Roz Denny Fox (19 page)

Hearing steers bawling in the distance, Wade rode over the next rise. He had ten more head on the move when Jake rejoined him.

“Where’s that cow dog of yours?” Wade asked. “He’d keep these strays on track and leave you and me free to hunt down the remaining delinquents.”

“I left Charcoal with Hayley. By the way,” he added, changing the subject. “Did you know Eden’s offered to buy everything Hayley’s mine can produce?”

“The lot of you encouraged her. If you’d let things be and hadn’t taken her milk and garden greens, likely the little gal would’ve pulled up stakes by now. But no, my own family facilitated her operation, even though every last one of you knew I’ve been dickering for years to acquire that property.”

“Don’t forget the chickens I gave her.”

Wade seared his son with a scowl.

“I was being facetious,” Jake informed his dad. “But what’s the big deal? Hayley’s agreed to the same water arrangement you negotiated with Ben.”

“Jake, I didn’t want to spout off out of turn. All I have is an unsubstantiated rumor. When I collected our last stock check, Charlie Goodall, a rancher I know from Phoenix, asked what we thought down here of John Westin hobnobbing with developers.”

“Developers?” To a rancher,
developer
was a scary word, too often synonymous with resorts and golf courses. It generally meant the demise of the government land ranchers leased to graze large herds. “Are you sure this Goodall didn’t mistake John’s chat with the governor on behalf of the coop’s water interests as a move to develop?”

Wade rubbed a thumb over a stubbled jaw. “Charlie sat near John’s party at lunch. He knows who attended that meeting and what he heard. He’d have no reason to lie. Marshall Rogers from the Rocking R was hip-deep in it, too. I know for a fact that for the last two years he’s made noises about selling out.”

“Are you going to confront John at the next cattlemen’s meeting?”

“Not knowing the extent of his backing, I’m almost afraid to. What I need is control over the spring. Without a water source, the developers will back out.”

“Right now Hayley controls the water. So I can’t understand why you aren’t treating her more nicely.”

“She controls the mineral rights. Not water. Westin could make a case to the governor that the valley ranchers need the water rights split off from the mineral rights. It could happen as fast as that.” He snapped his fingers.

Jake finished his father’s thought. “And if John’s convinced a majority of our neighbors to go along with his scheme, he’s nabbed a pot of gold. The Triple C either capitulates and sells to the developer, or we’re eventually squeezed out.”

“That’s about the size of it.”

“I can’t believe John would be so sneaky. If he’s of a mind to sell the J & B, why set Ginalyn up with a spread of her own?”

Wade scrammed three steers out of a thicket of mesquite. “I figure it’s a smoke screen for those of us not in on his racket. Think about it. A few of us have been on John’s case for bringing in too much new stock and overgrazing the leased rangeland. I always suspected the guy was a wheeler-dealer out to make big bucks.”

“So you’re saying Westin’s depleted the rangeland and now plans to sell and make an even bigger killing on the property?”

“Much as I hate it, that’s my theory.”

Jake charged off after a stubborn yearling bull who objected to being brought into the small herd they’d mustered. “Then it seems to me,” he said, out of breath when he returned, “that’d be in the best interests of the Triple C for me to stick close to Hayley’s operation. Won’t John think twice about pulling any shenanigans if I’m on-site?”

They rounded up several more strays before Wade responded. “My druthers, plain and simple, is for you to talk that gal into revoking her claim so we can purchase the acreage fair and square. That would stonewall John.”

“The mine is Hayley’s insurance policy. Her ex swindled her out of Ben’s property in Tombstone. I don’t want her thinking we’re shysters, as well.”

Wade looked at Jake long and hard. “Don’t talk to me again, boy, until you make up your mind where your loyalty lies. With your family or with that woman.” Reining his mare sharply to the left, he kicked her into a gallop. Horse and rider soon disappeared over a rise, leaving Jake to swear at the steers they’d already rounded up.

His herd grew in size during the long grueling afternoon. Night had fallen by the time Jake merged his group of stampeded runaways with the main body of steers captured by Dillon and the vaqueros. Again the storm had rolled over the Santa Cruz Valley without dropping any rain. The milling, bawling cattle were winded from their run and they were dry. The added humidity left herd and wranglers cranky.

Dillon rode out to meet Jake, who pivoted in the saddle, expecting his dad to be bearing down on him, too. Jake had been ganged up on by family more than once. This time, apparently, Dillon was alone. Which was a relief.

Until Dillon skidded his mount to a stop, dropped his reins, dismounted and grabbed Jake right out of his saddle. Their noses inches apart, Dillon shook his younger brother hard enough to rattle Jake’s teeth.

“It’s not enough that you have Mom and Dad arguing over that woman you’ve befriended. Now she’s got you turning your back on the blood, sweat and tears we’ve all put into the Triple C.”

Jake broke Dillon’s grip on his shirt. Seeing red, Jake lowered his head and rammed it hard into Dillon’s midriff. With a huge
oof,
the two began punching wildly. Locked together, they rolled down a rocky incline. Furious though he was, Jake was the first to hear the cattle lowing in alarm. He stiffened an arm against Dillon’s throat. “Listen, you idiot, maybe you like blistering your butt in the saddle all day digging these cows out twice. Once is enough for me.” Though his chest heaved from the exertion, Jake stood and jerked his brother to his feet.

Dillon dusted off his hat and jammed it on. “I don’t need your help, you—”

“Shoot your mouth off again and I’ll start a second stampede myself. Anyway, I don’t believe Hayley caused an argument between Mom and Dad. They never fight.”

“They are now. Dad fired Ernesto Torres for coming back drunk between the north-and south-area roundups.”

“What does that have to do with Hayley?”

“Mrs. Torres is a midwife. Mom told Dad right in front of the crew to give Ernesto back his job because she’d already talked to Mrs. Torres about moving out to Hayley’s camp in case her baby comes early. I guess you’d know she’s pregnant.”

“Mom did that?” Jake relaxed his shoulders. “She’s brilliant.”

“Well, Dad didn’t think so. The vaqueros wouldn’t respect him again if he reversed his decision. You know we can’t condone drinking on the job.”

“Ernesto has worked roundup on the Triple C for ten years. That ought to be reason enough to consider letting him dry out and stay on the crew.”

“Exactly what Mom said. But she didn’t let up. Dad finally blew his cork. They put on quite a show for the hands.” Dillon sounded disgusted.

“So how did it end?”

“Dad won. Mom is furious. They’re barely speaking. As if losing Ernesto isn’t bad enough, according to Dad you’re leaving us even shorter-handed while you go help that woman dig her opals.”

“He never mentioned losing Ernesto. If you’re in a bind, I’ll ride back and forth, helping Hayley whenever I can—unless you badmouth her again. Then the deal’s off.”

Dillon stuck his fingers into his back pockets and leaned close to Jake. “You’re serious. I can’t believe it. Some days it’ll be a two-hour ride each way. You’d give up sleep and stretch yourself thin for this woman?”

“I would,” Jake said, his face stony.

Dillon bit back a snarl and wrapped his reins around one hand. He mounted fluidly, the stiff set of his shoulders conveying his disapproval. “I certainly hope you’re not expecting me to like a woman who’d pit husband against wife, son against father and brother against brother.” He wheeled his star-faced gelding off into the darkness before Jake could formulate a comeback. Probably just as well, though. He was too angry now. And someday in the not-too-distant future, after he’d finished building his house and installed Hayley in it, Dillon would be forced to eat his words. Once she was no longer Hayley Ryan but Hayley Cooper, they’d return to being one big happy family.

Jake’s good fortune continued. His path never crossed either Dillon’s or their dad’s over the next two days. Every last hand extended himself to help bring the herd’s count to what it’d been before the stampede. The heat and dust, which had seemed to double after the passing of the rainless storm, sapped any will the cowboys might have had for bickering.

Jake didn’t bother to check out with anyone at noon on the third day after he’d driven the last six strays he’d found into the main herd. Mopping sweat from his brow, he refilled his canteen from the water barrel and lit out for the Blue Cameo.

An hour later his heart did a fast jig as he rode into Hayley’s camp. The fire was out, her camp empty of the ever-present piles of ore. Jake panicked.

But her pickup was there, so she hadn’t taken a load of ore to Tubac. Then where was she? He called himself all kinds of fool for leaving her alone, unprotected.

Wait!
He hadn’t left her totally unprotected. Charcoal. Where was that dog?

Swinging down from his horse, Jake unsaddled the big bay and tied him to a tree near a patch of grass that wasn’t completely brown. Though Jake hadn’t the vaguest idea where Hayley’s mine was located, he set off on foot to search the foothills. She’d said she was digging in a ravine that, if it rained, would feed the waterfall. Considering how much ore she’d already gathered, Jake didn’t think she could be hauling it far.

The longer he walked and the more barren his uphill ascent became, the greater his worry. His stomach bottomed out when he heard the muffled blast of dynamite.

He ran blindly and pulled up panting under the shade of a gnarled piñon. Placing a shaking thumb and forefinger against his teeth, Jake whistled for Charcoal. He was rewarded by a far-off but recognizable bark. At first delighted, then concerned that Hayley might be lying ahead somewhere hurt or disabled, Jake charged up the rocky cliff in the direction of the still-vibrating cloud of dust.

His boots slipped on the slick granite. He cursed the steep grade, but didn’t slow down. Not until a shot rang out, coming so close it knocked the hat from his head. His heart slammed against his chest as he dived for cover behind clumps of desert bloom that wouldn’t hide a flea. As his throat tightened convulsively, Jake’s immediate thought was that someone had jumped Hayley’s claim. The shot had come from a higher-powered rifle than she owned.

Sweat poured down his neck in rivulets. He buried his face in broken bits of shale and wondered how he’d let himself get pinned down so neatly.

No other shots followed, but it wasn’t long before Jake felt eyes boring into his back. He had little choice but to raise his arms slowly. Maybe it would buy him time with the claim-jumpers.

He didn’t even get one hand up before he felt a cold nose sniff his ear.

“Jake? Is that you?” Hayley shrieked. By then, Charcoal had all but deafened him, barking in his ear.

“What are you doing sneaking up on me when I’m blasting?” Hayley demanded, ejecting an unused shell from the chamber of a deer rifle Jake recognized as his own.

“Hey.” He muzzled the Border collie with both hands and warned him to cease barking. “That’s my old rifle. I can’t believe you almost killed me with my own gun. How did
you
get hold of it?”

Hayley, who’d turned pale in spite of her tan, set the worn gunstock on the narrow trail and leaned on it as she massaged her protruding belly. “Your mother left it when she stopped by this morning to pick up another batch of ore. She heard from an attendant where she buys gas that two men, strangers, were asking questions about any new gold or silver mines in the area. Oh, Jake, I’m so afraid it’s Joe and Shad. They don’t know it’s opals I’ve found, but…” She dropped the rifle, skidded down the sidehill and threw herself into Jake’s arms.

It felt wonderful to hold her, to breathe in the flowery scent of her shampoo.

Jake had no compunction about pushing the dog aside to fill his arms with the woman he loved.

“You scared the tar out of me, lady. I thought someone jumped your claim.” Jake tightened his hold on her.

“No wonder you were scared,” Hayley murmured. “I shouldn’t have shot without knowing who you were. But you shouldn’t have sneaked up on me, either. Not while I was still half-deaf from the blast. I can’t use a jackhammer because of the baby, and the ore’s running deeper. The only way I can widen the vein is with dynamite.”

“That blast scared me even more than riding in and finding your camp empty. I thought something had happened to you.”

Hayley drew back. “Oh, right,” she drawled. “I haven’t seen you for days. You must’ve been really worried.”

“Didn’t Mom tell you the storm stampeded our herd?”

“No. In fact, she never said the rifle was yours, either.”

“Wow, I hope she’s not mad at me, as well as my dad.”

Hayley managed to regain her feet, although it wasn’t easy given the incline and her pregnancy. “Look, I need to go back and dig. Nell said she or Eden will drive out here every morning to pick up whatever ore I’ve managed to haul out. That way, if Joe does show up, he’ll have less to steal.”

Jake’s control snapped. “I suppose it never dawned on any of you that he’d be mad as a hornet if he comes up empty-handed? Why didn’t Mom call on the mobile and let me know Joe was closing in? Dillon has a phone at our base camp.”

“It’s not your fight, Jake. It’s mine. I thought I made that clear.”

“Oh? Then why did you throw yourself into my arms?”

Hayley stomped up the hill. “My mistake,” she said, stooping to grab a pickax. “A reaction to having shot at you. Relief I didn’t kill you. Go on back to your roundup. If Joe shows up, I’ll take care of him.”

Jake’s anger crumbled in the face of her courage. “I’ve come to help, and you need me whether you admit it or not. I learned there’s more people than Joe who’d like to see you gone. John Westin of the J & B promised developers access to the spring if they buy him out. They’d turn this area into a resort.”