Chapter Twenty-four
Brady was on his phone, and waved at Liz, who waved back and then urged her horse forward to keep the cows in line, Finnegan snorting and dancing but at least listening to her this time.
She gathered up Sandy’s reins, and the old mare put her nose on Finnegan and nickered.
Finnegan relaxed immediately, and Liz slacked her reins, letting them stand close to the herd.
She should have just done that to start with.
“You big dumb horse,” she muttered, but patted him anyway. Truthfully, had she not been panicked, it would have been her first instinct. Grab the senior horse and couple up to calm the young one. She’d been too focused on Jake wading into certain harm to think straight.
Anger bubbled up to the surface, and she tried hard to let it go because it wouldn’t solve anything. Her horse needed calm, and to be honest, they had to figure out how to get the damned herd back up the road and into that field.
The cattle were settling well with the rig off, curiously looking back at the horses, some of them attempting to graze on the dust-covered grass along the side.
Making his way back to his horse, Tanner glanced over each cow as he passed through the herd, holding a half-cocked smile. They’d gotten really fucking lucky, and her anger dissipated. She let out a breath, expelling some of her panic with it.
“You okay?” she asked when he’d gathered Chip’s reins and moved toward her. He was still out of breath, licking at his once-again split lip, and he nodded, patting her on the leg.
“Yeah. You?”
“Finny wasn’t easy,” she answered lamely. “I wasn’t much help.”
Tanner looked straight at her and shook his head, patting her one more time before he took a big breath and stretched his neck.
His brain was likely already going a mile a minute on how to deal with it all.
They turned as Brady released a panel in the back, and about twenty cows clattered down the ramp back to their herd mates.
Jake had Tanner’s uncoiled rope and was dragging the unconscious men over to tie them to the back bumper of the trailer.
She’d have to ask Jake later how he knew how to wade in and fight like that.
That was definitely not something someone learned in chef school.
It was impressive, no matter how he’d learned, and now that she’d had a moment to calm down, she mused further that it was kind of attractive, the sheer strength and grit he’d displayed.
“It’s all good, Lizzie. You’re safe, and that’s important.”
“I should’ve ridden for help,” she countered.
“I need you to help get these damned cattle back up the road,” he shot back.
“I know, I just—” Liz felt the helplessness. She hated being helpless.
“They were burly assholes, all three of ’em. Jake took two of them on. I—” Tanner interrupted, then stopped talking, looking over at his brother, an oddly perplexed look crossing his face before he masked it.
“He’s not useless, after all, you were going to say?” she teased. Tanner snorted out a chuckle at that.
“Maybe,” he replied drily.
The knowledge that they were all okay, that there was perhaps a change in the war between the brothers, and that they’d found the cattle before they were gone all hit her at once. Tears welled up in her eyes again, and considering she was not a crier, she growled and looked away to hide them.
“Let’s get these cows rounded up. I need to do a head count, and we gotta get some fencing from the ranch. Can your horse handle that?” Tanner called back to her, already throwing his leg up and over Chip.
“He’ll manage,” she replied. Movement beside her caught her eye, and Jake was vaulting back into the saddle as well, a smile on his face, his clothing dirty, his hat plopped back on his head carelessly, one side dented.
Sandy shuffled closer to Finnegan, and Jake’s knee touched hers as he leaned over to pull the stirrup fully onto his right foot.
She wordlessly handed his reins back to him, her insides unclenching as he settled into the saddle.
He was making her think about things she shouldn’t be in the middle of their situation.
But mixed in with those dirty thoughts was also the sheer relief that he was okay, in one piece, and the urge to grab him and hold him close to her pushed more tears close to the surface.
Damn it, she was going soft because shit like this was not normal for her. She cleared her throat, looking at her hands, trying to think of something to say.
“Can’t say I’ve ever done anything like that before,” he said, raising an eyebrow, his voice light but careful. “I feel like a Western movie stunt double.”
“Wading in like a damned fool, you mean? You could have gotten hurt or—” she chided, trying her best to hide the emotion still whirling inside her.
She was interrupted as Jake leaned over, grasped the back of her head with one hand, pulled her toward him, and kissed her as if his life depended on it.
She let him because his bravado was too much to ignore in the moment, and grabbed at the horn of her saddle with one hand to keep him from yanking her out of the tack. His kiss was needy and possessive, and it curled her toes, heat flashing across her body.
The horses jostled and he let go of her, leaning back, obviously pleased with himself. She laughed as he puffed his chest out, brushing dust off his shoulders as he let out another heart-stopping smile.
Liz rolled her eyes at him but laughed. “Feeling good about yourself, cowboy?” she drawled. “We still gotta herd all these damned cows back up the road. Don’t get too cocky on me yet.”
With that, he pierced her with a smoldering look that stopped her laugh in her throat, replacing it with a shot of pure want.
An irrational thought about pulling him off his horse and having her way with him up against a tree entered her head and she had to swallow it down, because it was ridiculous.
They were in the middle of a herd of escaped cattle with three unconscious cattle thieves tied to the bumper of a semitruck.
“Jumped off a moving horse. Stopped some cattle thieves. Got a cattle prod to the back. I’d say I deserve a minute to revel in it.”
“What do you want? Adoration? Praise? Hero worship?” she sassed back.
“You,” he rumbled. “Because in this scenario, I get the girl.”
Despite the insanity around them of bawling cattle, Tanner and Brady whistling, yipping and slapping their legs as they moved the cows into the safety of the fenced roadway, Liz’s focus narrowed in on him. She met his intense stare, all thoughts of teasing gone from her head.
He held her eyes a moment more before grinning and kicking Sandy forward, and Liz let out a shaky breath. He did have her, damn it.
She let out another tense breath, stowed the thought, and moved Finnegan forward to catch up to Sandy so her horse would stay calm as sirens pierced the background.
* * *
Jake couldn’t shake the adrenaline rush as they started back up the road, his hands trembling on the reins, his back aching from the cattle prod hit, his knuckles cracking from the abuse. It was a wonder he wasn’t toppling out of the saddle.
“Stick back here, you’ve got the easy job,” Brady said, grinning. “Sandy will show you what to do.”
Jake doubted that but quickly let Sandy do just what Brady said she would to keep the cows moving with her laid-back ears, shaking her head if one of them stopped or turned around.
All he had to do was keep himself upright, whistle, slap his legs, and point the horse in the same direction as the ponderous mass slowly ambling back up the road.
All the way back, Tanner took charge, grousing that they had to wait for the police to give them the all clear before they could herd their cattle. He kept looking at the sun, obviously worried they wouldn’t get done before dark.
Tanner knew exactly where to be to keep the cows in line, shuttling his horse back and forth along the herd, pointing and barking orders.
Brady and Liz wove in and out without needing to shout at one another, just hand signals and the odd “Yep!” Liz’s horse reared a few times, and tried to run away once, and each time she handled it and then just kept pushing the cattle, a determined look on her face.
Jake was in awe of her, his eyes darting to her as he grew more comfortable riding behind the herd.
He’d been the big damned idiot, wading into a herd of cows that could have kicked him in the head, toward men who might’ve had guns.
She was the capable one, buckling down to work when not so long ago they were all in a stressful, dangerous situation.
For that matter, all three of them seemed unfazed, apart from Tanner’s mood, as they worked.
Jake still felt like a tagalong, even if he’d had a moment of fake bravado with Liz. He’d taken one look at her terrified face, the tears threatening to spill, and reacted to distract her.
The crew met them at the gap in the fence a lot quicker than he anticipated.
Jake finally relaxed and let the tired in as they rolled the fence back over to repair it, offering to hold all the horses while everyone else finished up the job.
Sandy stood still while he leaned on her, rooting at him with her nose then resting her muzzle on his neck and nibbling at the collar of his shirt.
The other three horses dozed off, back legs cocked, tails swishing.
Tanner waved off help fixing the fence to the posts, grunting as he twisted wire to hold the new page wire that Bobby and Rowan were holding taut with a winch, his shoulders bunched as he strained to get it tight.
He looked angry the entire time, but the crew moved around him like it was nothing new, accepting his clipped responses and orders with a smile, and a fatherly pat on his back from Harry when he straightened, the last twisted wire end hammered into the post.