Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (38 page)

“
Can we start in an hour?”
Emily asked, flipping the pancake.

“
Yes, ask them for their
applications and you may keep those,” Velma said. “Once you’ve
hired one, tell them to contact us for their
finalization.”

“
Ok, thanks,” Emily said,
and hung up the phone. She ate quickly and sat on the couch to feed
Alexis.

She heard a knock on the door and saw
the familiar standing at the window, “Come in, Sam”

Sam walked in and glanced at her, then
sat in a chair by the empty fireplace.

“
I have field hands coming
in twenty minutes, can you stay for those?” Emily asked as she
lifted the baby up to her shoulder.

“
Yes, I’d like to be here
for those. I’ve already fed the cattle. We’re going to need a load
of hay soon.”

Emily nodded, “Ok, I’ll ask around and
see if I can find a good price.”

“
We interviewing here or
the kitchen?” Sam asked, looking around.

“
Let’s do it in here, more
casual than the kitchen. Plus, I haven’t done the dishes this
morning,” Emily said, and shrugged.

There was a knock at the door, “Let
the first one in.”

She grabbed a notebook and sat Alexis
in the swing. She stood up and shook the hand of the first
applicant. She was surprised at how much he looked like Keith, down
to the puffed lower lip full of chew.

“
Mornin’, Ma’am” he said,
and handed her the application.

“
Good morning. Please, call
me Emily and this is Sam, he’s the overseer,” Emily said, and
scanned his application.

“
Why did you leave your
last field hand job?” Emily asked, seeing that he’d been with the
family for almost 8 years.

Emily was exhausted by noon. She
interviewed eight men, all wanting the position. She had seen
everything from the classic cowboy, to a young kid whose pants hung
down past his butt, and his earlobes were stretched out with huge
rings. So far she hadn’t been impressed with any of them, and she
was getting tired of the way they looked at the bruises on her neck
and cheek, yet no one had the nerve to ask anything about
it.

“
We don’t have another
interview for an hour. Let’s do lunch,” Emily said, and picked up
Alexis.

Alexis was enjoying herself in her
swing as she watched the strange men come and go. Emily judged two
of them solely on how they responded to the baby. One seemed
extremely uncomfortable with the young, single mother of two, while
the other winked at Emily and nodded with a big smile.

Emily was too tired to do more than
make a sandwich, and she ate it quickly and then sat down in the
recliner to feed Alexis. She shut her eyes for a moment, but the
phone interrupted her short nap.

“
Hello?”

“
How are you?” Chevalier
asked, sounding worried.

Emily smiled, “Just tired. We’ve been
interviewing all morning.”

“
So it’s yours? Everything
is good?”

“
Yes, and it’s perfect. I
love the house.”

There was an awkward silence, “I’m
glad to hear that. How much longer will you be?”

“
I don’t really know. The
house needs a lot of cleaning. As an estate sale, their clothes and
everything are still here.”

“
I wish I could help
you.”

“
I know you do. But we’ll
be home soon, I promise.”

“
You sound tired,”
Chevalier noticed.

“
I’m sure I’ll sound more
tired tonight… oh, there’s the door, I have to go.”

“
Ok, I love you,” Chevalier
said softly.

Emily smiled. He was being a good
sport about all of this, “I love you, too.”

She threw Alexis up against her
shoulder and pulled her shirt down, then answered the door. A tall,
handsome man stood at the door with his application. He had a black
Stetson that was slightly crooked on his head, and his jeans were
worn and faded.

“
Come in, please,” Emily
said, and motioned for the couch.

“
Sam!” she yelled, and
heard him coming in from the bunkhouse.

“
Beautiful baby, Ma’am,” he
said, and took off his hat when he sat down.

Emily sat down across from him and
looked through his application, waiting for Sam. Sam came in and
looked at the man, and his eyes narrowed. Emily glared at him. He’d
been overly picky about the candidates so far.

“
Let’s get on with this
then…” Emily started, but Sam interrupted.

“
I’m Sam, the overseer, and
this is Teresa,” Sam said. Emily looked at him strangely, and then
back to the applicant.

“
Nice to meet you,” he
said, and looked toward Sam and smiled. That’s when Emily saw the
elongated canines and felt her body tense.

“
Excuse us for one moment,”
Emily said, smiling, and then turned to Sam. “Did you empty the
ashes out of the bin?”

“
No,” he answered, watching
the applicant.

“
Ok,” Emily said, looking
at the application again. She was trying hard not to let her hands
shake, “I see you have 12 years experience.”

“
Yes, in
Colorado.”

“
Why did you leave?” Emily
asked, laying the application down.

“
It was just time to move
on. I decided to head up here to see if I could find more work,” he
explained.

Emily saw him to the door after the
interview and shut it behind him. She leaned against the door and
looked at Sam with fearful eyes.

“
Does he know?”

“
No, I don’t think he does.
I’m guessing he’s a wanderer… an un-factioned heku that sticks
mainly with mortals,” Sam said, watching out the window as the man
drove away.

“
Damn, I knew I should have
brought Ford,” Emily said, and jumped when she heard a knock on the
door.

She spun, too quickly, and opened the
door. Two young, Native American men stood on the doorstep. They
were tall and muscular with hair that fell well below their
shoulders.

“
We’re here for the job
interview,” one of them said, smiling brightly.

“
Please, come in,” she
said, still nervous from the heku.

Emily shut the door behind them and
followed the two into the living room. She felt tiny beside them.
They were both almost as tall as Chevalier, and their faces were
warm and caring.

“
Sit, please,” she said,
and sat down.

One of the brothers pulled a small
trinket from his pocket and handed it to Alexis, who immediately
giggled it and swung it around.

Emily was still shaking from the heku
encounter, so Sam took over, “I’m Sam, the overseer. This is the
owner of the ranch, Emily.”

Emily finally got control of her
voice, “Are you brothers?”

“
Yes, I’m Todd and this is
my twin brother, Peter,” the one closest to her said. Emily was
fascinated by his dark eyes, they held wisdom beyond his young
face, but the kindness was forefront.

Emily took their applications and
looked through them, “No experience?”

“
None work related. Our Dad
owns a ranch and we’ve always worked for him,” Peter
said.

Emily nodded, “Cows,
Horses?”

“
Yes, sometimes pigs and
chickens, too,” Todd told her.

“
I’m sorry, this is against
the rules, but how old are you?” Emily asked curiously.

“
We’ll be 32 this year,” he
said, laughing.

“
Oh, sorry, you look much
younger,” Emily said, and blushed slightly, though she didn’t know
why.

“
We promise you we are hard
workers and we work cheap,” Peter said. “We know the legends of the
area, and are anxious to break out of the ranch work on the
reservation.”

Emily nodded and smiled. She was ready
to hire them on the spot. Sam was watching them wearily,
though.

Emily decided to take charge, “How
soon would you be able to start?”

Todd nodded to his pinto out front,
“It has everything we own in it.”

Emily laughed, “Would you please go
check out the ranch while I talk to Sam?”

The twins nodded and walked out of the
house toward the barn. They were talking among themselves and
laughing. Emily couldn’t hear what was said, but one of them ran
with the other one in pursuit, and they disappeared into the
barn.

“
I like them,” Emily
said.

“
I don’t trust them,” Sam
said skeptically.

“
You haven’t liked any of
them,” Emily reminded him.

“
They will do,” Sam finally
said.

“
Good, because I’m tired of
interviews. Call Velma back and tell her the position is filled,”
Emily said. She took Alexis and went out to tell the
twins.

They were ecstatic when Emily offered
them the job, and as they ran to the car, they playfully fought
about which bunkhouse they each got, “I’ll have Sam come show you
around. Why don’t you come in for dinner around six
o’clock.”

“
Wohoo! Food!” Todd yelled,
and ran into the first bunkhouse.

Emily shook her head, smiling, and
went back inside. She started up the stove and put some potatoes in
to bake. She watched as Sam and the twins set off across the
pasture on horseback. They returned just before dark, and Emily was
pulling the steaks from the oven when they came in for
dinner.

“
May I?” Todd asked, and
motioned to Alexis. Todd’s face was broader than Peter’s, but
Peter’s eyes were darker and set deeper. Although twins, there were
subtle difference that made it easy for her to tell them
apart.

“
Sure,” Emily said, and
watched as he picked Alexis up and bounced her until she
laughed.

“
Do you just have the
baby?” Peter asked, sitting at the table.

Emily at first thought it a rude
question, but remembered that they would be spending a lot of time
together. It was only natural that they get acquainted.

“
No, I have a son who is 5.
He stays with his Dad a lot though,” Emily said as she moved the
food to the table.

Sam came in last and sat down at the
table.

Todd put Alexis down in the swing, and
she watched them as they began to eat.

“
Wow, this is great,
Ma’am,” Peter said, taking a large bite of steak.

“
Please, it’s Emily,” she
told them. “I’m not that familiar with the area, which tribe are
you from?”

“
I’m Crow,” Todd explained.
“He’s Dakota.”

Peter hit Todd in the arm and Todd
yelled, and then laughed. Emily briefly wondered if the brothers
ever fought, or if they were always this playful.

After dinner, Sam and the twins went
back to their bunkhouses as Emily cleaned up. Once she was done,
she pulled off her jeans and fell into bed wearing just a t-shirt.
Alexis was already asleep in a small bassinet by the
bed.

Emily woke up to the sound of
footsteps above her. She glanced at the clock, it was just after
3am. Thinking she was hearing things, she laid her head back down,
but heard it again. There were footsteps directly above her. She
sat up and tiptoed into the hallway, shutting the door behind her,
then turned on the lights in the hallway and went over to the attic
entrance. She used the stick to pull down the panel and the ladder
slid down easily.

Emily could hear movement from above
her as she crawled up the ladder and looked into the crowded attic.
The noises stopped as soon as she stuck her head up past the floor.
She couldn’t see past any of the boxes though, and the attic was
menacingly dark and stuffy.

She screamed when she heard a fierce
voice, and then dropped down to the floor and ran into the bedroom.
Grabbing Alexis, she ran out of the house with bare feet to Sam’s
bunkhouse and knocked frantically. Sam answered at the same time as
the twins came to their doors.

“
There’s someone in the
attic,” Emily said, and glanced back at the dark house.

Sam frowned, turned around, and
grabbed his rifle, then went into the house. Emily waited out on
the bunkhouse porch with the twins. They stayed with her as she
rocked nervously. She hadn’t realized how cool the night was until
Todd handed her a jacket. She slipped it on and wrapped it around
her and the baby. The jacket came down to her knees and smelled
like horses.

Sam finally came back out of the
house, “I don’t see anything up there but junk.”

“
I heard footsteps, and
when I went up there, there was a voice,” she said, still
shaking.

“
What did it say?” Peter
asked her.

“
I don’t know. It was more
like a growl than a voice, I guess,” she said. Emily sighed. She
realized how insane she sounded, and was surprised that none of
them called her on it.

“
I looked all around and I
didn’t see anything,” Sam said.