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TWELVE
A few days later, Laura sat atop her horse, watching the cattle meander over the top of the ridge. She had an eye on the ones coming and going. Rafe and the man they called Nails were already down below her in the valley. Eli and Cash brought up the rear.
She like the field rotation system that Eli already had in place, but she wanted to look at what grew in each field herself to see if they needed any fertilizing or planting of different crops to maximize the beef output of the cattle. Which was why she was out here with them today. They didn’t need her. The hope was that in the early winter, the cows could be brought to the fields in the lower valleys closer to the house and barns and fed hay when the snow became too deep for them to get grass on their own and in summer they’d stay farther away from the house.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately today, her eyes were once again drawn to Rafe. She’d been trying for days to avoid him without seeming like she was avoiding him. Thankfully no one had commented, at least to her, about the hickey on his neck. She still flushed when she thought about being the one to do that.
Panic lurked in the back of her mind, though. A good time to talk to him still hadn’t presented itself. She’d almost talked herself into not even telling him since he didn’t want kids either. If that was true he couldn’t be mad at her for ending the pregnancy, right? How the hell did she tell him otherwise?
Laura shook her head. She needed to get her head in the game. There were always risks when driving cattle. Still, because she was thinking about him so much she was so acutely aware of him at all times, so she saw the moment his head snapped up and he started scanning the craggy hills on the opposite side of the valley.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
The noise sent the cattle into a frenzy. Instead of moving in one direction as a mass, they scattered, running into each other, rocks, and the few trees that grew here. Rafe took off after several, but they spun on him and headed back the other way as more popping noises sounded. He charged back up the hill after them when his horse reared, and he went down hard.
Gunfire. Where was it coming from? Laura looked up at where Rafe had been looking a moment earlier. “There,” she shouted, pointing at a cliff about midway up the side. Eli followed her direction and nodded. He had more experience with both the horses and the cattle and wove through the mass of now hysterical bovines with relative ease while the last two men tried to get their horses under control.
Laura yearned to go to Rafe, but she knew she needed to get the cows under control. With four ear-piercing whistles, she caught the attention of the shepherding dogs they had with them and got the process of corralling the animals down the slope underway.
Nails abandoned his horse which was trying to throw him anyway. He jumped, landing on his feet before taking off toward where she could see Rafe pushing himself into a sitting position. That was one worry down. At least he hadn’t broken his neck.
Cash seemed to have better luck with his horse, getting it back under control before leaning forward to soothe the shivering animal. Laura caught Nails’ horse’s reins as it trotted up the hill, looping them over her saddle until she came to a low branch where she tethered him. Between her and Cash it took them around half an hour to subdue the cows and get them the rest of the way into the valley.
Laura rode through the herd, but none of the cows appeared to be hurt. Eli galloped toward them from the far end of the valley, his face contorted with rage.
“Any animals hurt?”
“No, I haven’t seen any so far.”
His face relaxed a fraction. “And the men?”
“Rafe got thrown, but he was sitting up with Nails last time I saw him.”
Eli frowned, studying her, before nodding and taking off up the hill to where they’d been when the shots were fired.
What had that look been for? She thought it over as she rode around the animals one more time, and then it hit her. Laura had no problem calling Cash, Nails, Tech, and Cap by the names everyone else used. But she never called her boss Eagle. That just seemed too informal, and she didn’t call Rafe Sunny. It didn’t feel right after what they’d shared, even if it had been what was supposed to be an anonymous weekend.
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Rafe still sitting up on the ground now with Eli and Nails hovering over him. When she was confident the cows weren’t going anywhere, she trotted over to join them.
“Any idea what that was?” she asked Eli with a raised eyebrow.
“A few. None of them good,” he answered, his face tense. “I found shell casings from a rifle. I don’t think whoever it was meant to hit us, just get the cows stampeding to make it look like an accident.”
“Make what look like an accident?” she asked.
“Not sure. Our deaths? Injuries? Loss of the cattle? It’s hard to say because whoever did it was long gone by the time I got up there.”
“How did they get there in the first place?” Nails asked.
“Truck or SUV. There’s a dirt track on the far side of the ridge that no regular car could make it up.”
“Why didn’t you follow him, Eagle?” Sunny asked from the ground, but his voice lacked any force.
Eli barked a humorless laugh. “Because whoever it was is armed and I’m not. Yet.”
She glanced around at the four men whose faces were all serious now. “So what do we do?”
“Can you ride Sunny?”
