Angel

Chapter 9

Cassie had no fear riding toward that herd— well, not too much. But she knew what she was doing. She’d seen it done before. The animals had been spooked into the wild run by gunfire. Gunfire could turn them back. But as frightened as they were now, she had to wait until she was close before making her move to be sure her shots would startle them into turning back.

So she didn’t draw her rifle until she was almost upon them; then she fired off two rounds into the air, only the shots didn’t do what they were supposed to. Instead of the cattle veering off so they’d circle around on themselves, the herd split in two with Cassie now dead-center of the two halves. And those two halves quickly closed in on her.

Angel was cut off from reaching her by the terrified cattle rushing past him. He fired off a shot himself to clear a path to her, but he only succeeded in turning a few steers aside. There were just too many of them, and they were moving too fast for him to slip through. Yet she was trapped in the center of that mass, barely above it, and from what he could see, she’d lost control of her horse. Nor did the animal have enough room now to turn around on its own so it could at least move with the cattle. And then it floundered, its hind legs buckling under, and he saw the woman go down with it.

Suddenly Angel was in the grip of a fear worse than he’d felt the first time he’d nearly died. He had an acceptance of his own death now. It came with the job. This was different. This had him circling around far enough behind the herd so that he could ride into it, had him emptying his rifle into the mass, uncaring of what he hit, and yelling at the top of his lungs— and soon had him as enmeshed as Cassie was, with the bawling, pushing animals all around him. But at least he was moving with them, moving toward her, though he could no longer see her.

He heard another shot, but wasn’t sure if she’d fired it or if one of the two cowboys had finally shown up, racing along the outer edges of the mass to attempt to stop it. But after a moment Cassie’s horse appeared again, just up ahead, only Angel still couldn’t see her.

By the time he reached it, his heart seemed lodged in his throat. Finding Cassie on the other side, clinging to the saddle horn and using the horse as a shield, didn’t rid him of his fear, either. Until he got her off the ground…

He did that, reaching over her horse to yank her across the saddle. His instinct was to keep pulling until he had her safely on his own mount, but she was already bringing her leg over to sit up, so apparently she wasn’t too injured. He took her reins instead, and managed to get her horse turned so they could continue moving with the herd, gradually working their way to the edge of it.

Fortunately, most of the cattle were beyond them now, so it didn’t take that long to reach clear ground. But Angel didn’t stop until he came to a lone tree at the base of the hill the cattle had come over. There he dismounted and carefully lifted Cassie into his arms, carrying her under the tree to set her against the trunk.

She was as pale as death beneath the layer of dust they were both wearing now, which was why his voice was so sharp when he demanded, “Where are you hurt?”

“I’m all right,” she got out before a few seconds of coughing took over. “I just got my foot stepped on, but I don’t think anything’s broken. I could use some water, though. I feel like I’ve eaten half the dirt in Texas.”

That was not what he was expecting to hear. He was hunkered down beside her and didn’t move for several long moments as he stared at her. It took that long for it to sink in that she wasn’t hurt at all, was no more than shook up. And then his anger rose in proportion to his relief. But he kept it to himself. He felt like throttling her for the scare she’d just given him, but he reckoned she’d been through enough already. She didn’t need…

“Damn fool woman! Haven’t you got a lick of sense?”

He stood up as he shouted it, and didn’t wait for an answer, but marched over to get his water canteen from his horse. This he dropped carelessly in her lap when he returned. She didn’t reach for it immediately. She was too wary of his angry expression to move at all.

“Well?”

“I reckon I don’t,” she said appeasingly.

“Damned right you don’t! That was a stampede out there, lady. You don’t deliberately put yourself in the path of something like that.”

“I thought I could turn them. They were heading straight for the MacKauleys’ grazing land, and any of my father’s steers that they’ve been finding lately, they haven’t been giving back. We’re already missing about thirty head. I’ve tried to keep the herd contained because of it.”

“Which is likely why they were so easy to stampede,” he said in disgust. “So which side do you suppose we have to thank?”

She visibly relaxed now that he wasn’t shouting at her. She even washed out her mouth, then took a long swallow from his canteen before answering. “This has the mark of the Catlins on it. And the shots came from their direction.”

“The other side could have come around so you’d think so,” Angel pointed out.

“True, except the MacKauleys just threatened me straight out, but the Catlins don’t let a week go by that they don’t do something to hurry me on my way home. And neither side has tried to conceal what they’re doing or place the blame on the other. They want me to know it’s them.”

He thought that over while he watched her try to untie the knot on her bandana with shaky fingers. He finally hunkered down next to her to do it for her. She flinched as his hand came near, then just stared at him as he worked the knot loose and slipped the cloth from her neck.

“You should have put this on,” he said gruffly as he doused the red cloth with water and handed it back to her.

“I know, but there wasn’t much time to think about things like that, and, contrary to what you might think, they don’t come natural to me. I may have grown up on a ranch, but I’ve never worked with cattle the way my mama does.”

He said nothing to that, so she took a moment to scrub the grime from her face with the wet cloth. When she was done, he took it from her and rubbed a few places she’d missed. She stared at him in bemusement then.

“Why are you being so nice?”

His black eyes met hers with a frown. “So you don’t look so pitiful when I beat you.”

Cassie’s mouth dropped open. He reached over and lifted her chin to shut it. Then he doused the red cloth again and used it on his own dusty face. He’d had enough sense to cover his face with his bandana before riding into that cloud of dust the cattle had created, so he didn’t have as much to wipe off.

Cassie was testing her foot when he finished. “You want me to have a look at it?” he offered.

She gave him a sharp look after his last crack, but he appeared sincere. Yet to have his hands on her bare foot? The thought made her shiver. “No, thanks. My toes all move, so it’s no more than a bruise.”

His frown got darker as he stared at her foot. “It shouldn’t be even that, so I’ll ride over and pay ‘em a visit if you’ll point me in the right direction.”

“Them” had to be the Catlins. “Oh, no.” She shook her head emphatically. “Absolutely not.”

He stood up to growl at her. “Lady, that was a stampede we were just in. Someone could have got hurt, including me — in particular me. And especially you.”

“That wasn’t their intention.”

“To hell with their intention!” He was back to shouting. “You should have put a stop to this thing a long time ago. You didn’t break any laws that I can see. They got no right trying to drive you off.”

Cassie sighed when it occurred to her that he was angry now on her behalf, rather than at her.

That was much easier to deal with.

“At home when folks get mad at me, my mama has always taken care of it,” she admitted ruefully. “She protects me something fierce, I guess because I’m her only child. But her always dealing with my problems hasn’t let me gain much experience in handling them myself. I guess I’m not doing too well at my first attempt.”

“I noticed.”

She bristled at that quiet rejoinder. “Don’t think I couldn’t have done some threatening of my own and backed it up. I don’t wear a Colt just to shoot snakes. I know how to use it, probably as well as you do.” She ignored his snort. “But that’s not my way.”

“Maybe not, but it’s mine. And it’s things like this that I get hired for, so let me do what I’m good at.”

“What you’re good at is killing people, but I won’t have anyone killed because of something I started. Haven’t I made that clear yet?”

“When it just involves you, I’ll listen. When it involves me, I’ll damn well do something about it. Am I making myself clear, lady?”

“Now just a damn minute,” she said angrily as she scrambled to her feet. “No one around here has done anything to you. Don’t you dare make this personal.”

“It became personal when I realized who you are. You’re Colt’s neighbor, and he happens to be about the only man I call a friend. That makes it personal.”

She had no answer for that, since it hadn’t occurred to her that he’d see it that way. And it didn’t look like he was going to wait around for her further input, either. He was already heading for his horse.

She had to try anyway. “What are you going to do?”

He mounted before he said, “I’ll see the sheriff first. If the law will handle it, I’ll back off.”

That should have delighted her, but had her groaning instead. “Don’t waste your time. He’s a Catlin relative this year. He’d take care of a complaint against the MacKauleys, but against his own kin he won’t do anything.”

“Then I’ll have to have a talk with the Catlins after all,” he replied.

All she could think about then was that story he’d told about the partner who owned the sheriff, and how he’d taken the law into his own hands because of it. “Couldn’t you do things a little differently this time?”

“How’s that?”

“Guns aren’t the answer to everything. Could you maybe not shoot anyone around here? I–I would consider it a personal favor.”

He didn’t answer right away, and those sinful black eyes of his managed to unnerve her before his words did. “You already owe me, lady. I doubt you want your debt any higher— but I’ll keep it in mind.”

The color came hotly to her cheeks, but he didn’t stay to see it. She hoped he wouldn’t be able to find the Catlin ranch. She hoped Buck Catlin wouldn’t be there if he did, because Buck might not be as hot-tempered as the MacKauleys, but he was twice as arrogant. And how dare Angel make light of her request by reminding her of that ridiculous debt that they both knew he wasn’t serious about? It was a joke — with heart-pounding possibilities.