“Be careful, Maggie,” Erin said with a laugh. “Given Ace’s and Hazard’s appetites, you and Chance might find yourselves with a couple of unwanted boarders.”
Ace grinned. “Or we could just kidnap her and force her to cook us a lifetime supply of meals before we release her.”
“I think your big brother might have something to say about that.” Cody ambled in from the barn and hung his hat by the door before making his way to the table.
“I don’t think he’s big enough to take on both of us.” Ace downed his glass of juice in one long swallow.
“Don’t start feeling too frisky.” Chance brushed a kiss over his wife’s cheek, then helped himself to a cup of coffee. “There are some things a man’s willing to fight for.”
“Such as?” Ace prompted.
“For one thing, good loving. And for another, good cooking. With Maggie, I caught the prize. So watch it. Try to kidnap my woman, I’d have to fight you both.”
They were still laughing when the phone rang. Hazard picked it up and listened in silence.
From her place at the table, Erin saw the frown line between his brows suddenly deepen. His mouth tightened into a tight line.
“Thanks, Peterson. Yeah. I’ll be up there right away.” He slammed down the receiver and turned away.
There was no need to ask. Everyone could see that the news had been grim. It could only mean more dead calves.
“How many this time?” Ace watched as Hazard picked up his coffee cup and drained it.
“They’ve counted seven so far.” He touched a hand to Erin’s shoulder, and she closed a hand over his, wishing she could offer more than a touch.
“There could be more.” Hazard turned to Cody. “I’d like to get up to Peterson’s right away.”
“Sure thing, Hazard.” The old cowboy stuffed a last bite of pancake and sausage into his mouth, then walked to the door, where he retrieved his hat.
Hazard squeezed Erin’s shoulder before turning away. He took a ring of keys from a peg beside the door and was still slipping into his parka as he made his way to the truck.
In the silence that followed, Erin pushed away from the table. “Excuse me.”
As she started to leave the kitchen, Maggie glanced at her plate. “Erin, you didn’t eat a thing.”
“I’m not hungry. I just want to get to the lab.”
“But you—” Before Maggie could issue a further protest, Chance closed his hand over hers.
He looked at Erin and could see the anguish in her eyes. “We understand. Go ahead.”
She nodded.
“Erin,” Maggie called. “If it won’t interrupt your work, I’d like to drop by later with a snack.”
“Thanks.” She tried to smile, but her lips merely trembled. “I’d appreciate that.”
Then she was gone. Racing along the hallway until she made her way to the one place where she could be of some use.
Erin pored over her notes all morning and into the afternoon. There had to be something she was missing. Some tiny clue that would link these deaths. She thought back to some of the tough cases she’d dealt with. There had been a parasite that had nearly decimated an entire herd before she’d identified it, and it was found breeding in the pond that was used as the herd’s water supply. And then there was the new strain of virus that had been passed from a herd of deer to a nearby rancher’s cattle. That had taken hours of lab work to identify. But none had challenged her like this one. She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. What good was this brain she’d been given if she couldn’t use it to help the man she loved?
She took a deep breath. Maybe that was part of the problem. She’d become so intimately involved in this, she was allowing her emotions to get in the way. She needed to take a step back. To think clearly. Like a researcher and not like a lover.
She stood, rolling her shoulders. She caught sight of the lunch Maggie had so generously brought to her. The soup was now cold. The salad wilted. She’d forgotten to take even one sip from the pot of tea.
As she moved around the room she pressed her fingers to her temples, willing herself to think. Something was killing those calves. Not a predator, Hazard said. They’d died a bloodless death. And that put the mystery squarely in her hands. This was her area of expertise. What she’d been trained for. The work she’d always carried out with such pride. Except that, in this case, she couldn’t find any logical reason for these deaths. The serum samples looked normal. As did the preliminary testing on the tissue samples.
She stopped. Turned around. Paced the other way.
Think, she commanded. Something was missing. What was it? What was she overlooking?
Sometimes the path was clear from the beginning, and all it took was a confirmation of facts. At other times a researcher merely stumbled on the answer by accident. And then there were those times when every road seemed to lead to a dead end. When every question merely presented another and another. Then a researcher had to be reminded of the necessary components that led to a logical conclusion. The pathway was always the same. Through patience and persistence.
She went back to the microscope. Peered again at the tiny sample of tissue. And began jotting in her notebook.
“Okay, Doctor. Time to call it a day.”
Erin looked up in surprise. The light outside the windows had faded to dusk. Hazard stood in the doorway of the lab, wearing clean denims and a plaid shirt. Drops of water from the shower still glistened in his dark hair.
“I can’t stop yet. I have one more test to run on this sample.”
“No more tests.” He crossed the room and turned her stool around until she was facing him. Then he slipped off her glasses and lowered his mouth to hers, lingering over the sweet, clean taste of her. He was still pleasantly surprised each time he felt that little jolt to his system. “Mmm. Thanks.” He took the kiss deeper. “I needed that.”
“So did I.” She looked up as he straightened. “Bad day?”
He nodded.
“What was the final tally?”
“Nine calves dead. All in a cluster. They looked like dominoes that had fallen, one after the other.” He glanced beyond her to where the forgotten lunch had now become a congealed blob. “I’ll bet you haven’t eaten a thing today.”
She shrugged. “I forgot.”
“Yeah. I know how that is.”
She touched a hand to his cheek. His eyes, she noted, looked weary. “Didn’t you eat anything, either?”
“No time. But I will now. Come on. It’s dinnertime.”
“Tell Maggie I’ll be a little late.”
“Maggie isn’t making dinner tonight.”
Erin arched a brow. “Is she sick?”
“Nope.” He gave a dry laugh. “My brothers and I have decided we all need a change of scenery. So we’re taking you and Maggie into town.”
“Maggie’s going to eat at the E.Z. Diner?”
“Even worse.” He collected the samples and placed them in their containers, then set them in the refrigerator. Then he returned to help her off the stool, linking his fingers with hers.
As they headed toward the door he said, “We’re going to entertain you with the local color at Clancy’s.”
She paused. “Should I clean up first?”
He laughed. “If anything, you should probably try to look a bit more rumpled. In those brand-new jeans you’ll be the best-dressed woman in the place.”
Ace held the door. “Brace yourselves, ladies. This is the last breath of fresh air you’ll breathe until you leave Clancy’s.”
Erin and Maggie stepped inside and glanced around, trying to see through the pall of smoke. It was a big square room with a long, narrow bar that ran the length of one wall. Scattered around the room were scarred wooden tables and chairs, some small and intimate enough for a couple, others shoved together for a party of ten or more. In the middle of the room were the pool tables. Eight of them, with a hanging lamp over each. Country music blasted from a j
ukebox. Waylon was wailing about lost love in a small town.
“Are there any other women in here?” Maggie studied the row of men at the bar sipping their drinks and talking among themselves. “Or are we the only ones crazy enough to be dragged inside?”
“It’s pretty much a guy place.” Ace sauntered inside, as comfortable as if he were in his own home.
“Which usually guarantees that there will be women here before the night is over,” Chance muttered. “That is, if they want to see their men.” He looked toward the bar and paused. “Hey, Hazard, isn’t that Russ Thurman?”
Hazard frowned. Without a word he strode forward while the others remained by the door. He stopped behind the row of bar stools.
“Russ.”
The man turned. His lips curved into a sly grin. “Hey, Boss. Didn’t expect to see you here.”
“I bet you didn’t. I thought I spotted one of the ranch trucks parked out front. What’re you doing in town?”
“Just taking a little break.”
Hazard’s eyes narrowed. “How little?”
“An hour or two. A quick supper and a chance to look at something prettier than all those damned cows.”
“Who’s handling your chores?”
The man shrugged and took a long pull on his beer. “Cody and the others will cover for me. I do the same for them sometimes.”
“What time are you planning on heading back?”
“Soon as I wash the taste of manure out of my system.” Russ set his empty beer bottle down on the counter and shot Hazard a challenging look. “You got a problem with that?”
“Just see that you carry your share of the load.”
Thurman’s voice deepened with anger. “I don’t need you to tell me how to work.”
“Somebody better. Did you clear this absence with Peterson?”
“Don’t worry about Peterson. He knows enough to give me some room.” He glanced toward the door. “I see you brought the fancy doctor. Looks like you two are getting pretty cozy.”
When Hazard didn’t respond he grinned. “Wouldn’t have thought she’d care much for the nightlife of Prosperous. Looks more like the opera and ballet type to me. That’s probably where she’ll be dragging you soon enough.”
Without a word Hazard turned his back and walked to where the others were waiting.
“Come on.” He put a hand beneath Erin’s elbow and steered her toward a table at the far end of the room, putting as much distance as possible between them and the men at the bar.
“I don’t know why you keep Russ on,” Chance muttered under his breath. “He’s the laziest son of a—” He glanced at Maggie and Erin and finished, “He’ll find any excuse to avoid working.”
“I know. But it’s calving season. I need every hand I can get. Even one as lazy as Thurman.”
Erin squeezed his hand, and he forced himself to put his anger aside.
Ace trailed slowly behind the others, carefully looking over the pool players as he passed each table. They called out greetings, which he cheerfully returned.
As he took his seat Chance grinned. “Looking over potential suckers?”
“Yeah. And I think I’ve already found one.” Ace nodded toward the lanky cowboy sporting a straggly red beard. “Cole Benson fancies himself a pool hustler. I’ll let him believe that for a while longer, before I relieve him of his money.”
The minute they were seated, a young woman in tight, faded jeans and a midriff-baring T-shirt hurried over to take their orders. She’d tried to tame her curly blond hair by tying it back into a wild ponytail. It looked as though it had just come through a wind tunnel.
“Hi, Chance. Hazard.” She smiled at each of them in turn, but saved her biggest smile for Ace. “I didn’t expect to see you in here tonight, Ace.”
“It was a surprise to me, too. Beryl Spence, this is my sister-in-law, Maggie, and a friend of ours, Dr. Erin Ryan.”
“Ladies.” Beryl gave them each a friendly nod. “What can I bring you?”
Ace turned to Maggie and Erin. “I recommend something that comes in a bottle. Beer, preferably. Or soda.”
They settled on five long-necks, and by the time Beryl returned with a tray of drinks, they had been persuaded by Ace that the only thing on the menu that was edible was the daily special.
“At least,” he warned them, “you’ll know it was made fresh today. There’s no telling how old the rest of this stuff is.”
Maggie wrinkled her nose.
Erin kept her thoughts to herself.
“So, Beryl.” Ace looked up as she set their drinks in front of them. “What’s today’s special?”
“Chili.”
“Have you tasted it?” Chance asked.
“Yep.” She nodded. “Had some just before I started work.”
“Is it hot?” Maggie asked dubiously.
“Hot enough that it almost blew the top of my head off. In fact, look what it did to my hair.” The young waitress laughed goodnaturedly at her little joke, and the others joined in.
“Okay,” Ace said. “That’s good enough for me. I’ll have a big bowl.”
“Make it two,” Chance said.
Hazard nodded. “Three.” He turned. “How about you, Erin?”
She nodded. “I could use a little curl in my hair.”
They laughed as they looked toward Maggie, who had taken the time to read every item on the menu. Twice. She looked up. Sighed in resignation. “Yeah. Why not? Chili.”
Beryl walked away, calling out their order to the cook who was frying burgers on a grill behind the bar.
“So this is the famous Clancy’s.” Maggie leaned back and took a long look around. “I just don’t understand the attraction, Ace.”
He shrugged, his gaze still fastened on the cowboy who was chalking his cue stick. “I guess it doesn’t make any sense to anyone else. But it’s been my second home since I was old enough to drink and gamble.”
“You mean before you were ‘legally’ old enough,” Chance said with a laugh. “I remember getting a call from Clancy when you were only in ninth grade. He’d tossed you out on your rear after you’d hustled a couple of cowboys out of their paychecks. He ordered you to stay out until you were old enough to drink.”
Ace chuckled, remembering. “It was easier to hustle when I was younger. Everybody was eager to relieve me of my money. They couldn’t believe a kid could beat them.”
“And the hell of it is, you always won.” Chance grinned at his brother over the edge of his bottle. “Even when you were too young to shave, you were already a whiz on a pool table.”
“I come by it naturally.” Ace assumed an air of false modesty. “I learned at my daddy’s knee.”
“Do you remember the first time you beat Dad?” Hazard sat forward in his chair. “I think you were about ten.”
“Nine.” Ace laughed. “We had that beat-up old three-legged pool table that Clancy had thrown away. Dad brought it home and stuck it in the middle of the great room.”
“Yeah.” Chance smiled, remembering. “He put a stack of books under it until it was level. And then after supper he’d challenge us to play him for quarters.”
“That’s how he managed to get us to work the ranch without ever having to pay us,” Hazard said. “We always owed him a bundle by payday.”
Chance and Ace nodded.
“The first time you beat him,” Hazard mused aloud, “Dad thought it was a great joke. But when you started beating him regularly, I could see that he didn’t know whether to be proud of your skill or mad that he’d lost his touch.”
“The first time I won more on a pool hustle than I could earn doing ranch chores, Dad realized he’d created a monster. After that there was no stopping me.” Ace kept one eye on the pool tables, watching all the different games in progress. Even when Beryl sidled up to their table with their dinner on a tray and leaned over him to pass around the food, he saw only the winners and losers of the various games.
“Here it
is, folks.” Beryl passed around big bowls of steaming chili, topped with cheese and onions. In the middle of the table she placed a basket of crackers and a heaping platter of chili-covered fries.
“You might want to bring us a pitcher of ice water and some glasses,” Hazard suggested. “In case this chili is as hot as you described.”
“Sure thing.” She walked away and returned minutes later with ice water.
Erin took her first taste and felt her eyes glaze over.
“How is it?” Hazard asked.
“It’s—” she grabbed the glass and took several long gulps before managing to whisper “—very spicy.”
Across the table Maggie was determined to choke down the food if it killed her, which, she feared, it might very well do. She was pleasantly surprised when she had her first taste.
“Well?” Chance demanded.
She smiled. “It’s really good.”
“See?” Ace’s bowl was already half-empty. “And you guys thought I only came here to hustle pool.”
The others burst into laughter.
“Ace,” Hazard said matter-of-factly, “try that con on somebody else. We know you too well, remember? The truth is, if Clancy hired Agnes to cook, you’d still come here. You can’t stay away.”
“Maybe.” He polished off the last of his chili and signaled Beryl for another. “At least I’d still be here challenging the pool players. But I think I’d draw the line on eating here if Agnes was doing the cooking.”
“Ah, well,” Hazard said with a smile, “there’s always Thelma’s brand of poison down the street at the E.Z. Diner.”
“That reminds me.” Maggie turned to Chance. “I have to stop by and have a visit with Thel before we go back to the ranch. It would be unforgivable to be this close and not take the time to see how she’s doing.”
He nodded. “Okay. As soon as we’re finished eating, we’ll have coffee and pie with Thelma.” He looked over at Hazard and Erin. “Want to join us?”
Hazard shrugged. “Let’s just see how the evening goes.” He could see Erin staring around with a look of pure fascination. It occurred to him that she had probably never been in a bar before. At least not one as rough as Clancy’s.
Hazard Page 17
