Outlawed!

by BJ Daniels

  Taking one final look at Johnson Gulch Lake, he went to join her in the cab of the pickup.

  “So, this person you chased, I assume you didn’t get close enough to see who it was?” she asked as she turned the pickup around and started back toward the ranch.

  “No. But I can tell you this—he rode in by horseback this time.”

  She glanced over at him. “This time?”

  “I found an old road on the other side of the creek that someone’s been using.”

  She hit a bump, almost sending him flying through the windshield. “That old mining road? They couldn’t have driven down that. It’s been closed for years.”

  “Not anymore. Someone took a chain saw to the downed trees, widened it in a couple of places.”

  Delaney frowned. “Why would anyone go to so much trouble to open a road that doesn’t go anywhere?”

  He glanced over at her. “But it does go somewhere. Johnson Gulch Lake. In fact, that road runs right up to the lake.”

  “But why not use this road, the one we’re on?” She narrowed her gaze at him. “Okay, let’s hear it. I know you have a theory.”

  He picked up the spur from the seat between them. “Not far past the road I found tracks that led up the creek to an old abandoned mine. All I can figure is that someone was using the road to bring in equipment to work the mine.”

  She stared over at him. “I don’t understand. The gold ran out years ago.”

  He shrugged. “Who has the mineral rights on the ranch?”

  “I do.” She stared at the road ahead. “Wait a minute. Didn’t Digger say he saw lights near the lake?”

  Cooper grinned. “I believe he said he saw lights in the lake.”

  “It could have been a reflection,” Delaney said, sounding excited. “It makes sense. He did see something. Someone working that old mine. And maybe he’s right. Maybe someone did try to kill him to keep him quiet. And for the same reason, tried to scare us away by taking that potshot at us.”

  Cooper had to agree. He just wasn’t as convinced as she was. “By the way, whoever took that shot was riding the same horse as the guy who started the rock slide. The horse with the barred shoe.”

  She drove the rest of the way back to the ranch in silence. He figured she was scared. He damned sure was. He couldn’t throw off the notion that maybe she was right. Someone was after him instead of her. But with Rattlesnake Range trying to buy her ranch, Ty trying to inherit it and Jared trying to marry it, Cooper still thought Delaney was more apt to be the target. It just made sense for them both to be careful until they could sort it out.

  Delaney stopped the pickup beside his camp. “I’d like you to ride fence tomorrow.” She avoided his gaze. “Then I need you to help bring in more of the two-year-olds. I’m going to start working with them in the morning.”

  He nodded. Business as usual. Did she really think she could just ignore what was happening on the ranch and it would go away? “It isn’t going to work.”

  “McLeod-”

  “Your troubles aren’t going to stop until you find out who’s behind them.”

  “How do you know that?” she asked, shifting her gaze to his.

  “I know.”

  She stared at him. He expected her to ask how he knew. He debated telling her and decided it was too risky. If she knew about him and Rattlesnake Range, she’d run him off the ranch. And he wouldn’t blame her. But he also couldn’t let her do that for reasons even he didn’t understand anymore. He just knew it didn’t have anything to do with his job.

  “The sheriffs looking into it and I’m sure—” She bit her lip. “You still think Jared’s behind this, don’t you?”

  “I’ve seen men do foolish things for money.” He looked into her eyes, feeling warmer even in his wet clothing. “And even more foolish things for a woman. Jared wants more than just your ranch, Ms. Lawson.”

  “Good night, McLeod,” she said shifting into gear again and ending any more conversation on the subject.

  He opened the door and got out. “’Night, boss.”

  She drove off a little too fast. He watched her park in front of the ranch house. Then he turned to find Crazy Jack dragging his oat bag around the yard beside the camper.

  “Give me a minute to change clothes and I’ll make us both dinner,” he told the horse as he heard an engine and saw the lights of a vehicle coming up the road.

  A pickup pulled up in front of the house. Buck and Angel got out. Cooper could hear Angel’s laugh on the night breeze. It grated on him; he still hadn’t been able to place her. Buck knocked at the front door and a moment later Delaney invited them inside.

  DELANEY HESITATED in the kitchen doorway to watch Buck with Angel. He hovered over the woman, looking nervous. Now that Delaney thought about it, he’d been acting nervous for weeks. He jumped every time she said something to him; it was obvious that he didn’t have his mind on his work.

  The poor old fool was besotted with the woman. She felt sorry for him because he was just as obviously headed for heartbreak. Angel was much too young for him. Or maybe Buck was just too old for Angel. Delaney felt a pang of guilt as she realized she was hoping this thing with Angel wouldn’t last much longer; she needed her ranch manager back.

  She sighed as she carried the tray of coffee into the living room and placed it on the table in front of them. Angel had pulled a notebook out of her purse. She tapped a pen on her slim thigh as she looked around the room with appreciation, clearly anxious to get the interview over. Not as much as Delaney. It had been a long day and she couldn’t quit thinking about what Cooper had said.

  “This is quite the place you have here,” Angel said. “You really lucked out, huh?”

  “It’s more hard work than luck,” Buck said quickly. “Ms. Lawson saved this ranch after her father pretty near ran it into the ground.”

  Delaney smiled at him, knowing he was just coming to her defense and didn’t realize he was telling something she would rather keep private. “I believe Angel wants to know the history of the ranch,” she said tactfully. “What exactly is your book about?”

  “Ranching in gold country,” Angel said quickly. “Your grandfather was a gold miner, right?” she asked, flipping open her notebook.

  “He was a horse breeder like his father,” Delaney corrected. “My great-grandfather came west during the gold rush in 1865, hoping to make his fortune and start a horse ranch. But it was my grandfather, Del Henry, who started the Rockin’ L after he met my grandmother, Winnie. It was in the early 1930s. Winnie was twenty-two. My grandfather was fifty-eight.”

  “Phew!” Angel said, shaking her head. “That’s old.”

  Buck looked at the floor uncomfortably. Delaney knew he was fifty-two. Surely Angel realized that.

  “So your grandfather’s the one who struck it rich.”

  Delaney shook her head. “Rich? No, he quit mining when he met my grandmother. They bought this place with her dowry, built a house and started the horse ranch.”

  “But there were so many gold strikes back in the 1800s,” Angel said. “In Helena, buildings were paid for with the gold found in just digging the foundation. Confederate Gulch and Last Chance Gulch. Men got rich overnight. And they say the mother lode was never even found.”

  Delaney laughed. “My great-grandfather got enough gold together to start a small horse ranch in Helena, but he lost it in a poker game. My grandfather had a couple of younger friends who worked his mining claims when he got too old to work them himself. One of the prospectors still roams the ranch looking for that elusive mother lode.” She thought of Digger with a note of sadness.

  “It does exist?” Angel asked in total innocence.

  “With today’s technology, a mining company would have found it if it did,” Delaney said.

  “But aren’t there still small pockets of gold around that are worth something?”

  Delaney thought about the old mining road someone had opened to one of her grandfather’s mines. “I
suppose so. But with thousands of miners scouring this country for gold in the 1860s and again in the 1930s, any real gold is gone.”

  Angel frowned down at her notes. When she looked up, Delaney realized the woman was disappointed.

  “I’m sorry it isn’t more…romantic,” Delaney told her. “The only thing we do here at the Rockin’ L that might interest you is we raise Morgan horses the way my grandfather did. No fancy barns and stalls. We put them out to pasture. As a matter of fact, I’m going to be working with some two-year-olds tomorrow if you’d like to come out and watch.”

  Angel closed her notebook and put her pen in her purse. “I have research to do tomorrow.” She looked up and seemed to remember her manners. “But thanks anyway.”

  AFTER COOPER FED Crazy Jack, he built a campfire and started dinner, his favorite, beans. He’d had a lot of time to think since Delaney had dropped him off. Two things kept coming back into his thoughts: their kiss—and Delaney.

  The kiss had been stupid and impulsive. But as he watched the beans begin to bubble, he found himself grinning just thinking about it.

  It had been one hell of a kiss. And not one that he’d soon forget. Nor would he forget her pushing him into the lake. The woman had spunk. More than was advisable in any woman.

  He shook his head as he glanced up toward the ranch house. Lights spilled out onto the porch. He could hear faint music stealing out the windows. She’d turned on the music not long after Buck and Angel had left. He wondered if she was thinking about their kiss. And if she was, whether it just made her more angry with him.

  The kiss had been the kind of thing he’d never done on a job before. Not that he hadn’t kissed a lot of women as part of his job. But the women had come to him. They’d wanted him more than he’d wanted them. He considered it a bonus.

  Delaney was different. He’d wanted to kiss her. He let out a laugh. No, it was much more than want. He had to kiss her. And he told himself at the time, it was worth it. But now he acknowledged that the kiss probably hadn’t helped his standing as her ranch hand. Probably not at all, he thought, as he recalled how mad she’d been. The good news was that she hadn’t fired him. Yet, he thought, as he saw her come out on the porch and look in his direction.

  DELANEY STOOD on the porch, listening to the sounds of the night. She’d been antsy since they’d returned from Johnson Gulch Lake. And worried. The worry made the night feel cold. She hugged herself and looked out at the pines and Cooper’s camp, remembering his kiss. She could see him silhouetted against his camp fire and felt a longing that made her ache. Who was this man who had the power to make her desire him even when she knew how wrong he was for her?

  It struck her that he didn’t act like anyone’s ranch hand, certainly not hers. He was much too cocky and sure of himself to have been anyone’s hand for long. Maybe that’s why he never stayed in one place. Or maybe he was running from something, hiding from something—here on her ranch. He’d convinced her that the rock slide and the rifle shot were more than likely meant for her. And yet, standing here now, she wondered. The feeling that Cooper McLeod wasn’t who he seemed to be nagged at her.

  So did the memory of Digger’s and Tess’s tracks beside the pines overlooking Johnson Gulch Lake. There could be something to Digger’s story. Not that she believed Gus Halbrook had come back from the dead. But maybe there was an explanation for all of it. She just couldn’t think of what it could be.

  Nor could she explain what drew her to McLeod, she thought with a curse. It had been so long since she’d been interested in any man. Her preoccupation with McLeod had nothing to do with his good looks or that infuriating charm of his, she assured herself. It was something else, something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

  In the distance, coyotes yelped. Overhead, the moon was a mere sliver among the stars. Millions of stars. She smiled as she remembered Cooper sleeping under the stars instead of in his camper. Claustrophobia. The man had an Achilles heel.

  She glanced back at her house, surprised at how empty it felt tonight, and noticed that someone had put a horseshoe over her door. She smiled, shaking her head. Cooper. For good luck. The man never ceased to amaze her, she thought, as she looked out at his camp again. The tantalizing scent of his campfire beckoned her. She made a dozen excuses for what she was doing as she walked toward his fire. Only one of them was the truth: she didn’t want to be alone tonight.

  WHEN COOPER SAW Delaney headed in his direction, he shifted his gaze to the fire and realized he’d been so busy watching her surreptitiously, he hadn’t noticed his beans were burning. He grabbed for the pot, burned his fingers, swore and dropped it. The beans started to spill out as the pot tipped toward the dirt. He hurriedly righted it with the toe of his boot.

  “I hope that’s not your dinner,” Delaney said across the fire from him. She took a whiff and made a face.

  He sucked one blistered finger as he looked up at her. Something was on her mind. He wondered what it was. He couldn’t let her fire him. Not yet. “I like my beans a little charred.”

  “How about a lot burned?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

  He looked down at the beans, now blackened in the bottom of the pot. “I wasn’t all that hungry anyhow,” he said, pushing them out of the way with his boot. “I hope you weren’t coming over for dinner.”

  She shook her head and looked around as if unsure why she’d come. “It’s been a while since I’ve eaten over a camp fire.” She smiled suddenly. He followed her gaze to where he’d laid out his bedroll near a pine and shrugged, a little embarrassed.

  “Haven’t you ever wanted a real roof over your head?” she asked as she picked up a stick and knelt to poke it into the coals.

  “I have a roof,” he said. “Clear blue by day. Black velvet by night.”

  She looked up. She had to admit it was one heck of a roof. “You know that’s not what I mean. Haven’t you ever wanted to settle down, stay in one place for a while?”

  He thought of the ranch he talked about buying, wondering if it was no more than an excuse for continuing to work for Rattlesnake Range. “I’m afraid settling down has always come at a price I couldn’t afford.”

  “You mean your freedom?”

  He saw her jaw tighten. She tossed the stick into the fire and watched it burn. In the firelight, her hair was the color of a raven’s wing, her eyes as dark as night.

  “Freedom was the precious commodity my father revered above everything else—including his family and the ranch.”

  He could see angry tears in her eyes.

  “At what price does your freedom come, McLeod?”

  Cooper stepped around the fire to take her shoulders in his hands. “I can’t change the way your father was,” he said roughly. “And I’m not Hank Lawson. If you’re thinking you might be able to break me like one of your horses, you’d best be sure you’ve got the right horse.”

  He let her go and started to turn, but she grabbed his arm. “Cooper.” The sound of his name on her lips held both pleading and desire. She urged him closer. Her kiss was brazen. Fevered with abandon. Knowing what she was offering him gave him both pleasure and pain. Pleasure because he wanted her. Pain because he couldn’t take her like this, knowing how he was deceiving her. It had never mattered before, with other women he’d known. But did now.

  He pulled back, holding her at arm’s length. “You don’t know what kind of man I’ve been.” He gently thumbed her cheek. “I’ve done things….”

  “I don’t care about the past,” she whispered.

  He smiled. “But I do. I can’t do this, not now.”

  She pulled away from him; tears stung her eyes. “Damn you, McLeod.” He watched her turn and walk away, realizing he’d lost a part of himself when he went to work for Rattlesnake Range—his integrity—and he wasn’t sure he could get it back. Without it, he could never have the one thing he now so desperately wanted. Delaney.

  Chapter Nine

  Delaney was in the round
corral working with one of the two-year-olds when Jared Kincaid drove up. She was still stinging from making a fool of herself with Cooper the night before. She couldn’t believe she’d made a play for her ranch hand, which made his turning her down even worse. All day she’d been trying to see the humor in it. And couldn’t. She’d invested more of her heart last night than she wanted to admit. She certainly wasn’t in any mood to deal with the sheriff.

  She finished, then cut the young Morgan out with the others.

  “’Afternoon, Del,” Jared said, tipping his hat. He’d taken a seat on the top rail of the fence. Now he jumped down to join her outside the corral.

  “Jared.”

  “Del, we’ve got to talk about Digger. The doctor says he can leave the hospital soon and Digger is anxious as hell to get back to his camp.”

  She knew what was coming.

  “I’m not going to be able to keep a deputy on him once he leaves the hospital. The only reason I have this long—” he looked up and met her gaze “—was as a personal favor to you.”

  “So you don’t believe anyone’s trying to kill him?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

  He pulled off his Stetson and ran a hand through his graying hair. “Dammit, Del, how can I believe Martians dug up some dead prospector named Gus Halbrook and took him by spaceship to Johnson Gulch Lake?”

  “Is that what Digger told you?” Maybe the sheriff was more responsible than she’d thought. At least he’d talked to Digger about it.

  Jared shook his head. “My deputy told me all about it. I’m not sure what you’re going to do with that crazy old man, Del, but it’s just a matter of time before the county is going to catch him and put him in a home.”

  She gritted her teeth and fought back the series of oaths that came to her tongue. “He’s not crazy, Jared. Just a little confused sometimes. It comes with age.” She looked pointedly at the sheriff’s graying head.