Page 9 of Austin (The K9 Files #29)

R ox headed off to the barn to start the chores, knowing that she was late, already chastising herself for it.

As she walked into the barn, her father was there with Raul and Carlos. She listened in on the instructions for the day, then the two ranch hands took off.

Her father turned to her and asked, “What are you up to today?”

She raised an eyebrow. “The same thing as always. Nothing’s changed.” He frowned but didn’t say anything, just staring off into the distance. “Nothing has changed, Dad,” she reiterated. “Austin’s here for a short while, and that doesn’t impact me at all.”

He nodded. “Maybe it should.”

“Maybe it should, but it doesn’t. He didn’t come here for me. He came here for the War Dog, and he’s made that very clear.”

Jake’s lips twitched. “I could make a comment about the way you’re acting and how it relates to the female of the dog species.”

She glared at him and then reluctantly smiled. “You could make a comment about that, and in many ways you would also be right. But call me whatever you like, it still doesn’t change the fact that Austin didn’t come here for me.”

“No, but he probably doesn’t even know if he’s welcome to talk to you.”

“He’s never been afraid of talking to me before.”

“Ah, but I think things are very different now, don’t you?”

“Maybe,” she nodded, “but it doesn’t matter. I’m heading out to the west pasture to check the well and the cattle over there.”

He nodded. “Good enough. I’ll head back out to see how much damage Chris did last night.”

She winced. “Okay. You go do that, and we’ll touch base toward the end of the day.”

“Keep your cell phone on you.”

She didn’t expect the sharpness to his tone. She turned to face him. “Are you expecting trouble?”

“I don’t expect trouble,” he stated, “but you never know what’s going on with Chris.”

“Right, I hear you.… I’m just sorry that we haven’t been able to reach him.”

“You and me both,” he muttered. “Do you feel it’s unfair?”

“What, the ranch?” When he nodded, she shook her head.

“No, of course not. It’s not as if you cut him out.

You gave him an opportunity to be a part of all this, even though he’s not at all interested in it.

Not really. I think he wants to do something else.

This ranch was never his thing, and I don’t particularly think he cares about this life. ”

“That was part of the problem for me too,” her dad confirmed. “I always felt as if he didn’t give a crap, and that was hard for me.”

“Of course it was,” she agreed, waving her hand. “Shit like this just twists people around—anything with money and inheritances. Still, these big properties require someone to run it.”

“I know,” he muttered, “and I thought you had somebody to help you, once I was gone.”

“Yeah, I did too,” she said, “and then I messed up.”

He shrugged. “But that doesn’t mean you have to keep messing up.” And, with that, he disappeared.

She glared at the barn door, wondering if he really intended that the way it sounded. It sure came across as if he had, but she wasn’t up for any interrogations or discussions on her strange marital status.

Separated, but not legally, and not divorced either. What the hell was she supposed to do about that? She didn’t know. On the other hand, it wasn’t today’s issue, and she was heading off to deal with the more pressing issue because there was never any shortage of work on a ranch this size.

Her dad was right though. They needed to be prepared for anything.

Chris was angry, and, while she didn’t think he would hurt her or their mother, absolutely no way would Rox trust those friends of his.

And depending on how her brother really felt, he might not have a problem with siccing them on Rox, and that wasn’t something she wanted to deal with.

She quickly saddled up and headed off, calling two of the dogs with her.

Bonner and Chico were the ones that generally traveled with her, and pretty quickly they settled into a steady gait, heading out past the back porch.

If she could have driven, she would have, but this was territory that was much better covered on horseback.

This wasn’t the kind of a place where you could ignore any of these pastures for long. There was always some trouble with animals or something. Plus, she was always on the lookout for Cowboy. Yet, with each passing day, her hope died a little bit more.

They didn’t have too many predators here, but they did have a few, and that was always something she had to be aware of.

She loved animals, all animals, but when it came to a predator taking down one of her own animals, she would end that fight with a single bullet.

She patted the rifle that she kept cross-tied in front of her on her saddle, knowing full well that she’d had to use it a few times, and she probably would again.

So far, she’d been blessed, and it had always been something that she could deal with fairly easily.

Yet she also knew that there would be times when it wouldn’t be that way at all.

There just couldn’t be a safety net around her all the time.

She’d lost one dog already to a renegade mountain lion, and here she was with two at her side at all times, just in case.

She said a little prayer for Cowboy. Today was a beautiful morning, and it didn’t take long for her to relax a bit as she settled into an easy lope.

The horse had picked up on her mood the minute she got on, so it was important for Rox to destress as much as she could while riding.

It was much easier on all of them at the end of the day.

It took an hour to get where she needed to go, and from there, she headed on around the fence, coming up on the section at the back.

She wandered around the outside edge of the cattle.

They kept an eye on her as she moved, but she was a sight that they were used to seeing, an area of life they were used to dealing with.

Therefore, her presence didn’t cause any reaction from them.

She moved slowly and calmly, with Chico and Bonner always near her side, following her orders.

She checked the water and made sure everything was fine.

A creek was off to the side, and she walked on through, checking on the yearlings as she headed up on the other side and moved over to another pasture.

It was a route that they did weekly, sometimes every couple days, depending on the weather.

If it was dry, she always had to check on the water.

The droughts were the deadliest in these places, but everything today was calm and as it should be.

By the time she turned back and made her way around the fence line and down again, she started to feel pretty good, even relaxed and happy.

This was her life and had been all she ever wanted.

She had always wanted to be a part of this, to be a part of something bigger than her, something special, and this ranch was absolutely special.

She never understood her brother’s disdain for this life but was pretty darn sure it had more to do with the fact that he didn’t want to be associated with anything that had to do with her.

They normally got along well, and she thought Chris got along well with Jake, up until the issue of the ranch inheritance had come up.

Chris was just proud and entitled enough to cause trouble for no reason, and that was just a constant irritant to their mother.

As she came up on the other side, she saw the highway off in the distance, checked that everything was well and kept on going.

At this rate, she would end up home for lunch, something that she rarely managed to do.

She laughed at the idea because the minute she even thought that, something was bound to go wrong.

Sure enough, when she got around to the next pasture a few miles over, she found one of the calves struggling in the mud.

She managed to rope him and to pull him back out again, then hopped down to check on him and cleaned him up a little bit, until he got back up on his feet, bawling for his mother.

The cow came running, and Rox barely got back up on her horse and out of the way before the angry mama charged.

Rox quickly drew back out of reach and sat here, staring as the cow checked out the muddy calf.

“I know we’re all hypervigilant when it comes to our offspring,” she murmured to the cow, “but I just saved your baby’s sorry ass. You know that, right?”

The cow didn’t care one bit, so Rox went about her business and rode off, continuing to check pastures.

She was coming alongside the highway again when she heard a honk from a distance away.

She turned to see a strange vehicle, then realized it was Austin.

She slowed down and waited until he pulled close enough and stopped.

He leaned through the window and asked her, “Everything okay?”

Her eyebrows shot up, and she nodded. “Yeah. Why?”

“Just checking.” He shrugged.

“Did you talk to my brother?”

He nodded. “I tried.” Then he shook his head. “He wouldn’t come out and talk to me, but I’ll go back in this afternoon. I did connect with my boss, so I wondered if you’re up for taking a trip back out to where Cowboy was that whole day before he went missing that night or the next morning.”

She frowned at that but then nodded. “Yes, we can do that.” She checked her watch. “I’ll meet you back at the ranch.”

“Good enough. I’ll be back in twenty.”

“I’ll be a bit longer than you,” she muttered, then quickly turned and headed back cross-country.

“No worries,” he replied.