The Rancher Meets His Match (8 page)

             
They got back to the ranch right at dark.  Everyone unsaddled their mounts and brushed them down.  They all teased each other about this and that, then headed inside for supper. All the hands were already seated around the table waiting “Hey boss, we were wondering where the three of you got off to.  Y’all were gone a while.” Heath said.  He was watching Josey and Hilary playfully teasing each other.  Heath took notice of Josey for the first time.  She was about 14 not much younger than he was.  She was real pretty too.  He didn’t know why he’d never noticed her before.  He’d always talked about how well she handled Legend.  He even bragged about it at school to the other boys, when they were talking about their girlfriends.  She wasn’t even his girlfriend but he always had to bring her up.  He knew she was better than all those other girls and it bugged him when
his friends
talk
ed
about her. 

             
J.W. noticed Heath watching Josey, and he realized that his little girl had reached that age when all the boys start showing up at the door wanting to take her out.  It bothered him to think about it.  He liked Heath but he didn’t know what to think about him as anything but a ranch hand.  He didn’t like the thought of his little girl with a boyfriend.  Heath was noticing her for the first time, and J.W. figured that Heath was better than most but he still didn’t know how to handle it.  He decided to talk to Hilary about it as soon as they were alone. A woman’s view would be nice to have.  She was strong and independent and a good influence on his daughter.   He hoped to see some of her hard work and beliefs rub off on Josey. 

             
“The cattle need moving J.W., there isn’t enough grass.”  Samuel said.  J.W. rubbed his chin and scratched at the two days growth beard.  He was looking at the pasture and he knew Samuel was right but he didn’t want to lose anymore.  He was trying to decide where to put them.  The lower pasture would be wet from all the rain they had been getting lately and that wasn’t good for the cattle’s feet.  He couldn’t take the risk of putting them back out by the gully because they still hadn’t caught the cattle thief.  By
now,
those cattle were sold at auction and he would never see them again but he needed to keep what he had left.  He still had to pay his men’s wages.  “What about the South pasture? The creek is up but not enough to reach it yet.  We can keep a check on the water level.” Samuel said.  J.W. was nodding his head.  “Yeah, that sounds good.  Get some men and get em moved, Sam.”

             
Lisa was list
ening in a nearby stall.  She’
d been snooping around for days and no one paid her any attention at all.  He was finally going to move the cattle.  If she remembered
correctly,
there was a small road that met that piece of the property and there was even a gate there at one
time,
with a dirt road going to an old shed, there had once been a
house there but it
burnt down and the old man acquired the property afterwards. She remembered it because she used to meet
her
men there. 

             
She waited until J.W. and Samuel left the barn and snuck out the other way.  Josey and that damn woman were in the
arena working those
barrel horses.  Hilary sat atop one of the horses looking beautiful as usual.  It made Lisa sick to know that she could never look that good after a long day of riding.  She didn’t know how the woman managed it.  She rolled her eyes and stomped off toward the house.  She watched from the guest bedroom
as the men saddled up and started
moving the cattle.  Then she dressed in her slinky red dress and a pair of tall black heels, she stuffed her purse full of condoms and headed to her car.

             
The rustler was waiting for her
at a hotel this time.  She
called him ahead of time and planned a meeting with him.  She intended on telling him the news after she got what she wanted from him.  He may have been scruffy but she had to admit he had a damn sexy body and was good in bed to boot.  She was definitely looking forward to their meeting and this time she picked the place. 

             
She pulled around to the back of the hotel making sure that her car could not be seen from the road.  And she climbed the stairs to the room on the second story that he said he would be in.  She found the right room and knocked on the door.  The door swung open and the trucker stood there running his eyes over her body and then settling on her beast before yanking her through the door and slamming it shut. 

             
His hands ran up and down her body grabbing and squeezing at her breast.  He pulled the dress up and
over her shoulders.  She hadn’
t even bothered to wear panties and a bra.  He
grinned with appreciation.  His right hand ran down her stomach to the place where she ached and parted the lips with his middle finger rubbing the nub there and then plunging in and out of her.  He squeezed her butt with his left
hand, pulled her to him,
and kissed her hard.

             
She unbuttoned his
shirt, ran her hands over his chiseled abs and chest,
and pinched at the nipples then she ran her hands around his back and down and back around to unbutton his jeans and then she grabbed his shaft and worked her hand back and forth until he could stand it no more.  He pulled his pants down and stepped out of them then picked her up and carried her to the bed.  He fell on top of her and rammed her hard and then harder.  She liked it rough, the rougher the better.  Her high heels were digging into him and he liked it.  It reminded him of a porno, and that turned him on more. 

             
When they were
through,
they got down to business.  She told him where they were moving the cattle, told him about the gate and how to find it.  She even laughed when she told him how she used the shed to meet men.  They discussed the details then he gave her some money and sent her on her way.

             
Lisa was very proud of herself.  She was going to get what she wanted and it pleased her.  Very few things had been going her way lately, but things were beginning to look up.  Soon she would have the money to pay
off
her debts and she could be on her way. She was tired of running and soon she wouldn’t have to anymore.

             
Hilary was in the arena with Josey working the barrel horses.  She saw Lisa’s car pull up and watched her step out in a skimpy red dress and tall black heels.  She got out swinging her purse and humming to herself walking in the house.  A few minutes later she descended the
stairs dressed in an old pair of jeans, boots and a blouse that was
excessively
tight and way too short for a woman of her age.

             
She walked into the barn told Heath to saddle her a horse and rode out to the south pasture.  The cattle were headed in that direction, why she headed that way, Hilary couldn’t fathom.  She made it clear she hated cattle and that she wanted nothing to do with them.  Maybe she was looking for J.W., Hilary thought.  Jealousy sprang up in her stomach and she had to fight it down.  She hated how that woman was always snooping around.  Hilary thought she was up to something at first but she soon forgot about her suspicions. 

             
Hilary dismissed herself from Josey and she rode out the same way Lisa had gone.  She was careful to stay far enough behind and keep to the trees. 
She had no idea why she was following her but a suspicion kept rising the hair on the back of her neck and for that reason alone, she followed. 
She noticed when they caught up to the cattle Lisa was nowhere to be found.  Then she caught a glimpse of something disappearing behind a tree, and headed in that direction.  Sure
enough,
it was Lisa.  It looked like
she was sneaking around the men.  The hair on the back of Hilary’s neck rose up even higher. 

             
She followed her for
what felt like an eternity
until they came to an old shed.  Hilary stayed back in the bushes.  She dismounted her horse and grabbed her cell phone out of her pocket.  She put it on silence and slipped it back in her pocket then she crouched down in some bushes and watched.  She took in her surrounding and realized that on the other side of the shed were the remains of an old charred burnt down house with the chimney still standing.  She noticed an old driveway that led to an old fence road and
she
watched as Lisa walked her horse down the driveway toward the fence.  She dismounted and began breaking branches off hedges that stood there.  Then Hilary saw it.  There was an old gate there hidden by the bushes.  It hadn’t been used in years and looked like it had been forgotten.  Wh
at was she up to? Hilary wondered
. 

             
Hilary watched as Lisa got back on her horse and headed back the way she’d come.  Hilary snuck back to her horse and mounted up sure to stay hidden.  She had a sinking feeling and that feeling had her on her cell phone calling the county sheriff’s department.   She told Sheriff James everything she could about the place that she was now looking at.  She told him about the hidden gate and Lisa looking for it in the bushes.  He seemed to think she may have been checking to see if it was still there and then marking it.  He asked her if Lisa carried any ribbon or anything that could be seen from a road to mark the spot.  She told him she wasn’t sure but she would look. 
After Lisa left, Hilary rode to the gate and dismounted.  
She wound her way through the bushes
until
she found the gate and saw that there was indeed a blacktop road and an orange ribbon hung out there big enough to be seen from that road.

             
The sheriff asked her to wait there.  He was on his way out there to see for himself.  By the time Sheriff James got
there,
J.W. was there too. The sheriff walked around the area from the other side and studied it for a moment.  He then decided that it was indeed a marker for the rustlers.  They decided to leave it up so that they could catch them in the act.  He climbed over the gate and walked around the area pinpointing where the best place to put his men would be.  They would stake out in the old shed and up in the woods.  The darkness would consume them in the woods and no one would see them.  He made a call into the station and ordered several of his men out to the area. 

             
When the men showed
up,
they were all in a department of corrections van as the sheriff had ordered.  The men filed out one by one, and the van left.  He sent one of the officers to hide his truck somewhere down the road and in the woods far enough that it couldn’t be seen.  Then he lined the men up and put each one where he wanted him.  J.W. and Hilary were sent home and were warned to be careful of what they say around Lisa.  They wanted to catch these guys and hopefully it would be that night. 

             
The sheriff was usually right about things.  He had guys wa
tching a man in town and they’
d reported sight of a woman coming and going fro
m a hotel room where the man was
checked in.  He had a feeling that woman would lead them to something like this.  He was glad that Hilary was smart enough to follow her gut and trail after Lisa without being detected and he was glad she called him.  He wished he could get men and women like her in his department.  He had good men but few of them possessed the
qualities
that this woman possessed.  Very few of his men went on their gut instinct.  He looked at gut instinct like a sixth sense.  If your gut was trying to tell you something nine times out of
ten,
it was right. 

             
At ten thirty, the sound of a big rigs brakes releasing air pressure alerted the men that something was about to happen.  They listened as men got out of a truck behind the big rig.  The cursing they heard was over who was going to chop bushes.  Then one voice carried over them all and told them to
shut up
.  A few minutes
later,
they noticed bushes being chopped and they could get a better view of the gate.  Then they saw two men open the gate and they waited until the rig was inside.  The sheriff waited until the big rig was turned around and all the men were inside.  He waited until they entered the herd on horseback trying to round up cattle then he gave the signal and his men prepared themselves. 

             
“This is Sheriff James with the county sheriff’s department.  We have you surrounded.  Stop what you are doing and put your hands up,” he said on his megaphone.   The men on the horses immediately stopped what they were doing and threw their hands up but the big fellow who had been driving the big rig tried to make a run for it.  The sheriff took chase after him and hit him from behind knocking him to the ground.  The man struggled and almost overcame the sheriff, but he slipped up and the sheriff managed to lock his arms behind his back.