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Zack Baker groaned along with his 1983 Mitsubishi Mighty Max truck as the dirt road took another stab at swallowing him whole. The chances of the old girl making it out of here in one piece were looking slimmer by the second.
Everything was looking slimmer by the second, especially after that last guy had fired a shotgun at Zack’s feet.
He glanced at the map again. The L/C Ranch was supposed to be a short two miles off highway 212, but Google hadn’t said anything about those two miles being ruts instead of asphalt. How was the truck going to get him out of here?
What a mess. He couldn’t even call it a fine mess, because it wasn’t. The L/C Ranch—and one Ms. Samantha Kenady, owner and operator—was his best option for getting permission to set up his field study. Actually, it was his only remaining option. Hopefully a woman would be more appreciative of his plight, more understanding of the predicament of swift foxes and kit foxes. The foxes were no bigger than housecats, so they weren’t threatening. Mostly they were cute and furry and entirely loveable looking, as long as they didn’t have a dead animal hanging out of their mouths. Women loved cute and furry, right?
Finally, after an agonizing twenty minutes, the road smoothed out as he crossed under a huge iron gate that said, “L/C” in letters a foot high. Behind it, an old-fashioned white house sat tucked behind a stand of pines.
Nice place, he thought as the truck sputtered to a stop. Didn’t look like anyone was home, though. He’d wait if he had to. He had all the time in the freaking world.
He patted the old girl’s dash in gratitude before he grabbed his messenger’s bag containing the last copy of his research proposal, printed off on good paper. If this didn’t work...
No, he decided. This was going to work. It had to.
He got out of the truck and turned toward the house. And jumped.
Standing on a wrap-around porch was an old lady with a huge dog at her feet. He was sure she hadn’t been there a minute ago, but she looked like she’d been standing in that very spot for about a hundred years. He hadn’t even heard a door shut, but there she was, just staring at him as he tried to get his heart rate back within the stratosphere.
Zack prided himself on his observation skills. It’s what made him a good researcher. How had she snuck up on him?
“Help you?” At the sound of her voice, the dog—no, wait, was that a wolf?—raised its head and began to growl.
Zack didn’t move. As long as the wolf-dog is lying down, he thought, it won’t rip my throat out. I hope. “Good afternoon. Samantha Kenady?”
The old woman smiled in great amusement. “Heavens, no. What do you want with Samantha?” The way she said the name, like it was a foreign word she was pronouncing for the first time, struck Zack as odd.
The first time someone had asked him a similar question, he’d truthfully stated his purpose with high hopes, only to be shooed off the property. “I’d rather discuss it with Ms. Kenady.”
The old woman let out a ringing cackle. “Would you, now? Well, I’ll pass that along.” She turned to go back into the house. A white braid swung behind her, and she walked differently than other people, like her heels didn’t touch the ground. “You can wait back by the barn, mister...”
“Baker. Zack Baker.”
He didn’t get a reply, but at least the wolf-dog went with her.
Okay. This was fine. He was still on the property and no one had pulled a weapon on him. Compared to his last eight attempts, this was going swimmingly.
Zack walked around the side of the house. The whole thing was bigger than he’d first thought. It almost looked like someone had stuck on a second house at some point. The barn wasn’t too far back, and even at this distance he could smell the hay. Several Jeeps and a dual-wheeled truck parked along one side of the barn, and on the other, horses draped their long necks over the gates to look at him. One of the horses whinnied at him.
Zack looked around. No one was watching—he didn’t see the old woman’s face in any of the windows. Of all the ranches he’d been on recently, he hadn’t seen a single horse up close and personal. He hadn’t petted a horse since that summer he’d been thirteen.
His fingers itched. He shouldn’t. Ms. Kenady might not appreciate a stranger messing around with her animals.
Horses weren’t exactly cute and furry, but they were beautiful. The one looking at him had huge red and white spots all over, with a dark red mane and tail. The horse bobbed his head at Zack—an invitation. He glanced over his shoulder. No one. Just one quick scratch behind the ears. He headed over to the fence.
The horse sniffed his outstretched hand, shook his head, and made a soft nickering sound.
“Hey there, fellow,” Zack said, stroking the horse’s nose. He wished he knew a little more about horses, at least enough to know what kind of horse this was. The scientist part of his brain began to catalog the features.
Eyes had a huge range of visibility and could see nearly one hundred and eighty degrees. Ears swiveled in all directions, taking in different noises. Perhaps the ears indicated what the eyes were focusing on?
“What’s your name, huh?” Both ears pivoted to Zack. He had the horse’s undivided attention.
The horse blew snot on his hand.
“Aw—” Before Zack could finish his complaint, though, a new sound reached him. The horse’s ears shot forward, then he bobbed his head in agitation. Even a city slicker like Zack knew what that noise was—hoof beats, coming in fast.
Zack backed away from the horse, which put him in front of the barn door. And right in front of the oncoming horse.
Oh, no. The horse was not only coming in fast, but actually seemed to be picking up speed. On its back was a cowboy who looked like he was riding right out of the old West to trample Zack into the dirt. A light hat was pulled low over the cowboy’s eyes and a white bandanna was pulled up over his nose. He looked like he’d just robbed a stagecoach.
Zack tried to run, but his feet were not responding to his commands right now. His heart pounding, he couldn’t do a single thing but stand there. He was going to be trampled to death. He braced for the impact. What a way to go.
But instead of the horse and rider running him down, the horse slowed up at the same moment the cowboy dismounted. In the blink of his eyes, the pair went from hell-for-leather running to a quick walk, side by side. Fringe from the chaps blew around from the sudden change in direction.
Hands down, it was the coolest thing Zack had ever seen. A real cowboy. Who was kind enough not to grind him into the dirt. Zack would love to see what this guy could do with a lasso.
“Help you?” The guy’s voice was muffled by the bandanna as he led the horse past Zack. Sunglasses hid what part of his face wasn’t covered by cloth or hat, which gave him an Invisible-Man quality. Those arms were real, though. Zack was no slouch. He was doing pretty well—for a zoologist, anyway. However, if this guy decided to make things physical like that one rancher had, Zack couldn’t say who’d be the last one standing.
All Zack could really see of the guy was dark brown hair that came right to his shirt collar and a brown leather vest. The cowboy dropped the reins and the horse stood still. The cowboy began unbuckling the saddle
Wow. Not even the horses at that summer camp had been trained to do that. Fighting a prepubescent sense of awe, Zack pulled his proposal out of his bag. “I’m looking for Samantha Kenady.”
At the name, the guy froze. “What for?”
“I’d rather discuss it with her.”
The guy half-looked over his shoulder at Zack. His gloved hand moved. That’s when Zack noticed the rifle slung in a holster tied to the saddle. Without a word, the cowboy undid the snap that held the rifle in place.
So he wasn’t going to be trampled to death. There were other ways to die. Zack began to talk—fast. “I’m not looking for trouble. My name is Zack Baker and I’m a graduate student at the University of South Dakota.”
The cowboy’s hand dropped away from the rifle. “And?”
Good. Good sign. “And I’m a zoologist. I study lupus canines. Foxes. Swift foxes and kit foxes.”
The cowboy’s head dropped and he put his hands on his hips. He looked like he was hanging onto the last of his patience. And he also looked like he had hips. “Mr. Baker, what do you want?”
“I need to do some field research to complete my dissertation. I want permission to set up camp on the property so that I can observe the foxes in the wild. I’m trying to conclusively prove that the swift and kit foxes are the same species, based not only on genetic make-up but on innate behaviors.”
The other man pulled his bandanna down. Not that it helped Zack. He still couldn’t see anything. “What for?”
His voice sounded...different. “The swift fox is a threatened animal in the state of South Dakota—”
“No.”
The word seemed to strike out of thin air, like a flash of heat lightning. “But you didn’t even—”
“No.”
“If I could just talk to Samantha—”
“No.”
“Please!”
The cowboy turned and looked down at Zack’s arm. He realized too late that he had grabbed a hold of the man.
Before he had time to react, the cowboy pulled off his sunglasses and looked him in the eyes.
Oh, no. No, no, no. Because Zack wasn’t staring into the furious eyes of a cowboy who could skin him alive. Oh, no. That would be getting off easy.
Not a cowboy. A cowgirl.
Hazel eyes, gold-rimmed around a flecked green, blinked at him. “Take your hand off me,” she said, her voice low and clear. Which should have been a threat, plain and simple. But he thought, underneath the threat, there was something else. Something slightly less than deadly.
He did the only two things he could. He let go of her at the same time he smiled. The good smile. The smile that had gotten him through more than a few sticky spots in the past. This was, hands down, the stickiest spot he’d ever been in.
For a split second, he thought the smile was going to work. A flush of soft pink spread over her face, highlighting a smattering of freckles. She had a bump on the bridge of her nose and a faint scar along one cheek. She’d been in a rough fight, maybe more than one. He had no doubt a woman like this could hold her own. The funny thing was, the hard-won scars somehow only made her look even softer. “Please,” he said again, keeping his voice low and non-threatening—he hoped.
Just then, more hoof beats reached his ears. At that, the cowgirl’s entire face shut down into a mask of contempt. Dead—he was so dead.
He spun around to see three more cowboys tearing down the hill. They came to a halt at the same time the old woman came out from the house. Somehow he didn’t think more witnesses were a good thing.
“Sam, this fellow giving you trouble?” The lead cowboy pulled down a black bandanna to reveal—a woman’s mouth. On top of what was clearly a woman’s body. No vest could conceal that chest.
Sam?
So many other ways to die. He’d be lucky if the embarrassment did him in before anyone else could get to him. He spun around in confusion.
Sam. Samantha. One and the same.
So much for being observant. Maybe it was for the best he wasn’t going to get to do his research, because he’d clearly lost the ability to observe the most basic identifying features. Sam was a woman.
“Wooohee!” The other cowgirl—definitely a cowgirl—whooped. “Look at the city boy! Ain’t seen a real man around here in ages!”
The fourth cowgirl added, “Ain’t seen a man in ages.” This was followed by a whistle. A long one.
Zack was afraid to see who was complimenting him. He was afraid if he took his eyes off Samantha Kenady, there was a decent chance she’d gun him down where he stood. He was pretty sure he had that coming.
“Heaven. Lindy,” Ms. Kenady said, her voice a clear warning. Her eyes didn’t move from Zack’s face. She was going to kill him by looks alone.
How badly had he screwed this up? His last, best chance at proving his thesis, gone because he couldn’t tell a man from a woman.
That vest—that’s why he hadn’t noticed the curves before, but now he could see they were there, just under the surface. Her jaw was strong, but her face was heart-shaped. Her mouth had a movie-star style bow to it. The toughest cowboy he’d ever seen was flat-out beautiful. No getting around those arms, though. Yup. Samantha Kenady could probably clean his clock with one blow. And he’d grabbed her? Damn.
“You okay?” The first cowgirl dismounted and gave him a menacing once-over.
“Yup. Mr. Baker was just leaving.”
“Please,” he repeated, keeping his voice low in some vain attempt to hide his panic. “I have to do this research.”
The woman—so a woman—bristled. His eyes cut back to the rifle. Did the others have guns, too? “I know how this goes. You environmental types come in here, set up ‘camp,’ and then decide that whatever critter you’re studying is ‘endangered,’ ‘threatened’ by the cattle, by all of us. You sue with the EPA, try to shut me down, try to kick us all off our rightful property, all because of some minnow or lizard or fox or whatever.”
“That’s not what I intend—”
She cut him off. “Well,” she said, stripping off one of her gloves and smacking it on the palm of the other, “I’ll have none of it. You just be on your way now. Andy, make sure Mr. Baker gets to his vehicle.”
“Awww! Why does she always get to do the fun stuff?”
Sam’s eyes cut to the cowgirl. “Come on.” Her voice left no room for argument. Heaven blew him a kiss as she rode into the barn. The other cowgirl followed. She didn’t bother to give Zack much of a look, which seemed to make things worse. Samantha Kenady gave him a quick once-over before she turned and followed. With a short whistle, her horse trailed after her.
“Mr. Baker. Your car?”
So screwed.
Zack turned to see Andy, who was as tall as he was and probably had thirty pounds on him. Aside from a decidedly feminine chest, she looked very much like a cowboy—short hair, muscled forearms, sharp face. “If I could just—”
With a smile that was more playful than menacing, Andy made a sweeping gesture toward his truck. “Boss’s orders. Thanks for stopping by.”
She made it sound like this was a social call, not all his years of hard work being shot to hell. He supposed he should be thankful it was only the years instead of his actual body.
He looked to where he’d last seen the old woman, but she wasn’t there anymore. Just the wolf-dog, who was growling again.
He hustled to the truck and slammed the door shut, just in case.
Now what was he going to do?