As Brick hurried back up the mountainside, Angus returned to his spot. Jinx could tell he hadn’t wanted to leave her. The night felt colder not being in his arms. She tried to concentrate on what had to be done, rather than the wrangler.
With luck, this would work. Even if T.D. stampeded the cattle into their camp, the only thing that would be destroyed was Max’s beloved chuckwagon. A chuckwagon could be replaced. Max, in the meantime, would be safe away from camp, Ella had assured her.
She knew they were as ready as possible and still she couldn’t help being scared. With a man like T. D. Sharp... Had he followed her up here just to torment her? To keep her from getting her herd to summer range? Or was his motive even more treacherous? She remembered the look in his eyes the other night at the ranch and knew at that moment, he’d wished her dead.
Jinx swallowed the lump in her throat, telling herself the man didn’t scare her even as she knew it wasn’t true. There was something about him, a feeling that he’d stepped over some invisible barrier and now he felt he had nothing to lose. If he ever got her alone again...
She shivered and pushed the thought away. His attack on them tonight would get him sent to jail. At least temporarily. With luck, she could get a loan against the ranch until she had it sold. Dangling that kind of money in front of T.D., she thought she could get him to sign the divorce papers. She wanted this over.
Right now the thought of losing the ranch didn’t seem so overpowering. Standing here in the dark, trying to gauge what T.D. would do next, she had a whole different set of priorities. She wanted to live. Angus had made her realize there were more important things than a piece of land or a herd of cattle. There could be a life after T.D., after losing her mother and father, after even losing the ranch.
Not that she was ready for that life. Not that Angus might even be in it. But he’d made her see that her mistake in marrying T.D. wasn’t the end of the world. It was only the end of this life. She could put this all behind her without knowing what the future held for her—just that she had one.
If she lived past tonight.
Waiting in the dark, the night getting colder, she regretted her own stubbornness. She should have sold her cattle, taken a loss and put the ranch up for sale. She’d put not just her life in jeopardy. Now Angus, Brick and Ella along with Max were in danger because she was so damned determined to get the herd to summer range.
As much as she hated to admit it, she’d done it not just out of stubbornness. She’d wanted to show T.D. that he wasn’t going to run her life, let alone ruin it. Her stubborn pride could get them all killed. She couldn’t bear the thought. Angus, Brick and Ella had answered her ad because Dana and Jinx’s mother had been close. They should never have had to come all this way. None of them should be on this mountainside right now knowing there was a madman out there in the pines set on vengeance.
Another horse whinnied from deep in the pines above her on the mountain. She heard a branch snap under a horse’s hoof. They were moving more slowly than she’d expected. Did they expect a trap?
She pulled the weapon at her hip, hoping she wouldn’t have to use it. The plan had been to cause enough confusion to drive them back—if not subdue any who fell into their traps. By cutting down their numbers, it would make T.D. think twice. At least that was the hope. She knew he was basically a coward. He needed his two close friends to bolster his courage—that and alcohol.
Unfortunately, he had them and two more men who would follow his orders if he offered them the right incentives.
The sound of the riders grew closer. She could hear the creak of saddle leather, the brush of tree boughs and whisper of high grass against the horses’ legs as their riders kept coming.
Jinx found herself holding her breath. She knew how quickly everything could go south. Behind her, the cattle lowed softly. If she was right, the approaching riders would begin firing their weapons and yelling as they tried to stampede the herd back toward the camp.
And if she was wrong?
ANGUS FELT THE hair rise on the back of his neck as he realized the riders had spread out and at least one would soon be almost on top of him. Even in the pitch blackness of the spring night, he waited for the shapes to materialize out of the dark.
The trick, he knew, was to stay calm until it was time to attack. The booby traps were spring-loaded. All a horse had to do was trip the rope hidden in the tall green grass and all hell would break loose. Jinx could handle this, he told himself. At the same time he was reminded that all of this was about her.
T.D. had ridden all the way up here with his friends to cause her trouble. He wanted to torment her. To make her pay for not taking him back. To hurt her.
And that was what scared Angus the most. If T.D. got his hands on her, how far would the man go?
He couldn’t see her through the trees, but he knew she was still there. He hadn’t wanted to leave her alone, still didn’t.
A swishing sound off to his left on the mountainside was followed by a cry of pain. He could hear what sounded like a struggle, then silence. He listened hard for the all-clear signal and finally heard his brother whistle a meadowlark’s call.
He tried to relax. Brick had one of them down. Four to go.
The riders seemed to be quickening their pace through the pines. One of his log swings snapped in the darkness. He heard an oouft sound followed by a loud thump as a body hit the ground. An instant later, a horse ran past him—sans its rider.
Angus sprang into action, moving quickly toward where he’d heard the man fall. As he neared, he heard mewing sounds. Gun drawn, he pounced on the man only to have him cry out in pain.
“My arm,” the man cried. “It’s broken.” His eyes widened as he saw the gun in Angus’s hand. “Don’t kill me. None of this was my idea.” The man began to cry.
Angus saw that there was no way to tie the man’s hands, so he took the man’s weapon and tied his ankles together along with the wrist of his good arm.
“You have to get me a doctor,” the man pleaded. “I don’t want to die out here.”
He hurriedly put his hand over the man’s mouth. “Where’s T.D.?” he asked the man quietly and released his grip on the man’s mouth long enough to let him answer.
“I don’t know. I thought he was with us, but I haven’t seen him since we left camp.”
He quickly gagged the man, fearing it was too late. The others could have heard him. But none of them had come to his aid. At least not yet.
In the distance he heard another of the booby traps snap off to his left. Brick had another one down, followed by the meadowlark whistle. As another booby trap went off, he waited but heard nothing. That one must have missed. Or maybe the man had wised up and gotten off his horse.
To Angus’s count, they had three down. That left two men. Did Brick have T.D.? If not, was he one of the two left? He hoped they’d heard what was going on and had headed back. He listened, hearing nothing but the pounding of his own heart.
That was until he heard an earsplitting racket coming from camp and then dead silence.
THE FIRST SIGNS of daylight cast an eerie dark gray shadow over the mountainside. From her perch in one of the large old pines, Ella saw that a riderless horse had set off her alarm in the camp. She watched the horse head for the corral where their horses whinnied and moved around restlessly.
So where was the rider? She felt anxious, worried about what was happening in the forest beyond the camp. But she wasn’t about to leave Max. She’d promised Jinx she would make sure he was safe.
He sat with his back against the rock rim, his shotgun resting in his lap. She watched from her tree perch. The clouds had parted some. The sky to the east lightened in the area around her, and she wondered how long before dawn. Her eyes felt dry and scratchy from staring into the darkness of the pines.
She listened but heard nothing but the cattle lowing in the meadow higher up the mountain. Closer, she heard the steady beat of her heart as she waited and prayed that the others were all right. And yet as she waited, she feared something had gone wrong. She kept thinking about the horse that had set off her alarm—and its empty saddle. Where was the man who’d been riding it?
JINX TENSED AS she heard the noise coming from camp, but before she could react, she heard a rider bearing down on her. She had her gun ready, hoping she didn’t have to use it. A riderless horse burst out of the darkness and ran past her.
She let out the breath she’d been holding and tried to relax. The horse had come from the direction of the camp. She told herself that Ella would take care of whoever had set off the alarm back there—just as she would make sure Max was safe. If she was able.
Listening, Jinx heard nothing. The quiet was more unnerving than the racket had been. She had no idea how many of the men were down. Or if any of them had turned back. All she knew was that unless they had T.D., he was still on this mountain somewhere. Maybe even closer by than she knew. That thought sent a shudder through her. She feared how badly things could go on this mountainside.
The sound of the gunshot made her jump. It had come from higher up on the mountain. Brick. Her heart dropped. She knew Angus would go to him. She could hear movement through the pines off to her right. It was still pitch black in the pines, but the sky was lightening in the distance. Soon the sun would rise. Soon she would be able to see who was coming at her.
A closer sound made her freeze. She sensed T.D. even before she heard the swish of his boots through the tall grass behind her, followed by the smell of the alcohol on his breath as she swung around, leading with the pistol in her hand.
T.D. was on her so quickly she didn’t have time to even pull the trigger. He covered her mouth with his gloved hand before she could scream as he ripped the pistol from her grip. Tossing the weapon away into the darkness, he put his face against the side of hers and whispered, “Hello, wife. Don’t you wish you’d just paid me off when I asked nicely?”