Central Texas, 1896
Treachery!
A jagged flash of white-hot energy sliced through the canyon shadows, highlighting five men herding cattle into a makeshift corral below. Penny gasped, dadgummit, there they were. She crept closer to the overlook. Danged if her suspicions hadn’t proven true. The nerve of Jim Belton, thinking he could put something over on her. He might be her foreman now, but not for long.
Oppressive heat hung so heavy no air remained to breathe, and a bad storm threatened. Sweat beaded on her face and trickled between her breasts. No breeze stirred. Lightning flashed as clouds moved in, but the moon peeked through overhead.
She recognized that yellow-bellied coyote Jim joining with the rustlers. And after he’d been telling her how hard he’d been working to locate her missing cattle. Helping himself to her cattle was more like it. Well, now she knew what she had to do.
If this bunch thinks they can get around me because I’m a woman rancher, then my name isn’t Penelope Jane Terry. No one gets away with cheating me!
Flashes warned the heat lightning storm rapidly approached. A sudden breeze swirled around her, a sure sign the storm was eminent. Riding the range was dangerous in any storm, especially one with lightning. She’d linger a few minutes longer to see if she recognized any of the rustlers with Jim, then she’d skedaddle for home. Lightning’s discharge rocked the ground and sped her heartbeat.
Penny eased forward and crouched to gaze around a massive prickly pear cactus. Seeing Jim laugh as he spoke to another rider spiked her temper sharper than cactus needles. She clamped a lid on her anger—no sense committing suicide by giving herself away. That would please her worthless cousin all too well.
Charlie was already furious that she’d inherited the ranch instead of him. He’d known all his life that the ranch would go to her. What made him think that suddenly he had any right to her ranch?
As if he could run the spread without losing everything within two years. That’s what he’d done with Uncle Charles’ store. Charlie couldn’t even keep his wife and son fed without help from his Miller in-laws.
A pebble crunched and she pivoted, still in a crouch.
“Hello, little cousin.” Charlie’s smile appeared cold and deadly in the moonlight—and so did the six-shooter he pointed her way.
“You no-good varmint. I might have known you’d be in on this rustling.” Too late to pull her own revolver, but she jumped to her feet and faced her polecat cousin.
“I’ll get that ranch one way or the other. Should have been mine anyway.”
Penny grabbed a large pad of cactus and yanked it loose. Thank goodness for her leather riding gloves. A large bolt of heat lightning flashed much closer. Charlie winced. Penny lunged and smashed the cactus onto Charlie’s face. She ran for her horse, Star.
“Yeeoww! You stupid bitch. I’ll get you for that.” He yelled to his cronies, “Up here! The brat’s up here.”
She raced to where her mare, Star, stood and jumped into the saddle.
Penny shouted, “Run, Star, run!” Hooves pounded behind her but she dared not pause to see if others had joined Charlie in the chase.
Fear clutched at her chest. No one would come to her rescue. Only Jake, her cook, knew where she’d gone. Lawsy, he’d warned her not to go alone, but she hadn’t known who to trust. If she didn’t return, it would be his word against Jim’s and Charlie’s. Who knew how many of her ranch hands had joined the rustlers?
The whine of a bullet hissed past her. She pulled Daddy’s Colt and fired over her shoulder behind her. When she’d emptied the Colt’s bullets she holstered the revolver. She heard shouts as rustlers pursued her, and knew their horses galloped faster than her little mare.
If they catch me, I’m a goner for sure. There’s no shelter, nowhere to hide. I have to outrun them to the house. Will I even be safe there with only Jake to help me?
“Come on, Star, dig in your heels, girl.” The sweet little mare was not built for this kind of race.
Clouds covered the moon, and flashes of lightning boomed closer. A bullet sent her hat flying from her head and grazed her ear lobe. Dadgum! They were going to kill her for sure.
She pulled the Winchester from its saddle scabbard. Levering the rifle, she looked behind her and fired. The closest rider fell from his horse. Dear Lord, had she killed her own cousin?
A giant blaze of light shook the earth in front of her. Before Penny could rack another bullet into the chamber, Star reared then fell. Penny jumped free, the rifle still in her hands. She hit hard. Cradling the firearm to her, she rolled down an incline into darkness.