by Kim Redford
She chuckled, nodding in agreement. “We better hope Fernando is our miracle of the season.”
“If he’s not, I’d better pull a rabbit out of a hat.”
“You never know about blessings in disguise.” Granny held out her hand, palm up, and caught a few black ashes. “Maybe this fire is our wake-up call.”
“You bet. We’ll catch these rustlers.” He kissed her cheek. “I’m really sorry about the barn.”
“Me, too.”
“Right now, I’d better see what I can do to help put out the fire, then I’ll get back to the other ranch.”
She straightened her shoulders and raised her chin. “I’ll send cowboys over there to help, and I’ll talk with the sheriff.”
“Now, we just need to up our game.”
Chapter 27
“Which pasture?” Slade felt a red-hot current run through him, but he tried to hang on to his anger.
“Southeast.” Oscar rubbed his jaw, then spit to one side. “Sidewinders.”
“How many?”
“A dozen or so, but no final head count yet.”
“All cows?”
“Yep. But it could’ve been worse.”
“I don’t see how.”
“Could’ve been two dozen,” Oscar said.
Tater whined, lay down, and put his head on his paws.
Slade just shook his head. When even Tater was down about the whole deal, you knew it was bad.
“I don’t get it,” Oscar said. “Tater doesn’t either.”
“Rustlers seem to know where we are every single minute of every single day.”
“Except the past couple of weeks.”
“Why did they lay off, then suddenly come back?”
“You’d think after they made the big catch of Fernando, they’d have lit out for good.”
“I thought they had,” Slade said.
“It’s almost like it’s personal now.”
“The barn.” Slade thought a moment. “Maybe what’s driving them now is revenge for all the publicity about Fernando and then losing him.”
“Hope he bunged them up pretty good when he got away.”
Tater raised his head and whined as if in agreement.
“Let’s ride out there,” Slade said. “I want to take a look at the scene.”
“Sheriff Calhoun already checked it.”
“I know. And he found where they parked a cattle trailer on that back access road, cut the fence, lured the cattle into a temporary pen, loaded them up, and took off.”
“He took impressions of the tire tracks.”
“Just like before, for all the good it did,” Slade said.
Oscar nodded.
“I’ve got to do something. Let’s go.”
“Okay. Maybe Tater’ll pick up what nobody else did.”
“If there’s anything with a wrong scent, he’ll find it,” Slade said.
Tater put his nose in the air, got up, and turned toward the southeast pasture, obviously ready to go.
It didn’t take long to mount up and head out, with Slade leading the way. He was anxious to get to the far pasture. He was missing something about the whole situation. It didn’t make sense, but if he thought about it in the right way, it’d make perfect sense. He just needed to twist his mind around to the way the thieves were thinking, acting, doing. So far, he’d been thinking like a rancher. He needed to think like a rustler. Could he do it? So far, he’d been clueless…and it hurt his pride, as well as his family and ranches. Something had to give. If it didn’t, he was going to break it, bend it, twist it till he got the answers he needed to bring it all to a grinding halt. He knew how to win, and he was going to do it—just as soon as he got the key to this particular lock.
He looked out across the ranch, mostly bedded down for winter. He always enjoyed a ride over the land, particularly with a friend and dog by his side. It was a beautiful winter afternoon with the sun casting long shadows across the land from the west. They wore lightweight jean jackets, but it was all they needed for warmth even with a cool breeze stirring leaves in the live oaks. They scared up cottontail rabbits and crunched across golden, dry grass. He also watched the fence lines, noting that they all looked straight and solid and strong. Still, they were no match for wire cutters…or an enraged bull like Fernando.
When they arrived at the southeast pasture, he stopped, looking around to see the damage. Everything looked okay, but it wasn’t even close to it.
“Cut fence is on the backside,” Oscar said, heading that way. “From here, everything looks fine.”
“I guess that’s why it took a while to find the problem.”
“That…and it’s a big ranch.”
“I need to be living here full time.”
“After the cattle drive, everything should settle down.”
“If we haven’t caught the rustlers by then, I hate to even think of the added problems.”
“No point getting ahead of ourselves.”
“You’re right.” He kept watch as they rode onward, looking for something—anything—that might give him a clue to solving the problem.
Tater ran out ahead of them, chasing a rabbit or two, sniffing the ground here and there, acting perfectly normal.
Slade sighed. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. Still, he looked at everything with suspicion in the back of his mind as they came up to the fence that had been cut near the road.
“Rustlers used wire cutters over here.” Oscar rode up to the fence, tossed a leg over the saddle horn, and slid down from his horse. “Cowboys already repaired it, but here’s the break.”
Slade dismounted, ground tied the roan, and walked over for a closer look. “They removed an entire section, didn’t they?”
“Those rustlers don’t do nothing by half,” Oscar said.
Slade could easily see where the cattle had trampled dry grass and left hoofprints in the dirt road where they’d been loaded onto a trailer. The entire operation had required cowboy skills. The rustlers weren’t amateurs. Nothing else looked out of place. It was almost as if the thieves had snatched the cattle and disappeared into thin air. Still, he kept searching the ground, hoping against hope he’d spot something to help.
Tater suddenly raced past them, went under the fence, and stopped on the edge of the road. He sniffed the ground, then started pawing, digging, and spraying dirt out behind him. He came up with a crumpled piece of white paper between his teeth. He turned, trotted back, and laid the paper at Slade’s feet before he sat down in front of Oscar, pink tongue hanging out.
“What’s that?” Oscar asked, leaning closer to get a look.
Slade picked it up. “Looks like it was trampled into the dirt by sharp hooves. Whatever it is, it doesn’t belong. It can’t have been out here long. If it’d been in the rain, it’d be a mess. This is clean.”
“Something’s printed on it.”
Slade gently pulled open the crumpled piece of paper—as if somebody had crushed it with a fist. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What is it?” Oscar leaned closer.
Slade grinned, smoothing out the flier that had been printed in full color. “I hadn’t seen one of these, but I’d heard about them. Nathan at Thingamajigs printed these up and posted them across the county like you do for missing dogs and cats.” He pointed at the flier. “Look, it’s got a photo of Fernando and a map of the area with a big X on Steele Trap Ranch II.”
“Don’t that beat all,” Oscar said. “Good idea.”
“Now think about this flier being all over the place. Somebody with a vested interest saw it. Somebody got mad enough to crush it in a fist. Somebody threw it down at the very site of the latest cattle heist.”
“Temper tantrum?”
“Yep. I wasn’t completely sure, even after I heard that
rancher’s story. Now I’m pretty well convinced—Fernando got away.”
Oscar patted Tater on the head. “Good dog. You found proof for us.”
Tater looked up, tongue hanging out in a big smile.
“Best dog,” Slade said with a grin. “And when Fernando got away, he didn’t go easy. He fought. He injured. He escaped.”
“And the rustlers were laid up to heal?”
“Reckon so.” Slade poked the flier with a fingertip. “If what we’re thinking is right, all the Fernando sightings in the past couple of weeks are real.”
“And Fernando is the smartest, toughest bull I ever knew.”
“He sure is.” Slade carefully folded the flier and tucked it in his pocket, wishing he’d worn gloves because it was most likely a piece of evidence.
“What are we going to do?”
“Right now, we don’t know who the rustlers are, so the next move is up to them. But I truly believe now that it’s personal for them.”
“Mad as wet setting hens.”
“Mad…and embarrassed, too. Think about it—Fernando has made them look like fools. If they’re mad, it means they’re going off half-cocked and that means they’re not thinking straight. Our edge.”
Oscar chuckled, nodding in agreement. “They’re not only fools—they’re damn fools. They should’ve gotten out while the getting was good.”
“That’s right.” Slade walked over to the roan, picked up the reins, and eased into the saddle. “We may not know who they are yet, but they’ll show their hand one way or another. Fernando—bless his stout heart—is our ace in the hole.”
“If we’re right, and I hope we are,” Oscar said, “they’ll turn mean.”
“They already did.” Slade glared at the place where the rustlers had taken his cattle. “Granny’s barn.”
“Yeah. I saw her face. They got payback coming, don’t they?” Oscar mounted up.
“They’ll get it. With Fernando on the loose, there’s no way they’re leaving the county till they get him back…or give it a good try.”
“And in Wildcat Bluff, they’re on our turf.”
“Right. Home team advantage,” Slade said.
“Feels right in my bones.” Oscar turned toward the barn.
“I’d never go against your bones. They’ve been right too many times to count.”
“Smart cowboy.”
“Let’s just make sure we get Fernando home for Christmas.”
Tater barked once, as if in agreement, then barreled out in front as Slade and Oscar followed him toward home.
Companionable silence descended as they rode, like they had many a time before, across the pasture. Slade’s thoughts ran in circles even as he appreciated the natural beauty around him. All appeared peaceful, like winter evenings tended to be with chores done and cattle fed and folks headed to families. But that was only on the surface. Like the surface of a lake, below the calm stillness, life teemed, seethed, and roiled in the dark depths. He needed to dive below the surface to get at the truth. And soon.
When they arrived at the barn, Slade dismounted and looked around to see if anything had been damaged while he was gone. Place looked okay. Still, he no longer felt as if anything or anyone on his family’s property was safe. It was an infuriating feeling, since he’d worked long and hard to make a happy, safe place for his nearest and dearest. And that now included Ivy.
He patted his pocket with the flier. At least he had a beginning to the ending to his problem. He just didn’t know how, where, or when the end would come. Sooner than later, he hoped with all his being.
Oscar stood beside Tater, holding the reins to his horse. He appeared thoughtful as he glanced around the area.
“We need to up security,” Slade said. “I’m not comfortable leaving the house and outbuildings unprotected at any time.”
“I hear you.”
“Electronic surveillance only gets us so far. I want feet on the ground.”
“I’ll see to it. Both ranches.”
“Best arm the cowboys. We don’t know how far the rustlers will escalate their attacks.”
“You got it.” Oscar patted Tater’s head. “We leave the dogs out both places. Any intruders, they’ll alert us.”
“Okay. Security makes rounds with dogs at their sides.”
“Right.”
“And let’s bring the cattle in from the far pastures.”
“You got it.”
“What else?” Slade glanced around again, wishing he could do more and hoping he hadn’t forgotten anything.
“We can only do what we can do,” Oscar said. “I’m about ready to trust Fernando to be our Christmas miracle.”
Slade chuckled, appreciating his friend lightening the moment. “If he gets our problem tied up with a big red ribbon, he deserves the best feed money can buy.”
“I’ll go ahead and get it.”
“Why not?” Slade glanced toward the road, thinking about Ivy and the new bed. He wished that was all he had on his mind. “Why don’t you wrap it up and go home? I can finish here.”
“Let’s do it together. I’ll put up the horses. You need to call Sheriff Calhoun and check on your grandmother.”
“I won’t complain. I’ll lock up the house.”
“Don’t you have a gal waiting for you at the Park?” Oscar gave him a calculating look.
“Yeah. But—”
“Slade, we’ve known each other a long time. Don’t mess up a good thing. Women need attention or they’re apt to get a wandering eye.”
“You’ll get no argument from me.”
“I got nobody waiting for me. Tater will help me lock up and set up schedules with the cowboys. You make your calls and go to Ivy. Not that I’m saying you’re good enough for her, but she’s a special lady, so don’t let her get away.”
“I won’t…but sometimes I think Tater may not have all the intelligence in your duo.”
Oscar laughed, patting Tater’s head. “Don’t believe it. He’s the brains of the outfit.”
Slade joined his laughter, then headed for his pickup. He’d make his calls, but after that, nothing could keep him away from Ivy. And the new bed.
Chapter 28
Ivy put the finishing touches on her new bed, smiling in pleasure. She’d transformed the cowboy rope-n-ride decor to cowgirl chic that better suited her own taste. After all, she had a new bed, so she needed a new look to go with it. Once the Settelmeyers installed the bed, she realized she needed queen-size sheets and a bedspread. She had the day off, since Wildcat Hall was closed one night a week, so she’d run into town. She’d struck retail gold almost immediately at Morning Glory’s unique store.
A luxurious, rose-colored quilt embroidered with a pale-pink rose-blossom design now covered the bed. She’d arranged colorful throw pillows in the shapes of wildflowers on top of the new pillows. She still needed a queen headboard, but there’d be time to find that later. She’d even discovered a knitted, cotton throw in a deep purple that she’d tossed on the foot of the bed. All of it was handmade by local artisans, so she felt especially fortunate to be able to support them and enjoy their work at the same time.
In the midst of her happiness, she’d learned about the Steele Trap barn fire and cattle theft from Morning Glory. They’d both been horrified at the news but also confident the Steele family was strong enough to handle it. Still, she was now anxious for Slade to get to her, so she could comfort him and give him whatever he needed from her to feel better.
She wondered if he’d even spend the night. He might want to be with his family or at the ranches to take care of business. She’d support him in whatever he needed to do. That thought made her realize how far along the path she was to meshing her life with his in Wildcat Bluff.
She’d been running so hard and fast since she’d landed in the
country that she hadn’t really had time to think about just how easily she was fitting into the community and how much she was enjoying it. Country life was nothing like she’d expected when she’d lived in the city—beautiful scenery, supportive people, fascinating events, and a hot cowboy who offered her everything she could possibly want in a man. All in all, she was getting hooked and she knew it.
Maybe Fern had felt the same way. What she still didn’t understand was why her sister had taken off so suddenly. If it hadn’t been normal for her sister, she might have questioned it more. She’d just figured Fern had simply moved on with her life. Now she wondered about Craig—he wasn’t a guy to throw away, not when it was obvious he was hurting from her sister’s rejection. Something serious must have happened between them. Maybe someday Fern would tell her, but in the meantime, she’d just be supportive.
While her sister was on her mind, she picked up her phone and called her.
“I’m in between sets,” Fern said, “so I’ve got a sec. What’s up?”
“Just checking in to see how things are going.”
“Same old, same old.” Fern coughed, then cleared her throat. “I can’t seem to shake this bug I picked up.”
“Sorry. Lemon and honey water?”
“Helps some. No matter, I have to keep going.”
“You could come here.”
“Contract, remember?”
“Right,” Ivy said.
“Tell me what’s going on there. Do you like it?”
“It’s starting to grow on me. I can see why you liked it.”
“Good. I thought Wildcat Bluff would be great for you.”
“We’re gearing up for Christmas,” Ivy said. “We’re serving cookies and coffee in the front bar at the Hall now.”
“Wonderful. How’s it working out?”
“People love it.”
“I’m so glad.” Fern coughed again. “And the music?”
“Craig and his band are terrific, and folks love to dance to their sound.”
“They’re good, no doubt. And…and how’s Craig doing?”
“I’m working with him on hiring bands.”