A Cowboy to Keep

by Karen Rock

  “Your hand is touching my belly,” she murmured in his ear.

  Didn’t he know it. “Yours is on my—”

  “Oh!” she exclaimed and jerked her hand from around him as if she’d touched fire. He held in a laugh and resisted the urge to brush his fingers along her firm abdomen.

  With a jackhammer in his chest and a desert in his throat, he wiggled his hand free and dropped it to his side. He felt the back of the closet against his knuckles and the louvered door against his shoulder. If Tanya discovered them, they’d have some fast talking to do.

  A cat meowed outside the door and the scratch of nails sounded on the panel.

  “Mittens!” she breathed in his ear. His body clenched and he held himself still, wishing he was a statue and immune to this beautiful woman. What was that irritating thing she always did? Right now, he couldn’t think of it. Or anything else.

  In fact, her decision to follow him into the closet, rather than crying out a warning to Tanya, deeply impressed him. Dani was loyal to her friends, but that hadn’t kept her from doing right. Most of all, in that split second, she’d trusted him.

  “What are you after, kitty cat?” he heard Tanya coo, and the hairs on the back of his neck rose. “You know you’re not allowed in there. Remember what I said about dresses not being scratching posts?”

  Dani snorted in his ear.

  “Are you catching a cold, Mittens?” Their breaths hung in the snug space as Tanya’s voice grew louder. Tension snapped through him.

  The cat meowed again and his dark shape seemed to rise as Tanya must have picked him up.

  “Hey. Did you drag out these boots?” Tanya’s voice dropped. “Too heavy for you, though. Come on. Let me get you some food.”

  Damn.

  Dani’s silky hair brushed his cheek as she turned her head. He registered the way her body seemed to curve into his, like she was made for him. His mind conjured all the wrong kinds of thoughts. How did the alphabet go backward? Z, Y, X...

  Warm breath rushed against his jaw. In the dark, without his scars both drawing eyes and repelling them, he felt freer. He could imagine himself like any other man alone with a beautiful woman. His hands would tangle in her hair. He’d draw her closer still. Lower his mouth until it brushed hers and...

  “What are you doing?” Dani husked, shoving at his chest.

  He jerked his head back and banged it against a hook just as a cell phone buzzed. Their hands flew, patting pockets until they heard Tanya’s voice, thankfully sounding some distance away, the almost kiss still dancing between them.

  He’d nearly lost his head—and his mind. The case, his life’s quest for justice, for atonement...those were his priorities; not chasing women. Woman, he mentally corrected. Dani. It’d been a long time since anyone caught his eye like this.

  Besides, even if he could pursue her, who would ever love him once his past came to light?

  “Hello? Hello?” Tanya said, growing louder. “Hello? Can you hear me?”

  Her footfalls padded on the wooden floor. Some muffled swearing floated through the louvered doors.

  “Well, you don’t have to shout,” she snapped, and despite his suspicions about Tanya, he felt a smile come on. “Yes, I can hear you now. You know how this place is. The only decent signal is out by the road.”

  Good to know, he thought.

  “So, where are you?” she asked after a pause. “I thought you were coming back.”

  Dani stiffened against him. Yes. Chances were she was talking to Smiley, which meant he’d tracked his target to the right spot.

  He heard the pop and fizz of a can opening. His breath seemed to synchronize with Dani’s.

  “Yeah,” Tanya said, after what sounded like a gulp. “He showed up.” An uneasy note entered her voice. “Are you sure about that guy? Something’s off with him.”

  The Camels smoker? The other hit man? His brother’s killer? Air rushed from between his clenched teeth.

  After a moment, she said, “Well, of course I was. What’d you think I’d do? I know how to mind my Ps and Qs. Besides. He scares me half to death. The way he stares. So cold. Like he’s looking at your corpse.”

  Yep. Sure sounded like his man. His hands balled.

  She paced the room now and her shadow moved against the door. Dani’s fingers dug into his shoulders.

  “He’s not happy, though.” He felt Dani jump a little when Tanya’s words came right through the panel. Close. “He’s looking for it. Seems dead set you’ve got it. Do you have it?”

  It? What was “it”? Something related to the homicide? The object stolen from the Phillips’ safe? He filed the question away to ask Lance...if they made it out of this closet without his cover blown. His blood pounded in his ears. Never before had a bounty been this critical. He wouldn’t screw up what might be his only chance to make things right for his mother, his brother, maybe even himself.

  “You’d better give it to him, then. What? What? Hello?”

  A cat yowl rose and Tanya cried, “Sorry, kitty. Bad mama.” Then, “I think I lost you. If you can hear me, hang on. I’m going out back.”

  Her footsteps faded, then disappeared.

  Jack eased open the closet door, peered around and pulled Dani out of the bedroom, through the living room and onto the front porch. He glimpsed Tanya’s back through a rear window just before easing the door shut behind them.

  They trotted down the stairs, not speaking until they’d reached one of the pastures. This one held mules that hung their heads through the fence slats, ears pricking forward then back, tails swishing. The two dogs, Bella and Beau he recalled, dashed away, then bounded forward and back in some ecstatic game only they knew the rules to.

  At last they rounded the corner of a barn and Dani stopped and leaned against it.

  “Who do you think Tanya was talking to?” Her large eyes met his and the weakening sun, skimming over the tree line, sparkled on the gold specks in her hazel eyes.

  A muzzle pressed at his knees and he absently scratched the dog between its ears. “Not sure. Who do you think it was?”

  “Smiley?” She squatted on her heels and buried her face in the other dog’s neck. “It just doesn’t make sense.” He barely made out her muffled words.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Tanya’s my best friend. She wouldn’t lie to me.”

  He picked up a stick and chucked it far down the dirt road that led up from the front gates. Lies. Honest folks hardly ever saw them coming.

  “Do you think she’s lying to me?” Suddenly Dani was in his face, her eyes blazing, her features tight.

  “I think she’s telling you as much as she can.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” When he didn’t answer right away, she touched his arm. “Is Tanya in danger?”

  “I don’t know,” he said heavily, his mind turning over the facts. If Smiley was one of the two killers, and the other hit man had been in Tanya’s house...

  Her eyes rounded with alarm. When she whirled to leave, he grabbed her arm. “Let go! I’ve got to find out what she was talking about. I need to warn her.”

  “And how would you explain overhearing her? The Mays want me undercover. Are you going to blow that?”

  The fight seemed to leave her and he dropped her hand. The feel of it, soft and warm in his, lingered.

  “No. Not yet. But if I think she’s in trouble, I’m telling her,” she warned. “Sometimes a good woman doesn’t know she’s in trouble with a man until she’s in way over her head.”

  Both of the dogs loped up, growling and huffing, the stick held in both of their mouths as each tried yanking it from the other.

  Jack’s curiosity about Dani was even more piqued by her fervent tone. Had she gone through a hard time with a man? Been betrayed? H
ad her heart broken? This could be why she was driven to intervene on Tanya’s behalf.

  He waited for her to say more but she fell silent.

  An ache reached up through the base of his skull. He closed his eyes briefly and said, “Fair enough.”

  He’d watch out for Tanya. If she was an innocent party in this, she didn’t deserve the heap of trouble she’d just landed in.

  A horn honked and an extended cab pickup pulling a horse trailer rolled past them. The driver and passenger, an older couple, waved.

  “It’s Larry and Diane!” Dani hurried after the truck and he followed. Beau and Bella raced ahead; their ecstatic barks filled the purpling air. By the time they caught up to the truck, the Mays had parked beside a small, empty corral.

  A slightly stooped tall man with a wide-brimmed Stetson and a smile that creased his weathered face, extended a hand. He had wide-spaced features a size too small for his broad face, and ears that stuck out.

  “Must be our, uh, new wrangler, Jack.” He nodded to the other workers who’d assembled to greet their employers.

  Jack appreciated the firm grip and the steady gaze of the man who looked like he’d spent most of his waking hours outdoors. If Larry was taken aback by Jack’s scars, he hid it well. “Nice to meet you, sir.”

  “And this here’s my wife, Diane.” Larry put a hand around a petite woman with a long, salt-and-pepper braid that trailed past her waist. She wore a full denim skirt that reached the top of her boots, a leather belt with a silver-and-turquoise buckle and a tucked in, buttoned-up shirt. When her gaze flashed to his, her smile wavered and she swallowed hard.

  He ducked his head to the right to hide the worst of his scar and ignored the gasps of the staff around him.

  “Howdy.”

  “Welcome.” Her chin rose and she stepped close, her hand out. He shook it.

  Good people, the Mays. He could tell.

  Mountain Sky Dude Ranch was a clean operation and deserved protecting. He’d catch Smiley and his partner before they did any harm.

  Suddenly he was glad to have to go undercover, to experience, once again, his old life of riding out every day, working with people, decent people, handling animals...

  He caught one of the workers pointing at him and shook away the thought. His scar kept him from moving freely in the world and that’s how it should be. Jesse couldn’t enjoy life anymore, so what right did he have to it?

  “We’ll be happy to welcome you, proper, tonight at the square dance, and arrange for a chat later on,” drawled Diane, her accent a little softer, more rounded than a Mid-Westerner’s. A Southern girl. Mississippi. Kentucky, maybe. “But we’ve got to unload our new roper.”

  Dani stepped forward, her eyes bright. “I’ll lead her out.”

  Larry swept off his hat to reveal buzzed silver hair atop a square-shaped head. “Good to see you, Dani. Thanks for holding down the fort.” His blue eyes leaped from his stable manager to Jack.

  “No problem,” she said over her shoulder.

  She pulled the pin out of the trailer’s latch and opened the door. Inside, behind an angled metal gate, he glimpsed a sleek black horse shifting on its feet. His mind drifted to Milly, the skittish white who’d been too fearful to take an apple from him.

  He hopped on the trailer behind Dani and automatically grabbed the gate as she slid under it, a lead in hand. The appreciative look she shot him fizzed in his blood like a Fourth of July sparkler. How she set him off.

  “All good,” she hollered a moment later. He held open the gate and she slowly led out the new roping horse. Larry gripped the door and a few oohs and aahs erupted from the staff. The mare was a beauty. Easy gait. Nice musculature. Willing disposition.

  He swung open the corral gate and Dani led the horse inside, unclipped the lead and grabbed the water bucket. She ducked between the fence slats and straightened.

  “She looks good. Her father was Sin City, right?”

  Diane beamed. “She comes from a long line of champion ropers. Couldn’t believe we won the auction, but here she is.”

  “No one stood a chance once Diane got started.” Larry came up behind her and she swatted him away when he squeezed her waist. “The paddles just dropped.”

  A few of the employees leaned over the fence, some making useless clicking noises, others holding out treats to the new horse.

  Dani nodded. “I read the sheet you faxed. A sweet deal. I’ll settle her in and introduce her to the herd tomorrow.”

  Speaking of which, on the other side of the pen, a growing number of horses clustered on the abutting fence, checking out the new arrival. Milly, he noticed, stayed far back, her ears twitching as she kept tabs on this new arrival.

  “What about Milly?” he found himself asking, though for the life of him, he didn’t know why. The horse was rangy, but had a good frame. He could see the potential in her to be a strong riding horse again, darn it.

  The jabbering crew quieted; Larry’s pleased look faded. “We’re making one last effort to find a home for her. Sorry, Dani, but we inquired at the auction and no one would take her, so it’s still down to Old Man Graham. He’s been hemming and hawing, but he said he’ll have a decision by tomorrow. It’d be a very sad end for our girl if it doesn’t work out. She’s always been one of our hardest workers.”

  “And the best with kids,” put in Dani, her voice growing quiet and tight. She shaded her eyes against the low-riding sun and stared out at Milly.

  “Maybe she can be broken in again,” Jack said, unable to stop his runaway mouth. What was he getting at? Milly wasn’t his business. And he understood the hard facts about ranch life. Still, something about Milly getting a raw deal, how one kid’s mistake could now end her life, didn’t sit right.

  “What do you mean?” asked Diane. Her eyes looked moist as she tore them away from Milly.

  “If you can’t settle her with Mr. Graham tomorrow, will you put off euthanizing her...let me work with her this week when I’m not busy with my, ah, job? I’ll see if I can help her turn things around.”

  Larry settled his hat back on and cocked his head. He studied Jack in a way that reminded him of his father when they’d all lined up for bed as kids, ears and hands mostly washed.

  “Well. That’d be kind of you. Don’t know if I can impose like that, not when you’ve already got...” He trailed off and Diane settled a small hand on his arm.

  “It’d be no trouble at all, sir.” Jack felt himself flush a bit at Dani’s small smile. It seemed to blot out all of the raised hands and whispered voices behind them. He shifted in his boots. Ducked his head a bit.

  One of the horses whinnied and another took up the call. Milly lifted her head and everyone seemed to hold their breath.

  “Then we’d be grateful. Thank you.” Larry pumped his hand again. “And don’t forget about the square dance tonight!” He hopped in the truck and drove away toward the main house, Diane by his side.

  The employees hustled off, too, leaving him and Dani alone. He joined her at the fence, where she turned on a spigot and filled a bucket.

  “Why’d you do that?” she muttered without looking up. Water swirled inside the plastic.

  “Do what?” He grabbed the handle from her and waited as she unlatched the gate and headed inside. “Whoa there—ahhh—what’s this horse’s name?” he asked as the suddenly hot mare twisted her head and turned in a quick, prancing circle beside him.

  “Cher.”

  “Cher?” He dumped the water in the trough and studied the black beauty.

  “She comes from Las Vegas,” Dani announced, a smirk teasing up the sides of her mouth, the one he’d almost kissed today.

  He tipped his hat at Cher and followed Dani to the feed barn. “Guess that explains it.”

  “We’ve got an Elton, too. Wonder if t
hey had the same owner.”

  “My favorite horse was named Sundance,” he told her for no reason at all, except that Dani seemed to have a way of unhinging his jaw.

  She shot him a sideways look. “Of course it was.”

  He mock frowned, more tweaked than offended, and he liked it. It’d been a long time since anyone had teased him. Flirted. “And what’d you call your English jumper? Crumpets?”

  An unladylike snort escaped her and he smiled again. “Dolly. Broke her leg on the last gate. We had the championship up until then.”

  She stopped for a minute in the road and the last drip of sunset surrounding them seemed to burn the brightest on her hair.

  “Sorry to hear that. She sounds like a good one.”

  Dani studied him for a minute. “She had the biggest heart. I miss her.”

  They resumed their trek in silence for a moment, then Jack asked, “Stupid question, but how’d a Texas gal come to ride English?”

  “Jane Austen.” At his puzzled look, she continued. “Broke my leg the summer I turned fourteen. I was bored staying inside all the time, so I began reading and couldn’t stop. Austen’s one of my favorite authors. All her heroines wear these fancy riding habits. Polished boots. Top hats... It was so different than what I grew up with, and it kind of fascinated me.”

  He scuffed his worn boots in the dirt. Tipped up his cowboy hat. “This is as fancy as this cowboy gets.” He shot her a sheepish look from beneath his brim.

  After clearing her throat, she blurted, “So. You’re going to work as a wrangler, bounty hunter and a horse whisperer?”

  “Until I think of something else. Any need for a juggler?”

  She rolled her eyes before she pushed into the barn. “Not that I can imagine, but I hope you’re a good square dancer. Male partners are in demand.”

  He leaned in the doorway and watched her confident, no-nonsense walk. It appealed to him more than any sashaying woman in heels.

  The party tonight would be torture, but seeing Dani again would make it more tolerable. She was tough-minded and opinionated, which he liked about her, but the way she worried about her friends, the horses, the emotion he’d heard in her voice when she spoke of her mother, her mount, added up to a complex woman he wanted to see more of.