Outlawed!

by BJ Daniels

  He studied Delaney’s slim back, quickly regaining the calm that made him the best at what he did. He could handle her. Actually, this could turn out better than he’d expected. He’d always had his best luck with women. But it did change things. Especially if his employers had failed to tell him anything else.

  He considered for a moment coming up with another cover story. The problem was, he kind of liked the idea of being Delaney Lawson’s hired hand. It could work into his plans quite well if he was careful. When she found out the truth, of course there’d be hell to pay. But it was a price he’d paid often enough before.

  Cooper was admiring the way his new boss sat the saddle, when he noticed they were about to have company. A blue Ford pickup rattled up the dirt road, leaving a trail of dust a mile long. Delaney reined in, and Cooper did the same, hoping this wasn’t the man who’d “hired” him.

  The pickup rumbled to a stop beside them. As the dust settled, the driver rolled down his window. Cooper noted with relief that the painted lettering on the truck door read Kincaid Ranches. From the look of the man’s expensive western suit, Cooper figured he had to be Kincaid.

  “Afternoon, Del,” he said, tipping his gray Stetson as his dark eyes shifted to Cooper, then settled possessively on Delaney again.

  “Jared,” she said with a slight nod.

  Jared Kincaid looked to be hugging fifty, with a little gray at the temples and a slight paunch that strained the snaps on his western shirt. Kincaid could have been ten years younger and he’d have still been too old for Delaney, Cooper thought, but the rancher didn’t seem to realize that.

  “Sorry to add to the troubles you’ve been having, Del,” Jared said, almost sounding as though he meant it. “But I was flying over the ranch this morning and I spotted about twenty head of horses I think might be yours up above Diamond Gulch. Problem is, they looked kinda…strange.”

  Troubles she’d been having? What was this about? Cooper wondered as he watched his new boss out of the corner of his eye. Twenty head of horses? Something told him this wasn’t a cattle ranch and that he’d been given more misinformation.

  She looked toward the mountains for a moment, her face appearing tranquil. But he could feel anger coming off her in waves.

  “‘Strange’?”

  Kincaid stopped to tug at his mustache. “They were all down, Del. Didn’t look good.”

  When Delaney spoke, her voice had an edge to it as cold and hard as a good knife. “Well, thanks for letting me know, Jared.”

  “It’s a damned shame. Seems you’ve hit a real streak of bad luck.”

  “Seems that way, doesn’t it?” she said.

  “I’ll get my horse and ride up there with you,” he said. “It might not be pretty.”

  “Thanks, but I can handle it,” Delaney said.

  The determination in her voice and in the set of her shoulders made Cooper want to smile.

  “I wouldn’t go up there alone if I were you, Del,” Kincaid said, biting off each word. “There’s likely to be some rattlers in those rocks and I recall you’re not all that partial to sidewinders.” Kincaid shot a glance at Cooper. “Usually.” His eyes narrowed. “This a new hand?”

  Cooper didn’t like the implication or the rancher’s tone. Delaney didn’t seem to take offense, nor did she seem all that excited about introducing him. He admitted he didn’t look like much, but still—

  ”Cooper McLeod, Jared Kincaid,” she said by way of introduction.

  Cooper tipped his hat.

  Kincaid studied him a moment, then quickly dismissed him. “You know hiring someone wasn’t necessary, Del,” he said.

  His tone was so patronizing it made Cooper grit his teeth. Delaney looked as if her jaws were permanently locked.

  “I told you I’d lend you a hand.” His lips curled into a smile. “You know I’m always ready to help a little lady in need.”

  “Thanks anyway, but as I told you, I can take care of myself.”

  Delaney’s tone worked as effectively as a bucket of ice water on the rancher, much to Cooper’s delight.

  Kincaid’s smile faltered and died. Something mean flickered in his eyes, then skittered away. “You’re a capable woman, all right, Del, but there’re still a few things a woman needs a man for. Maybe it’s been so long, you’ve just forgotten.” He shifted the pickup into gear, touched the brim of his hat and left them in the dust.

  “Seems like a nice enough fellow,” Cooper said.

  Delaney shot him a look. “McLeod, if I were you, I’d have the good sense to keep my mouth shut.”

  He doubted that, but at least he had the good sense not to say so.

  She shifted in her saddle, eyeing him darkly. “You think you can find that fence now,” she said, pointing to some downed barbed wire a dozen yards away. “You’ll find the wire stretcher and a roll of wire in the barn.”

  The last thing he wanted to do was mend fence. He needed to know a lot more about what was happening on the Rockin’ L. “You sure you don’t want me to come along with you?” he asked.

  Her expression was deadly. “McLeod, we’d better get something straight right now—”

  Realizing his error, he held up his hands in mock surrender. “I just thought if there was a problem, you might want someone along, even me. I didn’t mean any offense.” He gave her his best grin. “I’ll get to work on that fence now.”

  For a moment, he was worried that he’d lost his touch. But her features softened slowly. The anger eased out of her ramrod-straight back. She brushed a wisp of her dark hair back and looked over at him.

  “I suppose I might need some help.” She sounded resigned not only to finding her horses probably all dead, but also having to put up with Cooper. “I’ll pick up my doctoring bag and meet you at the bottom of Diamond Gulch.” She pointed to a narrow cut of rocks in the distance. “Try not to get lost, McLeod.”

  He tipped his hat at her and gave her another grin. “Whatever you say, boss.” She swore as she spurred her horse. He breathed a sigh of relief. If he wanted to keep being Delaney Lawson’s hired hand, he’d have to be more careful.

  As he rode toward the gulch, he couldn’t help wondering. Wondering about this woman. About her bad luck. But mostly wondering why Jared Kincaid seemed so happy to hear about it.

  One thing was for certain, Cooper reminded himself, Delaney Lawson’s luck wasn’t going to get any better now that Cooper McLeod was in town.

  Chapter Two

  Delaney felt the air change around her as they rode up the gulch toward the east corner of the ranch. It grew thick and hot, scented with the dark aroma of death. Her mare shuddered beneath her, then snorted and tossed her head. Fear danced around the horse like electricity in a lightning storm. The mare had never been spooked around dead animals. But she was spooked now. And Delaney could think of only one other time she’d acted this way—when they’d come across a grizzly with two cubs. She brought her horse up and glanced at Cooper.

  He sat astride his strange-looking beast, staring up the mountain, eyes squinted against the sun. Crazy Jack stomped the ground, ears back, nostrils flaring.

  Delaney pointed to a meadow of wildflowers, high and to the left of a massive shale butte. “That’s where we should find the horses.” She motioned to a narrow canyon that cut through a corner of the butte. “The fastest way to get to the meadow is up that dry creek bed, but we’ll have to leave our horses here and walk.”

  Cooper swung down out of the saddle and pulled his rifle from the scabbard. She saw him check to make sure it was loaded. He dropped his reins, ground-tying his horse, then whispered something in Crazy Jack’s ear. The horse let out a whinny, as if it understood. Delaney swore under her breath. It was bad enough that Buck had hired a rodeo cowboy, but a rodeo cowboy with a crazy horse was too much.

  “You want me to go take a look?” Cooper asked her. “Whatever got into the horses might still be around.”

  Delaney sat for a moment, suddenly afraid of what th
ey’d find on the mountain. The steep butte shone white hot. Nearer, pines shimmered, cool, dark and green in stark contrast. Heart pounding, she dismounted and pulled her rifle. “No, I’ll go along.”

  His gaze met hers. “You’re the boss.”

  Right. But he seemed to keep forgetting that, she thought, as she fell in beside him.

  They hiked toward the break in the rocks. Overhead the sky rode clear and blue above the mountaintop. The sun beat down, golden and hot. And yet a chill circled her neck like a noose. Something was terribly wrong.

  Then it hit her. The quiet. It choked the summer day, leaving no sounds but the ones she and Cooper were making. No hawk cried overhead as it soared on a thermal. No breeze whispered in the towering pines. Not even a grasshopper rustled in the weeds.

  As they followed the slim cut the creek bed had carved through the butte, the sun hammered the silence. Heat ricocheted off the rock. Each step echoed along the narrow canyon. It was hard to imagine the creek rushing with water during spring runoff just three months earlier. The dry stones reminded Delaney of the skeletal remains of something that died with summer, its bones bleached and dried from the sun.

  Delaney glanced up, unconsciously searching for the familiar protected feeling the big sky over the ranch had always given her. Her heart thudded at the sight of ravens overhead.

  “I don’t mean to be buttin’ into your business, but Kincaid mentioned you’ve been having some bad luck,” Cooper said, glancing back at her.

  She smiled to herself, doubting this man could ever keep from butting into anyone’s business. But at the same time, she was thankful to him for breaking the stifling quiet, even if it was to talk about her misfortune. “A half-dozen head of my horses got tangled up in some barbed wire during a thunderstorm. The brakes went out in the stock truck. Then some more of my horses turned up missing. And now they may be dead.”

  He shot her a look. “Sounds to me like you’d better put a horseshoe over your door, and quick.”

  Delaney rolled her eyes at his broad back as he continued up the creek bed. A horseshoe over her door! Leave it to a rodeo cowboy to come up with that solution. With her luck, the horseshoe would fall on her head.

  But she had to admit, she was getting more than her share of bad luck. And now she had a rodeo cowboy working for her—just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse. Maybe Kincaid would hire Cooper out from under her the way he had some of her other hands over the years. She smiled to herself. That would sure serve Jared Kincaid right.

  They reached a short wall of boulders smoothed by years of spring runoffs. Cooper stopped, turning back to offer Delaney a hand as he started to climb up. She took it, anxious to get out of the rocks. Jared was right; she had a deathly fear of snakes. But she was also anxious to get to the meadow. And at the same time, afraid of what they’d find. With surprise, she noticed that his hand was callused from hard work. A large, strong hand that had done its share of posthole digging. She frowned, wondering if she’d been wrong about him, then saw he was limping.

  “Don’t tell me you’ve already hurt yourself,” she said, remembering another rodeo cowboy she’d hired. He’d fallen off his horse the first day and slapped her with workmen’s compensation for an alleged injury that laid him up for two weeks.

  Cooper rubbed his left thigh. “No, ma’am. The truth is there are some broncs in Texas a sane man shouldn’t try to ride.” He looked up at her, his eyes bottomless, and smiled. “It makes me limp a little, but it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

  She nodded, realizing that must be why he’d come to work for her. And that as soon as he was healed enough to ride rodeo again, he’d be gone.

  The smell of death grew stronger, the sun hotter. Birds now circled overhead. As she and Cooper topped the boulder field and started across the meadow, Delaney spotted the first horse sprawled in the tall grass. Her heart sank. Del Rio, one of her prized mares. Off to her right she spotted another carcass in the grass. A deer lay covered with flies.

  Delaney shook off a chill and hurried toward Del Rio, wondering how many more she’d find dead in the grass. Suddenly the mare stumbled to its feet. Delaney let out a startled cry. She watched in horror as the mare fought to stand. Tears rushed her eyes as the mare, eyes wild, took a few awkward steps toward her, stumbled and fell over into the grass again.

  Delaney stared at the horse, as fear colder than a Montana winter day settled in her bones. Other horses lay in the tall grass. Some tried to get to their feet as she approached, but fell back after a few futile attempts. When she looked up, she realized that Cooper was standing at the edge of the meadow, studying her.

  “They got into something,” she said. “Locoweed or…something.”

  “Obviously.” He eyed her in a way that implied she wasn’t as smart as she appeared.

  Delaney stuck the butt of the rifle into the soft earth, settled her other hand on her hip and glared at him. “Something bothering you, McLeod?”

  “Aren’t these some of your best mares?” he asked, almost angry with her.

  “As a matter of fact—” She stopped. “How do you know that?”

  “I know good horses.” He pushed his Stetson back from his face. His eyes bored into her. “So what are they doing here?”

  She focused on the horse nearest her. The Rockin’ L was an old-fashioned horse ranch. She didn’t keep her stock in fancy arenas or barns. This was a working Morgan horse ranch. But these mares wouldn’t have left the rest of the herd. And they hadn’t just wandered up here by themselves. “My guess is someone tried to steal them.”

  He glanced around the meadow. “How were the rustlers going to get them out of here? By helicopter? There’s not a road within miles. And why drug them up?”

  She didn’t like his tone or his attitude. And how did he know there wasn’t a road within miles of here? It hit her that he wasn’t lost at all when she’d found him sleeping on the rocks.

  “What makes you think there isn’t a road near here?” she asked, studying him.

  He smiled. “If there was, wouldn’t we have taken it to get here?”

  She flipped a lock of errant hair back from her face. He always had an answer for everything, didn’t he? So why didn’t she trust him? “I suppose you have a theory on why my horses are here?”

  “Maybe.”

  She watched him circle the meadow studying the ground as he walked, and couldn’t help thinking there was more to Cooper McLeod than just some saddle-worn rodeo cowboy.

  After a moment he knelt in the grass, then motioned for her to join him. “Seems that someone made a portable corral to keep the horses in. And look at this.” He stuck three fingers of wet soil under her nose. She jerked back from the awful smell.

  “I’d say a mixture of oats and astragalus—heavy on the locoweed,” Cooper said.

  Delaney swore as she looked around the meadow at her mares. “They corraled my horses, drugged them and let them loose. Why? What did that accomplish?”

  She turned, surprised when Cooper didn’t throw in his two-cents’ worth.

  He was still hunkered in the grass. She noticed he had a handful of rank soil that he was slowly letting spill through his fingers. “Oh, I think they accomplished what they set out to do.” He leaned back on his haunches and squinted up at her.

  “Spit it out, McLeod.”

  A smile turned up the corners of his mouth, setting off those dimples. His eyes burned like blue flames, but there was no humor in his look, just a deadly seriousness that froze her blood.

  “It scared you, didn’t it?”

  She swallowed and turned away, surprised by his insight. She did believe that’s exactly what the recent accidents were about—someone was trying to scare her. But she hadn’t even admitted it to herself.

  She glanced over her shoulder at Cooper, realizing he was much more dangerous than she’d first thought. He had intelligence along with all that charm and good looks. “Why would someone go to all this trouble just to…
try to scare me?” she asked.

  “That’s a good question.” He picked up a small, flat stone from the ground, his thumb making slow circles on the weather-worn surface. She remembered the feel of his hand earlier. The hand of a working cowboy, suntanned and weathered, strong and callused. She dragged her gaze away.

  “Or it could be someone’s out to get you,” he said. “But I suppose you’d know better than I would about that.”

  She met his gaze. The intensity of his look startled her. Not much got past those blue eyes of his. She’d have to remember that.

  Cooper dropped the stone and dusted his hands on his jeans. “Well, there’s not much we can do here now. The veterinarian should be able to tell you what they were drugged with. I would imagine they weren’t given enough to kill them and that this should wear off.”

  “Really?” she said, looking at him. While she agreed with his appraisal of the situation, she wondered where he’d learned so much about horses. And locoweed. Not on any rodeo circuit.

  “You want me to help draw the blood?” he asked.

  She nodded as she opened her bag, wondering why she felt Cooper McLeod knew more about her troubles than he was letting on. What did she know about the man anyway? She promised herself she’d run a check on him when she got back to the ranch. If she didn’t fire him before the end of the day.

  OOPER WATCHED Delaney closely as they started back down the mountain. All her bad luck sounded a little too familiar; minor accidents that frightened ranch owners but didn’t devalue the stock or the land. It was the same kind of thing he’d done on other ranches. What the hell was happening on the Rockin’ L? And what was the story with Delaney? Was she really as much in the dark as she pretended to be? Not that it mattered. It was obvious this job had more complications than his employers had anticipated. He needed to get to a phone and call them. And of course there was that little matter of the mixed-up information. But worse were the so-called accidents at the Rockin’ L. His employers needed to know just what they’d gotten him into. And then they could damn well get him out of it.