by Nora Roberts
When Sundown rested his chin on her shoulder, she closed her eyes a moment. Opening them, she looked directly into Callen’s. “You’re not mean. I know mean. I know there’s meaner than you ever think. But I don’t remember you.”
“I wasn’t around when you were.”
“I went away.”
“I did that, too, when I was about the same age you were when you did.”
Tilting her head, she gave him a longer stare, and kept stroking Sundown. “Where did you go?”
“You know, it’s funny. I went to California, just like you did. I ended up in Hollywood.”
She gasped again, and something lit up in her eyes. “Were you a movie star? You’re handsome.”
“No, ma’am, but I worked in the movies some. I worked with the horses in movies.”
There was something young and wondering in her sigh. “Was it wonderful?”
“I liked it.”
“But you came back.”
“I missed this place. The ranch, the people. I’ve got a mother and a sister, and they needed me around more than I wanted to think when I left.”
“I missed the ranch, my family. I was coming back. Nobody stopped you when you came back.”
“No. I’m real sorry somebody stopped you.”
“I got old there,” she told him. “Old and weak and crazy.”
“Miss Alice? That’s not what I see when I look at you. Not what I’m hearing having this conversation with you.”
“Conversation,” she said slowly. “We’re having a conversation.”
“What I see, what I hear, is somebody hurt, but strong over that. Just like Sundown. Strong and smart and good, just hurt some.”
“I’m not scared of you.”
He tried a grin on her. “I’m not scared of you, either.”
She laughed a little, pleasing him. “I feel more like Alice with my hair cut and red like Grammy’s. I feel more like Alice with Sundown. If, when he’s better, I can ride Sundown, but I can’t remember how, will you help me?”
“That’s a promise. Maybe you could do me a favor back?”
“I can’t do much yet. I can make you a scarf. Your eyes are gray and they’re blue. Gray and blue all at once. Maybe Ma has yarn like that, and I can make you a scarf.”
“That’d be nice, but I was wondering if you’d help me with Sundown for a minute here. He needs to take some medicine, and he doesn’t want to. He needs it to get better and stop hurting. Maybe you could talk to him for me.”
He caught the look Sundown gave him, one that clearly accused Callen of being sneaky. Callen just smiled back. If anyone claimed that horse didn’t understand every damn word said, Callen would call them unimaginative at best, a liar at worst.
* * *
Dressed for the day, Bodine carried a thermos of black coffee toward the stables.
She’d already addressed Callen’s schedule, texted Easy, who’d had the day off, to ask him to fill in. Done. Texted Maddie to take one of Callen’s lessons. She’d have to cancel Sundown’s show when she got in—and was working on something fun to replace it—but everything else, she’d covered.
The ranch hands would be stirring in the bunkhouse, as her father and brothers were in the main house. Clementine, she imagined, would drive up any minute.
Another day would begin.
She hoped Garrett Clintok’s day—because she joined with Callen there on who’d taken that shot—began behind bars.
She nearly tripped over her own feet when she saw Alice walking toward her in the pearly dawn light.
“Alice? Alice, what are you doing out here?” Wearing Callen’s jacket, she noted.
“I went to see the horse. He’s hurt. And the man—the man—I can’t remember his name.”
“Callen?”
“Callen! Cal. ‘I’m Cal,’ he said. He got hurt, too. I helped him give Sundown his medicine and we had a conversation. He’s going to help me ride Sundown when Sundown’s better. Somebody was so mean. Mean, mean. I hate mean. You can get used to it. I got used to it, but now I hate it. There were stars. They’re gone now.”
“The sun’s coming up.” Bodine gestured east. “See?”
“The sun’s coming up. I like it. The men are coming out.”
Recognizing the jolt of panic, Bodine put a hand on Alice’s arm. “They’re not mean.”
“How do you know?” Alice hissed. “Sir didn’t look mean when I got in the truck. How do you know?”
“Because I know them. Every one of them. I know they’d all protect you from the mean. You remember Hec, don’t you? He’d never be mean.”
“I … think.”
“It’s all right. It’s already a lot before sunrise.”
“I’m going to make Cal a scarf. I like his eyes. Are they blue, are they gray? Are they blue, are they gray? It’s fun. I’m going to tell Dr. Minnow I went outside. She’ll be surprised.”
“Maybe when I get home from work today, you can walk over and visit Sundown and Callen with me. You can meet my horse, too. He’s Leo.”
“I want to. If I don’t feel crazy again.”
“Fair enough.”
Bodine continued toward the stables and decided she owed Callen more than a day off.
* * *
Word spread. While she hadn’t expected otherwise, Bodine hoped to eke out the information rather than tamp out firestorms everywhere the minute she got to work.
Sal leaped at her literally the second she stepped into the lobby.
“Is it true? Nobody’s here but me,” she said quickly. “I heard it from Tess at Zen Town. Zeke texted her about it last night.”
Zeke, ranch hand, brother to Tess, massage provider. God.
“It’s true. Callen and Sundown were both grazed by a bullet. We don’t know if it was intentional. Sheriff Tate’s looking into it.”
Sal fisted both hands on her hips. “It’s me, Bo, and I know when you’re hedging.”
“I’d like to keep it to that, officially—and away from the guests. So please say that if and when you’re asked.”
“What’s going on around here, Bo? Billy Jean’s killed, and that other girl. Now this? Oh my God, is it connected? Is it all—”
“No. I can’t see that. That’s not hedging.”
“But your aunt—”
“Sal, God’s truth, I don’t see how one thing links to another.”
“They still don’t know who killed Billy Jean.” Just saying it had Sal’s eyes going damp. “Nobody even talks about it anymore, hardly at all.”
“We haven’t forgotten her. You know that. What happened yesterday, it was something else. Just mean stupidity.”
“You know who.”
“I think who, and that’s different.”
“I didn’t even ask if Cal’s all right.” Sal rubbed her eyes. “And that horse. Everybody loves that horse.”
“They’re healing up.”
“Good. Okay. How about if I do a pool, come up with some silly get-well gift from everybody?”
“I think that would be a great idea.”
She’d barely settled behind her desk, trying to formulate a replacement for Sundown’s performance, when Chelsea and Jessica came in together.
“I swear men talk more than women. Rory told you, Chase told you.”
Jessica had enough presence of mind to shut the door. “They got shot!”
“They did, but it’s the classic flesh wound. I’m not going to minimize it,” she added quickly. “It scared the crap out of all of us, and a few inches different, it’d be more than scared. But they’re both going to be okay. I’m not sure I can block Callen from coming to work tomorrow the way I did today.”
“Rory said Garrett Clintok did it.”
Bodine raised her eyebrows at Chelsea. “Rory needs to be careful accusing anybody.”
“Then so does Chase,” Jessica put in. “I’ve never seen him like that. So angry, so cold, hard angry. And he had plenty to say about Clintok going af
ter Cal now, and back when they were boys.”
“Let’s keep that opinion, which I completely share, from running all over the resort.”
“Is Sundown really okay? I mean Cal, too,” Chelsea qualified. “It’s just…”
“I know. And he is. He’s hurt, but he’s healing. It’s going to be a little while before he can come back to work here. Which is another problem. I need to come up with something to replace his show. I know that’s part of the weekend agenda.”
“Hell.” Jessica tapped a finger to her temple. “Went straight out of my head. We can just say the horse isn’t well. I can come up with something. Let me think about replacing that program.”
“Actually, I was thinking.”
Jessica put an arm around Chelsea’s waist. “Didn’t I tell you, this girl’s always thinking? Let’s hear it.”
“Well, Carol does barrel racing. Easy and Ben have both done rodeoing. It’d be a scramble for today, but I bet they can put something together.”
“That’s good. Chase does some fancy rope work.”
“He does?”
Bodine smiled at Jessica. “I’m surprised he hasn’t lassoed you yet. He’ll make excuses, but I’ll have Mom put the pressure on there. If the others agree—and we’ve got Thad at the ranch who’s done the rodeo—we can put together an hour to fill the gap, keep your family reunion happy.”
“I’ll head down to the BAC, lay out the plan.”
“You’ve got a meeting in five minutes,” Chelsea reminded Jessica. “And you wanted to talk to the kitchen about today’s lunch. I’ll run down. I can have the program written up in about an hour.”
“Don’t ever leave me,” Jessica told her.
* * *
Jessica’s faith in her always gave Chelsea a boost. She loved the work, the people, the place. And really loved having someone she admired give her opportunities to create, even take charge.
Still formulating how to pitch the alternate program, she drove to the BAC. If time wasn’t so tight, she’d have loved the walk. To her mind, nothing beat spring in Montana.
Halfway there, one of the maintenance trucks hailed her. The driver leaned out.
“I heard somebody shot Cal Skinner’s horse right out from under him!”
Chelsea repeated the basic line Bodine had given her before she’d left the office. “They’re okay. Somebody was shooting, and they were both grazed, but they’re okay.”
“I heard that horse had to be put down.”
“Oh, no. The vet already fixed him up. He just needs a couple days off.”
The guy—what was his name?… Vance!—gave her a beady eye. “You sure about that, girl?”
“I talked to Rory, and to Bodine just a minute ago. We’re even doing a donation pool to get Sundown a get-well gift.”
“Who’s got that going? Sal?”
“That’s right.”
“I’ll put my money in that. Damn good horse. People oughtn’t to go around shooting unless they know what the hell they’re aiming at. Buncha greenhorn dentists from back East. Bet that’s what it was. You have a good one, girl.”
“You, too.”
She drove on wishing it had been some greenhorn. But Rory, spitting mad, had been sure about Clintok. And sure it had been deliberate.
As upsetting as it was, she didn’t see Rory being that wrong.
She pulled up, saw Easy leading a couple of horses to the near paddock.
“Hey, Easy.”
“Hey there, Chelsea.”
“Is Ben around?”
“Just went in to get us a couple Cokes.”
“How about Carol?”
“Early trail ride. She’ll be back in…” He looked up, squinted, gauged the angle of the sun. “Oh, about a half hour maybe. Something I can do for you?”
“Yeah, actually. You, Ben, Carol. We need to replace Sundown and Cal’s program this afternoon.”
“Cal take sick? Got a text from the big boss asking if I’d come in today. Just figured we were extra busy.”
“You haven’t heard?”
He tethered the horses, turned. “Heard what?”
“Well, you’re going to hear, and the story’s getting bigger so it’s better to hear it straight. Somebody was up in the woods above Black Angus Road yesterday, and took a shot. Cal and Sundown were both hit.”
“What?” He grabbed her arm. “Shot?”
“Wait. I should’ve said ‘grazed.’ Both of them were grazed and they’re going to be fine.”
“Jesus H. Christ. How bad? Cal’s a damn good boss, and that horse is something special.”
“Grazed Cal’s leg, Sundown’s belly.”
Easy’s face hardened. “It was that damn deputy.”
He’d released her arm, and now Chelsea took his. “Why do you say that?”
“I was right here when he came after Cal the one time. Went at him hard, too. And I saw him riding around on an ATV yesterday when I was bringing in a trail ride. Out of uniform, like, but I knew who he was. Didn’t see he had any business on resort property, but I had guests in line and couldn’t go after him to say so.”
“You saw him,” Chelsea repeated, “on property, on an ATV?”
“I did. About four, I’d say. Right around then.”
“You might need to tell the sheriff.”
“I sure as hell will if it means anything.”
“And maybe nobody else right now? Bodine wants to keep it from getting, well, too hot.”
“I’m feeling pretty hot. That’s bushwhacking. Shooting a horse,” Easy muttered, stroking the bay mare. “What kind of son of a bitch does that?”
“A heartless one, I think.”
He looked back at her. “Me, too.”
“I’ve got to get back, but we could really use your help this afternoon.”
“You got it. I’m mad enough to spit.”
“The program,” she began, explaining what they had in mind.
“It’ll be fun. We’ll put that together, you bet. I’ll talk to Ben and Carol. I don’t know Chase so much, or this other one.”
“We’ve got that. If you could figure out what you’d do, who goes when, that kind of thing. And if there’s anything you’d need. If you could do that by noon, I think we could pull this off.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do. I’m right pleased to be part of it.”
“Great. I’ve got to get back and start working on it.”
He looked over as Ben came running, shouting as he did.
