Peace River (Rockland Ranch Series)

by Jaclyn Hawkes

  She felt safe in this truck and drifted off to sleep wondering which of the two in the front had lent her his sweet smelling pillow.

  ****

  Denzel Judd had no idea when he dragged himself out of bed late that June morning that his life had quietly turned itself inside out in the darkness of the night. Half hung over, he scrubbed at the stubble on his jaws with a hand that smelled of cigarettes and tried to focus. Memories of the day before deepened the scowl permanently etched into his forehead and compounded the headache between his eyes. After confronting Carrie two days ago, he and Deek had lost a lot of money yesterday. Now he owed his bookie even more. How had they blown it so thoroughly? That stupid horse in the third race was supposed to have been a sure thing! He’d just have to speed up collecting something on that monstrous, black demon horse of Carrie’s.

  He tried to focus his eyes again on his watch to see the date. He thought there was supposed to be a broodmare arriving in the next day or two. What day was it anyway? He couldn’t remember. And where was Deek? He couldn’t recall him coming home with him, but then he couldn’t remember coming home. He dug through the medicine cabinet in search of some mouthwash. He could hardly stand himself.

  In the kitchen he considered food and decided on a drink instead. He was sure he had a bottle here somewhere if he could figure out where he'd put it. He couldn’t recall that either.

  A shower, shave, and Bloody Mary later, he was feeling marginally better. Sipping his drink, he watched out the kitchen window to the yards, wondering where everyone was. Typically there was more going on out there, and by this time he could usually smell Carrie cooking lunch. He could hear nothing from her house next door. Maybe he’d actually made it out of bed before lunch. He was still having trouble focusing on his watch.

  Deek apparently hadn’t made it home. His car wasn’t out there and he didn’t think his bed had been slept in, although it was hard to tell from the stale pile of wadded bedding. He walked outside and seated himself at a patio table, then went back inside for a pair of sunglasses. This glare was killing him.

  Dante led two of the colts out to the track rail and spoke to the Mexican riders for a minute or two before legging them up to the small exercise saddles. Then he stood at the rail to watch as they warmed up the horses on the back side of the track. Judd could occasionally see a glimpse of stable hands in the barns and runs as morning chores were finished and horses were brought out to exercise and then cool down.

  The big oval paddock in front by the drive was conspicuously empty and he wondered why no one had brought Ebony Wind out to run loose there for the day. Now that was a horse, even if the animal did seem to hate him. Judd was the only one the horse had it in for. He never even tried to approach him anymore for fear the beast would come right over the fence at him. He’d take into him with a chain and teach that horse a lesson if he wasn’t so stinkin’ valuable.

  Judd’s attitude soured further when he contemplated the fact that no one else had any trouble with Ebony. But what did he care if he couldn’t handle the horse, as long as it brought in the money he needed to get out of this mess with his bookie, Tony. He smiled a grim smile and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. Now that the old man was gone, he had to get on with his plan to run this place like he wanted. He needed to settle this issue of Carrie’s marriage to Deek, then he could start legal proceedings to contest the old man’s will to get Eli out of the picture. At that point he could really get the ball rolling.

  Where was Carrie? He had yet to catch a glimpse of either her or the stallion.

  A raised voice drew his attention to the gravel area near the office. He walked around the corner of the building to see a truck and trailer parked there, and two men he recognized as Eli and the owner of the mare he’d arranged to be brought in. He was right then, today was the day. He was rubbing his hands together again in anticipation of the breed fee, when what they were arguing about registered. The irate mare owner was shouting at a very calm Eli, “What do you mean the stallion isn't here? I’ve paid thousands in booking fees!”

  Still calm, Eli stated, “I’m sorry, but we weren’t informed of any of this. You’ll have to take this up with Judd. He had no right to make any arrangements as far as this farm is concerned. He . . . ”

  Judd grabbed Eli by the shoulder and spun him around rudely, repeating the earlier question with an explosive expletive, “What do you mean the stallion isn’t here? Where‘s the horse?” Eli quietly but coldly looked at Judd’s hand on his shoulder and Judd hurriedly removed it.

  Eli turned back to the other man. “As I was saying, the stallion’s owner has taken him away for a time. I’m not at liberty to say where. I will tell you that we’re through breeding him for this season. If you need any further assistance, that doesn’t have to do with Judd having accepted your money for breeding a horse he has absolutely no involvement with, find me. I’ll be around. In the meantime, I have a farm to run.” With that he strode off toward one of the barns.

  Judd was still trying to process the fact that Carrie and the stallion were gone when the angry mare owner tore into him. So much for obtaining more money from him today.

  Later that day, after the mare owner was gone and Deek had finally crawled home from wherever he’d been, he and Judd began to try to find out where and when Carrie had gone. Eli obviously wouldn’t tell him, but it wouldn’t be hard. It wasn’t like you could hide a horse that famous and distinctive for long. And when they found her, she would pay! He was through messing around. She would marry Deek even if he had to kidnap her himself and drug her! They only had to keep her around long enough to make it all legal and assume control of the farm; then it didn’t matter what happened to her. Locking her away wherever Tony had in mind didn’t sound like a bad idea.

  It never occurred to him that something could happen just as easily to him.

  ****

  Eli walked away confidently, but in his heart he was worried. Carrie was as sharp as they came and it probably was better to have her safely away, but if they had no idea where she was, they could do nothing to assist her. Now, as far as he knew she was alone, and Eli was more aware than anyone else how dangerous the men were that Judd was dealing with. They made Judd seem mild. He and Dante had to find her and protect her before the others did. He knew worrying wouldn’t help, so he prayed and then went into his office to call a friend who was a retired cop.

  ****

  It was late when Slade, Rossen, and Isabel finally reached the county fairgrounds where they’d arranged to stall the horses for the night. Isabel led Ebony out of the trailer and to his stall and left him comfortably settled for the night without removing his sheet or hood. She helped feed and water the horses before she and the two cowboys went into the living quarters to get their own rest.

  She was pleasantly surprised when she stepped into their home on wheels. The trailer was actually very nice and she found that although the kitchen was small, she would be able to work there quite efficiently. She’d expected it to be a bit of a mess as far as having been a bachelor pad, and was pleased to note that other than being cramped from trying to find a place for all their gear, it was clean and neat.

  Slade and Rossen cleared off the bed in the top of the front where they’d been storing various odds and ends, and digging some linens out of a storage bin under one of their beds, helped her to arrange her own tiny kingdom up there. A curtain pulled across for privacy and after they showed her how the small bathroom worked, she felt like she had this trailer living thing down.

  She’d traveled to races with her grandfather from time to time but they always stayed in luxury hotels. Her grandfather had never been a snob or allowed her to be one, but he’d always insisted they stay in nice places away from home to promote a prosperous image of Wind Dance Farms so people wouldn’t hesitate to want to bring their horses there. He said it just made good business sense. Having never been one of those to actually stay near the racehorses at night, she was
impressed with just how comfortable and efficient their trailer set up was.

  One thing that stood out almost more than anything else about the trailer living quarters was a photo hanging on the wall over the table. It was a print of a river running through a mountain valley in the sunrise. It was the most serene image she’d ever seen. The colors of the sunrise reflected in the water and the sky and she immediately felt it was a tangible image of her river of peace.

  When she lay down, she noticed the pillow she was using now didn’t smell nearly as nice as the one she’d used earlier. It had turned out to be Slade who had so kindly lent her his earlier.

  Still tired in spite of her naps, she prayed and went to sleep without even thinking about the little pistol she’d been carrying and sleeping with the past two days and nights.

  ****

  Slade could swear he could smell bacon in his dreams. Bacon and sweet smelling perfume were all mixed up with images of huge horses in full battle armor. Somewhere in there was a beautiful girl wearing a pretty little pair of well-fitting jeans. Where had that come from? He almost never dreamed. When he did, he certainly never dreamed of a figure like that.

  Slowly, as he came awake, he realized the bacon aroma was a reality and remembered discovering last night that his pillow held the lingering scent of perfume. When he’d put it under Isabel’s head as she slept in the truck yesterday he’d felt a bit silly. Women usually got on his nerves and if he did something nice for one, they invariably took it as a come on. However, after he’d laid down last night and realized his pillow smelled of wildflowers and something else he couldn’t quite place, he was glad he’d lent it.

  As for the well-fitting jeans, he discovered those to be a reality too, as soon as he turned over to glimpse Isabel standing in front of the stove stirring something that smelled like heaven.

  “Hey! I didn’t know we had bacon!” Slade pulled his gaze away from Isabel to look across the trailer to where Rossen’s tousled blonde head had emerged from a rumpled sheet.

  Isabel turned around to give the two of them a hesitant good morning and then turned back to her cooking. Behind her, she didn’t see the look that passed between the two as Rossen nodded toward her and raised his eyebrows with an appreciative grin.

  Slade shook his head. “We didn’t have bacon. What have you been up to this morning, girl?” He agreed with Rossen’s nod. That was quite a sight to wake up to. He wasn’t so sure this was a good idea after all. From his perspective, that little pair of jeans looked like trouble.

  A few minutes later, when they sat down to eat, when Rossen took his first bite, he all but gushed, “Marsh, we shoulda found this girl a long, long time ago!” Rossen’s enthusiasm about breakfast made her laugh. It was a musical sound in the small confines of the trailer and it seemed to change the whole spirit of their little home on the road. When she’d assured them she could cook the other day she hadn’t been joking. The breakfast was great!

  They finished eating and she started to clean up as Slade and Rossen went out to start getting things ready for the road. Slade had wondered how she’d come up with the bacon and other ingredients for her breakfast. He didn’t remember any stores nearby as they’d pulled in last night. Upon stepping outside he realized that she had, in fact, unhooked the trailer and taken the truck to buy groceries while they slept.

  He and Rossen looked at each other in surprise and Slade asked, “How the heck did she do that by herself? That’s a heavy trailer.”

  Rossen answered him sarcastically, “Hmmm, I wonder if she could be in good shape or something.”

  He elbowed Slade who replied almost worriedly, “Sheesh, you can say that again. What were we thinking hiring a girl to live right in the trailer with us?” He walked into the rows of stalls shaking his head. Rossen took a halter and stepped in with his rope horse, chuckling under his breath. Slade actually seemed flustered. Rossen laughed right out loud.

  From the next stall down Slade asked, “What’s so funny?”

  Rossen chuckled out loud again. “You have women from one end of this country to the other, throwing themselves at you morning to night and all it does is get on your nerves. Then this quiet, mysterious college student shows up, makes you give your word not to touch her, does nothing more than wear a pair of jeans to cook in, and you forget how to breathe. I thought for a minute you were going to insist we take her right back home.” He came out of the stall leading his horse and grinning.

  Slade flipped at him with the end of a lead and said, “You keep this up and I will, smart aleck.” They bantered back and forth as they loaded horses and presently Isabel came out and brought her horse around to load in as well.

  Back in the truck and on the road again, they all three appeared happy with the way things were turning out.

  ****

  When Isabel was cooking breakfast and turned around to say good morning when Slade and Rossen woke up, for the first time she wondered if she’d made a mistake. The sight of Slade bare chested and still half asleep took her breath away. His bed head was actually perfectly in style, and he looked far better to eat than the breakfast she was cooking. She found Rossen only slightly less striking. At least he was been wearing a T-shirt.

  With a hurried “Good morning,” she quickly turned back to the stove, completely flustered. Holy Moly! What had she been thinking? She’d been around men all of her life, and was, in fact, far more used to them than women because most of those working at Wind Dance Farms were male, but she’d never encountered anything like these two, and certainly not in their beds. She was so flustered she burned her hand taking biscuits out of the oven.

  She studiously refused to look back toward them, and when they both appeared at the table, dressed and combed, a couple of minutes later, she breathed a sigh of relief. They were still very handsome but much less tantalizing fully clothed. She felt even more at ease with them when they prayed over their food before eating.

  Over the next couple of days she grew more and more comfortable with them and began to learn how they did things, and what they did and didn’t like.

  It became apparent rather quickly that everywhere Slade and Rossen went they attracted attention from females. It only took Isabel a little while to figure out they had a friendly competition going about who got the most unsolicited phone numbers. One time as they all piled back in after gassing up, Slade stuffed a slip of paper into the ashtray on the left of the steering wheel. Rossen slapped the dashboard in front of him. “Dang it all! I was ahead for most of a week!”

  Slade only gave a wan smile and focused on driving. Isabel had no clue what they were talking about and didn’t ask. The next day however, when a woman in a little red convertible at the pump next to them struck up a conversation with Rossen, and Isabel saw her give him her phone number, which he then tucked into the ashtray on the passenger side of the cab, she began to get an inkling. The wild thing about it was that on closer inspection she saw that the ashtrays were overflowing with little slips of paper and cards.

  She’d assumed they would behave like some of the horsemen she’d encountered around the track with occasional coarse language and suggestive comments directed toward her when her grandfather wasn’t around. These two men thrilled her when not only did they always treat her with respect and deference, but they also quickly squelched a crude comment from a passing trucker at a truck stop while getting gas one day. She truly felt like Princess Isabel and any last reservations she had about her decision to travel with them melted away. She finally allowed herself to picture a future with hope instead of lingering fear.

  She hadn’t realized how uptight she had become at the racehorse farm until now when she found how much she was at peace. Now not only was her safety no longer in jeopardy, but she believed those at home at Wind Dance Farms would be safe from Judd’s threats as well. Judd could no longer try to use her to harm the beautiful horse farm her grandfather had spent half his lifetime building. She was still cautious but she usually felt
safe, especially when both the guys were with her. That night as she said her prayers, she decided for the first time to touch base back home. She needed to let them know she and Ebony were doing well and she wanted to tell Anna how grateful she was for her help. Not sure what was safe to use, she decided to email Anna a minimal message. She was sure that somehow she’d get word discreetly to Eli and Dante.

  ****

  Looking back on that afternoon in the diner, Rossen couldn’t help but be amazed at the turn of events. Before that, they hadn’t even really thought about traveling with someone to help them. Now, five days later, they couldn’t imagine not having the help. Their lives were more interesting, more organized and they were certainly better fed. The trailer that had before simply been a means to accomplish their work, now felt like a home. Isabel was indeed a wonderful cook and was also serious about feeding them as athletes. It was delicious, but she was also very good about nutrition.

  She’d turned out much better than they’d hoped. She had none of the pushy, suggestive demeanor they often encountered from women. She never flirted, and though their relationship was casual as they were practically living in each others’ back pockets, she was always polite and respectful.

  The only thing that was at all weird was that although Isabel was competent and capable, sometimes he could swear he saw fear at the back of her eyes. Never when it was just the three of them, but sometimes just as she stepped out of the trailer, when she quickly looked around, or if someone surprised her or came up from behind. He knew Slade had noticed it too.