the peak, the small house, the barns, the corrals. This life was all she had ever wanted. Ranching, the cattle, raising the horses, even if it was hard work and often broke her heart. Clucking to the buckskin, she rode down the trail.
Reaching the flat, Jordan trotted toward the front of the barn in time to see a familiar dark red pickup drive in to park beside hers.
“What is he doing here?” she snapped, fear bolting through her.
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