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ChapterNine
An hourlater we were playing hail, hail the gang’s all here in the bunkhouse.
Nate and Landon were studying the list of stolen items while I spoke with the hands that had been ripped off. It was pretty much as Perry had said. Donnie had seemed fine and happy yesterday. Today he’s gone, and with loads of phone chargers, petty change, lighters, cigarettes, bottle openers, and several coats.
None of the stolen items were expensive, but then again, most of us didn’t own cabbage rose candy dishes or platinum goose cup trophies. Mona stood in the corner collating all the information we had so far on her tablet. Her face locked into a tight expression.
“So what we have so far is that Roxie and Donnie took off without a word but with some valuable items,” Nate stated, looking as tired as I felt. The fucking sun wasn’t even up right yet. What a way to start the day. Whatever happened to the good ol’ days when all you had to deal with at the ass crack of dawn was a breech calf? Which reminded me we still had about a hundred cows ready to drop a baby to check on real soon. “Am I the only one who finds this all stranger than fuck?”
“Nope,” I said as I walked over to study the open lock on Ron’s footlocker. The boy swore he had locked it before he crawled into bed. “What the hell do we have here? Two people—one who can pick locks like a Dickens villain—who have been lifting shit from this ranch for months now who suddenly decide to peel out in the middle of the night.”
“That sums it up. I’m going to have to call Mark about this. Maybe he can put out an APB or something?” Landon asked us. We all shrugged. We knew cows, horses, and hay. We did not know APBs or sheriffing. That we left to the men with the badges. Sorry. To the people with the badges.
“I feel as if this is mostly my fault,” Mona spoke up. We all glanced at her. She reached up to push her glasses up her nose. For once, the woman appeared to be less than sure of herself. “I hired Roxie and passed the application for Donald Webb to Mr. Reece. My judgment was obviously off and these two people robbed us blind.”
“Mona, I’m not sure that some missing tack, a few cell phone chargers, and a fancy dish and cup from the house is exactly being robbed blind. No one tell Montrell that I said his candy dish wasn’t important. It was. And expensive. But the point being was—”
“I understand, Mr. Reece, but I should have vetted them better. I was too concerned about hawking young Mr. Abbott because of his prior record, and I let others slip past.” She found Will standing with Perry and walked over to him. She literally came up to his shoulder. “I would like to ask for your forgiveness for being so curt with you. My family once took in an ex-convict when we were new to this country from Japan. I was just a small girl, but he smiled at me a lot and I liked him. He worked for my father in his store in New York for several months while stealing from our business accounts. He nearly bankrupted my family when he ran off in the middle of the night.” She held out her small hand. “I let my prejudice against those who were in jail blind me. No matter my past, I should know that not every person is the same. I will do better. My father’s distrustful warnings should have died out long ago. I am sorry. I’ll do better.”
Will looked at me, then Perry, then Nate before giving Mona’s petite hand a gentle shake. Well, that was one mystery solved. Now if we could figure out the who, what, and where of our latest thievery, we’d be all set.
“There’s no telling where they are by now,” Nate interjected. Mona gave Will a timid smile and turned to hand her tablet to Landon to peruse. “All we can do is contact the sheriff and hope he can find them. I would imagine they’re long gone.”
“Yeah, I agree.” Landon nodded and blew out a long breath. “Montrell will be devastated. First Simon the calf and now his candy dish.” Poor Montrell. He had taken the death of his little bottle fed calf hard. It was a hard lesson to learn about farming. Sometimes animals died or had to be put down. Ranching was not for the faint of heart. “I’ll go make the call to the sheriff. You guys let me know what the cost was for what you lost, and I’ll reimburse you.”
After all the hands thanked Landon, they headed off to do their chores or sleep. Mona also left with Landon, bundled up in a heavy coat and heavy snow boots. Shep and I made our way to the barn to relieve the guys who’d been playing bovine OB/GYN all night long. Things were pretty quiet aside from a recent newborn that was one of those rare white Angus calves.
“Well, where did that come from?” I asked as Shep and I stood at the gate while she nursed from her jet black mama. “Must be her daddy was a Holstein.” Shep didn’t even chuckle at the joke. His gaze locked on the calf, which was now bumbling over to check us out. “You okay?”
“She’s really cute. I wish I had my cameras.” He chewed on his lip for a moment. “I’m going to go home and get them.”
My eyes flared. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Yep. It’s my equipment. They’ll only destroy it if they haven’t already.”
I could tell by the hitch of his chin that he was set on this course of action. So being the kind, loving, and understanding man that I am, I offered to go with him. Also, if either of the elder McCrarys so much as sneezed in Shep’s direction, I could knock them into next week. That really never got old.
I’ll go get your cameras,” I offered. Shep shut that right down in a hurry with a firm shake of his head. “Okay, then I go with you as an escort. Take your pick but you do not go alone.”
“Fine,” he conceded. “But no fists.”
“You take all the joy out of life, you know that, McCrary?”
“That’s not what you were saying last night, Abbott.”
Damn it. He had me there.
After our shift ended, we ran home, showered and changed, and made a quick trip to the stables. While he fussed over Dundee, I made my way down the row of stalls, stroking soft noses and whispering endearments. I was in no way the horse whisperer that Perry Yellow Horse was. I tended not to get attached to things or animals…or yes, people…so I viewed the horses here as delightful creatures that I took care of, always maintaining a safe distance. Got to protect that heart, right? That was until I had met Gemini, a leopard Appaloosa that Perry and Will had been working with. There was something about the spotted gelding that spoke to me like no other horse here ever had. Much like Shepherd, he’d been through some bad times and had gotten a reputation as a son-of-a-bitch. But once you looked beyond the surface, you found a tender, scared, deserving soul.
“Hey, handsome,” I said as I held out my hand for him to sniff. We’d gotten pretty close of late and I didn’t even have to read to him. I did when I had time, but it wasn’t a necessity. “Someday you and me are going to saddle up and ride these plains. What do you think about that?”
I rubbed his neck as he mouthed at the collar of my coat.
“Are you sweet talking another man behind my back?” Shep asked as he stepped up and cooed at the Appaloosa.
“I’m a slut,” I confessed, stole a kiss—from the man, not the horse, as Gemini was still at that friendship stage—and then turned to stare at Shepherd. “Are you one hundred percent sure about this? I got some money saved. I can buy you a new—” His gaze grew icy. “Right. Okay, well, the offer had to be made. I will do my best not to knock your siblings out, but if they say the F word, I won’t be responsible for the beat down they get.”
“That’s fair.” His expression softened before he inhaled deeply through his nose. “Let’s do this before I change my mind.”
