Cindy Holby (37 page)

“What the hell?”

“Watch your language. And let her go.”

“I think there’s been some sort of misunderstanding,” Jake started to say.

The rifle raised a notch. “I’m guessing you understand
this
, don’t you?”

“You want us to do something?” Dan said quietly from behind him.

“I got it,” Jake responded. “The last thing I want to do is kill some fool kid.” He raised his hands higher so the idiot with the rifle could see that he wasn’t holding a weapon, and with a squeeze of his knees, Skip, his mustang, moved forward, slowly, with Libby walking along by his side.

The rider, whoever he was, wore a coat that was way too big for him. It reached from neck to ankles and was made of heavy wool. He wore a wide-brimmed, flat-top Stetson that was pulled low over his face and a heavy knit scarf wrapped around his neck that covered any hint of skin. The rider was so laden down with trying to stay warm that Jake knew he could take him out before he had a chance to twitch his finger on the trigger.

“Take it easy,” Jake said as they approached. “I’m bringing the donkey, although I don’t know why anyone in the
world would want to steal the fool thing. She’s more trouble than she’s worth.”

“Like I said before. It’s my donkey.”

The rider sat on a small rise in the road. The moon was directly overhead and his features were lost in the shadow of his hat but the gloved hands on the rifle were small, albeit steady, and the tips of the boots that stuck out from beneath the folds of the coat barely showed.

“What are you? Twelve?” Jake asked as Skip stopped about a head’s length from the appaloosa.

“What are you?” the thief said after he cleared his throat. “Stupid?”

Jake tapped his heels and Skip charged full bore into the appaloosa. The appaloosa reared and Jake wrenched the rifle from the rider’s hands as he tumbled backward from the saddle.

Libby hee-hawed and kicked out, and the appaloosa, spooked, took off up the trail toward Dan and Randy, who quickly cut the horse off and grabbed its reins. Libby trotted a few steps away and turned to watch.

Jake jumped from Skip’s back and jabbed the business end of the rifle in the chest of the kid who lay sprawled in the snow.

“Ow,” a much more feminine voice said. Jake used the tip of the rifle to push the hat away from his…no, her face. The moonlight spilled down on delicate features and skin that looked like it should be on a porcelain doll. Her mouth was pursed into a pout that made his lips twitch with the urge to press a kiss against their fullness. Lush lashes formed crescent moons on her cheeks before she opened them to stare up at him with light blue eyes that captured the moonlight. Her hair was short and wispy, and its color was as pale as the moonbeams. It stuck out in every direction like tufts of grass.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked.

“Language,” she said as she pushed the rifle away.

“What are you, a Sunday school teacher?”

In the next instant Jake was lying on his back in the snow and she was standing over him with a .45 pointed at his chest. He heard Randy and Dan chortling in the background. He had to admire her. Tiny as she was, she’d managed to sweep his legs right out from under him with one of the slickest moves he’d ever seen.

“I’m the owner of that donkey that you stole,” she said vehemently.

“I didn’t steal her. She came to me.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow and the pistol she held in her left hand did not waver a bit. She was so petite he wondered how she could get her hand around it, but she did, and it was obvious she knew which end meant business.

“Yeah, Libby is madly in love with him,” Dan said.

“You’re fired,” Jake said. He didn’t take his eyes off the woman. He wasn’t worried for his life and he knew Dan wasn’t worried about his job. Jake knew his two men could take her out if they wanted to and were just cutting up, as he was, to put her at ease so she didn’t do anything stupid.

She raised the gun and took her finger from the trigger. “You do know her name…”

“And now you do too,” Jake said. “That doesn’t mean you knew it before.”

Her pale eyes changed. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Do you mind if I stand up? My ass is freezing.”

“Do you always talk like this?” she asked with a sigh.

“Only when someone tries to rob me and then dumps me in the snow.”

Randy and Dan snorted with laughter. The woman backed up a few feet but kept a tight hold on the pistol as Jake clambered to his feet and made a production of brushing the snow from the back side of his duster. She picked
up her rifle while Jake cleaned himself off and stuck the pistol in the pocket of her oversized coat.

“You can put the rifle away too,” Jake said as she stepped far enough back so that she could keep the rifle leveled on all three of them. “If I wanted to hurt you I would have done it already.”

“Well excuse me if I’ve heard that before.”

Jake found his hat and brushed the snow from it. “Lady, I don’t know who you are and where you are from but I can tell already that you have an attitude problem. So I suggest we both go to town and clear this up.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said indignantly.

“Then tell me who sold you the animal.” If she said Jim’s name he’d gladly turn Libby over to her. But he wasn’t about to give the donkey up just because some woman waved a gun in his face.

Her tone turned defensive and her hold on the rifle slackened. If Jake wanted to, he could jerk it from her hands. “I got her last fall from the livery in town. I don’t know his name as it was a friend of mine who bought her.”

“Well that sure does prove a lot,” Jake said. “How about we both go to town and we’ll see what the sheriff has to say about this.

“What?” she spouted. “Like I said, I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Suits me,” Jake said. “If this donkey is indeed yours then you can pick her up tomorrow at the livery. If she’s not…”

“Oh she’s mine,” she said. “And maybe I’ll have a word with the sheriff about how you wound up with her.”

“Fine,” Jake said. “You can both find me at the Heaven’s Gate.” As he didn’t trust her with the rifle he kept his eyes on her as he spoke to his ranch hand. “Randy, you can give her back her horse now.”

The tiny woman gave an exasperated sigh and clicked
her teeth together. The appaloosa responded by shaking her head. Randy let go of the reins and the little horse trotted over to her owner. “Stand back,” she said.

“Gladly.” Jake raised his arms wide. She guided the appaloosa to a rock buried in the snow and used it to gracefully swing into her saddle. “Believe me, I plan on staying as far away from you as possible,” Jake added.

She slammed the rifle into her scabbard. Without a backward glance she took off up the trail to Sam Parker’s spread.

“Well now, don’t that beat all,” Randy said as they watched her move up the trail.

Jake let out a heavy sigh before he slammed his hat onto his head and mounted Skip. “Boys, I am in desperate need of a drink.”