The Rancher Meets His Match (9 page)

             
The sheriff’s deputies all descended from the trees taking the men off their horses and placing them under arrest.  The sheriff made a call for a prisoner van and sent the man who hid his truck after it.  Once they got all the men in the van the sheriff and two of his deputies loaded up in his truck and headed to the main house of the ranch.  There was still one more arrest to make. 

             
They got to the house only to find that Lisa had disappeared.  Josey said she left before everyone else got back.  She rode in got her bags through them in the car and left.  Heath said she was hauling ass.  He said she got a call when she was i
n the barn and she looked
scared.  The sheriff knew there was no one who could have told her
about the arrest, b
ecause they hadn’t made it yet.  Something else had her scared and running.  He had a feeling she may have been into something worse than rustling cattle, but he didn’t bring it up.  It was still just an idea.  “Well, we better go we got some paperwork to do and we got to find our lady rustler.” James said, shaking J.W.s hand.

             
Lisa got word in
town that
the sheriff was looking for a woman invol
ved in a rustling ring.  She sat and
waited for her trucker boyfriend to meet up with her with the money he owed her for helping him with the rustling.  But he never showed and when she heard the waitress
talking,
she knew why. 

             
Lisa got up immediately, paid her bill and headed for the door.  She got into her car and drove
. W
hen she got out of town
,
she stopped and rummaged through her things.  She found a wig and some shades and put them on.  She had been trying to come up with a plan while she drove and she finally came up with
this
one.  It was a bit of a last resort and one she hated but she had to do something or she would die.  She got back in her car and drove to an abandoned warehouse just on the edge of town and parked her car behind it, she walked up the road to the local Wal-Mart and headed to the camping section. 

             
She paid cash for everything.  She purchased a tent, a first aid kit, lighter wood, matches, sleeping bag, a pot, and can goods.  She then found a big hiking pack to store everything in.  She made one more stop by her car to get a few clothes and set out walking down the highway.  She hitched a ride with a trucker and asked that he drop her off in what seemed like the middle of nowhere but it was actually
at J.W.s
property.  She hopped down from the truck waited
until
the driver was out of sight and then crossed the fence.  The place she chose was, wooded, and she walked deep into the woods.  She walked until her feet hurt and when she came to a small clearing, she pitched her tent and set up camp. 

             
   She was nearly done, when her phone rang.  She answered it without thinking.  Frankie was on the other end of the line.  He was good and mad when she told him she didn’t have the money.  He was even madder when he found out the law was looking for her.  She hung up the phone and threw it.  It shattered against a tree. 

             
Frankie was smarter than she thought though, he triangulated her phone and was now heading after her.  She would be surprised when he and his men showed up.  But he was bound and determined to get the money she owed him or he would kill her. He had men on the police force in the small California town they lived in.  He owned just about everything and everybody in the town.  He sent his men out to buy camping gear for all of them and a big
four-wheel
drive.  They headed out after her.  He was determined to make her beg for her life.  They had a long drive ahead of them.  And the longer he set in that truck the more ideas he had for making her beg. 

             
They rode down the highway until they came to a point where they could cross with the truck.  They decided to mark it and come back after dark.  They waited in town at a little diner that was very busy for a small town.  The waitress talked a lot and filled them in on all the local gossip.  They didn’t have to ask a lot of questions because she was so willing to talk.  He appreciated small town gossip.  When she brought up the missing lady rustler, she got his attention.  So that was how she planned
to pay
him.  She got into a rustling ring and was now, wanted by the authorities. 

             
If the authorities had any
idea where she was at, they’
d have caught her by now.  They found her car abandoned behind a warehouse.  They assumed she hitchhiked out of town.  She hadn’t used any credit cards or been spotted anywhere though.  But Frankie had her.  He knew where she was.  He played a couple of rounds of pool and talked with the locals while waiting for it to get dark.  It got dark sooner than he’d expected.  He gathered his men and they headed out. 

             
They found the mark and pulled over on the side of the road a couple of men got out and cut the fence.  Once they drove through Frankie made sure they fixed it back.  He didn’t want anyone to notice.  The ground looked like an eighteen wheeler, had already been through there.  The fence was recently fixed so he guessed no one would notice their tracks. 

             
They drove as far as the truck would go parked in a wooded area and got out and walked. When they found her
camp,
they spread out and surrounded her.  She looked up when she heard the click of a gun.  She spun around and came face to face with Frankie. 

             
“How did you find me?” she asked.  “Your cell phone, of course,” he said, with an evil looking smile spread across his face.  He grabbed her and jerked her up to stand in front of him.  “Did you really think I was going to let you get away without getting me my money?  So, just how do you plan to get me that money, now?  Time, is running out.” He said.  He pushed her down and she hit the ground hard.  “I..I… I can get it.  I have another source.” She stammered.  “I have a daughter who is worth a lot of money to her father.”  She got on her knees to beg.  “It will be easy to snatch her.  We can hide out here with her.   They will never know that this is where we are.  “

             
Frankie rubbed his chin, and grinned.  “Just how much is she worth?”  He asked.  “Everything, I owe you and more,” she got up and walked toward her backpack.  “She practices in the arena behind the barn every day.” She took out a picture that Josey had given her when she first got there.  It was a picture of Josey sitting on her gelding in the arena behind the barn.  “No one will see you from the house.  It’s well hidden, behind the barn.  However, she does have a trainer that is always with her.  It’s just a small woman though, she won’t be a problem.”  She said this so confidently that he had to believe her. 

             
Frankie thought over this new plan of Lisa’s.  He actually found that he liked it.  He sat down with her and they worked out all the little details.  He decided they would take her from the arena and leave a note on the horse’s saddle.  They talked about times and who would be around at this time and that.  Then he sent a man to watch.  They would keep track of everything and report, back to him.  That way he would know whether she was telling the truth or not.

             
Just as he figured, she had told him the truth.  She had never seemed the maternal type so he doubted she would feel anything for her daughter.  His man came back with his report of day and time.  He wrote everything down just as Frankie had ordered.  They sat down and came up with a plan.  Everything was, planned out, now all they had to do was set the date.

             
Hilary’s brothers were on their way for a visit.  They hadn’t been able to talk their parents into coming but she was glad to see her brothers.  Earlier that morning, J.W. sprang a surprise on her.  He bought a new horse with cutter lines and asked her to train it.  This was to be her first horse as the ranches official trainer.  She would be on his payroll from now on and
she was glad for that.  She was becoming very attached to J.W. and his ranch, especially Josey.  They were fast becoming friends and more like a mother and daughter. 

             
Willy, Justin, and Reid showed up around lunch.  Hilary was ecstatic to see them.  She hadn’t seen them in over a month and it drove her crazy.  They were all very close, although her brothers did tend to be a bit overprotective at times.  She really couldn’t imagine growing up without them.  They were so much a part of her she couldn’t deny them. 

             
“Reid,” Hilary hollered.  She ran and through her arms around her brothers neck.  Reid had always been the closest to her because they were closer in age.  She stepped back and went to hug her other brothers, too.  “Where’s my horse?” She asked.  “Pep’s in the trailer, where do you think he is?  Lord, girl did you forget to put your head on right this morning,” Justin teased her.  “Oh shut up, I’m just so happy to see y’all, now somebody please go get my baby out of that trailer, he needs to stretch his legs.” She told him but walked to the back of the trailer and unloaded Pep, herself. 

             
She led the horse into the barn and found the empty stall J.W. told her she could have for him.  Her brothers followed behind her with tack and feed in hand.  She put the horse and things away and led her brothers into the house to meet J.W. and Josey.  She was chomping at the bit to introduce them and see what her brothers thought of J.W.  She knew she was falling for him and she wanted her brothers to approve.

             
J.W. and Josey, were sitting in the living room watching the news when they walked in.  J.W. never even heard them walk in.  He was glued to the
TV
.  The weather was on and it was showing bad weather moving in.  He was thinking about the cattle that they had recently moved and he was hoping the creek would not get up with all the rain.  But he knew they would have to be moved again, because the
weatherman
was calling for several inches.

             
Josey popped up out of her seat when she noticed them.  She ran to stand by Hilary and Hilary introduced her to her brothers.  Josey was grinning from ear to ear when she said hello to the three men.  The sound of their voices saying hello back finally caught J.W.s attention and he jerked his head around to see who it was.  Hilary introduced him to her brothers and J.W. got up and shook their hands. 

             
Cook came barreling through the door announcing that it was time to eat.  Hilary had forewarned him that her brothers would be there for lunch and that they could put away a ton of food.  Cook had made a great big pot of Crawfish soup. It was Hilary’s favorite and she was sure that her brothers would love it too. 

             
They all walked to the kitchen and sat down at the big table that took up half of the room.  Her brothers were all large, stout men, each of them broad shouldered and stood about
6’ so with all of them, and J.W. gathered around the table, it made the table seem much smaller than it was.  

             
The food was delicious as usual and J.W. and her brothers talked about ranching and the oil field.  They discussed the cattle market and they talked about Hilary’s training methods.  It was obvious that each of her brothers were proud of her.  They told stories of some of her more embarrassing moments that resulted in a kick to the shins under the table, which only caused more laughter.  She hated it when they made her the topic of conversation because they always brought up things she didn’t want people to know. 

             
Then the topic turned to Hilary catching Lisa working with the rustlers.  Josey got a little quieter but J.W. didn’t notice.  He continued to talk telling her brothers about everything that had been going on.  Willy looked at his sister, rather sternly, “What were you trying to do, when you chased after her, she could’ve been meeting them and you could’ve been seriously hurt or worse” he scolded.  She looked up from her food and gave him a go to hell look and J.W. decided to turn the conversation to something else.  He hadn’t realized that her brothers would be so protective of her.  He had been upset about it himself but he also knew she could take care of herself.  She had shown that to him over and over again. 

             
He thought about what Willey said and he realized that he was right, she may be very good at taking care of herself but against a bunch of rustler’s she wouldn’t stand a chance in hell.  It bothered him.  He sat through the rest of lunch listening to the conversation and trying to picture what his life would be like if something happened to her.  It hit him suddenly, he hadn’t even realized it, but he’d fallen in love with her.