“You changed your mind,” he said, watching her.
“I hadn’t made up my mind yet, so how could I change it?”
Heat blazed in her eyes again, and he felt a shimmer of satisfaction. If he could keep her off guard, make her angry, she was more likely to make a mistake.
“I got the distinct impression yesterday that you had no intention of hiring me.”
Fire blazed again in her eyes, then she looked out at the pasture behind the house and it quickly died, replaced by a weary resignation. “I didn’t think you would work out, no,” she admitted. “But there was an accident after you left, and now I don’t have any choice.”
“What happened?” In spite of his vow to remain detached, he felt his heart speed up. “Were you hurt?”
She shook her head. “I wish it had been me. Joe and Dusty, two of my hands, had an accident. Their truck ran off the road when Joe swerved to avoid a deer, and they hit a rock. Dusty broke his arm and Joe banged up his head. They’re both all right, but neither of them will be able to do much work for a while. So you’re hired.”
She looked back at him, and the resignation was replaced by a steely look. “I’ll see how you work out for the next two months. You can consider it a trial period. Once Joe and Dusty are both back at work, we may not need you.”
“I can live with that.” With any luck at all, two months would be more than enough time to take care of any illegal situation on the Red Rock Ranch.
Shea nodded once. “Grab your pack and I’ll show you to the bunkhouse. You can have your own cabin. Dusty, Joe and Levi have been sharing one for years. Meals are in the house. You’re responsible for your own laundry, but you can use the machines in the house. Talk to Maria and she’ll tell you the schedule.”
She didn’t look back as she talked, hurrying toward three tiny cabins tucked behind the barn. She passed the largest one, saying over her shoulder, “That one belongs to my men. You can take either of the other two. The doors are unlocked Pick one and put your stuff inside. Then meet me in the barn.”
She hurried away before he could answer. He watched until she disappeared into the barn, then opened the door to the cabin farthest from the one occupied by her men. There would be times when he wouldn’t want to be overheard. And there was always much to be said for distance.
Shea leaned against the stall that held the steer with the laceration, and took a deep breath. She’d done it. She’d hired Jesse Coulton, and he would be working on the Red Rock for at least two months. It would be dangerous and she hadn’t wanted to do it, but she’d had no choice.
She had barely managed to get all the work done when all three of the men were helping. Now with two of them incapacitated, even though Joe should be back to work in a week or so, it would be impossible. And there was no one else she could hire.
God knew she’d been looking for long enough. So Jesse would work for her, and she’d try to hide what she was doing.
Her mind raced over territory she’d been thinking about for the past day. Most of the children hiding in the house by the lake had already been reunited with their families. There were only two left, and they would be gone by the weekend. Miguel, the mysterious man who brought the children, would return to San Rafael. Then she’d have a breather before the next group arrived.
If she allowed it to continue. Dev was due back in town later this month, and it would be harder to hide her activities from her brother. It had been easy. the last few months, because after he and Carly got married, they’d moved to a house in town. And lately Dev had been gone most of the tune, helping Carly get moved from New York. But this was their last trip, and soon Devlin would be around all the time.
Dev didn’t matter, she told herself. It was the conversation she’d been having with herself for weeks. He would be embarrassed when he found out, and angry, but he’d get over it. She had to do this, and she could make Dev understand. A niece and nephew of her housekeeper, Maria, had been the first children to use the house. Maria had asked for her help, and the man named Miguel had brought them to her in the middle of the night. Several more groups of children had followed. She knew what would happen to these children if they didn’t escape the war in their country. She was committed to helping them, and Devlin wasn’t going to stop her.
And neither was Joe and Dusty’s accident. She’d just have to be more careful. She’d gotten sloppy, she acknowledged. Maria knew what she was doing, and so did Joe, Dusty and Levi, although they never discussed it. She would have to change the way she worked, now that Jesse would be around.
A sound at the barn door roused her, and she straightened to see Jesse standing in the doorway. “Where do I start?” he asked.
His deep voice rolled over her, stirring the same foreign feelings as it had yesterday. “We need to treat this steer,” she said, her voice too abrupt. “I can give him the shot, but I need someone to hold him still for me.”
Jesse nodded. “Fine. Where are your halters?”
“He’s already haltered. You just need to trap him against the wall so he doesn’t move when I stick him.”
“I know how to do it.” He gave her a mild look, but she saw the flash of irritation in his eyes. “I have done this before, you know.”
“I guess you have.” She tossed him what she hoped passed for a casual smile. “It’s been a while since I broke in a new hand. You’re going to have to forgive me if explain too much. And you’ll probably get sick of seeing Levi and me. I want to make sure you’re trained right, so one of us is going to stick close to you for a while.” She intended to keep close tabs on him until both of the remaining children were off the ranch.
Unexpectedly he smiled, and the crease in his cheek flashed again. Her stomach did another slow roll, and she couldn’t look away. “That’s all right. It’ll take me a while to get used to a new boss, so don’t worry about it. It won’t be a hardship to follow you around.”
She couldn’t look away from his face. His hazel eyes seemed to glow green in the dim light of the barn, and suddenly she felt breathless. He was standing too close to her, and his subtle, male scent surrounded her. Heat from his body seemed to curl around her, beckoning her closer.
When she realized she was swaying toward him, she yanked open the door of the stall, appalled. Blindly reaching for the syringe full of antibiotic that she’d left on the edge of the wood, she waited while he positioned himself at the steer’s head.
“Ready?” she asked, without looking at him
“All set. Go ahead.”
She injected the white liquid quickly into the steer’s rump, then stepped away. Jesse unclipped the halter and slipped it off, then stepped out of the stall. By the time she joined him, the steer already had his head stuck in the feed trough.
“It looks like your vet did a nice job,” he said.
She nodded. “Becca’s great. We’re lucky to have her.”
They stood at the stall door for a few moments, Shea’s heart still racing. Had Jesse noticed that spark, too, or had it all been one-sided? Telling herself not to be a fool, she moved casually away from him. “Ready for the next job?”
“Sure.” He stepped back from the stall and watched her. “What do you want me to do?”
“We’re going to have to do it together.” Shea wished that she hadn’t sent Levi out to the far pasture this morning. She’d give anything to avoid sitting in that pickup truck next to Jesse. “We have to go and winch the truck Joe was driving away from the rock.”
“Why don’t you let me take care of it? It doesn’t sound like a two-person job.” His voice was casual, and he leaned against the stall. But he watched her carefully.
She shook her head. “No way. It’s not a one-person job. And you’d never find that truck without help.”
His eyes narrowed, and she saw them harden again. “I’ll give it a shot. Tell me where it is, and I’ll find it.”
“I don’t think so. I don’t want you to get lost on the Red Rock on your first
day on the job.”
“I have a good sense of direction. As long as you can tell me where it is, I’ll do the job myself.”
“No!” She swallowed once and tried to banish her anxiety. Even though he had no way of knowing what she was doing, the last thing she would allow was Jesse Coulton wandering around the ranch by himself. “Believe me, it’ll be a lot quicker if I go with you. I don’t have the time or the manpower to send out a search party if you get lost.”
He shrugged, but the hardness didn’t disappear from his eyes. “Suit yourself. I just thought it would be more efficient for one person to do the job.”
“Even if it was,” she said, “it would hardly be fair to turn you loose on your first day on the job. The Red Rock is a big place.”
“A lot of places to get lost. Or to hide,” he said, his voice expressionless. “I understand.”
She glanced at him sharply, but his face was a blank. “Good. Let’s get the truck and we’ll take care of that chore.”
Neither of them spoke as the truck bounced its way along the rutted road. They would be passing too close to the cabin on the lake, and Shea couldn’t allow herself to relax. She’d already been up to the cabin this morning and explained the situation to Miguel. Even though she knew very little about him, she trusted him completely. She’d seen how he loved the children. He’d assured her that the children would stay inside today, but she was still worried.
Her instincts had been right. She shouldn’t have hired Jesse Coulton, but she’d had no choice. Every once in a while she glanced over at him. He stared out the windshield of the truck, studying everything with an intensity that was unsettling. It almost felt like he was memorizing every detail of her ranch.
Would he see any evidence of the children she was hiding? No, because there was nothing to see. She’d made sure of that over the past several months. And Jesse was only studying his surroundings because that’s what he needed to do, she told herself. He was going to be working here. He needed to know the ranch, become familiar with its roads and trails. There was nothing ominous or sinister about a man trying to do a good job.
“Nice place,” he commented after a while.
“Thanks. I love the Red Rock.”
“I can tell.” She felt his eyes on her, but she didn’t look over at him. “There still aren’t many women managing ranches these days, especially one so young.”
“I’m not that young, Coulton.”
“You’re young enough. Wasn’t there anyone else to manage it?”
“I’m not going to take offense at that.” It was no more, after all, than most of her neighbors had said at one time or another. “As it happens, I have a brother, but he wasn’t interested. And it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
“Then you’re fortunate.” His voice was quiet. “To be given the chance to do what you’ve always wanted to do is a gift. Only someone stupid would throw it away.” She felt his eyes on her again. “And you’re not a stupid woman, Shea McAllister.”
His low voice rolled over her, luring her, and she stared out the windshield rather than give into the temptation to look at him. His words were spoken with passion. They almost sounded like a warning, but she had no idea what he could be warning her about. There was no way he could know anything about the children hidden in the cabin. “I know how lucky I am. How about you, Coulton? Are you doing what you always wanted to do?”
She glanced over at him then. and found him staring out the window. His mouth was a narrow line in his face. “I’m doing what I dreamed about doing all my life.”
“Then you’re lucky, too,” she said lightly. She swung the steering wheel to the right and headed down a smaller path. “We’re almost there. The truck is just a few hundred feet ahead.”
The path became more narrow and the ruts were deeper. The truck bumped over large rocks, and Shea slowed down to the speed of a brisk walk. In a few moments the truck appeared, balanced precariously on the edge of a cliff
“Your men were lucky.” Jesse said, staring at the truck.
“They were. If they’d hit the deer, they might have gone over the edge.” She didn’t want to think about how lucky Joe and Dusty had been. She suspected she would have nightmares for a long time, remembering her first sight of the truck on the edge of the cliff, only a large boulder stopping it from tumbling to the ground, several hundred feet below.
Stopping the truck, she carefully turned it around, positioning it behind the smaller pickup, then jumped out. Jesse climbed out, then stood next to her. “Quite a view,” he finally said.
The cliff overlooked the ranch, the green pastures unfolding in front of them like squares of a bright carpet that contrasted with the red rocks and dirt. Far away, the ranch house and outbuildings were tiny dots of white and red in the distance.
“I love it up here,” Shea said, inhaling the dusty scent of pine and heat. “Whenever I get too busy to appreciate the ranch, I come up here to remind myself again how happy I am.”
She could feel Jesse look at her, but she didn’t turn to meet his eyes. Already she felt vaguely foolish for sharing such a personal thought with him. He was an employee, she reminded herself, and she wasn’t trying to talk him into staying at the ranch. Just the opposite. When Joe and Dusty were up to speed, she wanted Jesse gone.
“How far back does your property extend?” he asked. His voice was casual, but she heard an intensity underlying it that made her finally turn and look at him.
“We own most of this mountain. It’s not huge, but it goes back quite a ways.” She studied his face. “Why do you ask?”
He shrugged. “Just wanted to know how far the territory extended.”
“You won’t have to come up here much. There are only a few small plots of pasture up here, and we don’t keep many head in them. Most of the mountain is unusable for ranching.”
“So what do you use it for?”
“Recreation, mostly,” she said lightly. “There are people from Cameron who like to camp and hike up here. And Dev and I have been known to do some camping ourselves.” They were getting too close to her secrets for comfort, and it was time to change the subject. “Ready to pull this truck back onto the road?”
Jesse stepped away from her and nodded, but his eyes lingered on the rough country behind them. She thought she saw speculation in his eyes. What was he thinking?
“Where do you want me to attach the hook to the truck?” he asked, and she pushed the question out of her mind. She had more to worry about than what Jesse Coulton was thinking.
“I’ll show you.” Unwinding the hook and its attached chain from the bed of her truck, she squatted down in the dust next to the rear of the stranded truck and peered underneath the bumper. “There’s the place where it attaches ”
Jesse dropped to the ground next to her and took the hook from her hands. “I have a longer reach. Let me do it.”
Shea watched as he struggled to slip the hook through the opening in the truck’s frame. Even though it was only spring, the sun’s rays were hot, warming the denim jeans and flannel shirt she wore. Then Jesse moved and his body slid mto hers.
The flash of heat was instantaneous. Her thigh burned where it touched his, blocking out the weaker heat of the sun. As fire poured through her, she scrambled to move away from its source
“No, don’t move.” Jesse’s voice rolled over her from underneath the truck. Even though it was indistinct, it still made her shiver. “I need to brace myself on something so I can set the hook.”
Shea forced herself to remain motionless, watching as Jesse’s leg almost twined with hers. Sensations she’d never even imagined before pulsed through her, and her hands tightened on the rock behind her she was using to brace herself.
Jesse’s leg was hard and muscled as he strained against her. She imagined she could feel each muscle bunching and releasing, the ripple of each of his movements pressing against the suddenly supersensitive flesh of her leg.
Shea stared at him
helplessly, appalled at the way her body was betraying her but unable to move away. Jesse pushed against her one last time, his leg pressed intimately against hers from thigh to ankle. Sensation quivered its way up her leg and settled low in her abdomen, pulsing to the beat of the blood in her veins.
Jesse abruptly untangled his leg from hers and slid out from under the truck. “It’s set. Let’s try to pull the truck back onto the road.”
The planes of his cheeks had set into rigid lines, and his mouth was a narrow slash in his face. But his eyes burned with fierce need, their hazel depths molten gold. When they lingered on her face for a moment, Shea saw desire, hot and potent, flicker deep inside.
Then he turned away and stood up, and when he turned back to her, she wondered if she had imagined the expression in his eyes moments ago. Now his face was shuttered and his eyes were cool. When he reached down a hand to help her to her feet, she hesitated only for a moment before she reached out and took it. Surely no one could hide the passion thai she imagined had burned in him just moments ago. The need she’d seen must have been her imagination.
But when she was on her feet, he held her hand for a moment longer than necessary before letting her go. A current seemed to flow from his hand to hers, binding them together.
That was ridiculous, Shea told herself as she pulled her hand away from his. There was no connection between her and this drifter she’d been forced to hire. There was no bond, other than that of an employer and her employee, between them.
But her body called her a liar as she turned away from him. “I’ll start the engine,” she muttered as she hurried to her truck. “You make sure we’re pulling straight.”
She felt the chain tighten on the pickup as she eased her own truck forward. The tires spun for a second, then the truck began moving forward. After a minute, Jesse called to her, “Hold on. I have to adjust the chain.”
In another moment, he called, “Okay, just a little farther. There. Stop.”
The Fugitive Bride Page 3
