The next morning Jinx pulled Royce aside. “Here’s your pay,” she said, handing him the money she’d brought along, already anticipating that Royce and Cash wouldn’t last more than a day or so. “I think it’s best if we part company now rather than later.”
“You have to be kidding me. Just because I fell asleep?” Royce said incredulously. “I suppose you’ve never done that while on watch?”
“No, I haven’t, and I’ve been doing this since I was six.”
He shook his head. “I guess we all can’t be as perfect as you, Ms. Trail Boss. By the way, how’d you get the nickname Jinx anyway?”
“It was just something my father called me, if you must know.”
“Oh, I thought it was because you brought bad luck to everyone around you,” Royce said, his eyes narrowing angrily. “Seems all those things T.D.’s been saying about you are true.”
She didn’t bother to comment as she turned. Over her shoulder, she said, “You’re welcome to have breakfast before you pack up and leave.”
“No, thanks,” he said to her back. “I’ve had enough. At least now I understand what your husband had to put up with.”
Jinx kept walking. It was hard not to take the bait. Royce had a lot in common with T.D. Both blamed other people for how their lives had turned out. They really seemed to think that if their luck changed, everything would come up roses. They preferred to blame luck rather than their lack of hard work.
As she was headed down the side of the mountain to where the chuckwagon sat, she saw Max and knew, even before she heard him carrying on, that something else had happened.
By the time she reached him, Angus and Brick had joined him. Angus was squatting on the ground in front of one of the wagon’s wheels.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as she moved closer.
“Someone sabotaged the wagon,” Brick told her.
“Don’t worry. Angus thinks he can fix it,” Max said, disbelief in his tone. “Then again, he thinks he can make eatable biscuits.”
She caught Angus’s amused grin. “I’m going to have to make my biscuits before this cattle drive is over just to show Max,” he said to Jinx.
“If you must,” she said, unable not to smile.
“My honor is at stake,” he said as they all stood around the wagon wheel in question.
“So you think you can fix the wheel?” she asked.
“A couple of spokes were pried loose,” Angus said. “Brick and I can knock them back into place. They should hold enough that we can get the wagon off the mountain. You can get it fixed once we get back to civilization, though.”
“Civilization? You do know this is Wyoming, right?” she joked, then sobered. “So this was done purposely?”
Angus nodded. “There’s something else you should know.” He hesitated as he saw Cash headed their way. “T.D. and his friends have caught up to us.”
“You think they did this?” she asked.
He shook his head. “It was someone in camp.”
She let out an angry breath. Turning, she saw Royce riding off. Did he do this?
Cash joined them. “What’s going on?”
JINX CONSIDERED CASH, wondering if she shouldn’t send him down the mountain with his pay, as well. But she figured Royce had done this after her encounter with him last night. “My ex-husband and a couple of his friends have followed us. It could be a problem.”
“Looks like it already is a problem,” Cash said, eyeing the wheel on the wagon.
“We aren’t sure who did that,” Angus said as Royce disappeared over a rise.
Cash followed his gaze. “So you paid off Royce?”
“I did,” Jinx said, half expecting Cash to quit and go with his buddy. “I’m saying it could get dangerous. I know you didn’t sign on for that.”
He nodded his head in agreement before shrugging. “I hate to ask what’s for breakfast,” he said, as if losing interest in the conversation.
“Ella caught more fish and I know there are biscuits,” Brick told him.
“That’ll do,” Cash said and started toward the fire Max had already laid that morning. “It’s just another day and a half, right?” he asked over his shoulder.
“Right,” she said to his retreating backside before looking at Angus. He shook his head as if to say it was her decision whether or not to keep him on.
The news about T.D. hadn’t come as a surprise. She’d known he couldn’t leave well enough alone. It gave her whiplash the way one moment he was begging for her to take him back and the next threatening to sue for half the ranch. More and more, she just wanted it over.
“Should have killed T.D. when I had the chance,” Max mumbled under his breath.
“And what would I do without you while you went to prison?” she demanded.
“Starve,” he said flatly.
“Exactly.” She coaxed a smile out of him as he dished up her breakfast and she went to sit near the campfire. Cash got up without a word to go stand in line for his breakfast. She told herself it was just another full day and night. They would reach summer pasture with the herd by noon tomorrow and then head off the mountain.
Not that it would be over for her, but at least she didn’t have to worry about her wranglers and Max up here in the mountains with T.D. and his friends. She felt anxious, though, knowing that he was so nearby. She would double the patrol tonight. Knowing T.D., he just might decide to strike once he was drunk enough.
“YOU’RE AWFULLY QUIET,” Angus said as he sat down next to his cousin after getting his breakfast plate. Everyone else had eaten while Angus and Brick had worked on the wagon wheel. They would be moving out soon.
“It hit me that this is probably the last time that we’ll do this together, the three of us,” Ella said.
“Why would you say that?” he asked, surprised.
She shot him a don’t-con-a-conman look. “Because it’s time. I’ve suspected you’ve known it for a while.” Her gaze left him to find Brick. “I’m worried how your brother is going to take it. But I’m sure he’ll fall in love, get married, have a passel of kids and be just fine.”
Angus shook his head. He couldn’t see it. Brick loved women. Loved the chase. But once he caught one, he was already looking for his next challenge. He studied his cousin for a moment. It would take a very special woman for him to ever settle down.
“What about you?” he asked. Ella looked surprised. “There a cowboy out there for you?”
“A cowboy?” She chuckled. “I’m thinking more like a banker or a stockbroker, someone who wears a three-piece suit to work. What are you smiling about?”
“You. I know you, cuz.”
“Maybe I’m tired of cowboys and want something different.”
“Maybe a man who drives a car that has to be plugged in.”
“Nothing wrong with saving the planet.”
Angus scoffed. “Seriously, what would you do with a man who didn’t know how to drive a stick shift or back up a trailer or ride a horse?”
“Anything I wanted,” she said with a laugh.
He shook his head. “Well, I hope you find him, but it’s not going to be on this mountain.”
“I know.” She met his gaze. “So you’re saying it’s time we grew up and settled down. I guess this is the last time for the three of us to be wrangling together.”
“It makes me sad to think about it,” Angus said and took a bite of his breakfast. He didn’t have much of an appetite after seeing what someone had done to the chuckwagon wheel. Talking about this wasn’t helping. “We’ve had some good times. I wouldn’t take anything for the years we’ve been on the road.”
Ella nodded. “What will you do?”
“Go home. The ranch needs some young blood.” He studied her out of the corner of his eye as he ate. “I know your mother wishes you would stay on the ranch. You know there is a place for you in the business.”
“I know. I don’t know what I’ll do. But I’m not worried. It will come to me.”
He shook his head. “You amaze me. You have so much faith in how things will work out. Don’t you ever worry?”
“Of course I worry. But I do think a lot of it is out of my hands.”
“Stacy will be disappointed if you don’t stay on the ranch.”
Ella smiled. “My mother can handle disappointment. She’s had plenty of it in her life. Anyway, she’s told me repeatedly that she just wants me to be happy.”
He laughed. “My mother told me the same thing.”
“You don’t think she means it?”
“She does. And she doesn’t.” He shook his head. “Dana has her heart set on me coming back to the place. Fortunately, I’m a born rancher. It’s what I want to do, always have.”
“You’re thinking of Brick.”
Angus nodded. “He doesn’t want to ranch. But he doesn’t know what he wants.”
“I predict that one day he’ll meet a woman and everything will be clear to him. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy.”
“You see that in the campfire flames?” he joked.
“Pretty much.” She met his gaze, smiling. “Same thing is going to happen to you. If it hasn’t already.”
Angus finished his breakfast and rose, laughing. “I trust your instincts, cuz, but a woman isn’t always the answer and from what I’ve seen, love is never easy.”
Ella merely nodded. But as he walked away, he heard her say, “We’ll see.”
THROUGH THE MORNING mist hanging in the pines, T.D. saw Royce coming and picked up his rifle where he’d leaned it against a tree. He ratcheted live ammo into the chamber as the man rode toward him. “That’s far enough,” he said, raising the weapon.
“Take it easy,” Royce said and reined in to lift his hands in surrender.
“What do you want?”
“I just got fired by your wife. What do you think I want? A kind word, a soft bed, a decent meal?” he said sarcastically. “I want to get even with her. Then I want the other stuff along with a stiff drink or two. I heard you were offering a...reward of sorts for anyone who...didn’t help your wife.” Royce chuckled. “I’ve done my part.”
“By hiring on to help her get her cattle to summer range?” T.D. demanded.
“Maybe I made it more difficult for her. They’re probably trying to figure out how to fix one of the wagon wheels right now.”
T.D. smiled. “Why don’t you swing down out of that saddle and we can talk about it? I do have a little whiskey.”
“I just thought you might,” Royce said as he dismounted and tied his horse to the closest tree limb.
Resting his rifle against the tree again, T.D. dug in their supplies for another pint of whiskey. “Have a sip and then tell me what’s going on in the other camp.”
Royce took the bottle, unscrewed the lid and gulped.
T.D. snatched it from him. “I said a sip.” He wiped the top off with his hand and took a drink.
“Where are the others?” Royce asked, looking around.
“Doing some surveillance work. How many men does Jinx have?”
The cowboy pulled up a log next to the fire. “Four at the moment, not counting the old cook and the woman she hired on.”
“I thought I saw a cowgirl by the bunkhouse the other night.” He laughed. “She’s that hard up, is she, that she had to hire a woman?”
“The woman’s good. Definitely wouldn’t underestimate her,” Royce said.
“That’s it?”
“Cash Andrews is up there. At least for the moment. She’s only got another day and a half and she’ll have the cattle to the high country. Cash will do what he can to make it harder for her.” Royce smiled. “He was going to let the horses out but that...cowgirl, as you called her, caught him.”
T.D. shook his head. “Sometimes it feels as if women will take over the world unless we do something about it.”
“I’d take another drink. The trail boss didn’t allow liquor.”
He laughed, knowing all about Jinx’s rules. He’d played hell living by them. He handed the whiskey bottle to the man, ready to grab it back.
But this time Royce took a drink and passed it over to him again. “She’s already been having some bad luck,” he said, grinning as if he knew this was music to T.D.’s ears. “A black bear got into the food. Seems someone left the metal box with the meat and eggs in it open. This morning the chuckwagon wheel had been worked over. Thought you might like to hear that.”
“Poor Jinx.” He eyed the cowboy. “If you’re not in a hurry to get back down to the valley, maybe you’d like to hire on with me.”
“You’re offering me a job?”
“I’m going to be running the Flying J Bar MC soon,” T.D. boasted. “But this job is more about getting even. The wages aren’t good, but the satisfaction is guaranteed.”