Chapter Nine
Link walked around the back of the barn and cocked his ear toward the distant fields. The sun hadn’t risen above the hills, and the morning air was still cool. His breath came out in white puffs. The moon was at the crest of the hills preparing to slip away for the day.
While he was in the barn, he could have sworn he’d heard the rumble of truck. But now, nothing, except the birds beginning to wake.
A distant flash caught his eye. What the hell? He tried to get a sense of where it was coming from, but even though the hills looked close, he knew they were many miles away. Whatever it was, flashed again. Damn. If he had his binoculars he could catch whatever it was in his sights.
“What’re you looking at?” Cooper came up beside him.
“I thought I heard a truck, and now I’m seeing flashes of light. As soon as we’re done with chores, we’re heading out and do some searching.”
Cooper nodded. “Last night when I was hitting the sack, I thought I saw something.”
The sun crested over the hill. Link shaded his eyes with his hands. “I think we may have some rustlers.”
“That would make sense with the cut fences.”
Link walked back to the barn, checking over his shoulder as he did. “Did Joe and Ray come in this morning?”
“No. They didn’t call in, either.”
As the brothers entered the barn, two trucks came into the yard. “There they are now.” Cooper checked his watch. “Only an hour late. We may have to can those two.”
“I agree.” He lifted a bale a hay. “I’ll have Jade rake the hay in the field closest to the barn while we’re gone so it dries out. We need to get it baled this afternoon. Let’s meet in an hour and head out.”
“I’ll get Jade to pack us some lunch,” Cooper said, glancing at the two men standing by their trucks. Mud caked their boots and bottoms of their pant legs.
Link followed his brother’s line of sight. “They look as if they’ve been mucking around. Wonder how they could have gotten so muddy this early in the morning.”
Coop walked toward the house. “Good question.”
“Have Jade pack extra food and grab the inventory book,” he yelled after Cooper, keeping an eye on the two men. “It could take all day keeping track of the cattle.” Link didn’t miss the look passing between Joe and Ray. Suspicion settled in his gut. If there were any cattle missing, he had a feeling these two knew something about it.
Several hours later, Link slapped the inventory book shut and put it in the saddlebag. “Shit. Looks like we’re missing fifteen cows and their calves.” He removed his hat and swiped his sleeve across his damp forehead. Matching ear tags on the cattle to the inventory list was hard work. Even with four men working, it took a good part of the morning.
With no suspicious actions, Joe and Ray had worked as hard as Coop and him.
Cooper took a swallow from his water bottle. “And that’s just from this area. We haven’t even looked at the other two.”
Link guided Sorrowful to his employees. “What’s your take on the missing cattle?”
Joe shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’ve been hearing of some rustling being done in the area, but I haven’t heard anything about your ranch.”
Link narrowed his eyes as the men. “You’d tell me if you did, wouldn’t you?”
Ray stared at his gloves, then at Link. “Boss, I can tell you honestly that Joe and I want nothing to do with any rustling. Maybe the lost cows and calves headed to another field or something.”
Was he telling the truth? Joe kept his eyes averted. Something was off, he just knew it. Felt it in his gut. If they weren’t rustling, then they sure as hell knew who was.
“Maybe,” he said after a few seconds. “Let’s take a lunch break before we head to the north range.”
As they ate their ham and cheese sandwiches, Link thought about the rustling, because despite Ray’s idea of the cattle wandering off, he knew for sure they were gone. Besides the ear tags, he and Coop kept it secret that each animal was marked with their unique number behind their ears. Ear tags were easy enough to remove, but not the special ink they used.
Fat lot of good it did, when the rustled cattle would be long gone before markings could be checked. Shit. So far the ranch was out at almost thirty thousand dollars. And that didn’t take the calves into consideration. Calves that went a long way to building a herd.
It was hard to tell how the cattle were being moved. So far they hadn’t seen any sign of equipment. No four-wheeler or truck tracks. The herd followed trails that snaked through the property. Anyone could cull some out and lead them down a trail to a waiting truck.
Link wiped his hands on his pants and rose. “Let’s get back to work so we can get home sometime in the next century.”
****
The sun was beginning to dip in the sky when Link cantered Sorrowful toward the ranch, Coop, Joe, and Ray following. As they came closer, the rumble of a tractor engine grew. Who was driving the tractor? He hadn’t told Jade to start baling, just to rake. Even though he was bone-weary, baling had to be done before dew made the hay wet again.
They came over a small rise. What the hell? The field they were to work tonight was dotted with large, round bales. Jade was using the fork on the red tractor to move bales to the edge of the field. A green tractor on the other side of the field was stopped. A lone figure, bent at the waist, seemed to be working on the round baler, probably re-loading it with green netting. Who had Jade gotten to help? Had she called a neighbor?
The sun caught a reflection of the person’s hair hanging from beneath a baseball cap. Gold mixed with flames of red. Red? Hell. Trudy. What the hell did she think she was doing? She was going to kill herself. He slapped the reins against Sorrowful’s flank and dug in his heels.
“C’mon, boy. We need to save that damn fool’s life.” By the time he raced across the field, Trudy had climbed into the idling tractor. As if she’d been doing it all her life, she drove the tractor down the row of hay. Link stopped a few feet in front of the tractor and waved his arms to get her attention.
Since she was watching the baler, she didn’t see him right away. He rode alongside the cab, continuing to wave his arms.
“Finally,” he muttered when she saw him. Leaving the tractor on, she opened the door.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he yelled above the engine.
“Baling your hay.” She put the tractor into park, letting it idle. “What does it look like I’m doing? The waltz? Now get out of my way so I can get back to work.” She started to pull the door shut.
“Wait.”
“What now?” She frowned and looked at the sky. “There’s only a few more hours of daylight. Jade and I want to get this done.”
He swallowed around the lump in his throat. He was a fool. “You’re not a city slicker, are you?”
Her grin set his teeth on edge. “How many city slickers do you know that can drive a tractor, a round baler, change the netting in the baler, and drive a skidsteer to move the bales?”
“You played me for a fool, letting me believe you were a city slicker.”
“No, Mr. Phister. You played yourself for a fool, thinking that’s what I was and never giving me a chance to say otherwise.”
“You were raised on a farm?”
“All my life. Been driving a tractor since I was eleven.”
Link tipped his hat back and shook his head. “Well, I’ll be damned. I should have guessed when you knew what Angus were.” He paused a moment as heat flushed through him. “I don’t like being made a fool of.”
Trudy cocked her head to the side and sighed. “Then don’t act like one.” She slammed the door shut, put the tractor back in gear, and continued down the row, giving her full attention to what she was doing.
Before turning Sorrowful toward the ranch, Link watched her. Damned if she wasn’t following the rows perfectly. He didn’t know whether to laugh or swear. The anger he initially felt was dissipating into something more in tune with humor. She’d really played him. And he probably deserved it.
He rode up alongside his brother. Joe and Ray must have gone to the barn.
“What the hell was wrong with you?” Coop asked. “You raced across the field as if the tractor was on fire.”
“You knew, didn’t you?”
Coop’s eyebrows nearly covered his eyes. “Knew what?”
“That she was a farm girl.”
“Yep.” Coop grinned, letting him know he’d been played by more than Trudy.
“Jade?”
“Yep.”
Link dismounted and led Sorrowful to the barn. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you were acting like such a jerk. You assumed because she had trespassed and it was during the week, that she was from the city.” Coop got down from his horse and followed. “Did you even ask where she was from?”
“No.” Link pulled off the saddle and hung it over a sawhorse used for that purpose. The bridle followed. “I guess I’ve been a little narrow-minded.”
Coop paused from grooming his horse. “Ya think? We figured you needed to learn a lesson.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not the one you need to apologize to.”
Link swept the brush down Sorrowful’s flanks. He’d apologized once and botched it up. What would go wrong if he tried it again?
Besides being pretty, Trudy was funny, feisty, and obviously a farmer. Or once was a farmer. How did that saying go? You can take a girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of a girl? He was going to have to come up with some way to make amends to her.
“We should be happy she knows how to drive a tractor,” Cooper said, interrupting his thoughts.
“Why’s that?”
“Now, instead of baling hay, we can do chores and be done for the night.” Cooper led his horse into a stall, then gave it an armload of hay.
Link chuckled. “Good point. I’m rather tired from all that riding today.”
“There’s just one problem.” Cooper said.
Link rubbed a finger over his nose. What other problems were there? Wasn’t someone stealing their cattle was enough? “What’s that?”
“If the girls are baling hay, who the hell is making supper?”
Link slapped his brother on the back. “We’ll have Joe and Ray finish chores and we can make it.”
“Scrambled eggs?”
“What color?” he asked. When his parents were alive, his mother put food coloring in the egg mixture to get Jade and Marie to eat them. It became a tradition they’d carried on to this day.
“I’m in the mood for purple.”
“Purple it is.” Link threw an arm around Coop’s shoulders as they walked from the barn, his heart lighter than it had in years.