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I looked around. Everyone was gathering the herd within the field, but they still had one eye on us. I jumped the fence and took my horse by the reins, encouraging a gallop until I met up with Cricket.
“They’re on their way,” she told me.
“Cool,” I answered, feeling anything but.
I’d just clocked a guy, in a rural town with rural cops who have nothing better to do than investigate an assault against a rural drunk driver in the middle of a rural fucking highway.
Cricket read my body language. “If they ask us what happened, we’ve all agreed we saw nothing. You were never here.”
I smiled at her, relieved beyond measure. “Thank you.”
Chapter Twenty
We’d gotten the herd going again and were out of the view of the highway by the time we heard sirens. Regardless if they could see us, I was still paranoid as shit.
“You’re quiet,” Cricket stated.
“Yeah,” I said, giving her a small smile.
“No one will find out you hit that guy, Spencer.”
I took a deep breath. “I know. It’s just-I knew better than to do it.”
“I saw what happened. It was either you or him. You did what you had to.”
“I could have left him there.”
“Imagine you’d just done that. Then imagine his drunk ass was staggering around the road and got hit by a car.”
he knew we were talking about him, Emmett came riding up, whistling at a stubborn cow. “How’d you do, greenhorn?”
“Ask your granddaughter,” I answered with a smile.
The herd mooed, spooked and were altogether ridiculously noisy. That, coupled with the “ha’s” and whistles from the ranch hands, and we had to raise our voices to hear one another.
“He didn’t do too badly,” Cricket told him, winking at me. I almost fell off my horse. “Is everyone in?”
“Ethan’s still wrangling up five head pretty far from here. Somehow they got around that fence on the north side of the property.”
“How many in all?” she asked.
“About ninety-three. We’ve got most of them though. Should be on our way soon.”
Cricket nodded as Emmett headed back into the herd, then pulled her scarf over her mouth, making her look like an old-fashioned bandit. I did the same. The warmth from my breath was a nice reprieve.
“Bonnie,” I called to her.
“Yeah, Clyde,” she deftly responded, making me laugh.
“How long will it take to drive the herd?” I yelled.
“It takes about four hours. There’s a bit of road we have to cross to get to the main ranch. That’s always a pain in the ass as the cattle spook easily by passing cars. They get confused.”
“Why is there a public road running through the middle of your property?”
“It’s thousands of acres, Spencer, and when the city comes knocking on your door with a paper stating ‘eminent domain,’ you don’t really have a choice but to comply.”
I nodded.
