Cowboy 12 Pack Page 21

  Jake helped her mount up, then swung onto his own horse.

  “I’ll stand watch with you tonight when it’s your turn to have guard duty,” he said as they rode.

  She looked over at him in surprise. That meant he’d be pulling double duty. “That’s silly. You need your sleep.”

  He shrugged. “I wouldn’t sleep much knowing you’re on watch by yourself anyway.”

  “That’s very chivalrous of you. I’ll look forward to having your company.”

  Jake gave her a sidelong glance. “We probably won’t be able to sneak off for any more private time for the rest of the drive. There’s too much chance that Boone could make a move while we’re away.”

  Sadie sighed. “I figured. And you’re right, of course. Getting the herd to Cheyenne and keeping everyone safe while doing it is our number one priority.” She slanted him a flirtatious look. “But when we get back to the ranch, I’m going to be needing a lot of personal attention.”

  Chapter Ten

  ‡

  JAKE COULDN’T STOP thinking about last night. Besides the blowjob Sadie had given him—which had been magnificent—there was the conversation they’d had. He couldn’t have been more stunned if she actually had proposed to him. He hadn’t even considered what he’d do after taking care of Boone. He’d assumed he would do what he always did when a job was done—move on to the next one. It was how he’d made a living. But last night in the canyon, Sadie had offered him an alternative to that life. If another woman had done the same, he probably would have gotten on his horse and ridden like hell in the opposite direction. For the first time in his life, he’d met a woman who made him want to put down roots somewhere.

  He was still mulling that over as he headed to the front of the line to check on her and the other riders in the lead. Which was why he almost didn’t see Dakota gallop up until he was right on top of him. The Arapaho had been riding scout. If he was riding that hard, trouble couldn’t be far behind.

  “Riders about mile back,” Dakota said when he’d pulled even with Jake.

  Damn. “Boone’s men?”

  Dakota nodded. “They had a cold camp—no fire. No reason to do that unless you don’t want anyone to see the smoke.”

  “How many are there?”

  “Eight.”

  Double damn. “Where are they now?”

  “I’ll show you,” the Arapaho said.

  Dakota led him to the place where he’d seen the riders, but there was no sign of the men. Jake swore. Should he send out men to search for them? No. That would be stupid. There could be more than one party of raiders out there waiting for Jake to split his forces.

  Turning his horse, he rode back to Sadie and the men, Dakota beside him. He had to warn them.

  He met up with Brody first. The man had been riding on the right flank as a scout since they’d started out that morning, and hadn’t seen anything suspicious. Jake told him to be on the lookout, then quickly moved around the herd to tell the other men about the possible ambush.

  “Keep it tight and have your rifles handy,” he warned them.

  Sadie’s eyes went a little wide when he told her the same thing, but she nodded and reached for her weapon.

  “If they come in shooting, shoot back, but don’t try and be a hero,” he told her. “Keep your wits about you and watch out for the cattle. If they stampede, get out of the way and back to the chuck wagon with the rest of us.”

  She frowned. “If the cattle stampede, we have to try and stop them. If they get out of control, we’ll never get them herded again.”

  “I know.” He wasn’t about to risk her life in exchange for those ten-thousand acres, though. “But if they stampede, you’d be a damn fool to try to stop them. Longhorns aren’t known for being gentle. They get going, and they’ll be impossible to stop. The best we can hope to do is stop the stampede before it starts. That means putting holes in Boone’s men the second you get a chance.”

  Sadie paled at that. She didn’t have to say the words for him to know she wasn’t too keen on the idea of shooting a person. He hoped she didn’t have to do it, either. But if it came down to it, he prayed to God she wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger—that could be the difference between life and death. The thought of something happening to her scared him shitless.

  Jake wanted to stay close to Sadie, but he needed to check the far flank. Giving her one last look, he turned his horse and rode off.

  *

  JAKE WAS TENSE as hell as he waited for the ambush. But Boone’s men didn’t attack that day, or the next, or the day after that one. That didn’t make him or anyone else feel any better. In fact, it only made it worse. With every mile that passed, the men were more on edge. Most of them had their rifles out full time now. That wouldn’t have concerned Jake, if they weren’t so antsy. They were damn lucky no one had accidently shot themselves—or someone else yet. Jake didn’t want to order them to put away their weapons in case there was an ambush. So, he tried to keep everyone calm and focused on the herd.

  Sadie was amazing, of course. Deep down, he knew she would be. Not only did she make sure the men ate, but she insisted they get some sleep when they weren’t on watch. He wasn’t sure how she did it, but she even managed to make them laugh now and then. Jake could almost believe they were on a regular ol’ cattle drive.

  Jake stiffened as he spotted the deep, narrow gulch up ahead. If that wasn’t the perfect place for an ambush, he didn’t know what was.

  He held up his hand, signaling everyone to stop. Sadie pulled even with him.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe nothing.” He glanced at her. “Stay here with the men. I’m going to ride ahead.”

  Jake nudged his horse forward, scanning the ridgeline to either side of him as he rode. The dry river bed that formed the trail was barely wide enough for more than three or four longhorns to pass through at one time. That would mean Sadie and the men would have to ride up on the uneven slopes.

  He studied the ridgeline overlooking the trail more closely. They were at least a hundred feet high. If someone wanted to take a shot at them it would be damn hard to do anything about it. Trying to ride a horse up to the top of the ridge would be suicidal—the ground was too rough. The boulders and rocks would confound the most sure-footed horse. If he had his choice, he would have led the herd completely around this bottleneck. Unfortunately, there was no other way to get through these mountains.

  Jake squinted against the late-afternoon sun, looking for any sign of movement. He didn’t see anything, but the hair standing up on the back of his neck told him something wasn’t right. He half turned in the saddle and motioned Brody and Dakota toward him.

  “I’m going to check out the rest of the pass,” he told them. “You two take the ridgelines.”

  Jake was done first, so he went to help Brody and Dakota. It took the better part of two hours to check out the craggy peaks. It was tough riding up there and they had to dismount and walk their horses more than once. He was just damn glad they didn’t find anyone lurking around.

  “Go tell them the coast is clear,” he said to the two men when they were done. “I’m going to take lookout. And tell Miss Buchanan I want her back with Elmer and the draggers.”

  As the longhorns slowly made their way through the pass, Jake scanned the ridge for trouble. Every so often, he glanced toward the rear of the formation for Elmer’s chuck wagon and Sadie. Despite the dust and heat waves, he spotted her long, blond hair easily as it whipped around in the wind. She’d tried a dozen different methods to try and keep her mane under wraps, but none of them proved successful. His mouth edged up. Seems her hair was a lot like she was—fiercely determined to be free and do things its own way.

  Jake turned his attention to the front of the procession again. The largest bulk of the herd was beginning to wind its way through the narrowest section of the gulch below him. He moved with them, carefully guiding his horse forward on the rough t
errain of the slope. Ahead of him, the first of the longhorns had made it through the narrow section and were starting to spread out a little. That allowed the ones behind then to finally move faster.

  “That’s it,” he muttered to himself. “Keep it moving.”

  Down in the ravine, the cows picked up their pace as if they’d somehow heard his words. But this was still going to take a while.

  Jake started forward again, then stopped as a flash of movement of the opposite ridgeline caught his eye. He squinted, trying to see what it was, and realized it was merely some dirt that had gotten kicked up by a falling rock.

  Falling rock.

  Shit.

  “Up there, on the ridge!” he shouted as loud as he could to be heard over the thrum of hoofs thumping the ground.

  Jake didn’t wait to see if anyone below had heard him. Lifting his rifle, he brought the stock up to his cheek and levered the cocking mechanism. It would be a long shot from this side of the gulch, and he risked spooking the cattle, but he had to do something.

  On the other side of the ravine, eight figures rose out of the dirt as if from shallow graves. Damn. The clever little jackasses had buried themselves, knowing Jake and his men wouldn’t see them when they rode by.

  And Jake, the drovers and all the longhorns were right where the sons-of-bitches wanted them—halfway through the gulch with no way to get through and no way to turn around.

  It was impossible for Jake to get a clear shot, not with the bastards hiding behind boulders like they were. Boone’s men would be able to pick Sadie and the men off one by one.

  Movement on the other ridgeline made his gut clench. Boone’s men weren’t hiding behind the boulders. They were pushing them down the slope. Jake had been so worried about them shooting, he hadn’t even considered they might do something like that. Now, Sadie and the ranch hands were going to pay the price. And all he could do was watch. Dammit to hell!

  Jake ripped his gaze away just before impact. The sound told him more than he wanted to know. The thought of Sadie lying on the ravine floor crushed beneath a boulder hurt so much he could barely stay upright on his horse. He was going to kill every last one of those bastards.

  Lifting his rifle to his cheeks again, he scanned the ridgeline across from him when he caught a glimpse of long, blond hair blowing in the wind. He looked down to see Sadie atop her horse, trying to herd the cattle. Thank you, God.

  Jake took a second to do a quick head count. He’d be damned. None of the ranch hands had gotten hurt in the avalanche. Some of the longhorns weren’t so lucky.

  Gunshots echoed in the gorge as Boone’s men opened fire. Jake leveled his rifle and took aim, then peppered the top of the ridge with as much lead as he could. Below him, Sadie and the ranch hands did the same. From this distance, none of them were going to be very accurate, but they could always get lucky.

  Across the way, the bad guys started going down one by one, though whether it was because they got hit or because they were a bunch of chicken-shits and were ducking for cover, he wasn’t sure.

  A rumble in the ravine made Jake pause in the act of reloading. He looked down. Half the cows were charging forward toward the mouth of the gorge. The other half had turned around and were heading back the way they’d come—right toward Sadie, Elmo and the draggers.

  Fuck.

  Forgetting about Boone’s men, Jake spun his horse around. He had to get to Sadie or she’d be trampled to death.

  *

  SADIE HEARD THE stampede before she saw it. At first, she thought it was more boulders rolling down the side of the gorge, then she caught sight of the longhorns lumbering toward her, Elmer and the draggers. Her first instinct was to try and stop them, but then she remembered what Jake had said.

  “Elmer! Mack! Gus!” She could barely hear her voice over the noise, but that didn’t stop her from shouting anyway. “We need to get out of here!”

  She hesitated only long enough to make sure they followed, then turned and bolted for the sides of the gulch. It probably would have been smarter to ride for the mouth of the ravine, but that’s where the cattle were headed, and she didn’t want to take the chance they might be faster than her horse. The poor mare was already so spooked Sadie had a hard time controlling her. She made it about twenty feet up the slope before it was too steep to climb anymore. She was high enough that the longhorns couldn’t hurt her, though.

  Sadie twisted around in the saddle, instinctively searching for Jake. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been near the front of the line, but she couldn’t make out anything up that way now. She only prayed he was safe.

  She turned back to look down at the stampede again and felt her heart stop. Elmer and his chuck wagon were stuck in the middle of the dry riverbed. She’d thought the old man would abandon the big wagon, but he’d tried to turn it around and had gotten himself all choked up in the sand and rock on the floor of the gulch. What the heck had he been thinking? The wagon wasn’t nimble enough to turn in the tight confines of the ravine. Even if it was, the four horses pulling it were practically insane with panic. They weren’t going to pay attention to what Elmer was trying to get them to do.

  Luckily, most of the cattle were attempting to go around the wagon. That didn’t mean it was probably any less terrifying for Elmer and the horses. Sadie thought they might make it out unharmed, but then a longhorn caught the back side of the wagon and ripped out part of the rail on one side. The rear wheel lifted off the ground, then crashed down hard, but didn’t fall off. Thank God, the cow had only grazed the wagon. But what if the next one didn’t? If they hit the cart broad side, the whole thing would go over. Elmer and the horses would be crushed.

  Pulse racing, Sadie tightened her grip on the reins and took off down the slope. She had to dodge around the stampeding longhorns as she went, something that got trickier to do as more and more of them poured down the gulch. She swore as a cow slammed headlong into her horse’s hindquarters and almost knocked her out of the saddle. Beneath her, the mare squealed in alarm. Sadie tensed as she prepared to hit the ground. Somehow, though, the animal managed to keep her feet. She shuddered to think what would have happened to her if the horse had gone down.

  It seemed like hours before she finally reached Elmer’s wagon. Holding on to her mare with one hand, she leaned out and grabbed the bridle of the lead cart horse closest to her, then yanked the big bay in the direction she wanted him to go. The frightened animal resisted, but when he figured out she wasn’t letting go, he finally gave in and went where she wanted.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Elmer cried from atop the wagon. “You’re gonna get yourself killed. Get out of here while you have the chance!”

  “Get the horses moving!” Sadie shouted back. While the bay wasn’t fighting her any longer, the rest of the team was.

  Elmer hesitated, but then started working the reins and doing everything he could to get the horses to move. Even with both of them working together, it took forever to get the cart going in the right direction. When they finally did, she gave the lead horse a slap on the rump and got him moving.

  “Stay close to the wagon!” Elmer called as she followed alongside.

  Sadie took his advice. Not that she had much of a choice with the cattle stampeding around them. Thank God the entrance to the gulch was just up ahead. A few hundred yards and they’d be home free. She nudged her horse with her heels, urging the mare faster.

  Suddenly, one of the longhorns in front of the wagon ran headlong into a pile of rocks and went down. Elmer jerked hard on the reins in an effort to avoid the collapsed beast, but it was too late. The horses on the left side of the team went over the downed animal first, losing their footing and dragging the other two horses down along with them. That skewed the whole wagon to the right and made the left front wheel dig into the soft sand. Before Elmer could even try to get the thing righted, momentum tossed the cart up in the air.

  Sadie could only watch in horror as the wagon flipped ov
er and over, sending Elmer and everything inside flying. Which was probably a good thing since the longhorns ran right over the cart and horses that had been pulling it, trampling everything in their path.

  Sadie looked around wildly for Elmer. He was lying on the ground a dozen feet away, unmoving. She didn’t know if he was alive or not, but she wasn’t about to let him get trampled. She wheeled her horse around and rode toward him, praying the old man would get up. But he didn’t move.

  Reining in her horse, she jumped off and ran over to Elmer. She hooked her arms under his shoulders and tried to lift him. She grunted. Good God, he was heavy. There was no way she could get him on her horse. She couldn’t leave him here, though. Grabbing hold of him again, she dragged him toward what was left of the chuck wagon.

  Elmer groaned as he bounced against the rocky ground. Relief coursed through Sadie at the sound. She’d been afraid the poor man was dead.

  Pulling him the last few feet to the cart, she shoved him as close to it as she could, then covered his unconscious body with hers and prayed. The ground shook around her as the cattle ran for safety. Hoofs clipped her back and head as the crazy beasts leaped over her. She winced as pain shot through her shoulder. The broken wagon wouldn’t protect her and Elmer for long.

  The sound of a man’s shout made her jerk her head up. She stared wide-eyed, sure she was seeing things. Jake couldn’t—wouldn’t—do something as crazy as ride down the sheer wall of the ravine. The pitch was so steep his horse was almost sliding downhill on its rump.

  Sadie held her breath. He had to be insane. Or brave. Or both.

  The horse came out of his slide just as his front hoofs hit the dry riverbed. Jake didn’t give the animal a chance to hesitate. Instead, he urged him forward—right into the midst of the stampede.

  What the hell was he doing? He’d be crushed!

  But miraculously Jake made it all the way to where she and Elmer were huddled behind the wagon. While Sadie was ecstatic to see him, she had no idea how he could possibly help. It wasn’t like Jake could get her and Elmer on his horse with him. If he even lived long enough to try.