you don’t love being a deputy in an unincorporated township, but I’m sure if you told Silas you’d like to be more involved running and expanding the ranch, he’d welcome your input.”
“That’s the thing—I don’t want to do that either. Silas would love nothin’ better than to become a Wyoming land baron with thousands of head of cattle. I had enough of that life the six years we worked the cattle drives. As soon as I had a chance to make my own way, I did.”
She tipped her head back to look at him. “Do you miss that part of who you used to be?”
“Sometimes. I mean, it was heady stuff getting deputized at age nineteen due a shortage of lawmen. Some outlaws took advantage of the Indian raids goin’ on all over territories. They robbed, then killed, raped and butchered entire families, makin’ it appear that those poor homesteaders had been set on by savages.”
“And you saw that brutality?”
He nodded. “Still get bad dreams from it. Once the white men doin’ them acts were featured on wanted posters, we went after them. Caught ’em too. Then other outlaw gangs started causin’ problems for the railroads and the bounties were a big payout, so five of us banded together and we spent the next two years huntin’ ’em down.”
He rarely spoke about that time in his life and she wanted to keep him talking. “What kind of men were you ridin’ with?”
“Determined. One guy was a former Texas Ranger, another one was rumored to’ve been a Pinkerton agent.”
“Rumored to be,” she repeated. “They don’t wear that distinction like a badge?”
Jonas snorted. “Pinkerton agents are super-secretive. I’ve adopted a few of their ‘don’t tell’ tricks and it’s the damnedest thing that even other bounty hunters don’t question you. Another guy had been an army soldier. Last member was part Blackfeet. Best scout and tracker I ever met.”
“And you.”
“Yep. Still don’t know why they asked me to mount up with them. Bein’ the youngest member of the posse…I learned more in them two years than in the previous nineteen years combined. During that time, Silas had gone on his first cattle drive without me and afterward, they dumped off here. He loved the area and bought a piece of land that already had improvements. Then he staked a claim for the land abutting it for me. He had to join up with another cattle drive before he could live on his place full-time. The outfit he worked for taught him where to find stray, unclaimed cattle. If he came across any here, he added them to his herd. Every penny he earned, he bought up more abandoned claims. Small acreages. Tough to make a living between sellin’ cattle in the fall and calving season in early spring, so he worked for the railroad for a spell.”
“He did? Is that how he knows Zeke?”
“I suspect that’s where their bad blood started. Plus, Silas….ah…supplements his income with gambling, and West can’t walk past a card table without losin’ his shirt. Or so Silas says, and he takes advantage of that fact whenever possible. My brother is the luckiest damn card player I’ve ever known. After quittin’ at the railroad—I’m guessing because of a row between him and Zeke—he hired out as a ranch hand. He’s never said so, but it feels like he resents me. When I showed up here after takin’ a break from the chasin’ outlaw life, he’d already done all the hard ranch work. Now he’s courtin’ Miss Thompson. If anyone deserves a helpmate, it’s my brother.”
“Jonas. I asked about you,” she reminded him.
“I know. But I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Silas.” Jonas sighed. “Most days, I feel a whole lotta guilt. If I was a better brother, I’d give him more of my salary so he wouldn’t hafta play cards to try and win the money. Or I’d resign as deputy and go after more bounties and invest the money in the ranch.”
“Would that make you happy?”
“Probably not. You’re about the only thing makin’ me happy these days, Ruby. I know you don’t wanna hear it, but it’s true.”
Ruby didn’t comment on that.
Silence stretched between them.
He yawned. “Sorry, I’m whipped.”
She pressed a kiss on his chest. “It’s fine. I am too. Go to sleep.”
“I like talkin’ to you, Ruby girl.”
“I like being with you like this too, Deputy.”
“Don’t forget to blow out that candle.”
Always looking out for her. “I won’t.”
After he dozed off, Ruby watched him. The