Page 12 of Steers and Stowaways
I can’t wait to rub his nose in it when I do!
She moved on to the next message on her cell phone, biting down on her lower lip as she read it. It was from the very man keeping her body temperature warm out of sheer irritation.
It was weird that he’d texted her at all, since he almost never responded to the texts she sent him. Not so much as a stinking thumbs up! His one phone call to her three days ago had been as rare as a four-leaf clover.
She scanned his message and frowned.
Heading out of town. Be back tomorrow.
You’ve got to be kidding me!That he had better things to do than hover over her next cattle delivery was wholly unacceptable. It was the whole reason she’d hired him, for crying out loud! There was a growing demand across the state for the Angus cattle she’d worked so hard to continue breeding and selling after her father’s death. Despite her success, her ranch was much smaller than the commercial-sized ones. She couldn’t afford to have cattle disappearing, one here and one there. If her herd continued to dwindle at the current rate, it would put her out of business.
Losing two bulls had amounted to her steepest losses yet. She’d cried herself to sleep the night Old Glory had gone missing, and she’d shed plenty more tears for him since then.
It wasn’t easy typing a response to Tucker’s mildly depressing announcement. Due to how much she was being jostled around the storage compartment, she was forced to keep it short.
This isn’t working out.
It wasn’t. The sooner she accepted that dismal fact, the better. She mashed the SEND button before she lost her resolve and changed her mind.
It was stupid of her to continue hoping that the bored and uninterested private investigator would make some monumental breakthrough in her case. He could barely stand her. There was no way he was giving her his best effort.
The most irritating thing of all was that she continued to hang on every word that dripped from his sarcastic mouth. And the way her foolish heart raced every time his condescending dark gaze landed on her. And the impossible hope she clung to that he would someday see her as anything but an annoying inconvenience.
The fact that she was messed up enough in the head to be attracted to such a grumpy, overly blunt, wildly unpleasant man was her cross to bear. The best thing she could do the next time she saw him would be to fire his sorry hide at long last.
She just wished that the thought of never seeing him again didn’t bring on such a heavy wallop of sadness. Maybe her sadness over losing him was misplaced. Maybe it was only the frigid winter temperature playing tricks on her head. Maybe it was…
The cattle trailer abruptly slowed, making her shove her phone back in her coat pocket. Since the cows were quiet, she could only presume they were stopping to top off the gas tank. Or for one of the guys to take a bathroom break.
Ugh!Just thinking about it made her wish she could do the same. Though she’d been careful not to drink too manyfluids before the trip, she’d always been one to “empty out” every chance she got. Though she wasn’t exactly dying for a bathroom break—not even close—the thought of not being able to go if she needed to was unsettling.
She blew out a breath and braced her hands on either side of her as the truck made a sharp turn. Venturing a peek out of one of the narrow windows closest to her, she verified that they were indeed pulling into a truck stop.
While the rumble of the motor was still masking her movements, she flattened out on her belly. Her best bet of staying hidden during any cattle trailer checks was to hunker below the level of the storage berth’s containment ledge.
The truck rolled to a stop, and the motor turned off. Only then did Mallory inwardly congratulate herself for surviving the first leg of the trip.
Two hours down. Three or four more to go.
Excitement shimmered through her at the realization that her cattle remained safely ensconced inside the trailer. Though she was moderately cold and uncomfortable, taking things into her own hands might end up being her best decision yet. She wished she’d thought of doing it sooner. If she had, she might’ve been able to prevent her cattle from disappearing. Most of them had likely already been turned into steak. The bulls were the only ones she had any real hope of recovering alive. Anyone with half a brain would know they were too valuable to send to the slaughterhouse.
She listened to truck doors opening and closing, along with the sound of male voices. Chip made an off-color comparison between the late autumn wind and an intimate part of a witch’s anatomy. It surprised her since his parents were such faithful churchgoers. Not that kids didn’t kick uptheir heels a little when they were away from home, but it still felt off somehow—not like the sweet eighteen-year-old who called his momma ma’am and held open doors for her back home.
The expletive the normally bashful and soft-spoken Cruz let slip next sounded equally out of character.
What in the world?
This was a version of them she’d never heard before. It was as if aliens had beamed down from a spaceship and assumed mind control over the young cowboys. Both were so shy that they usually had trouble making proper eye contact. Not that she interacted much with either of them since they reported directly to Dex, but what her ears were picking up was still highly unexpected.
She inched her way closer to the window so she could peek outside again, wondering if she’d gotten their voices mixed up with someone else’s. But, no. It was Chip and Cruz alright, swaggering like roosters toward the entrance of the service station. Chip’s long dark hair was stringing across his eyes in the breeze. At one point, he paused in the middle of the parking lot to engage in an impromptu wrestling match with Cruz. It looked like Cruz had started it.
Though there was nothing surprising about them acting like overgrown boys, she didn’t like that they were blocking a red pickup from backing out of its parking spot against the building. She also didn’t like how they refused to move when the driver rolled down his window and motioned for them to get out of his way. Sheespeciallydidn’t like the rude gesture Cruz made at the man after he rolled his window back up.
Regret shuddered through her, making her knees weak. Right then and there, she knew she’d made a mistake inallowing Dex to talk her into hiring Cruz. According to Dex, the young cowboy had passed his interview with flying colors. However, she’d just seen a side of him that she doubted he’d displayed during the interview. He was a bad influence on Chip, encouraging him to do all the stupid stuff Chip’s parents had been trying to coach out of him.
She was about to slump back to the floor in pure mortified-laced disappointment when she caught sight of the man who’d been driving the cattle trailer. He was striding into the service station that Chip and Cruz had disappeared into.
That’s impossible!
