Page 20 of Wyoming Tough

“I have a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do,” she told Gelly in a soft voice. Her dark eyes glittered. “Try that again, and you’ll wish you hadn’t.”

Gelly let out a furious sound. “I’ll tell Mallory!”

“Be my guest,” Morie offered. “I can teach him a few moves, too, in case you try that with him.”

Gelly stomped back off toward the house, muttering to herself.

Morie shook her head at the retreating figure.

“Unwise,” Darby said, joining her. He watched Gelly walk away. “She makes a bad enemy. We lost a hand because she accused him of stealing. Told you about that.”

“She’ll think she’s poked a hornet’s nest if she tries it with me. Nobody warns me off people and gets away with it,” she said curtly. “I don’t have any designs on the boss, for God’s sake! I don’t even know him. I just work here!”

Darby patted her on the shoulder paternally. “There, there, don’t let it get you down. Two nights’ sleep and you’ll forget why you argued with her. Come on in and eat. We’ve got chili and Mexican corn bread that Mavie made for us. She’s a wonderful cook.”

“Yes, she is,” Morie agreed. She grimaced. “Sorry. I don’t usually lose my temper, but she set me off. What a piece of work!”

“I do agree. But she’s the boss’s headache, not ours, thank God.”

“I suppose so.”

She followed him inside.

BUT THAT WASN’T THE ENDof it. Mallory called Morie up to the big house, and he wasn’t smiling as he motioned her into the living room and closed the door.

“Sit down, please.” He indicated a leather chair, not the cushy brocade-covered white sofa. Her jeans were stained with grass and mud from helping with calving. Probably he didn’t want a brown-spotted couch, she thought wickedly.

She sat. “Yes, sir?”

He paced. “Gelly said that you threatened her.”

“Did she?” She sounded amazed. “How odd.”

He turned and stared down at her with piercing dark eyes. “I’d like to hear your side of the story before I decide what to do.”

She cocked her head and studied him. “I’ll tell you, if you’re sure you want to know, boss. But I won’t sugarcoat it, even though I need this job.”

He seemed surprised. “Okay. That’s a deal. Shoot.”

“She warned me off you,” she said simply. “Then she threatened to have me fired. Finally, she tried to slap me and I blocked the move. She left and I went back to work.”

“In between, there’s some stuff missing,” he pointed out. “Like what you said that made her try to slap you.”

“She said that I was after you because you were rich and I was poor,” she added. The words did sting, despite Morie’s background. “She also said cowboys were smelly and stupid and that she could get me fired if she liked. I told her that I didn’t like threats and that perhaps I should ask you if you were her personal property. That’s when she tried to slap me.”

He just stared at her. He didn’t speak. God knew what Gelly had actually told him about the incident.

“I’ve never known her to get physical with anyone,” he returned. “She was crying.”

“Oh, gee, I’m sorry,” Morie said with cutting sarcasm. “Start a fight and lose it and then go crying to some big, strong man to make it all right. That how it goes?”

His jaw tautened. “I’m the boss.”

“Yes, you are, sir,” she agreed. “So if you want to fire me, go right ahead. There are a few ranches where I haven’t tried to get work yet. I’m willing to give them a try.”

He let out an angry sigh. “You might just admit that you were wrong and apologize to her,” he said curtly.

“Apologize when I was defending myself from an attack?” she asked. “How does that work, exactly?”

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