“Gage, you all right? Manny?” A shout from overhead stopped Gage from jumping out to start climbing.
Gage looked at the blood trickling down Manny’s face. They were both coated with dust. His teeth crunched on grit, and he spit downhill after that ravaging slide. He was sickened to think he’d sent his men into danger while he stayed behind.
“We made it, Ike,” Gage called. “Are you and Rowdy okay?”
“Rowdy’s got a nasty gash on his head, but we made it.”
“You reckon it’s over?”
“Yep,” Ike said. “I saw where it started, and the whole slope is swept clean. It’s over.”
“I thought it was swept clean last night. We spent a lot of time knocking all the loose rocks off that ledge yesterday.” Gage wiped his mouth and saw blood on the back of his glove.
“We did, boss.” Ike’s voice was colder than the October wind.
Gage stood and saw that Ike had the right of it. “Then how’d they come down?”
“Someone set a trap.” Ike sounded mad enough to tear the rest of the mountain down with his bare hands.
“What?” Gage wasn’t expecting that. “You’re saying this wasn’t an accident?” Gage rounded the rock, and his men came in sight.
“It was a deadfall trap with a single slab of rock positioned to fall against a bigger pile of rocks. That started the avalanche.” Ike was bleeding too. His neck was soaked red, and the front of his shirt had a growing circle of blood. He hadn’t mentioned that.
“I’m the one who tripped over a stretch of rawhide hidden in a pile of leaves and triggered it, boss.” Rowdy’s voice was slurred. “I brought it down on all of us.”
He leaned hard on Ike, barely able to stand. He had a lump on his forehead that was swelling fast.
Gage rushed for him and slid an arm around his back.
Manny came out into the open, steadying himself on the rocks. Gage got a good look. Manny was filthy. He and Gage had been farther down and had been swallowed up in the cloud of dust, more than Ike and Rowdy. Gage figured he looked a lot like Manny did.
“You know only one person had a good reason to stop us from blasting, boss.” Ike was a thinking man, and he and Rowdy had been saddle partners a long time.
“Bailey Wilde.” Gage couldn’t believe it. But what other explanation could there be?
“We’ll take Rowdy down and see that he’s resting. Then Manny and I are going to finish this.”
Rowdy waved a hand. “I ain’t up to no more blasting, but I can ride a horse. I’ll head back to the C Bar and send the men over with the herd. That rockslide cleared the trail enough for the cattle to make it in.” Rowdy looked fighting mad. “Ike, you and Manny finish the blasting, and by the time we’re back with the cattle, they’ll just walk right into Wilde’s canyon. If he thinks he can run us off, he’s in for a big surprise.”
Ike and Manny were as furious as Rowdy.
“No one’s going to scare us off.” Ike turned to the young Mexican. “That right, Manny?”
Manny gave a hard nod of his head. “Let’s get back to blasting.”
Come to that, Gage was more upset than all three of them. Hard as it was to believe, he had no idea who could have done this other than Bailey Wilde.
“Bring some of the greenest mustangs with you, Rowdy. They’ll handle the climb the best. Once the cows see them go over the wall, they’ll follow.”
Rowdy nodded and started downhill, looking steadier with every step, his temper driving him forward.
“I’m going to go shove Bailey’s cattle away from this side of the canyon, and then go have a talk with my new neighbor.” He gave each of his battered men one more furious look. “Blow the side out of the mountain.”
Gage spun away and stormed up the slope so angry he was afraid to say another word—except to Bailey.
He knew he’d failed as soon as that old-timer had headed up the hill and left Coulter behind. Fury like he’d never known stormed through him. Coulter was alive and well and maybe he’d be able to read sign.
A couple of the men were moving slow. He hoped they didn’t get to looking around. He’d expected to have plenty of time to cover his tracks after Coulter was dead.
It made him sick to think of killing, but the anger had given him the belly to do what needed doing. For one second, he felt relief. He hadn’t committed murder.
But he’d done enough. He didn’t want Coulter finding out who’d done him wrong. He stayed, waiting for the chance to slip over and make sure his tracks were covered.
“Don’t underestimate Coulter or his men,” he muttered, then hunkered down to watch, planning to hang around until the men were done and gone. He’d outlast them even if it took all day.
Coulter didn’t need to take over the whole country! He had enough.
“I can’t believe Coulter blasted his way up that whole mountain. I ain’t never seen the like.” He still meant to have it, but it was going to be a little harder, that’s all. Somehow he’d find a way.
He thought of the rocky soil his own land was resting on, all the stumps that needed to be pulled and the stones that needed to be hauled away. A body could wear himself out trying to do it.
But a smart man did things a different way. A smart man saved his strength and watched a fool like Coulter break his back on that kind of labor. Then when the work was all done, the smart man stepped in and staked his claim.
He reached the bottom of the slope and walked to where they’d picketed their horses, well away from any rolling rocks.
Coulter went up and over the edge of the mountain into the canyon.
Two others stayed to work, and going by the ringing of hammers on steel, he knew they were setting dynamite to blow.
Watching those men go back to work on that mountainside only deepened his resolve to find a way so that soon it would all be his.
5
The canyon was empty.
Since his horse wasn’t up to climbing over the canyon, Gage was on foot. With every step he took across the rich grassland, his temper grew.
It was only their quick thinking and fast reflexes that kept them alive. Had Bailey hoped it would be passed off as an accident? Was she hiding, and her cattle along with her, hoping to lay low until her damage was over and done?
This was coyote behavior, and she seemed like the type to face a man, take him on directly. But he’d cornered her; he knew that. And when a person was cornered, often they fought back. Maybe he should have expected this, but instead he was bitterly disappointed in her. He’d looked Bailey in the eye and seen a worthy opponent, someone he could respect.
He couldn’t put up with her moving onto his land, but he’d thought he was dealing with a strong and honest woman.
Now he knew better.
Setting that trap was the act of a coward. A back-shooting coward.
He’d just reached her cabin when the first blast sounded. He turned to hear five more explosions go off just seconds apart. The peak of the canyon wall collapsed, blowing debris in all directions. When the dust finally settled, it was like a giant bear had taken a bite out of the rim. What once had been a peak a man had to drag himself over was now a low saddleback, easily passable. His cattle were going to walk right into this place.
He was going to find Bailey and drag her back here and make her watch them set foot on this land. He was going to enjoy every minute of crushing her. And then he was going to throw her in jail.
Turning back to his search, he found her cabin deserted, still no sign of cattle. But he could read the land. She’d herded them through here sometime yesterday. That trap had been difficult to set. Propping up rocks and bracing them so they’re set to tumble, arranging a trip wire to be triggered by a man passing on foot. She’d spent hours on it, and it most likely was done after they’d quit late last night. Although she’d certainly been plotting it for longer, no doubt ever since she’d brought Tucker and Shannon to see where he was blasting out his trail.
And she’d done it on her own, too. He didn’t know her sisters that well, so maybe she could have talked Kylie and Shannon into helping her, but he’d never believe Tucker would have any part of it. And Aaron Masterson, Kylie’s husband, had the kind of upright nature that would never let him do something so low-down.
Of course, Gage would have thought Bailey’s nature was the same.
Mighty tired of walking and determined to find Bailey and have this out with her, he found the mustangs she’d caught and broken. He saddled and bridled the biggest of them, a buckskin stallion, and set out trailing after her herd.
He was an hour finding the cattle, not because it was hard—trailing fifty cattle took no great skill—but because it was a twisting, rugged ride. Bailey was a long way from home. As he rode down the well-marked trail, finally he saw longhorns with her brand—two Ws, with one on top of the other. He’d heard her call it the Double W Ranch.
He noticed the cattle were inside a fence. He rode around the edges of it. He saw a saddle slung over a split rail, and her horse was grazing, haltered and staked out inside the fence with the cattle.
Riding around the outside of the fence, the woods thinned. Through the trees he saw Bailey about a hundred yards off. She was crouched by a crooked post, wearing her britches, of course. There was a nice stack of split rails, plenty to close the rest of the gap in the fence.
The pounding of a hammer on wood rang out. She was building more split-rail fence along one side of the grassy stretch in the middle of the woods. It could almost be called a clearing. A spring ran out of the woods on the far side and cut through her pasture. So she’d found water and grass enough to keep her herd. Gage would have been proud of her if he hadn’t been so furious.
It was a cold day, but she’d tossed her buckskin coat aside and wore only a broad-brimmed hat. As he closed the distance between them, he could tell she’d made both herself. The woman knew how to live off the land.
The trees were sparse enough that there was good grass. It was a steep slope, the ground broken and rocky. Nothing like the lush canyon grass. Grudgingly, Gage admitted the woman had found a place to feed her herd that would last the winter. It was off her claim, and that left some land she owned close to her cabin, which would feed the herd later in the year when the grass got eaten down.
From the look of the fencing, she’d been at it for a while, at least all day yesterday. So she was planning on making the move and had in fact already made it. Her cattle were here. She’d known the canyon was lost to her and she was making plans to survive without it. That meant she’d set the man-trap purely out of spite. It drove Gage’s cool fury to white-hot rage.
He rode into the clearing, ready to make her sorry she’d ever come west.
Between the banging of her hammer and the horse walking on thick grass, he’d gotten within a hundred feet before a hoof clicked on a rocky spot.
She dropped the hammer, wheeled, her gun drawn, cocked and aimed. It was a motion so smooth it was stunning. Then she saw him and relaxed; she didn’t shoot blind. Her reflexes, and her smarts—not to just start pulling the trigger because something spooked her—made his breath snag in his chest. She was good. So ready for trouble. So savvy. Bailey Wilde was too good to have done that to his men, so why had she?
Why had a woman with her strength and her skills reduced herself to sneaking around like a coyote?
Bailey holstered her gun and gave him a look of disgust. She picked up her hammer and started to turn back to the fence as if she intended to ignore him. Then those flashing gold eyes focused on the buckskin stallion he rode.
“You turn to horse thievin’ now, Coulter? It ain’t enough that you’ve stolen the grass from under my cows?”
Gage’s boots hit the ground. He didn’t trust the mustang to stay put, so he quickly lashed the reins to a scrub oak. “You’re mighty bold talking about crimes, Bailey, when I just came from a whole stack of ’em, including three of my men who might as well have been killed, thanks to you.”
The fire went out of Bailey’s eyes, and she seemed to really see him. He was coated with dirt and hadn’t taken the time to clean up or wash the blood off his face. “What happened to you? You had men hurt?”
Gage didn’t even try to control his snort of disgust. “I shouldn’t be surprised that you’d lie on top of everything else. But I thought whatever the trouble between us, you were someone with a code of honor. But if you’d try to kill my men, why wouldn’t you lie about it?”
“If I what?” All the worry and concern vanished from her expression, and that fire in her eyes flared to life.
“As you can see, you didn’t harm me. So the work goes on, and by the end of the day we’ll have moved the cattle into the canyon.”
“Gage, I didn’t—”
“My men are doing it.” He slashed a hand to cut her off, in no mood for more of her lies. “I should be helping, but I told them I was going to take care of you, and they were all for it. Get on your horse. I’m gonna make you watch my cattle move into my canyon. And when we’re done, we’re going to see the sheriff. There’s law in this country now.”
He expected her to yell back. Maybe run. Go for her gun in the worst case. Instead, she narrowed those eyes at him, slipped her hammer into a loop on her gun belt, dragged a pair of buckskin gloves off her hands, and tucked them behind her belt buckle.
“This happened this morning?”
Gage didn’t waste his time answering. She knew exactly when it happened.
She sure enough didn’t run, but instead took a step straight for him and jabbed a finger at his nose. “You’ve been pushing me as hard as a man can push ever since we’ve met, and you’ve won every fight we’ve had.”
He leaned down just in case she wanted an excuse to jab him. He might just do some poking of his own. “Tell that to my bleeding men.”
“And now on the day you’re taking away the land I need, when you already own half the country, when you’ve gotten everything you want and left me with a hard winter ahead and hours of backbreaking work to get my cattle ready to live on this rugged ground, it’s not enough for you.”
“It’s not enough if my men are bruised and bleeding. Don’t act like just because we got through it without anyone killed or seriously hurt, I’m going to look the other way.”
Her eyes blazed. “On that day when you’ve won and I lost, instead of being any kind of decent neighbor and gracious winner, you come over here and accuse me of a crime and threaten me with the sheriff?” She shoved his chest. He didn’t budge even an inch, yet he felt the force behind it.
He snagged her forearm. “Did you think being a woman would protect you?”
She shoved with her other hand, and he grabbed that one. This was the strong, direct woman he’d dealt with before. So why had she turned sneak on him?
Wrenching at his grip, she said, “I think that makes you the coward, not me.”
“No one calls me a coward.” Not since he left Texas. He’d learned to coat his feelings in ice. When he was frozen inside, he could handle just about anything. It was those fiery eyes that were burning him all the way to the core that melted his self-control.
She pulled at the hold he had on her, then stopped as if struggling was beneath her. But nothing was beneath someone who’d set those man-traps.
“Let me go.” It was an order given with such command, Gage almost obeyed her by reflex.
He held on.
A cold wind buffeted them. The trees swayed. They glared at each other. Blazing fury flashed in her eyes. He fought for his usual icy control when her fire threatened to set his temper blazing, too.
Suddenly her chin came up. Her eyes cooled just a bit and met his directly. “I went straight from the meeting with you three days ago to scouting for new grazing land for my cattle.”
“So you say.”
Gage wasn’t about to take the word of the little liar.
“Tucker and Shannon helped me find this grassland. We
were days scouting out this place, and they stayed over with me at night.”
“Tucker knows this land. He could’ve found it in an hour.” But Tucker . . . Gage trusted Tucker with his life, and if Tucker had been with her . . .
“When we found it early yesterday morning, they, along with Kylie and Aaron, helped me build most of this fence and drive my cattle over here. And we all camped out here last night so we could take turns standing watch to hold the herd.”
Gage looked away from her and saw how much fence had been built. Far more than one woman could build in a few days. But maybe she’d started it earlier. Maybe she’d been planning on adding this rough pasture to her holdings all along.
Except why would she when she had the canyon? No, she’d only found this when she’d faced defeat. Unlike the canyon and a lot of meadows a man could find with natural barriers, this mountainside had nothing that would keep a cow from wandering off. She’d needed this fence.
“I told them I could finish up this last stretch by the end of the day, so they rode off. They’ve only been gone a couple of hours. They can account for me every minute since I walked away from you. When was I supposed to have come over there and hurt your big strong men?”
A cool breeze blew down the mountainside, promising the approach of a long winter, yet it was no colder than Bailey’s next words. “Get your hands off of me.”
Gage let her go.
“I have another hour on this fence, unless you’re determined not only to drive me out of my canyon—”
“My canyon,” Gage interjected, but he lacked his usual conviction, because he was facing the fact that he’d been mighty hard on Bailey, and it looked for all the world like he’d just made a big mistake.
Bailey sniffed. “But also force me to leave my herd so they wander off and I’m days rounding them up—if the wolves don’t get them. I’m not sure just what you’ve got against me, Coulter.”
“I think you know.” Though Gage knew that wasn’t true, not now that he was forced to admit she hadn’t set the deadfall trap for his men. “Listen, Bailey. You can see how I—”
Fire and Ice Page 4