by Paige Tyler
Cord folded his arms and eyed the other man coldly. “Why the hell would I do that?”
Dalton leveled his gaze at Cord. “Because it would make it easier for everyone involved if you did. The other ranchers respect you, Holderness. If you sell, then they’ll be more likely to so the same.”
“Get out,” Cord ordered.
But the other man made no move to do so. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather reconsider?” he asked instead. “It’s a lot of money. At least think about it.”
Cord ground his jaw. “Get out, before I throw you out.”
Dalton Jeffries gave Cord a long, hard look, and Kayla almost thought that Cord really would have to use force to make him leave, but then the other man nodded. “You really should have reconsidered, you know.”
With that, Dalton Jeffries put on his hat and dipped his head at Kayla before heading for the front door. As he walked past where they stood, she instinctively took a step closer to Cord.
As soon as the other man had left, Cord turned to her. “He didn’t touch you, did he?” he asked, gently putting his hands on her shoulders.
Kayla shook her head, her brow furrowing. “No, of course not,” she said, hastening to reassure him. “You really don’t like him, do you?”
Cord’s jaw tightened. “Well, the feeling is mutual, I can assure you.”
“So I noticed,” she said. “He seems really eager to buy your ranch, though. Why?”
“Because this part of the Wyoming Territory is prime cattle grazing land, and Dalton already owns a couple hundred thousand acres to the north of us,” he told her. “Ranchers for hundreds of miles bring their cattle up here to graze for a few seasons before driving them down to Kansas City. All of the ranchers out here, me included, make good money letting these cattle graze on our lands. The more land you own, the more money you make, and Jeffries is always looking to make more money. That’s what he lives for. But one thing that is especially irritating to Jeffries is that my property lays dead center along the cattle trail that runs from Kansas City to his property. That means I get a little bit of the money that he thinks should go to him.”
She frowned, a thought suddenly occurring to her. “What did he mean when he said that you should have reconsidered selling? Was that some type of threat?”
Cord gazed down at her and gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Jeffries likes to talk tough, and he’s a man who has to be taken seriously, as some of the ranchers around here have already learned. So I want you to be careful. If you want to go into town, have one of the hands take you. And if you go out riding by yourself, don’t go beyond sight of the ranch house.”
Though normally headstrong, Kayla kept Cord’s warning in mind when she decided to go riding the following day. She’d asked Cord if he wanted to go with her, thinking that perhaps they could have another picnic lunch, but he’d told her that he had work to do, much to her dismay. He did, however, give her the most delicious kiss before he’d gone out on the ranch that morning.
She was thinking so much about that kiss that she didn’t realize how far she’d ridden from the barn. She was thinking about turning around when she spotted two men by one of the fences that ran along the northern part of the property. At first, she began to wave at them, assuming they were a couple of the hands out fixing the fences, but as she got closer, she realized that she didn’t recognize either of the men.
Even though she knew that the smart thing to do would be to ride back to the barn and tell Cord or his foreman what she’d seen, her innate curiosity wouldn’t allow it. Besides, she didn’t even know what these men were doing. Deciding that she had to see for herself, she rode closer. She was still a couple hundred feet away when she realized that the men weren’t fixing the fences at all, but were cutting them instead!
“Hey, what are you doing?” she yelled, the words out of her mouth before she even realized what she was saying.
Startled by the sound of her voice, the men spun around. They stared at her in disbelief for a moment, as if wondering where she’d come from, and then one of the men pulled out a pistol and pointed it at her. There was a puff of smoke and a bang followed immediately by a whizzing sound.
Kayla’s eyes widened, and for a moment she simply stared at the man. He was shooting at her! Then, as if suddenly regaining her senses, she gripped her horse’s reins tightly and jerked the animal around. Kicking her heels hard, she urged her horse into a gallop, racing back the way she’d come. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that both men had mounted their own horses and had started to pursue her.
Leaning low over her horse, she snapped at the reins and dug her heels into the animal’s flanks. Behind her, the men had started to shoot, and she cried out as gunshots echoed all around her. She tensed her back, fearing that she would feel a bullet strike her at any moment. Dismounting, Cord led his horse over to the trough of water beside the barn. As the big bay drank, Cord’s eyes strayed to the house and he wondered if Abigail had come back from her ride yet. Most afternoons, she liked to sit on the front porch and sketch while she waited for him to come in, but she wasn’t there. Which didn’t mean that she hadn’t come back yet. Despite the fact that it would earn her another spanking, he wouldn’t put it past her to be in the barn playing cards with the ranch hands again. Or perhaps she’d do it because it would earn her another spanking, he thought, remembering how aroused she’d gotten by the strapping he’d given her the day before.
His mouth quirked. Though he’d never put a woman over his knee before he’d spanked his mail-order bride that first night she’d been at the ranch, he doubted that all women enjoyed it the same way that she did. Abigail Murray was definitely full of surprises, that was for sure.
Just then, one of the hands came out of the barn, and Cord asked him if Abigail had come back from her ride yet.
The other man shook his head.
“When did she leave?” Cord asked.
The man thought a moment. “About an hour ago, at least. She was heading north when I saw her head out.”
Cord frowned. She should have been back by now, he thought. Dammit! He had told her not to ride out of sight of the ranch house. Suddenly a noise intruded on his thoughts. It sounded like light thunder rolling in the distance, he thought. But it wasn’t thunder. Cord recognized it as gunfire, and it was coming from the north. He swore under his breath.
“Get some men and follow me,” he told the man, swinging up on his horse and kicking the animal into a gallop. The northernmost part of the ranch joined Dalton Jeffries’ property, and after the other man’s visit yesterday, he wouldn’t put it past Jeffries to be trying something.
Urging his horse faster, he rode in the direction that Abigail had gone.
Shots continued to ring out as Kayla galloped across the floor of the valley. Fear gripped her in its clutches and she could hardly breathe from it. She swore that if she got out of this, she wouldn’t stick her nose where it didn’t belong ever again. If she didn’t get shot first, she thought. She looked over her shoulder quickly, and her heart plummeted as she realized that the men were gaining on her. If they got any closer, there was no way they would keep missing her. She urged her horse on even faster, but the animal didn’t have much left to give.
Then, up ahead, she saw another rider racing toward her. She tensed for a moment, thinking that one of the men had gotten in front of her somehow. But then she breathed a sigh of relief as she recognized the big bay. Cord! she thought.
Cord’s worst fear had been realized as he rode into the valley and saw the two men shooting at Abigail. She was pushing her horse as fast as she could, but they were gaining on her. Ignoring the urge to simply ride straight for Abigail, he pulled his gun from its holster and rode right past her at full speed, firing at the two men as he did so.
At the sound of Cord’s pistol going off so close to her, Kayla’s mare came to an abrupt halt, skidding to a stop so fast that the animal’s back legs buckled beneath her, and she ha
d to fight to keep from being thrown over the horse’s head. But she pulled back so hard on the reins that the horse came to a stop in a sitting position and she completely lost her balance. Unable to hold on, Kayla’s feet came out of the stirrup and she slid down the horse’s back, landing on the ground with a thump. Lucky for her, the grass was deep enough to be soft, so she hadn’t hurt herself. Freed of its burden, her mare quickly righted itself and galloped off.
Kayla immediately turned to see what had happened to Cord. Relieved to see that the shooting had stopped, Kayla hurriedly got to her feet as Cord came riding back to where she stood. The two men that had been shooting at her were nowhere in sight; apparently Cord had chased them off. Brushing off the seat of her riding skirt, she started to walk toward Cord.
Cord had wanted to pursue the two men, but when he had looked over his shoulder to check on Abigail and seen that she’d taken a tumble from her horse, he forgot all about the men and immediately turned his horse around. He was worried that she had been injured, and he sighed with relief when he saw her get to her feet and brush herself off.
Slowing his horse, he stopped beside her, but didn’t dismount. “Are you okay?” he asked her.
She nodded, but looked slightly embarrassed that she’d fallen off her horse. “I’m fine. The gunshots spooked my mare and she took off. I hope she’s all right.”
He glanced around, but the horse was nowhere in sight. “Don’t worry about it. She probably just went back to the barn. She’ll probably be back before we are.” He frowned down at her. “What happened?”
She looked up at him, using her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. “I was out riding when I saw those men up by the fences,” she explained. “I thought they worked for you and were out here doing repairs, but when I rode closer, I realized that they were cutting the fences. When they saw me, they chased me.”
Cord’s mouth tightened, but he said nothing, though she could tell from the scowl on his handsome face that he was annoyed with her.
Kayla opened her mouth to speak up in her defense, but could think of nothing to say, so when he held out his hand to help her onto his horse, she took it without a word. She put her foot in the stirrup, expecting Cord to seat her in front of him, but instead she found herself hauled up and thrown unceremoniously over his well-muscled thighs.
“Cord!” she protested, the word coming out in a gasp as her breath whooshed from her lungs.
His hand smacked her upturned bottom hard. “I told you that I didn’t want you riding out this far, Abigail,” he said.
“But…Owwww!…Cord!” she yelped as his hand came down again and again on the seat of her riding skirt.
His spanking quickly made her forget the fact that she had just been shot at. The smacks didn’t sting that much through all of her clothing, but her position got her immediately aroused, and when Cord pulled her upright to sit in front of him side-saddle after only a few more slaps, she almost asked him not to stop.
She looked up at him, her face flushed to find Cord gazing down at her, and she caught her breath at the expression in his golden brown eyes.
“You have got to be more careful,” he told her, brushing back a strand of loose hair. “And you’ve got to start doing what I tell you.” He caressed her face. “You really came close to getting yourself killed today, you know that? Just the thought of you being hurt scares the hell out of me.”
She suddenly felt terrible that she had worried him so much. “I’m sorry,” she said softly, looking up at him from beneath lowered lashes.
Cord said nothing for a moment, and then, lowering his head, he kissed her. She kissed him back, one hand reaching up to curl around his neck. They kissed for some time and Kayla would have enjoyed it even more if it weren’t for the saddle horn digging uncomfortably into her bottom. Cord lifted his head at the sound of approaching horses. Her breath caught for a moment until she recognized the foreman and several other ranch hands.
“Two men were cutting the fences to the north of here,” Cord said to them. “Ride up that way to check and make sure they’re gone, and then get at least one strand up by nightfall.”
They rode back in silence, Cord holding the reins with one hand, his other arm around Kayla. Though she relaxed against him, she couldn’t help but think about how close she had come to being killed that day, and she gave a little shiver.
Instinctively, Cord’s arm tightened around her. This was their ranch, and Abigail should be able to go anywhere that she wanted on the property without fear of getting shot.
He swore silently. He had no doubt that Jeffries had put those two men up to it. The man had practically threatened Cord the other day when he’d been at the house, so it wasn’t difficult to believe. Cord seriously considered going over to Jeffries’ place and confronting the man after seeing Abigail safely home. Though he would enjoy going after Jeffries after what the man’s thugs had almost done to Abigail, Cord was smart enough to know that it would accomplish nothing. Dalton Jeffries would deny it, and Cord could prove nothing. But he could put in a complaint with the sheriff. Perhaps if Abigail could give him a description of the men, it would be enough to connect Jeffries.
Kayla, however, hadn’t seen the men well enough to describe what they looked like when Cord asked her. Though she had to admit she was only mildly surprised to hear that Dalton Jeffries was probably behind what had happened. After they had gotten back to the house, she was concerned when Cord announced that he was going to ride into town to talk to the sheriff.
“Perhaps you should have one of the men go with you,” she suggested when he told her. “Like Lucas,” she added, referring to the foreman.
“I’ll be fine,” he said, brushing his thumb over her cheek. “Besides, Lucas is going to be up fixing the fences for a couple of hours.” The corner of his mouth curved. “I’ll be home before dark.”
She chewed on her lower lip as she watched him mount his horse. “Be careful.”
He gave her a lopsided smile. “Always,” he said, bending to kiss her before riding off.
Still concerned, Kayla watched him go. If Cord was right, and Dalton Jeffries was behind what had happened that afternoon, then there was no telling what lengths the man would go to get Cord’s ranch.
With a sigh, Kayla turned and went into the house. Thinking to occupy herself, she made dinner, and then when that was done, she took out her sketchpad and tried to concentrate on her designs. As she put the finishing touches on a day dress, she couldn’t help but smile. Not so long ago, she would have been up in Cord’s room trying to pry open the lock on that metal box while he was out. But ever since she had decided to stay with Cord, rifling through his things couldn’t be further from her mind.
Cord got back just as the sun was setting, and she could tell from the expression on his face that things hadn’t gone well in town.
“What is it?” she asked.
He glanced at her as he hung his hat on a peg by the door. “That damn sheriff is good for nothing,” he told her. “If he’s not in Jeffries’ pocket, then he might as well be.”
“He wouldn’t do anything?” she asked in surprise.
Cord scowled. “Said he couldn’t prove Dalton Jeffries was behind the shooting, even though everyone in this town knows he is. Hell, every rancher in the area has been harassed by Jeffries and his thugs at some point.”
Her brow furrowing, she hugged her arms around her middle. “What do we do then?”
“Protect ourselves,” he said without hesitation. “Which means that you need to learn how to use a gun.”
Her eyes widened. “A gun?” she protested. “But I’ve never even held one.”
“Which is why I’m going to teach you,” he told her. Coming over to where she stood, he put his hands on her shoulders and gazed down at her. “Most of the time you’re alone here while I’m out on the ranch, and I don’t like the idea of you not knowing how to protect yourself.”
She chewed on her lower lip. “Do you real
ly think Dalton Jeffries would purposely come after me?”
Cord’s mouth tightened. “He doesn’t exactly hold women in high regard. So, yes, I certainly think he would come after you if it got him what he wanted.”
The next day, she and Cord rode out to a section of the ranch where there was a large hill. Tethering the horses to a tree, they let the animals graze while Cord instructed her on how to use a pistol.
“This is a single-action revolver,” he explained, holding the weapon to show her. “Which means that you have to pull back the hammer before you pull the trigger.”
He had placed several tin cans along the hillside a short distance from where they stood, and Kayla stood back while Cord demonstrated. She watched as he thumbed back the curved portion he called the hammer, and then carefully took aim before squeezing the trigger. The gunshot echoed off the surrounding hills, and Kayla jumped at the sound. The tin can he’d targeted fell off the piece of wood it had been sitting on.
“It’s louder than I thought it would be,” she observed when he turned to her.
He nodded. “Here,” he said, holding out the gun to her, butt first. “You try.”
She eyed the pistol warily, but then reached out and took it. It felt awkward and heavy in her hands. As she turned to face the tin cans, Cord stepped around behind her to put his arms on either side of hers. It was difficult to concentrate on anything with him standing so close, and her gaze was transfixed on his hands as he slowly lifted her outstretched arms and helped her aim at one of the cans.
“Okay,” he said, his voice soft in her ear. “Now, thumb back the trigger.”
She did as he instructed, trying to hold the gun steady, but it was shaking all over the place even with Cord supporting her hands.
Behind her, Cord nodded. “Good. Now, take aim, take a deep breath and let it out slowly, then slowly squeeze the trigger when you’re ready. Don’t jerk it.”
