Thunder Horse Redemption

Cetan snorted, his eyes rolling back. He tugged on the reins Roxanne held.

Pierce relieved her of her hold, his hand rising to stroke his stallion’s neck, speaking to the animal in his native tongue.

“Come on,” Pierce said, his voice low, insistent. “We could do without a fight between stallions.”

Roxanne gathered Sassy’s reins, placed her foot into the stirrup and swung up into the saddle, her shoulder stiff from her wound and a night sleeping on the hard floor of the cave. She headed for the trail leading out of the canyon, without looking back over her shoulder at Pierce.

The work they’d done to help the filly had been challenging and worthwhile, seeing the colt reunited with her mother. But now that it was done, all of Roxanne’s other worries came crashing back in. The shooter who might still be after her. The financial problems she was facing at her ranch. And most troubling of all, the feelings she had for Pierce Thunder Horse that refused to die down.

That didn’t make Pierce any less guilty of talking her brother into joining the FBI, or sending him into the situation that eventually got him killed.

Roxanne pushed the past to the back of her mind, the dangerous trail her more immediate concern. She let Sassy choose her footing on the way up.

She waited long enough to ensure Pierce made it out of the canyon. Thankfully, the shooter wasn’t watching for them. Neither were the other Thunder Horse men. Based on the angle of the sun hovering over the horizon, it was very early in the morning.

If she was lucky, she could get in a good day’s work, despite having lost the day before to the attack. The cattle auction was coming up soon and she had to have her animals loaded and shipped before that day or she’d be in even worse shape financially than she was physically. The thought of the shooter still disturbed her, but it wasn’t as if she could go into hiding. She had a ranch to run.

As Pierce and Cetan cleared the rim, Roxanne nudged Sassy into a canter, headed toward the Carmichael Ranch. She could hear Pierce and Cetan behind her, but didn’t rein in to wait for them. She was in too much of a hurry to get home. Having been out of contact for over half a day, she wondered if anything else had gone wrong while she’d been gone.

Thirty minutes later, she rode into the barnyard and dismounted.

Before Pierce could climb down off his horse, Roxanne handed over Sassy’s reins. “Thank you for the use of your horse. You can go now.”

Pierce’s lips quirked at the corners for a moment, but he quickly grew serious again. “You can’t dismiss me that easily. What happened with the shooter could happen again.”

“Yes, it could. But you sticking around won’t change that. He didn’t hesitate to shoot at me in front of you before.”

Pierce hesitated, his eyes narrowing.

“I have four ranch hands and a foreman running around the place. If that man comes back, he’ll definitely be outnumbered. I’ll be okay. You can leave now.”

Pierce didn’t budge.

“Fine,” Roxanne said. “I’ll make sure I don’t ride alone and I’ll carry my own rifle.” She planted her fists on her hips. “Satisfied?” She shook her head. “You’d think I didn’t have a mind of my own.”

“The man who attacked you didn’t give up easily. He might come back to finish the job.”

“Let me worry about that.” She dropped her hands to her sides. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a ton of work to do, and I want to get it done before I head back out to check on Sweet Jessie.” Roxanne strode toward the barn.

Nothing moved behind her, leaving her in no doubt that Pierce wasn’t heading home yet.

“My brothers and I will ride out this afternoon and check on Sweet Jessie and the herd,” Pierce called out. “No need for you to do it.”

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