Chapter 10
Sky
I kicked my horse into a lope along the fence line closest to the road, following Chandler and three other hands: Tad, and Jason and Robbie something. They were brothers but we’d barely spoken yet so I didn’t know them.
Chandler seemed to want to hang back and talk to me, so we let those boys ride on ahead.
“I’m glad to see you still ride. Otherwise tomorrow would be your basic baptism by fire.”
So he’d been paying attention. “I don’t know how I’m going to feel in the morning. I haven’t ridden in a long time.”
“You’ll probably feel like a bag of busted eggs.” He grinned. “You gonna call in sick?”
“No, sir. Even if I broke every bone in my body, you could still expect me on the trail tomorrow. I won’t let you down.”
“That’s what I like to hear. You’ll build up a tolerance soon enough, but I’d advise you to get a hot shower and a good night’s sleep tonight.”
“What’s tomorrow?”
“We move the heard closer by increments as winter approaches. That way, they’ll graze as long as possible before the weather turns too foul. They’re clear on the other side of the hills, so tomorrow we’ll truck the hands and horses out to a starting point and bring ’em closer. Faster that way.”
“You think we’re in for a bad winter?”
“I ain’t got a crystal ball. We’ll be prepared for what we can foresee, but the rest is up to the man upstairs.”
It’s easy to forget how much a rancher’s livelihood depends on the weather, on fate, on the whim of some higher power you can’t predict.
We rode along in silence while I soaked everything in.
“You ever hear from my mom?” I wished I didn’t care about the answer. I’d written my mother to let her know I’d be released, and that I had a job waiting for me at the Rocking C. It was what you’d call a formality. I’d written because it was right, not because I thought she’d answer.
I’d have felt bad if I hadn’t written to her. I didn’t want to have regrets anymore.
“Christmas cards.” Boss shifted uncomfortably. “I heard Luna got into some fancy college?”
“Brown.” Thinking about my baby sister brought familiar warmth. “Got a card a few months back, when she graduated high school. She wants to study political science, become a lawyer, and take up for the little guy.”
“Your dad would be real proud of her.”
“He would.” I walked my horse alongside the boss’s until Tad dropped back to join us.
“Got a couple busted fence posts up ahead,” he said. “Looks like a car ran off the road and knocked them down.”
“Fuck.”The boss’s exclamation startled me. “I can’t tell you how sick I am of poachers.”
“There are skid marks disappearing into the shoulder,” Tad pointed toward the road. “It was probably an accident.”
“They want us to think it’s an accident.” Chandler raged. “Motherfuckers come here and hunt on Rocking C land. Do they think I’m an idiot?”
The boss urged his horse into a gallop. I followed, but not too close since he was mad as a hornet.
We were almost to the busted fence when one of the Rocking C trucks roared past. Ogre and I put on more speed. The big gelding stretched out, seemingly thrilled to be testing his limits. I had to hang on to my new hat as something unfamiliar bubbled up inside me.
It took me a few seconds to realize it was joy.
When we got to the site, we saw skid marks on the road. The way the fence had been plowed over, you had to figure it was an accident. Nobody’d go to the trouble to make things look like an accident anyway. Poaching is kind of an age-old, stealth thing. Most poachers—even bad ones—wouldn’t leave a mess like that one behind.
But the boss couldn’t let it go right away.
