"No. Now I want you to go back to your gold mines as fast as you can. No matter what you do, don"t go bothering Daisy. I"m hoping she"ll soon get over you and marry Guy. My whole family misses her already."
"Does she have anybody to help her?"
"Yes, an old man who used to work for her father. She"ll be all right. Guy checks on her. Just go away. You"ve done enough damage already."
"Didn"t she understand when I told her the killer had followed her."
"The sheriff found out who he was, but the man has headed for Montana. She has nothing to worry about from him any more."
But as Tyler walked back to the hotel, feeling about as well liked as a sewer rat, he wasn"t certain the man had moved on. It didn"t matter. He was going to see Daisy. He couldn"t rest knowing she was at that ranch alone. He had to be certain she was okay. Besides, he ought to know by now he couldn"t stay away from her.
Chapter Twenty-two.
"There"s a lot of cows in these hills," Rio said to Daisy as he dismounted and came to the campfire, "but too many of them are unbranded."
"I don"t understand," Daisy said. She handed him a cup of the strong black coffee he liked.
Jesus, the old man"s nephew, rode in at a fast trot. "Rider"s coming in," he said even before he dismounted.
Daisy stiffened. Mr. Cochrane said the killer had left the territory, but unknown riders still made her nervous. She picked up her rifle. She wasn"t sure she could hit anything -- Rio had shown her how to use it just two days ago -- but she figured n.o.body else would know that. She felt no relief when she saw Bob Greene ride up with two of his hands.
Greene stepped down out of the saddle and approached the campfire. Daisy wanted to tell him to leave, but instead she offered him a cup of coffee. He accepted it and took a sallow.
"Sorry to hear about your father."
"Thank you."
"You planning to run this outfit by yourself?"
"Yes."
"You need a better place to stay than that," he said pointing to the tent.
"I"ll rebuild the house when I get some money."
Greene reached into his shirt pocket and brought out a roll of bills. "This ought to be enough to do it."
Daisy didn"t move. "I"m not selling my land."
"This isn"t for your land. It"s for the cattle I sold."
Daisy felt she was understanding less minute by minute. "I don"t understand."
"Each year some of your father"s cattle get mixed up with mine. Rather than drive them back to his land, I brand the calves for him and sell the steers, though not as many this year as last. Manuel Cordova, your neighbor to the south, does the same thing. I"m sorry to be so late with the money, but the snow kept me busy."
Daisy"s mind was in a whirl. She remembered they had always gone to stay in a hotel in the winter. Her father told them the money came from his investments.
"You ought to hire a couple more men and start branding," Greene said. "You"ve got a fortune"s worth of cattle up there." He pointed to the hills. "You"re lucky n.o.body"s rustled the lot of them. Manuel and I tried to get your father to let us brand them for him. h.e.l.l, I even offered to round them up for free. I figured if rustlers started in on his herds, they"d be after mine next." He frowned angrily. "I was right, but the old fool wouldn"t let us set one foot on his land. I figured he thought we were after his gold mine."
Her father never made any money from his gold mines or investments. Everything he got, he got from his neighbors. Daisy felt a helpless fury rise within her. All those years, doing everything he asked, treating him like a king, and he"d been lying the whole time.
"Rio and his nephew are helping me," Daisy said. "We plan to start branding tomorrow."
Greene offered the money again, and Daisy took it. He threw out the remainder of his coffee, handed her the cup, and caught up his reins. "You got some mighty big stock out there. You"re going to need more than an old man and a boy. A remuda, too. I can spare a couple of hands for the next month or so. I"ll throw in the horses."
Daisy wanted to refuse, but common sense told her she would be making a mistake. She couldn"t believe Greene had anything to do with her father"s death, not anymore. Until she got on her feet, she needed all the help she could get. "Why are you doing this?" she asked.
Greene smiled. "We"ve got to stick together. Ours are the only ranches Cochrane doesn"t own. Maybe he"s got so many cows he can stand the losses, but I can"t. If it keeps up, I"ll have to sell out. By helping you, I"m helping myself. I"m sure Cordova feels the same way." He turned to Rio Mendoza. "You keep a close watch on her. She"s got a lot to learn."
"What didn"t you tell her you think Cochrane is behind the rustling?" one of Greene"s men asked when they were out of earshot.
"She"s engaged to marry his son. It"s supposed to be a secret, but the Cochrane boy"s been whispering it about. No sense in setting the girl against her father-in-law. It can only get her in trouble."
"Maybe she don"t want to marry the boy. Maybe she wants to run this place and be her own boss."
"It doesn"t matter what she wants. Cochrane will see she marries his son. He always gets what he wants."
Daisy allowed her horse to head the cow and calf toward the area where Greene and Cordova"s men were helping Rio and Jesus with the branding. She was learning to work a cutting pony. She was so sore, stiff, and tired sometimes staying in the saddle was all she could manage. It would take her a while before she felt completely comfortable on horseback, but she was proud of her progress.
"You"re bringing in more cattle than anyone else," Rio observed. "You sure do learn fast."
"The horse knows enough for both of us," Daisy said. "Mr. Greene said it was one of his best."
But as Daisy headed back into the scrub growth that seemed to stretch for miles in every direction, she knew it wasn"t just the horse. The cattle seemed to be finding her more than her finding them. She had hardly gone a mile when she saw another cow and calf trotting in her direction.
Daisy pulled up to see what the cow would do. It stopped and started to browse. It didn"t seem the least bit concerned about Daisy"s presence. Suddenly the cow threw up its head, uttered a bawling protest, and started in Daisy"s direction once more.
Daisy pulled her rifle from its scabbard. Something in the brush had scared the cow. Being careful to keep her rifle pointed straight ahead, Daisy urged her horse forward. Following the trail the cow had taken, Daisy looked left and right, studying the growth of vegetation already thicker than any season she could remember.
She noticed a patch of brown in a juniper thicket that didn"t match its background. She circled carefully until she was behind the concealing brush. She was determined to flush her quarry. Raising her rifle, she fired into the tangle of gra.s.s, bushes, and stunted trees.
"What the h.e.l.l do you mean going around firing into bushes!" Tyler demanded as he emerged from the clump of pine and juniper.
Daisy nearly dropped her rifle when he stood up. A frisson of excitement shot through her body from toe to scalp. He hadn"t gone back to the mountains. She felt all her hopes revive. There was only one reason for a man to follow a woman this many times, especially a poor woman. Tyler might not know it yet, but he loved her. He was no more capable of leaving her than she was of forgetting him.
Before Daisy could recover from her shock, Tyler pulled her out of the saddle and kissed her fast and hard. Then before she could recover her breath, he lifted her into the saddle again.
For a moment, Daisy was unable to move or speak. She decided the entire world had gone crazy. Certainly Tyler had if he thought he could kiss her and everything would be forgotten. He did love her. She couldn"t doubt that any longer, but it was obvious he wasn"t burning to tell her. He was the same distant, unreachable man he"d always been, coming and going in her life, keeping her emotions in constant turmoil, reviving hopes he seemed to have no intentions of fulfilling.
Well she was not the same woman he had rescued and left twice before. She might love him, but she wasn"t going to let her emotions run away with her this time.
Using every bit of self-control she could muster, Daisy tried to speak as naturally as possible.
"What are you doing here?"
"You look lovely," Tyler said. "Hard work agrees with you. I really do like your hair. Don"t ever pin it up."
Accepting his compliments as just one more thing Tyler did to keep her off balance, Daisy struggled once again to talk to him like he was n.o.body special. But it was hard with him looking up at her, his big brown eyes warm and shining.
"You"ve been driving the cows toward me!" she accused. "That"s why I"ve been finding so many." No matter what she did, he couldn"t stop trying to take care of her. But it wasn"t enough anymore. Not nearly enough.
"I thought you might need some help getting started. I didn"t realize you would have half the country helping you."
"You mean you followed me from Albuquerque so you could hide in the bushes and chase cows toward me when I wasn"t looking."
He brushed off some dry needles clinging to his clothes. "I"m the reason you"re out here by yourself. I came to make sure you"re okay."
He was as bad as Zac. He acted like the universe revolved around him. "Don"t flatter yourself. I"m here because I couldn"t marry Guy without loving him. You can head back to your mines right now."
Tyler didn"t seem the least bit disconcerted. "I"d better get my horse."
"I thought you only rode mules."
"I grew up in Texas," Tyler called over his shoulder. "Mules and burros are for prospecting, horses for working cows. You can"t fool me there."
He wasn"t acting like himself. Daisy walked her horse after him. "You sound like Zac. What"s wrong with you?"
"You didn"t like me as I was. I thought maybe you"d like Zac better."
"I never liked Zac better than you." She hadn"t meant to let that to slip out.
"Poor Zac."
Tyler had concealed his horse, a huge seventeen-hand gelding, behind a ridge. Mounted he looked magnificent. Daisy swallowed, the caustic remark hovering on her tongue, forgotten. It was hard to be scathing when she"d just had the wind knocked out of her sails. It wasn"t fair his mere physical presence could render her witless. Her father had always said the mind was more powerful than the body. But he hadn"t told her it would be such a close call.
"While I"m here, I might as well help you drive that cow to camp."
So he intended to talk nothing but business. That was okay. She could be just as casual as he. "Where did you learn so much about cows?"
"I told you, I grew up in Texas. My family has a ranch there."
"One of the ranches that generates the income you won"t accept?"
"Laurel."
"Somebody had to explain. You wouldn"t."
Tyler started the cow and calf trotting toward the camp. "I didn"t figure it was anybody"s business but mine."
Daisy felt like she"d been slapped in the face. "It isn"t. It"s just that people who care for you like to understand you. That"s a pretty big chunk left out of the picture."
"I guess that"s why I"ve always kept to myself."
Whatever his reason for coming back, it obviously wasn"t to beg her forgiveness or anything like that. His heart was as crusted over as ever. "It saves explanations and caring. I understand now."
The cow made a break for freedom. Tyler had her back on the trail in minutes.
"What do you understand?" he asked.
"That you don"t want anybody in your life. You don"t want to be vulnerable, to let anybody become important to you. You"ve used your brothers" refusal to give you the money for your hotels as an excuse to drive people away. Secretly you don"t think you"re worthy of your good fortune. You haven"t done anything to earn the money. You"re keeping your hotels to yourself because when you finally get them, they"ll be your justification for taking your place in the family. If you had to share them, they wouldn"t be yours. You"d be afraid you weren"t worthy. How did I do?"
"You talked to Laurel a lot."
"I also lived with my father for a long time. You"re very much alike. I discovered he could have made a decent income from the ranch, but he was obsessed with gold."
"You think I"m like that?"
"I"m not sure it matters. It may be too late for you to become a normal human being. You may be so firmly caught in your isolation you have forgotten how to break out."
"You"ve done a lot of thinking."
"I"ve had a lot of time."
The action in camp came to a halt when they rode in. "This is Tyler Randolph," Daisy said to Rio. "He"s been chasing the cows out of the hills for me." The other men in the camp studied Tyler with appraising glances as Daisy introduced him around.
"Ready to get some more?" Tyler said, when the introductions were over.
"I"m ready for you to go back to Albuquerque."
"I"m sticking. You can ride out with me or you can sit in camp. Either way it"s your decision." He put spurs to his huge gelding and started back toward the hills.
"You trust him?" Rio asked.
"Like a rattler," Daisy said as she started after him. "Come to think of it, I"d trust a rattler more." She wished it were true, but she seemed to trust him no matter how many times he left her.
"What the h.e.l.l was that all about?" one of Bob Greene"s men asked. "How in h.e.l.l did she manage to get a Randolph to help her?"
"You know him?" Rio asked.
"Not him, but I know of his family. Everybody does. They"re rich as sin and mean as snakes. His brother is in Albuquerque right now. He was a gunfighter. This one"s supposed to be looking for gold."
"I think he"s found it," Rio said. His gaze turned to follow the pair disappearing in the distance.
Daisy and Tyler rode into camp at dusk. Tyler dismounted, helped Daisy down, then took both their horses and headed toward the remuda.