Chapter Eleven
Reed lay awake with Mona cradled in his arms for at least an hour after they collapsed on the pile of their clothing. She’d fallen asleep, exhausted from the chase and their lovemaking.
His hand found its way to the swell of her belly, gently stroking the soft skin. A tiny heel or elbow jabbed against his hand and he smiled in the darkness.
Was it a boy? Who would teach him how to play football, dribble a basketball or ride a horse? Who would instruct him in the merits of hard work and honesty? Who would teach him how to love and cherish a woman? A woman like Mona.
Reed’s hand rose to her hair, pushing it back from her face. He cupped her cheek, reveling at the silken smoothness of her skin.
Based on her response to his questions the night before, he’d guessed the father of this baby was none other than Sheriff Parker Lee. Why else would Mona be so angry with the man and determined to keep the secret from all the local law enforcement?
No matter who the father was, the child was Mona’s and she’d do anything to protect it. But would that be enough? Parker Lee had a ruthless streak. From the five months Reed had known him, he’d seen him use information to bring others down or hurt their careers. If Lee found out he was the father, would he try to take the child away from Mona?
Reed hugged Mona closer. She was a strong and determined woman, but would she be strong enough to hold up under the kind of pressure Parker Lee could exert?
He must have dozed. When he woke, he found himself lying across the ground naked, his clothing the only cushion between him and the hard stone.
The cool night air made him sit up and take stock. The woman who’d fallen asleep in his arms after thoroughly satisfying lovemaking was gone.
His pulse leaped and he scrambled to his feet, grabbing for his jeans. “Mona?”
“I’m here.” Her voice sounded from the entrance to the cave. A faint glow illuminated her silhouette. “The storm is over and the sun will rise soon.”
From the sound of her voice, that wasn’t all that was over. Was she already regretting what they’d done?
Reed had mixed feelings. On the one hand, he’d thought to solve Mona’s problems and disappear, refusing to become a permanent fixture in the Texas panhandle ever again. But riding beside her and running a ranch reminded him that he’d missed it. The hard work, constant upkeep and getting your hands dirty made a man remember why he was strong.
He dressed and joined Mona at the cave’s entrance.
She stood with her back to him, staring out at the canyon. “I don’t see any signs of our four-wheelin’ friends. Suppose they’ve gone?”
“I’d bet they’re long gone. Let’s go see if they made off with the cattle.” Reed gripped Mona’s hand and led the way down the narrow path. Moonlight guided their efforts with the pale promise of morning easing upward in the east. All storm clouds had cleared.
Mona tried to pull her hand loose, but Reed refused to let go, insisting on helping her over the boulders and loose gravel. When they reached the canyon floor, they moved along the base of the cliff, careful to stay out of plain sight in case the rustlers were hiding amongst the boulders.
When they reached the area where the corralled cattle had been, nothing but a churned-up muddy quagmire remained. Tire tracks from what looked like an eighteen-wheeler left deep ruts in the ground, deeper than normal, as though the rig had bogged down, possibly having gotten stuck.
The more Reed walked around the churned-up area, the more mud caked his boots, weighing him down. He glanced across at Mona as she struggled to take one step at a time.
“I don’t see the cattle, but I can’t imagine getting out of here with a fully loaded truck. Maybe there’s hope?” She gave him half a smile. “Come on, we need to get back to the ranch house and it’s a good five miles from here.” Not much on horseback, but a long walk on foot.
As Reed crossed over the cut fence, he noticed a distant rider on horseback, leading another horse and headed their way. He moved in front of Mona in case the rider wasn’t friendly. The closer the lone horseman came, the tenser Reed became until he could make out the man’s features.
“It’s Fernando. Thank God.” Mona moved around Reed and closed the distance between her and the ranch foreman. “Fernando, I’m so glad you’re here. Everything all right at the hospital?”
“Catalina is anxious to get home. The doctor will release her later today. I just couldn’t stay not knowing what was going on at the Rancho Linda.”
Mona shook here head. “I’m glad you came.” She filled him in on the missing herd. Then she glanced at him, concern pulling her brows together. “Jesse wasn’t at the ranch when you got in?”
“No, senorita .” Fernando shook his head. “But all three horses were at the barn, still saddled.”
Reed assisted Mona up into the saddle of the spare horse. “Come on. We have to find him.” His gut told him to hurry.
Mona moved her foot out of the stirrup for Reed to place his booted foot in. He swung up behind Mona and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Let’s go.”
Nudging her horse into a gallop, Mona headed for the central pasture where they’d sent Jesse the night before to check on the cattle there. If he’d been hurt and lay on the ground, they could spend hours locating him. Tufts of prairie grass sprang up everywhere. He could be down in a gully, having been thrown by his horse after a particularly loud clash of thunder.
For the moment, Reed held on to hope and Mona. She smelled of rain and citrus. Despite spending the night in a cave and being drenched and muddy, she still made him hot. Her beauty went beyond the exterior package. She cared about her home and her people, wearing her heart for all to see. Unashamed and brave.
His arms tightened high around her waist, between the baby bump and her breasts. She loved with a fierceness Reed had not witnessed and she’d love her baby as deeply.
He fought the strange stab of envy stirring in his gut. How would it feel to be loved with such conviction?
Thoughts of love and the baby fled his mind when the sound of a dog’s howling reached his ears over the pounding of the horse’s hooves. “Stop!” he yelled into Mona’s ear.
She pulled back so hard, the horse reared.
Reed knew holding too tightly to Mona wasn’t an option, so he let go and slid down the horse’s rump to land on his bottom on the damp earth already steaming in the morning sun.
Trailing Mona, Fernando almost ran over Reed, his horse’s hooves narrowly missing Reed’s hands.
Mona fought to calm the horse, pulling it in a circle until it came to a standstill. Then she turned to Reed. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” He picked himself up off the ground and brushed the mud from his jeans. “I thought I heard a dog—”
Another howl rose in the air from somewhere in the vicinity of a dip in the landscape two hundred yards ahead.
Mona stared at Fernando. “Chewy?”
He nodded and they kicked their mounts at the same time, sending them loping toward the sound and leaving Reed to make the trek on foot.
The two riders disappeared into a gully.
Reed increased his pace until he was running, his heart thundering against his chest. What if one of the rustlers had set a trap? What if the howling dog wasn’t Chewy but a rabid coyote?
When he reached the banks of the gully, his lungs were bursting inside his chest.
Mona crouched in the dirt beside a still form, her ear pressed against it. The black-and-white border collie nudged the lump of rags and raised his snout to the sky, sending up a sad and lonely howl.
“Is it Jesse?” Reed asked as he scrambled down the banks into the muddy gulch.
“Sí.” Fernando held his hat in his hands, his brown eyes sad.
“Is he alive?” Reed dropped to his knees and reached for the man’s throat to feel for a pulse.
“I think so. I can hear his heartbeat and he’s breathing. Barely. We have to get him to a hospital.” Mona stared at his shredded clothing and the scrapes on his face and hands. “What could have happened to cause all that?”
Reed stood, the muscle in his jaw twitching. He nodded toward the rope burns around Jesse’s wrists. “He was dragged across the prairie. Probably by the four-wheelers that chased us.”
Mona’s face paled and she staggered to her feet. “Damn it!”
Jesse stirred, his eyelids fluttering open. Through cracked lips he croaked out, “Chewy bit one of them on the hand. Pretty bad.”
* * *
M ONA COULD BARELY control the anger burbling up inside her. She’d stayed with Jesse while Fernando rode back to the ranch and called for an Air Life helicopter to lift Jesse to the hospital in Amarillo.
It was one thing to target her ranch and the cattle. But after Catalina and Jesse had been hurt, she was madder than hell and determined to put a stop to all the bloodshed.
A careful search yielded some of the stolen cattle, scattered across her uncle’s ranch. Apparently the storm and the mud scared the rustlers into aborting their mission. She’d deal with the loose cattle when she could. Fernando made the call to her uncle to buy time until they could get out there and bring them back over the fence line.
The thought of mending more fences made her want to drop into a chair and cry. The lightning strike that knocked out the electricity had also fried her computer. They hadn’t been able to log on to the tracking Web site to check the cattle locations.
Mona groaned. Would the work ever lessen? Would the problems ever go away? Hell, no. But some problems seemed too big for her to handle.
She paced the wooden floor of her father’s study, unsure of her next move, but determined not to fail. She’d called the state police, but they’d referred her to local law enforcement. Did someone she cared about have to die before they did anything?
Reed leaned against the door frame, his brows raised. “You should sit and give that baby some rest.”
“We have to stop this, Reed. I just don’t know how.” She paced across the floor and back to stand in front of him. “Do I have to sell my ranch to keep others from getting hurt?”
“You’re not selling your ranch. We need to find someone who’s been bitten recently by a dog and follow his boss back to the source of all this trouble.”
Mona snorted. “Yeah, like whoever it was will just show off his dog bite to us and the police.” She wrapped her arms around her belly and stared up at the ceiling. “We could start by calling all the local hospitals and emergency clinics to see if someone came in with a dog bite.”
Reed shook his head. “Only if he wants to be caught. More likely, he’ll tend to his wound himself. This area isn’t that populated, but a man could easily hide in the hundreds of empty acres spread out across the panhandle.”
“This can’t go on. That man at the granary was killed, probably for what he knew. Jesse was left for dead. Who else will die before we catch the rustlers?” Mona paced the room again, the color high in her cheekbones, her brown eyes flashing. “What about the four-wheelers?”
“What about them?” Reed pushed a hand through his hair. “Most ranchers have them.”
“The eighteen-wheeler. Surely you can’t hide a truck that big.” Mona’s gaze narrowed. “And what happened to the rider that fell back down the ravine? Don’t you think his bike got wrecked? Maybe he was injured.”
“Apparently the four-wheeler wasn’t damaged enough to keep him from getting it out of the canyon. As for the tractor-trailer rig, there are plenty of truck stops in the area with cattle trailers. This area is the beef capital of Texas. Chances are slim of finding it.”
“But it would be covered in mud up to the axles.”
“They could have cleaned it by now.” He grabbed her shoulders and looked down at her.
Her eyes pooled with tears, her lips pursed in a thin line that trembled. “What can we do?”
* * *
R EED’S HEART SQUEEZED in his chest and he bent to kiss her forehead. “It wouldn’t hurt to go look for the rig.” He kissed the tip of her nose and finally her lips. He knew he was wrong, but he couldn’t resist. She looked so hopeless and sad.
When Mona’s lips parted, Reed thrust through, taking her tongue with his. His fingers wound through her long black hair, the silken strands reminding him of how she’d felt curled against him in the cave, the scent of citrus wafting to his nostrils, making him hard all over.
Her hands crept up his chest, bunching his shirt in her fists, tugging him closer, deepening the kiss. When their lips parted, she stared into his eyes, her own going wide. “I shouldn’t have done that.” She pushed against him and he let her go. With her back to him she rubbed her hands down the sides of her jeans.
Dogs barked outside the window.
Reed and Mona stepped out onto the porch as two vehicles pulled into the yard. Fernando’s farm truck carrying Catalina and Rosa, and her uncle’s truck.
Mona closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Great. Who invited him?”
Rosa helped Catalina down from the truck and across the yard to the house.
“How are you, sweetie?” Mona cupped her friend’s cheek.
“I’m okay. I could have left the hospital a lot sooner but for the doctor. I think he liked me.” She winked, then her expression became serious. “It’s you I’m worried about.” When her mother edged Catalina toward the door, she dug in her heels. “No way I’m missing this shoot-out with Uncle Arty. I’ll just sit in the rocker for a ringside seat.”
Mona rolled her eyes and smiled. “You really should rest.”
Catalina waved her concern away and settled into the rocker. “Later. I really do feel much better.”
“Mona, what in tarnation is going on?” Uncle Arty stomped up the porch steps. “I came as soon as your foreman called about your cattle all over my place.”
“My foreman has a name. It’s Fernando.” Mona’s back stiffened. “And you tell me, Uncle, what’s going on?”
Reed suppressed a smile. For the past half an hour, Mona had struggled with what to do, her body sagging with the effort. But as soon as the questions began, her strength seemed to return.
“What to you mean? You don’t think I had anything to do with the rustling, do you?” Arty blustered.
Mona walked up to the older man and stood toe-to-toe with him. “Then why did they stage it on your property?”
Arty Grainger backed up a step, a frown pulling his bushy white brows together. “Perhaps because it was closer to the road than yours. Did you think of that?”
“All I know is that I’ve been robbed, shot at and almost killed in the past few days. I’ve even been accused of a murder I did not commit. The only person I can think of who hates me enough to make my life miserable is you. Tell me, where were you during all this?”
Reed stepped forward, wanting to tell her that her uncle had come up with her bail money, even though he’d made Reed swear not to tell. A stern stare from Mr. Grainger made him bite his lip and let the conversation take its course.
Mona was on a roll. She took a deep breath, lowering her voice, although the intensity deepened. “You’ve wanted me to fail at ranching even more than you wanted my father to. Do you deny it?”
Uncle Arty stared at her for a moment before answering. “No, I don’t deny it. And I was wrong. But I was never involved in the rustling. I promise.”
“After giving my father hell for years, you expect me to believe you?” She turned her back. “Go away. I can handle this on my own.”
“That’s just it. You’re the only one with the rustler problems.”
Mona faced her uncle again. “Just me?”
“Yeah. None of the other ranches are getting hit. Someone…” Her uncle shook his head. “Someone has it in for you, Mona.”
“Why me?”
“I don’t know. Although I wanted you to fail at the ranch, I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I never wanted you or your father to get hurt. I just wanted Grainger land to remain intact. That’s all I ever wanted. I even hired Dusty to keep an eye on you and report in every week on what was going on over here.”
“You hired Dusty?”
Her uncle snorted. “You don’t think he came to work here because of the great pay, do you?”
“You hired Dusty to spy on me?” Mona’s face flamed. “I should have known.”
“Listen, I came to help in any way I can.”
“By hiring spies? I think not.”
“I told you, I was wrong about you and about Dusty. I think he might have something to do with the rustling. If I could buy his information, who’s to say he didn’t sell it to others? Not to mention, he’s been wearing more expensive clothing out on the town and driving a new pickup.”
“The bastard.” Mona’s mouth firmed into a tight line.
Stepping forward, Reed cupped Mona’s elbow. “Makes sense, Mona. We should check it out.”
She stared up at her uncle, betrayal making her eyes glassy with unshed tears. “I’d expect as much from Dusty, but you were family.”
Arty nodded. “I’m sorry to say, but I’d bet my last dollar Dusty is involved in the rustling.”
She stared out at the rain-washed horizon. “Why didn’t I see it?”
“Because you were busy. He drove an old beat-up truck to work every day and did what you told him, for the most part.” Reed wanted to take her in his arms, instead he stayed back. She wouldn’t want to show any weakness in front of her uncle.
“If it makes you feel any better, your father didn’t know either.”
She faced her uncle, her brows rising up her forehead. “That’s supposed to make me feel better? Your spying on your own brother is supposed to make this all right?” She crossed to her uncle. “Get out.”
“Now, Mona. I said I was sorry and I am. I came to help.”
“I don’t need your help. I don’t need any man’s help. Not now or ever. I’ll figure this out on my own. Now get out before I call the sheriff to have you thrown out.”
Mona marched back into the house, leaving Reed, Catalina and Arty standing on the porch.
Reed shrugged. “You can’t expect her to trust you after so many years.”
“I know. I just wish I’d done things differently before her father died.” Then he descended the porch stairs and left.
Mona pushed through the screen door, letting it slam behind her. Her keys jangled from her fingers as she crossed the porch and took the steps downward two at a time.
“Where are you going?” Reed asked.
“To town.” She climbed into the driver’s seat of the pickup and started the engine.
“Don’t just stand there, go get her,” Catalina said.
Reed barely had time to leap from the porch to the ground and round the pickup, before she backed out. “Let me go with you.”
She ignored him, braking to a halt, the truck skidding in the gravel.
Before she could shift into drive, he grabbed the door handle, flung it open and threw himself onto the passenger seat.
Her foot hit the accelerator before his door was closed, the truck fishtailing down the driveway. She was hell-bent on getting herself killed and taking everyone down who stood in the way.
Reed slammed his door and buckled his seat belt. He was in for a helluva ride.