The Boss Lady's Man

{Chapter} 2

{Chapter 2}

Katie Morris paced the length of her room, a bit troubled by the letter in her hand. Every once in a while her cousin in Texas would write her a letter telling her how the ranch was going, but Katie knew that Toni had lots more things to worry about other than letters.

This letter had contained something that disturbed her greatly.

Katie,

Well, life here on the BF Ranch couldn’t be more hectic. Rustlers have done gone and taken Scottish Thunder and two of my best mares with one of their fillies. Can you believe that? Me and Wade were thinking about a stakeout to catch the---

Katie groaned. Her cousin knew how much she hated the cursing.

Wade thinks we should involve the law. I don’t think it’s a good idea, because you know how that crabby sheriff is. It’s like he’s been sitting on a corncob behind that desk for three years. Now that deputy of his, he’s a reasonable person. He would at least think about helping us.

That stupid yahoo Downs was back again wanting me to sell him some land. A fat chance of that. I chased him off with my rifle this time.

Well, Wade and the other three idiots are out with the herd now and it’s high time I joined them. Bye for now.

Toni Curtis.

Kate folded the letter and stuffed it into it’s envelope. Her cousin shouldn’t have to do this alone. Maybe she should pay her cousin a friendly visit.

**********

Erik stared at the sign beside the road, thinking hard. There were two ways to go. The town of Desperado didn’t really sound appealing, although he would probably find work somewhere there. However, Sundance sounded much nicer.

“Well, Cooper” He leaned down to rub his horse’s neck. “Which one do you think, bud?”

Cooper snorted but made no movement.

“Thanks for your input” Erik mumbled.

Great. Now he was talking to his horse. A week of loneliness in the middle of Texas wasn’t good for him.

“Sundance it is” Erik turned left and pushed Cooper into a trot.

They plodded along for a while until suddenly three men burst out of the woods leading a big white stallion who appeared quite frazzled.

Cooper startled and reared once, but if there was one thing Erik knew, it was how to stay on a rearing horse. His horse’s feet hit the ground and he started pawing nervously.

“Who are you?” On of the men with the stallion asked.

Erik eyed the man. “Reckon that’s my business. What’s your hurry?” He didn’t like the wild look in the man’s eye nor the way the other two men’s hands hovered near their guns that hung from their hips in leather holsters.

“Reckon that’s out business, too” the man said.

“Fair enough” Erik pushed Cooper past the men, not appreciating their company.

The men moved on, but Erik still felt uneasy.

He decided to calm himself, and pulled his guitar from where it was strapped onto his saddle covered in a saddle blanket. The heat wasn’t helping the tune of the battered instrument, but that was nothing a good tuning wouldn’t fix. Thumping on the strings one by one and adjusting the tuning key, he finally coaxed the guitar into a civil sounding strum.