Big Sky Standoff - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,51

but he has no imagination.”

“Rustling requires imagination?” she asked, half-mockingly.

He grinned. “As a matter of fact, it does. Whoever is running this gang has imagination. Look what they pulled off at the Crowleys’. Stealing the cattle in broad daylight right in front of the house. That took imagination. And bravado.”

She heard admiration in his voice.

“Don’t be giving me that look,” he said. “If I was the one behind this gang, do you think I’d be bragging on myself?”

“As a matter of fact….”

DILLON GLANCED UP as she pulled off the road. Out the windshield, all he could see was pasture beyond the barbed wire fence gate. He shot Jack a questioning look. She appeared to be waiting for him to get out and open a gate that hadn’t been opened for some time. The fence posts on both sides were clearly marked with orange paint.

In Montana any fool knew that a fence post painted orange meant no trespassing. It meant prosecution under the law if caught on that land. And up here, especially with a band of rustlers on the loose, the rancher would be prone to shoot first and ask questions later.

Especially this rancher, because the land on the other side of that gate was W Bar property, belonging to Shade Waters.

“What the hell?” Dillon asked quietly as he met her gaze.

“I called Stratton this morning and told him we would be going north up by the Milk River for a few days, to follow a lead,” she said.

Dillon felt an odd ache in his chest. She’d lied to her boss, just as he’d suggested she should do. “Are you sure about this?”

“No,” she said without hesitation. “If you want to know the truth, I suspect you’re setting me up. But Waters lied about having cattle down by the old windmill and Pete lied about seeing someone in that area. I can only assume Shade was just trying to keep me busy. And that makes me wonder if he isn’t trying to keep me away from another part of his ranch. You said that stock truck was headed north, right?”

Dillon nodded slowly.

“Toward your old ranch.”

“Looked that way.”

“Any thoughts on why he would get rid of the rustled calves on your family’s old place?”

Dillon smiled at that. “For the same reason you’re thinking. To make it look like I had something to do with it.”

She nodded.

“So when I told you about the calves in the back of the stock truck, you believed me?” he asked.

“I wouldn’t go that far. I wanted to do a little investigating on my own first.” She reached into the glove box, pulled out a map and spread it on the seat between them. “Okay, Waters ranch house is here. Most of his cattle are in this area.” She looked up at Dillon. “I had a friend who owns a plane fly over it early this morning.”

He met her gaze. “You are just full of surprises.”

“The problem is there’s no way to get to your old ranch anymore without driving right past Waters’s house.” She pointed to the map. “Reda Harper’s place is past his. According to the map, there used to be a section road that connected with another county road to the east, but that’s now part of the W Bar.”

“Waters closed the road after he bought our ranch,” Dillon said, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. Waters had had his family’s ranch house razed.

“Can I ask you something?”

Her tone as much as her words surprised him. And he knew before she asked that her question wasn’t about cattle rustling business.

“This bad blood between you and Shade Waters, am I wrong in suspecting it goes deeper than his ending up with your ranch?” she asked.

Dillon chuckled and looked toward the mountains in the distance. “I told you Nate had an older brother. He was killed trying to ride a wild horse.” His voice sounded flat over the painful beating of his heart. “Halsey was my best friend.” He looked at her. “It happened on our ranch.”

She let out a breath as if she’d been holding it, compassion and understanding in her eyes. “Shade blamed you.”

He nodded. “And my family. Halsey was…” He chewed at his cheek for a moment. “Well, there just wasn’t anyone like him. A day hasn’t gone by that I haven’t missed him.”

“It must be worse for Shade,” she said.

“Halsey was definitely his favorite of the two boys.” Dillon looked down at the map. “So what we need is