Wyoming Tough

by Diana Palmer

  It was a controversial technique that had, on occasion, polluted local water tables to the extent that water could be set on fire with a match, because of the gas that infiltrated the water. But that wasn’t Gelly’s concern; she only wanted the kick-back she was promised. It would be formidable. Then she could buy anything she wanted, instead of wearing things from a consignment shop. Fortunately for her, the brothers knew nothing about fashion and didn’t realize that she was only pretending the sophistication they saw. She had other plans, even bigger ones, once she cajoled Mal into marrying her. That would take more time. But Morie was a threat and she had to be removed.

  It would be easy enough. Mal already distrusted the new hire, and Morie was as dim as a low-battery flashlight. All Gelly had to do was play up to one of the young cowboys who liked her and watched her whenever she was around. A few sweet words, a few kisses, and he’d do whatever she asked. She’d already gained his confidence, pretended affection and concern for him, brought him presents. Little presents, cheap ones, like a ring with his initials on it. But they did the trick. She could use him to help her.

  Mal hated a thief more than anything. She smiled. It would be easy.

  MORIE WAS HELPING DARBY doctor a sick bull. The bull didn’t want help and made his resistance obvious by trying to kick both of them.

  “Come on, now, old fellow,” Darby said gently as he turned the bull around. “That sore place is infected, and it’s not going to get better without help. The vet said to put this on twice a day and we’re doing it, whether you like it or not!”

  “He really doesn’t like that salve.” Morie chuckled. “Oof!” she exclaimed when he shifted and knocked her down into the hay.

  “You okay?” Darby asked, worried.

  “Sure, just winded.”

  “Hey, Bates, come over here and help us!” he called to a young cowboy who’d just entered the barn.

  “Sure thing,” he called. “Just let me put away this horse. Ms. Bruner went riding and I showed her some of the good paths.” He flushed, remembering how sweet that ride had been. “She’s a real nice lady.”

  Darby and Morie gaped at him. He didn’t notice. He was still floating. Gelly had kissed him and whispered that she would do anything he liked if he would just do one little thing for her. All he had to do was place a priceless jeweled egg she’d taken from the Kirks’ living room in Morie’s rucksack. Such a small favor. She wasn’t going to get the girl in trouble; it had been Cane’s idea. It was a practical joke, nothing more…would he help? Of course he would!

  He chatted to Morie as he helped them with the reluctant bull. Boy, was Miss Morie in for a surprise, he thought merrily. She was a good sport. He didn’t know why Cane wanted to play a trick on her, but then, he didn’t understand rich people and their senses of humor in the first place.

  “Thanks, Bates,” Darby told him when they were finished. “You’re a good man.”

  “No problem,” he replied. “I love ranch work, even the dirty bits.”

  “Me, too,” Morie agreed, laughing. “It’s nice to be out in the open and not to work a nine-to-five job shut up in an office somewhere.”

  “That’s why I like it here so much.” Bates nodded. “Good land, fine cattle, nice people.”

  “Lots of nice people,” Morie agreed, and smiled at Darby.

  He returned her smile. “Okay, back to work. We’d better leave before Old Stomper here finds a way to corner us and kick us. Had that happen before. He sure hates being touched.”

  “Old Stomper?” Morie questioned when Bates had gone back to the horses.

  “He likes to step on cowboys,” he explained. “Broke a man’s foot during roundup.” He shook his head. “He’s one bad customer. But he’s the best breeding bull we’ve got, so he gets pampered.”

  “That’s Kirk’s Ransom 428, isn’t he?” she wondered aloud.

  His eyes almost popped. “Yes, how did you know?”

  “I, uh, look at sales papers.” She faltered. “I recognized him from his conformation.”

  Darby was speechless.

  “I’ve been around cattlemen all my life,” she said after a minute. “Certainly long enough to know a prize bull when I see one. I just didn’t recognize him while I was trying to keep from being shoved to death,” she added ruefully.

  He gave a short laugh and gave up his suspicions. “Sure. I can understand that.”

  “I guess I’d better get back out to the line cabin…”

  “Miss Brannt!”

  She and Darby turned at the cold and belligerent address.

  “Yes, sir, boss?” she asked.

  His eyes were as cold as his face was hard. “Come to the bunkhouse, please.” He turned and walked out.

  “The bunkhouse?” she wondered aloud. She went out with Darby and noticed that Bates was smothering a grin.

  Darby went with her. He knew the boss’s moods. That look was dangerous. He’d seen it be fore, when the cook, Vanessa, had been fired. He had a bad feeling and he looked at Morie with concern.

  They walked into the bunkhouse. Mallory was there, with Ms. Bruner and Cane and Tank. None of them were smiling.

  “Open your rucksack, please,” Mallory asked curtly.

  She lifted both eyebrows. “Sure. But why?” she asked as she retrieved it from her room and handed it to the boss.

  “Open it, please,” he repeated.

  She shrugged, put it down on the table near the door and opened it. She pulled out clothing, books and…

  Her expression was genuinely shocked. That was a replica of one of the famous Romanov Easter eggs that had originally been made for the czar of Russia and his wife. It was made of pure gold, which was going for over a thousand dollars a gram at current market prices, and studded with diamonds and sapphires, rubies and emeralds. It was worth a king’s ransom. She held it in her hand and gaped at it. She’d last seen it in the Kirks’ living room in a locked case. How…?

  She turned and looked at them. Ms. Bruner wasn’t smiling, but there was a look on her face that made Morie want to put her out a window.

  “This egg was left to us by our grandmother, who was given it as a Christmas gift from her husband decades ago,” Mallory said with ice dripping from every syllable. “It’s utterly priceless.”

  “At current gold prices, the gold alone would buy a Jaguar,” she murmured, shocked.

  “Interesting, that a poor working cowgirl would know that,” Mallory replied.

  She handed the egg to Mallory. Her eyes were full of abused pride. “You think that I would steal from you?” she asked quietly, and searched his face.

  “The evidence pretty much speaks for itself,” Mallory told her.

  She looked from his angry face to Cane’s shocked one and Tank’s bland one. Darby lifted his chin.

  “She’s no thief,” Darby said shortly. “I may not be the world’s best judge of character, but I’d bet my retirement on this girl’s honesty. Saw her run down a cowboy who dropped a five-dollar bill out of his wallet and didn’t notice. Not the act of a thief,” he added.

  “This was missing out of the case.” Mallory indicated the egg.

  “How did she get the key?” Tank asked aloud.

  “Mine is missing,” Mallory said coldly. His eyes narrowed on Morie.

  She just stared at him, with her heart breaking in her chest. She was damned without a trial. Everybody was looking at her with varying degrees of suspicion. She knew she’d been set up and she knew who did it—that Bruner woman, with some help, she would have bet, from that grinning cowboy in the barn who’d gone riding with her. Bates.

  But it would do no good to condemn him on a stray thought. Nothing she said was going to convince Mallory that she’d been set up. She could see that in his face. It twisted her heart. If he’d cared for her at all, he’d never have believed her capable of this.

  She stared at him with resignation. “I suppose you want to call the sheriff now,” she said, and thought how she was goin
g to explain this to her parents. Her father would be outraged. He’d come after Mallory with his team of family attorneys and it would be a major assault on the man’s reputation and wealth. Her father was vindictive. Especially where his children were concerned. Mallory Kirk had no idea what a hornet’s nest he was stirring up, nor did that Bruner woman, whose entire past would be laid out to public view when her dad got through.

  “No,” Mallory said, averting his eyes. “I won’t do that. But you’re resigning as of right now. I want you off my land in one hour. No more. And Darby will watch you pack, to make sure nothing else goes mysteriously missing.”

  Morie lifted her chin. Spanish royalty from three generations ago showed itself in her comportment and arrogance. “I have never stolen anything in my life,” she said with quiet pride. “And you will regret this. I promise you.”

  “Threats!” Gelly scoffed. “The last resort of a thief caught red-handed!”

  “You remember it,” Morie told her evenly. “You’re wearing last year’s clothes, probably bought from a consignment shop, and trying to insinuate yourself into the boss’s life,” she said flatly, shocking everybody, especially Gelly. “You’re a fraud, too, lady. I don’t know what your game is, but sooner or later, you’ll betray yourself.”

  Gelly moved closer to Mallory. There was something oddly dangerous in the other woman’s delicate features. Something Gelly recognized, because she’d seen it before.

  “How would you know anything about fashion?” Mallory asked coldly, indicating Morie’s stained and torn jeans and old sweatshirt and disheveled condition.

  “You might be surprised at what I know, and where I learned it,” she told him. Her black eyes were snapping like fireworks under her long, black eyelashes. “One day you’ll know the truth about me, too. And you’ll regret to your dying day that you ever accused me of a crime.”

  “Criminals always say such things,” Gelly chided.

  Morie smiled coldly. “You’d know.”

  “How dare you!” Gelly stepped forward with her hand raised.

  “Lawsuits will ensue if you hit me,” Morie told her. “I promise.”

  Mallory caught the woman’s arm and pulled her back. “Let’s get this over without complications,” he told her. He was feeling really sick at what he’d charged Morie with. He hadn’t even let her speak.

  “If you have a defense, let’s hear it,” he added, his eyes on hers.

  Morie just laughed. “Sure. I’ve been set up and she—” she indicated Gelly “—knows it. But nobody is going to believe me. I’m just the new hire.”

  She put her things into the rucksack and gathered up her small television and iPod and coat. “This is all I brought with me. May I ask someone to drive me to the bus station in town, or would you like me to walk there?” she added icily.

  Mallory felt even worse when he saw how little she had. Maybe she’d been desperate for money. But if she had, why not come to him and ask for help? His face hardened. He’d made that impossible, with his own antagonism.

  “I’ll drive you, honey,” Cane said gently. “Let’s go.”

  “I can drive her,” Tank protested.

  Neither of them believed her guilty, and it was obvious.

  “Thanks,” Morie told them sincerely. “I’ll remember you both kindly, years from now.”

  Mallory was fuming. He hated being put in this position. And he really hated having his own brothers make him look like the villain.

  “Darby, could you drive me to town, please?” she asked the older man. “If the boss doesn’t mind.”

  “Drive her,” Mallory said curtly. He glared at his brothers. “In case you didn’t notice, she had Grandmother’s jeweled egg in her rucksack!”

  Both brothers looked at Gelly with veiled hostility.

  She stepped closer to Mallory. “Why are you looking at me? I didn’t steal anything!”

  “Neither did I,” Morie told her as Darby gathered up the heavy things and she shouldered her pack. She smiled at Gelly. It wasn’t a nice smile. “When I get home, my father will want to know all about you,” she added softly. “I’m sure he’ll find interesting things.”

  Gelly panicked for just a minute. But she noted the other woman’s pitiful clothing and lost her worry. “Oh, I’m sure.” She laughed. “Does he even own a computer?”

  You might be surprised, Morie thought, but she didn’t speak. She looked up at Mallory as she passed him, with sadness and pain.

  “You might have given me the benefit of the doubt,” she said quietly.

  “I did,” he muttered.

  She sighed. “You think I stole from you,” she said in a soft, wounded tone.

  “You did,” he replied, digging in.

  She shook her head. “One day, you’ll find out the truth and you’ll be sorry. But it will be too late,” she added.

  He felt cold chills down his spine. He wasn’t in the wrong. Gelly had assured him that one of the hands knew something that he was afraid to tell. She’d learned about it accidentally while they were riding. The poor boy was almost in tears as he related how he’d seen Morie handling that beautiful egg he’d once seen in the display case inside the big ranch house. Of course, unbeknownst to him, Gelly had coaxed Bates into going to Mallory with his story and coached him on how to behave.

  Mallory felt sick to his stomach. Morie was going to leave. He’d never see her again. It shouldn’t bother him. He knew she was after him for his money; no woman had ever wanted him for any other reason. He knew he wasn’t handsome. She was a gold digger. Why did it hurt so damned much to see that pain in her face, to hear it in her voice?

  “If you’re leaving, go,” he said curtly. “Before I change my mind and have you prosecuted!”

  “Oh, that would be very interesting,” Morie replied with a twinge of her old audacity. “Very interesting, indeed. In fact, I’m quite tempted to dare you to do it,” she added with a thoughtful look at Gelly, who was flushed and worried.

  “No!” Gelly said, feeling suddenly unsure of herself at the other woman’s confident smile. She was friends with the judge who knew Cane. She might dig up something that Gelly didn’t want known. “No, it’s too much. She’s poor. Just let her go. One day, she’ll get what’s coming to her.”

  “More than likely, you will,” Morie countered. She looked at the brothers. “I enjoyed my time here.”

  “I don’t think you did it,” Cane said flatly.

  “Neither do I,” Tank affirmed.

  They both glared at Mallory.

  “Well, she’s got you blindsided,” Mallory shot back. “What, you didn’t notice the egg in her rucksack, huh? It got there by magic, I guess.”

  They started to argue, but she got between them. “I’ve caused enough trouble,” she told them. “I guess I’ll have to go back and take the consequences.” She meant go back and let her father arrange that marriage to his best friend’s son, who was a millionaire twice over and had a flourishing feedlot operation in North Texas. It would make for a great partnership.

  “In trouble at home, are you?” Mallory asked curtly.

  “Usually,” she replied. “Thanks for the job,” she added, and not with a great deal of sarcasm. “I learned a lot here.” She turned to Darby. “Mostly from you,” she said with a smile. “I’ll miss you.”

  “I’ll miss you, too,” Darby said with a cold look at Mallory as he left.

  She turned to continue out the door. She stopped, turned back to Mallory and glared up at him. “I won’t miss you,” she replied harshly. “I was totally wrong. I thought you were the last person on earth who would have convicted me on circumstantial evidence. But then, I can’t expect a stranger to care about me. I had dreams…” Her eyes fell. “Foolish dreams. Anyway, take care, guys,” she told the other two brothers and managed a smile for them. “See you someday, maybe.”

  They grimaced and turned back to glare at Mallory. But Morie was already in the ranch pickup with Darby at the wheel. He
aded home to Texas.

  “YOU MARK MY WORDS, that woman had something to do with it,” Cane said angrily. “She set Morie up.”

  “I agree,” Tank replied. “We should have stopped her from leaving. We should have made Mal listen.”

  “He won’t. He was infatuated with Morie. He didn’t like it. He wanted to believe she was a thief, so he had an excuse to fire her.” He turned to his brother. “She almost dared him to prosecute her. Would a thief be willing to go to trial?”

  “Not likely. I remember Joe Bascomb saying that he was anxious for his case to go to trial so he’d be cleared in the eyes of the community. Of course, we see how that played out!” His eyes narrowed as he looked toward the barn. “Interesting, how Bates just happened to notice Morie playing with that egg. She lives in a separate room, and the door’s always closed, Darby said. So how did he see her?”

  “And what the hell was he doing, riding around with Mal’s girlfriend?” Cane added. “Something fishy there. Real fishy. It was Gelly who just happened to find the missing drill in our former employee’s suitcase. And now, surprise, surprise, she just happened to hear a cowboy who noticed a thief playing with a rare objet d’art. How convenient.”

  Tank pursed his lips. “I really think we need to do some investigating of our own. I still have contacts in government, some of them covert operatives. It wouldn’t take much work to look into Ms. Bruner’s background, now would it?”

  “Mal will never believe anything bad about her.”

  “Think so? Let’s find out.”

  “I’m game. Go for it.”

  MORIE, UNAWARE OF the brothers’ plotting, was on the bus to Jackson to get a commercial flight home. She hadn’t let Darby see her buy the bus ticket to Jackson, because she was supposed to be going back to Texas. And in fact, she was, on her father’s corporate jet. It would be waiting for her at the Jackson airport.

  She didn’t want to tell her parents what had happened for a number of reasons. First, it would be humiliating to have them know that their daughter had been accused of stealing. Second, her father would plow into the Kirks like an earthmover. He’d never stop until he’d utilized every legal resource at his command, and Gelly Bruner would be nailed to the wall, along with whoever had helped her set Morie up.