The High Country Rancher (10 page)

Mariah stood in the middle of the room, frozen in place. On the floor in front of her a rattlesnake lay coiled, ready to strike. A second snake slithered near her right foot, unconcerned, as he inched past her.

Caution locked on Baylor’s nerves. If he approached and tried to move her, chances were good she’d get bitten.

Beads of sweat pearled on his forehead. “Hang on, sweetheart.”

He spotted the saddle pad lying over Jericho’s saddle, and the straight-edged shovel propped next to the shed door.

In slow motion he took several steps back and grabbed the thick pad. Keeping his eye on the snake, he moved forward, locking his hand around the handle of the shovel.

The snake remained coiled and ready to strike at any second.

Taking a deep breath, Baylor tried to relax as he stepped into the tack room. The movement drew the snake’s attention. Baylor stepped in front of Mariah and wheeled the pad like a shield.

The snake struck out at him, hitting the pad and sinking its fangs into the foam.

Mariah bolted and jumped on top of a saddle rack, out of the line of fire.

Before the snake could release and strike again, Baylor smacked it with the blade of the shovel and flung it out of the open door.

Turning his attention to the second snake, he again used the thick saddle pad as a shield, and wrangled the snake with the shovel, scooping it up and shoving it out the door.

Baylor snagged Mariah, and raised her into his arms. With the shovel as a weapon, he turned and left the shed, depositing her a safe distance away, watching to make sure the rattlers continued their frenzied exit into the tall grass behind the shed.

“One snake, I’d believe, but two?” He scanned the hillside looking for movement. “I was in there this morning. It was clear. Someone put them in there, knowing I’d be back to stow my saddle.”

He reached out and pulled Mariah into his arms.

“I hate snakes,” she said.

“Come on now, they were just little guys.”

She whimpered. “Little, big, any size in between. I hate them all.”

Mariah finally succeeded in losing the willies the snake encounter had given her, but not until Baylor had reentered the tack room for Jericho’s bridle and they were mounted up high off the ground.

“How would someone corral those rattlers?” she asked as she rode along next to Baylor.

“A snake hook. You’d wrangle them from their den and put them in a sack. I didn’t want to tell you, but if you’d been bitten by both of them, you’d be dead.”

She shuddered. “Well, then, I’m glad you showed up when you did. Any idea who might have put them there?”

“Bess, my old cow dog, went off last night chasing something on the slope. I found a boot print up there this afternoon.”

Taking a cursory scan of the hillside, she tried to relax but couldn’t. “You told me once that strange things had been happening on the ranch. What kind of things?”

“Loose lug nuts on my pickup three times, including the morning I took you up to the hospital. A couple of one-ton hay bales dislodged in the barn last winter and just missed me. Someone has been in my house a couple of times, including the night I brought you in from the storm. And the night we found Endicott in the barn and the gun in the tea pitcher. The front door wasn’t locked.”

“Did you ever file a report?”

“And say what? I think someone’s trying to kill me?”

“Yeah. And what about the shots someone took at us up by the pond? We believed it was Ray Buckner, but I never got to question him. Do you think he saw whoever did it?”

“It’s possible. Maybe that’s why he was tossed into the bull pen. To shut him up.”

Uneasiness sparked through Baylor’s veins like lightning. Were they dealing with a local? Someone who moved about undetected because he blended in?

Maneuvering down onto the road, they covered the distance to the trailhead into the pond.

Baylor worked his horse through the trees, using the forest as cover. They couldn’t risk becoming targets again. He didn’t relax until he pulled Texas up short ten yards away from the mine shaft opening, and dismounted, helping Mariah down and tying up her horse.

Raising his finger to his lips, he warned her to be quiet. Listening, he focused on the sounds emanating from the woods around them. Woodpeckers, the hum of crickets and wood beetles. A mild breeze hissing in the pines overhead.

Reaching out, he took her left hand and moved toward the opening. Buck brush as high as his thigh protected the entrance along with the massive log. Baylor paused. Something wasn’t right. The entire forest seemed to be holding its breath, but for what?

He took a step forward, feeling a slight pressure against his shin. He froze midstep and stared down at the thin thread of wire holding him back.

He’d just set the trigger. “Stop,” he whispered to Mariah. “Go back, the area is booby-trapped.”

Mariah almost bumped into Baylor, who stood
like some kind of a statue in front of her, but she hesitated, honing in on the last word of his sentence.
Booby-trapped.

Slowly, she pulled her hand out of his and took two careful steps back. She stared at the ground in front of him.

The sun glinted off a fine strand of wire.

“Don’t move,” she said, following the line to where it vanished into the brush. Raising her gaze, she felt like she’d been hit by a bus when she spotted a line of steel-tipped arrows pointed directly at Baylor. One wrong move and he’d release the volley.

“There’s an entire quiver of arrows aimed at you. How much pressure can you feel in the trip wire?”

“It’s tight. The trigger is set.”

“Can we drive something into the ground to hold it long enough for you to get out of the way?”

“Maybe.” Baylor stared down at the line stretched across the boot of his right foot. They’d be hard-pressed to find anything that would exactly match the pressure his foot exerted against the trip wire.

“Can you reach the arrows?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Whoever put this here had to load the device. You have to unload it.”

He didn’t dare turn to look at her, but he could feel her eyes on him as she considered the task.

“If I don’t do it correctly—”

“You will.”
You have to.
He let the rest of the
thought die on the breeze. If all else failed, he planned to hit the dirt in front of him, and hope like hell that the arrows passed overhead and missed them both.

He heard her moving through the buck brush and closed his eyes. “Nice and slow, Mariah. One arrow at a time.”

“Okay. What sort of a maniac does this kind of stuff?”

“He’s desperate. Desperate to protect this mine site.”

“Okay, I’m here. It’s a round disc with five arrows in it. Each in its own cylinder.”

“How high off the ground is it? Is it angled? And how far away is it?”

“It’s a foot off the ground, tipped at a five, maybe ten-degree angle, and fifteen feet away from you.”

Dread thumped in his body. The booby trap would deliver five kill shots to his body’s core, if it triggered.

“Don’t touch the arrows. It’s too dangerous. It could release if you touch it. Go around it to the other side, see where the wire goes in.”

The brush rustled as she moved around the weapon. “I found it. It’s tied to a trigger of some sort.”

Baylor’s heartbeat hammered in his ears. Beads of sweat rolled down his back between his shoulder blades, and he forced air into his lungs, feeling it calm his nerves.

“I want you to put tension on the trigger, the same amount as the wire is holding. That should give me enough time to step back and hit the ground. Then let it go.”

“Are you sure?”

“We don’t have a choice.” He turned his head slowly and stared at her, then nodded the go-ahead.

He saw her exaggerated swallow and prepared to get the hell out of the way of the barrage.

Mariah knelt down next to the weapon, a silent prayer on her lips. Reaching out with her left hand, she placed it on the backside of the trigger, duplicating the pressure holding the trigger forward.

“Okay. I’m holding it.”

“On three, I’m going to step back.”

Fear ripped through her as she held the trigger. It had to work, or Baylor was as good as dead. The razor-sharp arrows would drill holes in him.

Glancing up, she watched the top of his head as he stepped back. The trigger gave a fraction, but the arrows didn’t launch.

“Clear!”

She let go of the trigger and ducked to the left.

The volley shot out of the weapon and sliced through the air, driving into several trees on the opposite side of their trajectory.

Mariah raced for Baylor, who lay sprawled under a low scruffy pine. She dropped to her knees and planted a kiss on his mouth.

“Come here.” He pulled her down next to him. “Look up there, what do you see?”

She followed his line of sight, her stare locking on the huge pine where the booby trap had been mounted. “It’s a camera.”

“Yeah. It seems the SOB likes to watch his kills.”

Anger raced in her veins. She stood up and moved toward the camera, careful to stay out of its sight. Reaching down, she picked up a bulky limb, crept up and smashed it to pieces. “One for the good guys.”

Baylor stood up, ready to get back to the ranch. There could be more cameras pointed at them right now, and they couldn’t risk coming across any more surprise weapons.

“Let’s go.” He took Mariah’s hand and they headed for the horses.

T
HEY RODE IN SILENCE
up the driveway, and stopped next to the corral.

“Hey, look at that,” Mariah said as she climbed off her horse.

Baylor trained his attention on the mountain behind the ranch house, where a ring of ravens circled, a couple at a time swooping to the ground.

A knot formed in the pit of his stomach. “That’s where I saw the boot print. We better check it out. It could be Bess.”

He waited for Mariah to remount Jericho and spurred Texas forward, pushing him into a canter,
only slowing once they started up the mountain on the game trail. He hoped like hell it wasn’t his dog.

Mariah pulled alongside him, ducking under a pine bough.

The clamor of birdcalls signaled that they’d reached the area, and Baylor slowed his horse. Mariah dropped in behind him and stopped.

“Whoa.” He dismounted and dropped the reins, ground-tying the horse. “Stay put.”

Mariah nodded and stroked Jericho’s neck.

Baylor moved to the top of the rise and peered over. There, less than a hundred yards from the spot where he’d turned around that afternoon, he saw Bess.

He bolted for her, scattering the scavengers before they could devour her.

“Dammit, Bess.” Baylor dropped to his knees beside his dog, fighting a rush of emotion. Reaching out, he touched her side, and started when she raised her head and looked at him.

Excitement surged in his veins. “You’re going to make it, Bessy. Come on.” Carefully he scooped her up into his arms and took off for his horse.

The veterinarian, Mike Sanders, came into the waiting room. “She made it, but she’s going to need recovery time. This was in her left shoulder.” He reached into the pocket of his lab coat and pulled out a small baggie, holding it up to the light. “Bullet. A couple of centimeters lower and it would have nicked her heart.”

Baylor took the baggie and handed it to Mariah. “She’s a good dog, saved my butt more than a couple of times.”

“I’d like to keep her for a few days. Make sure she heals properly. We’ll give you a call as soon as she’s ready to be released.”

“Thanks, Doc.” Baylor reached out and shook the veterinarian’s hand before he and Mariah left the clinic.

“It looks like a .38 slug. The striations are visible.” Mariah opened her hand with the bagged bullet. “Whoever Bess was chasing on that mountain was armed.”

Caution rattled through Baylor as he digested the information. It wasn’t uncommon for anyone to be packing a pistol in this countryside. Hell, he did most of the time. You never knew when you might need it to protect yourself from a predator, or put a wounded animal out of its misery, but shooting a man’s cow dog bordered on certifiable.

Baylor focused his attention on the dark gray thunderclouds building on the horizon. “Looks like we’re in for a storm. We better get back to the ranch and batten down the hatches.”

Mariah nodded and pulled open the pickup’s door. She climbed in and buckled up.

Baylor slid in behind the wheel and fired up the truck. “We never got that banana split the other day.” He glanced over at her and watched her smile. Damn, he loved that.

His feelings for her raged through him like wildfire and he had to look away. Did she feel the same? Baylor sucked in a breath, put the rig in Drive and pulled out of the parking lot, headed for Ruby’s Diner.

M
ARIAH TRIED TO SEE
the road through the swipe of the wiper blades and wondered how Baylor was managing. The violent thunderstorm had broken wide-open just as they’d left the main highway and started up the Salmon River road. Night was falling, accelerated by the black clouds overhead. Tension
bunched her muscles and frayed her nerves, but she trusted Baylor.

She watched him flip his headlights onto high beam and trained her eyes on the gravel road ahead.

Deluges were never welcome in the backcountry. They loosened rocks from the hillsides, sent mud-slides down through the steep narrow draws, and made the rivers and streams swell exponentially without warning.

“We’ll be lucky if the lights are on when we get home.” Baylor slowed down and steered around a jagged rock the size of a cooler, sitting in the middle of the road.

Nervousness held her body prisoner as they rounded a curve and drove through a swollen creek that had maxed out its culvert and pushed onto the roadway in its rush to reach the river below.

“Relax, sweetheart.” Baylor glanced over at her and her tension melted. “We’re almost home.”

She liked the sound of that. The Bellwether did feel like home to her for some reason. But she could call any place home as long as he was beside her.

Lightning hissed across the night sky, illuminating everything in its arc. Thunder roared, shaking the truck with its deafening vibration.

A chill skittered over her body as she saw the pines lining the road bend in the gale force winds that drove the rain in sheets.

The milepost marking thirteen miles loomed in
the glow of the headlights. A quarter of a mile to go before the turn into the Bellwether Ranch.

Baylor stayed focused on the road in front of him, feeling the steering wheel in his hands telegraphing the road conditions meeting the pickup’s tires. They were skating on mud that was as slick or slicker than ice and a lot less forgiving. Once it sucked you sideways it’d be hell pulling it back.

The bolt of lightning flashed white-hot in front of the truck, blinding him in the process. Sparks hissed and popped up where the strike burned into the tree, frying sap and moisture.

In an instant the ponderosa split and launched forward.

Instinctively, Baylor pulled the steering wheel to the right, dumping the pickup into the ditch and just missing the tree as it crashed down right next to them.

A limb slammed into the front windshield. It shattered.

Mariah screamed.

Baylor yanked the wheel hard to the left, popping them out of the ditch and back onto the road, but the truck couldn’t get any traction.

He let off the gas and rode the brake.

The pickup rocked back and forth as the brakes caught and held, but not soon enough.

In one last lurch forward, the nose of the truck dropped over the embankment, pointed down toward
the river. The only thing that prevented it from taking the plunge was the pine acting as a balance.

Mariah sat so still she could hear her heart pounding in her eardrums.

The wipers made a pass over the shattered windshield, clearing enough liquid that she could see the raging river below in the glare of the headlights.

It took everything she had not to jump from the pickup.

“You okay?” Baylor asked, his voice just above a whisper.

“Yeah.”

A low moan of stressed steel was followed by a jerk as the pickup inched forward, and stopped. The pine tree was still holding them, but not for long.

“We’ve got to get out. Unbuckle your seat belt.”

Reaching down, Mariah fiddled with her belt, mentally willing her hand to stop shaking. It popped open, and she reached for the door latch.

“We have to go out the back window. I’m not sure we’re even resting on the bank. The soil is loose. You could step out and it could give way.”

Baylor was right. She heard his seat belt open.

In her peripheral vision she saw him reach for the automatic window control panel, and heard the rear window glide down. Instantly the violence of the raging storm filled the pickup, lashing her hair and whipping it against her face.

He turned the key and the engine went silent. “I
want you to go first.” He glanced over at her. “Take your time. Move slow. Stay on the back bumper, and for God’s sake, jump if it starts to go.”

Mariah felt a wave of denial push through her. How could she leave him? How could she live with watching him go over the embankment and vanish in the black water below?

She couldn’t move. Terror locked her in place. Was this how Baylor felt the night he’d tried to save Amy? Helpless?

“Go, Mariah! Go now!”

She pulled her legs up and turned in the seat.

The truck creaked, rocking gently in time with her movements.

Rising up, she came to a crouching position and touched Baylor’s cheek with her hand.

He turned into her palm and kissed her. “Go. Please. We haven’t got much time.”

The burn of tears flamed behind her eyelids and her throat constricted. In that instant she knew she loved him, and that she could lose him in seconds.

Easing up, she put her left leg through the open rear window. Lowering it until she felt the bed of the truck beneath her foot.

In a smooth motion, she jockeyed the rest of her body out behind it, careful to keep her weight moving forward until she reached the back of the pickup bed and climbed out onto the bumper. “I made it. Now you go,” she yelled over the howl of the wind.

Silently she prayed that Baylor would make it out alive. That he’d beat the physics of the situation. She needed him. And then he was next to her, helping her down off the bumper. She felt her heart lift in her chest as she threw her arms around him.

“Come on, I’ve got to anchor the truck.”

“How?” She followed him to the opposite side of the road and watched him attempt to shove a large bolder with his foot. “This one will work.”

Reaching down, he rolled the rock up out of the ditch and together they pushed it until they reached the rear wheel of the pickup.

Baylor slid it in front of the passenger’s-side rear wheel and knocked it in tight. “That should hold it until morning.”

He took her hand and she sagged against him, content when he put his arm around her and turned her toward the ranch.

Leaning into the wind, they made the turn into the driveway and pushed for home.

Biting rain pelted her cheeks and racked her body with chills, but half an hour later, Baylor was pushing open the door to the house and locking the storm out.

He flipped the light switch in the entry. Nothing. “Stay here.”

While he went to get a light, Mariah peeled off her soaked clothes a layer at a time, until she stood shivering in her bra and panties, watching him move around the house lighting candles and the fireplace in the bedroom.

“That was my job,” he said from behind a flickering candle when he finally approached her.

Warmth spread through her, quieting the chills. He’d removed his jacket and shirt and stood bare-chested in front of her. Her body responded and desire ignited in her blood, drawing her to him like a magnet to steel.

Baylor set the candle down on the console table next to the front door and pulled her against him, feeling the burn of her skin against his.

It was familiar, but new. This time she was conscious and her skin was anything but cold. With his hand he grasped her chin and tipped her face up. Staring down into her eyes, he looked for the hesitation he’d seen there before, but it was gone. His heart hammered in his chest as he kissed her, his hunger growing with each passing second.

He broke the kiss and scooped her up into his arms. She settled against him as he carried her through the doorway of the bedroom and pushed the door shut with his bare foot.

The fire had warmed the room and set it aglow with firelight that softened and touched her skin. His desire raged out of control as he laid her down on the bed, watching her face as he shed his wet jeans and boxers, then climbed on the bed next to her.

Her cheeks flamed, a signal that she’d recognized the level of his need. He moved over the top of her, grasping one of her bra straps and pulling it down before kissing her shoulder, tasting her skin.

The other strap was next and he felt her pull back for an instant. He gentled his seduction and she relaxed, closing her eyes as he undid the front clasp of her bra and pulled it aside, exposing her breasts in the firelight.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, his mouth going dry.

A half choke, half moan came from between her parted lips and she opened her eyes, stared up at him.

“I want you.”

What was left of his doubt melted along with his heart, and he lowered his mouth to hers. “I want you back.” He kissed her, with slow, deliberate tenderness, working to control the desire that threatened to burn him up from the inside out. Making love to her was his only desire. Teaching her, pleasuring her.

Outside, the roar of the thunder matched the escalating crescendo in her body as Baylor ran his hand down her side and hooked his fingers inside the waistband of her panties, pulling them down over her hips, before he hooked his foot in them and dragged them down her legs and off.

He pulled the nipple of her left breast into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue until she thought she’d writhe out of her skin if he didn’t appease her growing frustration.

Reaching down, she brushed her fingers through his hair as he lined up kisses down her midriff, across
her belly button, and ending where no man had ever touched her before.

Ecstasy ignited a fire inside her and the rhythm of his tongue added emotional fuel to the heat. A gush of pleasure rocked her, releasing the tension that held every muscle in her body prisoner, and then he was there, pressing her against the soft sheets, his eyes dark and filled with longing as he stared down at her. She opened for him, causing him to moan as he brushed against her.

She was ready. Ready to love him, with her heart and her body.

M
ARIAH ROLLED ONTO
her side and thrust her good arm over the spot where Baylor should be, but wasn’t. Slowly she opened her eyes and caught sight of him standing next to the window, staring out into the darkness.

The firelight emanating from the hearth burned low and danced across his naked skin. She drank him in, from the muscular build of his shoulders tapering down to his narrow hips, and well-shaped thighs. Every cell in her body wanted him at the same time.

“Come back to bed,” she said softly.

He pulled the blinds and turned toward her, a sultry smile on his lips. Lips that had kissed her senseless for hours.

The gentle patter of rain on the roof was the only sound in the room. The rage of the storm had passed,
leaving peace in its wake, much the way their love-making had begun and ended.

Baylor pulled back the covers and slid in next to Mariah, gathering her in his arms. He wasn’t sure what had woken him, maybe the low-pitched howl he’d heard from somewhere on the ranch, or maybe just the fact that he shared his bed with her. No matter the reason, he was satisfied, but needy. Content, but hungry for more.

He closed his eyes, breathing in the sweet scent of her hair. He’d loved Amy, but not like this, not with the intensity that churned inside of him and drove his emotions further and faster than he’d ever thought possible.

Desire coursed through him as she turned in his arms and spread kisses against his throat. He hardened instantly and rolled her beneath him.

Dawn could wait.

M
ARIAH HELD THE
telephone receiver to her ear for the fourth time in two hours and finally heard a dial tone stream across the line. The smell of bacon and coffee excited her taste buds as she dialed her father to check in.

“Sheriff’s department.”

“Chief Ted Ellis. Please.”

“One moment.”

“Ellis here.”

The sound of her father’s gruff voice made her
smile and she longed to tell him her news. Well, most of it anyway. “Daddy.”

“’Bout time you gave your old man a call. Things have been hopping around here.”

Her interest was piqued. “The case?”

“Rachel Endicott came in yesterday afternoon with her lawyer in tow. I interviewed her, we charged her and arrested her this morning.”