Rancher's Deadly Reunion

by Beth Cornelison

  Roy lifted a shoulder and shook his head. “Couldn’t say, darlin’. Some people are just bad at the core. Spiteful.”

  “So...you think it was done to strike out at the Double M or the family? Not just some random act of thoughtlessness or meanness?”

  He shrugged again, his expression flat. Roy had always been calm and low-key. She’d always believed their foreman’s even disposition and quiet nature worked in his favor as he dealt with the animals and the occasional hot-tempered hand, but at the moment, Piper wished she could get a better read on his feelings. “But why? Has something happened while I was gone that no one told me about? What would make someone hate our family enough to hurt us like this?”

  “Hate’s a strong word,” Roy said, rubbing a hand on his chin.

  “Roy, stop playing diplomat. Tell me what’s happening.”

  “Don’t know why.”

  She chewed her bottom lip. “So what do you really think of the guys’ plan?”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “Oh, no. I’m not going to tell you what to do.”

  “I didn’t ask what I should do. Just—”

  “Same as. All I’ll say is, I’ve never been a risk-taker. Starting a new business when the ranch is already hurtin’, that’s a risk. But I’m not your brothers. Maybe they can make it work.”

  Piper huffed her frustration with his evasive answer and growled playfully. “You’re no help.”

  Roy gave her a half smile, then ducking his head and pursing his mouth, he hummed as if in thought. Finally, he added, “Well, Zane has the organizational skills, and Josh has got the people skills. Putting your money sense and brains in the mix would sure seem the right combination to make a go of it.”

  Her gut flip-flopped. “Then you think I should take them up on the offer? That I should move back here and help with this adventure ranch?”

  “I think...” he stepped closer and put a hand on her upper arm “...that is a decision only you can make. But for what it’s worth, I’d sure love to have you back here.” He gave her a small grin and dropped his hand as he moved away. “And so would Brady.”

  Her heart clenched at the mention of Brady’s name. She swallowed hard. “You think so? I mean, about Brady?” As soon as she’d asked, she wished she could take it back. Showing her interest, her concern to Roy was just shy of showing her true heart to Brady.

  Roy shrugged and arched one eyebrow. “I figure so. He don’t talk about it, but seeing as he’s not dated anybody else since you left, I’d say he’s still sweet on you.”

  Piper didn’t know what to say to that. She stood frozen for several painful seconds and tried to catch her breath. She’d suspected as much about Brady, which was one of the reasons she worked so hard to avoid him. She didn’t want to add to his hurt or feed false hope in him. But hearing Roy say Brady still harbored feelings for her twisted inside her like a double-sided blade.

  Schooling her face, she fought to breathe normally again and walked slowly backward from Roy. “Well... I, um...” She cleared her throat and hitched her thumb toward Hazel’s stall. “I’m gonna take Hazel out now. See you around.”

  “Enjoy your ride.” Roy turned and shuffled down the alley to another occupied stall, stroking the horse’s nose as he entered.

  Piper’s mind spun as she readied Hazel for her ride. Brady hadn’t even dated in the last seven years? She knew Boyd Valley was small and isolated, but the town had attractive, available women. A man as good-looking and kind as Brady should have been a hot commodity. Heaven knew her brothers were never lacking for female attention. Maybe she needed to say something to him to make her position clear. As if the silent treatment and distance she’d put between them weren’t enough to say It’s over.

  Hazel snorted and tossed her head, jingling her harness.

  Piper patted Hazel’s neck and chuckled. “You’re right. Maybe that’s something I should leave alone.”

  Once Hazel was saddled—Piper had to admit she was a tad rusty with the chore that had once been muscle memory—Piper rode out on the property in search of a quiet spot where she could think and reflect on the choice her brothers had given her. Picking the right place for her meditation was automatic. The route to the place she called her thinking spot—in the tradition of her childhood favorite, Winnie the Pooh—was ingrained in her marrow. She’d made some of the toughest decisions of her life under her favorite cottonwood tree. From deciding which of the Jonas Brothers was her favorite to which college scholarship to accept, she’d planned the details of her life from the bench under her cottonwood. As she rode out to the refuge, she recalled the last choice she’d made at her thinking spot—the decision to leave Brady and put their baby up for adoption.

  * * *

  After Connor’s school bus rumbled away in a puff of diesel exhaust, Brady headed back to the stable, hoping to find Piper still there. Instead, he found Karl Townsen, one of the only two hands the ranch still employed, scrubbing out an extra feeding trough. Karl looked up and greeted him with a jerk of his chin. At one time, when the ranch had been at peak production, the Double M had boasted as many as ten hands living on-site. But recent dwindling profits and scaled-down operations had meant a reduction in ranch staff and closing the bunkhouse. Karl and Dave, the other hand, both lived in Boyd Valley and drove in from town to work every day.

  A quick search of the stalls proved fruitless, and he strolled back toward the hand. “Hey, was Piper around when you got here?”

  Karl turned off the hose. “Yeah. She was just heading out for a ride. Took Hazel.”

  Brady considered his options for a moment, then asked, “Did you see which direction she went?”

  Karl gave him a knowing look and a sly grin. “Maybe. What’s it worth to ya?”

  Brady ignored the ribbing. “What about my dad? He say where he was going?”

  “Back to your house to make some phone calls, I think. Something about a shipment from the vet supply that was late.” Karl began looping the hose in a coil to put it away. “You got a message for him if I see him?”

  Turning toward the rack of saddles, Brady waved a dismissive hand. “Nah. If anyone needs me, I’ll be out on the property checking fences.”

  Karl grinned. “She headed out on the south pasture.”

  Feeling sheepish that he was so obvious, Brady saddled up his horse, a roan gelding named Cactus—because he’d been a prickly, stubborn cuss of a horse to train—and rode south from the ranch yard in search of Piper. Finding her didn’t take long. She’d ridden to one of her favorite places on the property, a spot on a ridge that had a scenic view of pastureland and Wilson Creek in one direction and a view of the complex of ranch buildings in the other direction. Her father had built a split-rail bench under a large cottonwood tree on the ridge that he and Piper had frequented for long talks and a little making out as teenagers.

  Even from a distance, he knew the instant she recognized him because her body language changed. Her back straightened. Her shoulders drew square and her chin lifted defensively. Frustration vibrated from her in palpable waves. As he approached, she strode stiffly to the spot where she had hobbled Hazel and gathered the reins in her hand as if to leave.

  “Piper, wait,” he called before she could climb into her saddle.

  “Go away, Brady. I came out here because I wanted to be alone.”

  He reined in Cactus, and as he rode up beside Hazel, he took hold of the mare’s reins from the other side. “Yeah, and I came after you because I need to talk to you in private.”

  Piper groaned and refused to look at him. “Brady, I don’t mean to be rude or anything. The last thing I want is hard feelings between us, but...I can’t do this. I can’t pretend that everything is fine and have friendly chats with you as if we don’t have the kind of history we have.” Finally, she glanced over Hazel’s back to him, and the pain he saw in her eyes sucker p
unched him. “There’s a reason I’ve made myself scarce when I’ve visited all these years.”

  “Fact remains, there’s something we should discuss.”

  Shaking her head, she blew out a ragged sigh. “Brady, please. It just...hurts too much. Nothing’s changed. I can’t—” Releasing Hazel’s lead, she turned and stalked back toward the well-weathered bench.

  “I know it’s hard. It’s hard for me, too.” He dismounted and looped his reins loosely around a low-hanging cottonwood branch. Then, approaching Piper like a fawn he didn’t want to spook, he walked slowly toward the bench.

  She snapped up a gaze that warned him away. Her expression said clearly that she’d bolt if he tried to snuggle up next to her on the two-person seat.

  “Is this about my brothers’ plan to start adventure tours and take guests at the ranch?”

  “No.” He shoved his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. A cool October breeze swept across the ridge, making the yellow leaves of the cottonwood dance and whisper.

  “I’m still shocked that they asked me to come back here. To be part of it.” She flexed the fingers of one hand with the palm of her other.

  “You are? Really? You have to know how much your brothers miss you. You three are the McCall Triplets. Three parts of a whole.”

  Growing up as the foreman’s son, Brady had envied the McCall offspring, less for their ownership and position at the ranch than for the bond of family, of the siblinghood that they shared. Since he’d been the same age as them, he’d spent his time catching fireflies with them at dusk, tagging along on fishing trips and roughhousing in the ranch yard as kids. But even as a small boy, he’d always known he wasn’t part of the special camaraderie and cohesion that bound the triplets. While he’d coveted their relationship, he’d also accepted being outside their sibling triangle.

  Now, Piper gave him a dubious look. “The triplet thing became more of a twins thing in junior high school. You know that. Besides, this is business. This is different.”

  “It’s a family business. So, no, it really isn’t that different. And the triplet thing may have changed some in junior high, but you’d have to be blind not to see what you mean to your brothers.”

  She opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it again with a soft click of her teeth.

  “Piper, they want you to be part of this new venture because you’re part of the family, but also because they know you’re one of the best at what you do. Why would they hire someone else to do the books and run the finances when you’re over there in Boston, setting the accounting world on fire?”

  She snorted a laugh and cocked her head. “Who says I’m setting anything on fire?”

  He shrugged. “That’s what Zane and Josh tell me. Said you’ve already been promoted twice in your company in three years and that you won some local recognition as one of the Top Thirty Under Thirty in Boston. Is that right?”

  Again her mouth opened and closed before she waved it off. “Well, yeah, but that’s...”

  “That’s great, Piper.” He pitched his voice low and moved closer to the bench. “I’m proud of you. Always knew you’d be a success at whatever you did with your life.”

  She lifted a startled gaze, moisture filling her eyes. “Brady, don’t. I...”

  “Anyway,” he said in a more businesslike tone. He knew his shift in tone had her ready to bolt, so he cleared his throat and plowed forward. Their conversation wasn’t going to get any easier by postponing it any longer, “none of that is what I want to discuss. We have other stuff to talk about.”

  She inhaled a deep breath, shoving to her feet again with her hands balled at her sides. “No, we don’t. The past is the past. Please, just let it go! I’m sorry things didn’t happen the way we’d planned, the way we’d hoped. But—”

  His own frustration and hurt bubbled in his chest, and he took a long stride toward her, seizing her arm to bring her around to face him. “Stop shutting me out, damn it. This is important!”

  Her wide, blinking eyes and taut shoulders said his sharpened tone had caught her off guard.

  Taking a second to gather his composure—he certainly didn’t need to start on the wrong foot for an emotionally fraught and delicate conversation like the one he needed to have with her—Brady released his grip on her and said a mental prayer for guidance. Patience. Strength.

  “Do you smell that?” Piper asked, a question so out of left field considering his own line of thought that he could only frown at her for a moment. She craned her head to look past him and lifted her nose like a hunting dog sniffing the air. “Smoke.”

  He took a test whiff and caught the subtle, dark scent. “You’re right.”

  He wasn’t aware of any jobs being done today that required anything being burned, so the acrid smell sent a prickle of alarm down his spine. He’d come out to find Piper, determined that nothing would stop him from having the conversation they needed to have. But a fire could be devastating to the ranch. He pivoted slowly, searching the horizon for any sign of smoke, and Piper did the same.

  Pointing toward the fields north of the ranch buildings, Piper said, “There. No column of smoke. Just a haze.”

  Brady narrowed his gaze against the bright October sun and saw the wispy gray that curled up and lined the sky with a thin ominous veil.

  “Not good,” he muttered, his brain changing gears and shifting into emergency mode.

  “Master of the understatement strikes again,” she said, already striding toward Hazel.

  He jogged to Cactus, ripping the reins from the tree branch and swinging into his saddle before she’d gotten Hazel turned around. “Go back to the ranch. Have someone call it in. I’m headed to the site.”

  She gave Hazel a kick with her heels and snapped her reins, calling, “Right! I’ll meet you out there.”

  Brady paused only a second to appreciate Piper’s form, the way her slim legs gripped Hazel’s flanks and her jeans hugged her bottom as she galloped down the hill. In the years she’d been gone, she hadn’t forgotten how to ride, hadn’t lost her easy rapport with Hazel. Frustration ate at Brady as he set out in the direction of the rising smoke. Why couldn’t Piper see that the ranch was in her blood? That a part of her would always be tied to this land, the animals, her family legacy?

  He shook his head as he pushed Cactus to move faster, cutting at an angle across the meadow below the ridge where they’d been talking, and stopping only long enough to let himself into the north pasture and close the gate again. The nearer he got to the cloud of smoke, the surer he was that the fire was in the field where they were growing alfalfa to feed the stock through the winter. There’d been no lightning this morning to start a fire, the most common source of naturally occurring wildfire. Which pretty much left human carelessness. Or sabotage.

  When he crested a small rise that afforded him his first good view of the burning field, the more likely scenario became clear. Vandalism. Brady’s heart sank as he scanned the growing flames. The pattern of fire, burning and spreading out from multiple spots across the entire field, made it clear this was not a simple case of a recklessly tossed cigarette. The oily smell of petroleum told him an accelerant had been used, as well.

  Grumbling a curse word under his breath, he guided Cactus down near the edge of the smoldering crop. His gut knotted as he thought of the valuable feed being charred, wasted by the creeping flames. He unsaddled Cactus and took the saddle blanket from the horse, a pitiful tool against the spreading fire, but all he had until the fire department arrived. He couldn’t stand by and do nothing while the winter feed was destroyed.

  He beat at a line of flame near the edge of the field, taking out his anger and disgust toward the person who’d started the fire. Who could have such a bitter gripe with the McCall family or the Double M Ranch that they’d strike out like this?

  Over the crackle of flames and hi
s own choked breathing, the thunder of hoofbeats signaled the arrival of the cavalry. He blinked against the sting of smoke, expecting to see Zane, Josh, Dave, Roy...hell, the whole staff and the McCall family riding to the scene. Instead, Piper was alone.

  “Where’s everyone else?” he shouted over the low roar of the fire.

  “Roy’s calling it in. He’ll be here soon. I sent Dave to round up my brothers and father.” She cast a horrified gaze across the acres of burning crop. “How did you put it? Not good.”

  Her expression said he needn’t tell her what losing the crop would mean to the ranch. The expense of buying feed to make up for the lost alfalfa would be a heavy blow to her family’s already struggling cattle business.

  He continued to beat at the fire with his saddle blanket, and she grabbed his arm. “Do you really think that’s going to make a difference?”

  “Maybe not—” he pulled his arm free and went back to work “—but it’s better than standing here doing nothing. I hate feeling useless.”

  “Yeah. There’s that.” She took a step back from him, surveyed the scene again and set her shoulders. Spinning back to Hazel, she unsaddled the mare and was soon standing beside him, whacking at the flames in the same, likely fruitless attempt to save at least some of the crop. Each thrash of the blankets sent up a poof of ash. Within minutes they were both bathed in sweat, stained with soot and red-faced from the heat of the flames.

  Zane and Josh arrived on ATVs just moments ahead of Roy and Dave on horseback. Piper’s father drove in by truck, leading the fire department pumper and tanker and a sheriff deputy to the field. The parade of emergency vehicles, lights flashing, stopped in a line along the edge of the field, and men scrambled out to begin soaking the field from the pumper truck.

  After dismounting, Roy stood like a grim sentinel, rigid and silent, watching the flurry of activity. His expression was drawn and hard when Brady finally dropped his charred blanket and strolled over to stand quietly beside his father.