Brave the Wild Wind

Chapter 40

JESSIE didn’t know what first alerted her to the other three riders. They were too far away for their horses to be heard, but she sensed them somehow. A little later, she saw them. The hairs on the back of her neck tingled as she realized how close she was to home and that the three riders were racing away from her ranch.

It was the fact that they weren’t on the main track to town that worried Jessie, as if they didn’t want to run into anyone. She didn’t think twice about veering Blackstar off the path to follow them. She didn’t stop to wonder if Chase would miss her, either. He had been following pretty far behind her nearly all the way. She knew he was there, but she didn’t care. This was Jessica Blair’s business, and she would see to her own interests without any help from an interfering husband.

With her urgency affecting Blackstar, Jessie closed the distance between her and the three riders in no time at all. They heard her. The first shot whistled past her ear and brought her own gun to hand. She got off two returning shots, still galloping furiously, before Blackstar’s reins slipped out of her other hand and she had to fight like mad to get the reins back. The men fired another shot at her, but they were running for their lives by then, and the aim was wild.

Jessie continued the chase undaunted. She saw who they were. The moonlight was bright enough for that. She was so furious, she wasn’t going to stop until she had all three dead in the dust at her feet. Thank God she had changed out of her dress and was wearing her gun. But then there was a horse behind her, and Chase was yanking her reins away.

“Are you crazy?” she shouted at him. “They’re getting away!”

“I don’t fancy seeing my wife with a broken neck,” he said as he pulled Blackstar to a stop. “You know you can’t race across terrain like this at night. Think of your horse if not yourself.”

He was right. A hole in the ground could kill a man as easily as a bullet, because it left his horse with a broken leg. But that didn’t lessen her fury. She was watching her quarry get farther and farther away.

“Damn you! It’s too late now!” she screamed at Chase.

“Tell me what happened, Jessie.”

“They shot at me. I shot back.”

“And?”

She shrugged. “I probably wounded what I aimed at.”

“Jessie, who—?”

“Bowdre’s hirelings. I saw them riding away from the ranch. By the time I got close enough to recognize them, they were shooting at me.”

“Clee and Charlie? Was Bowdre the third man?”

“I wish it were Bowdre, but it was Blue Parker! That no-good bastard!”

“Are you sure?”

“He looked right at me before he dug his spurs into his horse. I’ve known him too long to mistake him for someone else.”

“So Parker really has thrown in with them,” Chase said thoughtfully. “They must have offered him a lot of money.”

“It’s more likely spite. He was interested in me, wanted to marry me,” she explained. “After you came, he thought I was avoiding him because of you. He didn’t know I’d left the ranch those two times to go north. When I ran into him one day, he accused me of throwing him over for you. I told him it wasn’t true, but he didn’t believe me. He’s just like my father, a man who feels he’s got to avenge himself for any wrong.”

“What do you think they were up to?” Chase asked.

Jessie caught her breath. Her anger had overcome her fears.

“Let’s get to the ranch,” she cried, turning Blackstar around. “I’m almost afraid to guess what they’ve done.”

Baldy found them just as they got back to the trail leading to the valley. He had been on his way to town to look for them. When he finished talking, Jessie felt numb. She had thought herding the cattle together had been the answer, but all she had done was make it easy for them to be shot. Nearly half the herd lay dead or dying around the campsite. Ramsey was still unconscious from a blow to the head, and the rest of the herd had been stampeded right toward the poisoned waterhole. Baldy had gotten back to camp in time to see the three men riding off and to assess the damage. A man who had worked with cattle all his life, he was in tears from the waste he had seen.

No sooner had Baldy finished talking than Jessie saw the orange glow over the rise that shielded the valley. Chase saw it a second later. A deep animal sound escaped from Jessie. She spurred Blackstar on, and Chase followed, afraid.

Jessie rode no farther than the top of the rise that looked down on the ranch house. The glow from the fire lit her face, revealing such a depth of anguish it tore Chase’s heart.

Every building on the ranch was consumed by flames.