AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Here we go,” Dani muttered under her breath as they approached Caleb and the old man turned toward them.
Frowning slightly at the sight of Dani, Caleb leaned one elbow over the top rail of the fence and straightened the string tie at his neck.
“Mrs. Summers,” he said congenially. “How’re you?”
“Well as can be expected,” she replied, glancing nervously at Chase and wishing she’d refused to come with him. Beneath the facade of neighborliness, she could see Caleb’s hostility, feel his hatred.
Caleb glanced at the threatening sky. “Looks like we’ll be gettin’ that rain we need tonight. Weather service says that we’ll have a few storms in the next few days . . .” Pleasantries aside, Caleb got down to business. “Now, what brings you here this afternoon?” he asked, looking pointedly at Chase. “I don’t s’pose it’s to see my new colt run, now, is it?”
“No,” Chase said, leaning his back on the fence and eyeing the horse as the stocky colt, done with his sprint, was being walked around the track. The horse’s dark muscles gleamed with sweat and he was blowing hard. Chase eyed Caleb.
Dani watched Caleb’s reaction.
The older man’s mouth twitched nervously and his blue eyes were filled with impatience and subdued anger.
“Actually Dani didn’t want to come up here. It was my idea.”
“Oh?” Caleb’s jaw slid to the side but he refused to be baited. Chase would get to the point. Eventually. And if given enough rope, the younger man would hang himself. Caleb made a mental note to give him all the rope he needed.
“Yep. Y’see, while I was in Idaho, I did some checkin’ around.”
“On that job in Spokane?”
“That, too,” Chase said slowly. “But I was looking into something else; something that happened here last year. I managed to locate a man who used to work for you. A man by the name of Larry Cross. You remember him?”
Caleb nodded slowly and waved at the boy who’d ridden the colt during the workout. “Keep cooling him off and then put him back in his stall. Jim’ll clean him up,” he called to the hand before turning back to Chase. “Larry Cross? Sure, I remember him.”
Dani felt the sweat run down her back, though the breeze whispering through the pine trees near the track was cool.
“I had to let him go,” Caleb admitted. “Turned out he was stealing me blind, selling part of my feed to friends of his. I couldn’t prove it, of course, but I think he was into cattle rustlin’ as well. I’m surprised you bothered to look him up.”
“Seems he had a few other tricks up his sleeve.”
Caleb frowned. “Wouldn’t surprise me.”
“He placed a drum of dioxin in the creekbed last year. The poison got into the water and killed several of Dani’s cattle.”
“You’re sure of that?” Caleb asked, rubbing his chin and glancing sideways at Dani.
Her heart beginning to pound, she nodded.
“I’ve got the empty drum,” Chase remarked.
Caleb’s bushy eyebrows raised and he drew his mouth into an exaggerated frown. “Sounds like something Cross would do.”
“He claims you were behind it.”
“’Course he does.”
“He says you did it to give Dani a bad time; ruin her herd, force her to sell her property to you.”
Caleb snorted, but beads of sweat had broken out over his brow. He mopped his forehead with a handkerchief he found in his pocket. “Well, what did you expect him to say—that he was behind it himself ?”
“No. Because it doesn’t make any sense that way. Why would he want to hurt Dani?”
Caleb stared at Dani with cold, cruel eyes. “Who knows? Maybe he was involved with her. She’s been alone a long time till you came along—”
Chase took a step closer and curled his fingers over Caleb’s arm. “Don’t even suggest—”
