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“That’s what happens when a body gets older, I guess. But I noticed age hasn’t stopped you from ghostin’ around this country at night. I’ve been sittin’ out here for two nights, waitin’ for you to show up. The ground was gettin’ a little hard for these old bones of mine. Say, I still have some coffee left in my thermos over here. Want a cup?”
“No thanks.” Culley gathered up the trailing reins to his horse.
“You never were very sociable,” Buck recalled.
“And you were never my friend.” Culley stepped to the saddle, a hand on the horn.
“That’s true,” Buck agreed. “All we ever shared was a mutual hatred for Calder.”
“Maybe.” Culley shot him a hard, accusing glance. “But I ain’t forgetting you once tried to kill my sister.”
“You and I both know it was the boy I was after. Maggie got in the way. But I didn’t hurt her,” Buck reminded him, then shrugged. “That was all a long time ago. And I did my time for it.” He watched as Culley hauled himself into the saddle, not as effortlessly as he once had. “We’re both older now, O’Rourke. And a little wiser.”
The saddle creaked as Culley settled himself into the seat. “Leave me be, Buck.”
“There’s trouble brewin’.” Buck’s voice had the ring of a warning.
Culley responded with a curt nod of agreement. “I can smell it in the wind.”
Buck grinned. “You and I are alike that way.”
“I’m giving you fair warning, Buck.” He stared him in the eye. “Stay away from the girl.”
“I saw her in town a week or so ago. She’s the spittin’ image of Maggie, isn’t she?”
“You hurt a hair on her head, and I swear I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”
Buck knew the difference between a threat and a promise. In O’Rourke’s case, the statement belonged in the latter category.
“Whatever’s coming, I don’t think she’ll be part of it.” Buck based that purely on a gut feeling.
“See that she isn’t.” He backed his horse deeper into the shadows behind him before reining it into a half-circle and slipping into the night.
Buck stared after him, his head cocked at a listening angle to catch the faint scuff of iron shoes on the hard ground. But there were few sounds to betray the exact route of O’Rourke’s retreat from the area. Smiling, Buck realized the night horse Culley rode was almost as soft-footed as its rider.
On the other side of the rise, a piece of heavy machinery revved its diesel motor a couple times, then roared forward, belching black smoke from its exhaust. Distracted by the sudden increase in the noise level, Buck glanced toward the work site, but he made no move toward it. He preferred the relative quiet of the high plains over the racket of the construction site, the smell of greening grass over diesel fumes, the feel of a fresh wind on his face over the grit of churned-up dust. In that he was like O’Rourke.
His gaze drifted over the ranchland, land he had been born and raised on. Despite all the years he had spent away from it, locked in a prison cell, this Calder land was still in his blood. Standing here, in the middle of it, Buck felt as if he had finally come home.
Under a high sun, Tara stood at the rear of the Range Rover and watched while two ranch hands unloaded the boxes from the back of the vehicle. When the last box was carried away, Ty closed the door.
“That should do it,” he said with finality and glanced her way. “Thanks for dropping off the catalogs.”
“No problem at all,” Tara assured him. “I know I could have easily had the printer ship them to you, but it didn’t make sense when I was going to be so close. This way you don’t have to worry about them getting lost en route.”
“I guess not.” He could feel her gaze on him, bright with interest, probing to gauge his mood.
“To be honest, I was half afraid you might not want me to ever set foot on the ranch again, despite all your talk about us being neighbors.”
“Really?” Ty knew she was angling for something, but he didn’t know what. It made him wary.
“Did your people let you know that I stopped the helicopters from flying so low on their way to the construction site?”
“As a matter of fact, I spoke to Jasper shortly before you arrived. He said everything was relatively quiet so far,” Ty admitted.
“And it will be from now on. You have my word on that,” Tara promised and turned slightly, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the sun’s glare as she glanced toward the old barn. “Have they finished the work on the barn yet?”
“Almost.”
