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“Yeah, sure. She shot the fuckers, am I right?”

Harlan smiled. “You bet they’re shot. Standing up in the stirrups like fuckin Annie Oakley, Annie knocked both of them off their horses with one shot apiece. It was a beautiful thing to watch.”

Travis nodded. “Yep, it always is.”

As soon as Travis left with Harlan and the rustlers, Annie packed up her clothes and toiletries and then she helped Davey and Jacks pack their stuff.

“Gather up all your game gear, boys. We have a plane to catch.”

After a bit of protesting and moaning, the boys did as they were told.

Annie said goodbye to the girls and gave them both a hug. “You were both spectacular yesterday and I’m so proud of you both. In November I’m taking all my kids to Vegas to watchRowdy compete. It will be fun, and you girls will get the chance to see world-class barrel racers up close and personal.”

Lucy and Tammy squealed and hugged Annie tighter. “I want to watch the best in the world,” said Lucy with a big smile. “That will give me a push to practice harder to get as good as they are.”

The boys carried their luggage to Travis’s truck and stowed it in the back. “Why are we going so soon, Mom?” asked Jackson.

“We have to get home, honey. I have business to catch up on in Austin, and Boots can’t run itself. Our fun time in Montana is over.”

Coyote Creek Medical Center.

A lot of sitting around at the clinic. There was no doctor on duty on Sunday, so we had to wait for the doctor on call to come from home. When Doctor Greaves arrived, he introduced himself, then examined each of the rustlers in turn. “There are gunshot wounds, Sheriff. Are these men under arrest?”

“Yes, I’ll have to stay here with them, Doc.”

“Sure.”

The rustlers were both nasty and doing a lot of cursing as the doctor and his nurse cleaned up their arms, stitched them up and put on snug bandages.

“I’ll give you meds for pain,” said the doctor.

“Thanks. Bill this to the county. Both of these guys will be our guests for a few days at least.”

“False arrest,” shouted one of them. “We were shot off our horses by a crazy woman with a fuckin rifle.”

“She should be the one getting hauled off to jail,” said the other one. “Me and Carl were just having a little fun chasing the wild horses. We weren’t doing no harm.”

“Rustling a protected species on my land,” I said. “Y’all were breaking several laws, and nobody gets away with that on my ranch.”

We were about to leave the examination room when Harlan said, “Could you look at Sheriff Frost’s leg, Doc? He had an accident this morning at the barn and hurt his leg.”

I shook my head, but it was too late. The doctor was keen to see the damage to my legs. While I dropped my pants and sat on the table, Harlan took the rustlers to the squad, one by one, and hooked them up. He left them with the dogs and came back to get me.

“What made this gash, Sheriff?” asked the doctor.

“Umm…shovel blade.”

“Must’ve come at you with some force to cause that much swelling. You didn’t just trip over it. I’ll have Helen clean that wound up and bandage it, and I’ll write you a prescription for the pain. You’re going to have a nasty bruise.”

Serves me right. I deserve to hurt.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

Deciding to leave the booking process until Monday morning, we locked up the wounded rustlers. The look on Hannah’s face when more of her guys came into the run to keep her company was priceless.

“Your gang will soon be all here, Hannah,” I said. “Soon you can hold a little ranch reunion right here in the lockup.”

“I’ll be out of your jail tomorrow morning, Travis, and you will find yourself in big trouble. Trouble you can’t bully your way out of.”