Nobody's Prey [Liberty Springs Wyoming 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  “Cement? What do I want any stupid cement for?”

  “She’s being polite, dumbass. I would have just told you to harden the fuck up.”

  Connie smothered a smile as the big lanky Oklahoman stepped around the smaller guy lying in the dust and vaulted over the rails. When the old cow dropped its horns and mock charged him, he swatted it on the end of the snout with the length of plastic water pipe he carried and sent her back the other way.

  At least one of the new recruits was showing some promise. Hal had a nice, steady manner around horses and good, soft hands on the reins. It was hard to believe he’d only had anything to do with ranching for twelve months. While he was a city boy born and bred, Hal would make one hell of a cowboy before the summer was out.

  “CJ! They’re bringing another couple in,” Emilio yelled above the bawling of cows and calves, waving toward the west from the back of his modern-day chuck wagon—an F-250 with a custom camp kitchen fitted in the tray.

  She turned Smoke away from the midmorning sun to see which group of riders was bringing in more of the mother-daughter pairs. The Prestons had headed to the north with Cody while her brother, Jack, his business partner, Danny, and their new fiancée, Dale, had taken the southern range.

  The flash of brilliant white said it was the latter. Fungus had never wintered better than this year. The big red-and-white paint’s coat fairly gleamed, and he looked fit and pampered. He was supposed to remain at the Lazy J after the roundup, but he’d made a conquest, and the old fella deserved an easier life. Connie would give Dale the moon and stars after seeing the happiness she’d brought to her brother. For the first time in his whole life, the restlessness was gone from Jack’s eyes. It was a good thing Smoke was becoming a handy little rope horse.

  She pulled her tally book out of her shirt pocket as they brought three more cows with their big heifer calves into the sorting pen. They were two cows short. One she’d found the remains of up by a dry gulch. The other was a crooked-horned old harridan who was just too ornery to die.

  Connie had followed through with Jake’s vision of producing the finest grass-fed beef in the state for the Lazy J, but she’d improved the calving rates by forty percent when she went back to using the original longhorn-cross cows to produce the calves instead of the purebred Angus ones Jake had been trying to replace them with. By putting an Angus bull over them they still produced good beef, but the cows were wily and free with their horns. No one messed with their babies when they were turned out into the grazing range.

  Jack drew rein beside her as the cows entered the bawling mob. “How many more, Con?”

  “Just the one. There should be two heifers with her, though.”

  “Think Beau and the boys have got it from here? Dale’s getting a little saddle sore after three days’ solid riding.”

  “You’re the only one sitting gingerly, Jack.” Connie laughed. “Dale still looks like she’s enjoying herself to me.”

  He turned to look toward where Dale was petting Fungus’s neck after turning back a heifer bent on escape. “Yeah, she’s gonna take some tearing away. She loves that horse.”

  “Tell her he’s hers. He’s not gonna be much of a work horse anymore after being spoiled like that anyway.”

  “She’s gonna love you forever, Con.” Jack stood tall in his stirrups, peering toward the west. “Have you noticed them clouds building up? Looks like the cold snap they promised could be here a day early.”

  “Yeah. Emilio had the radio on this morning. I want to get out of here by midafternoon. They’ve put out blizzard warnings for right across the mountains. It’s meant to settle in for a few days, too.”

  “We’ll stay and give you a hand then. Only one of your new hands looks like he’s got any potential, and you spend more time arguing with the Prestons than working, when they’re about. You’ve only got to drench and inoculate the heifers anyway. It shouldn’t take us too long if we all get in and do a bit.”

  “Open the gate! Open the gate!”

  They both looked up at the shout to see a small approaching avalanche of horns and hooves and hides. Three motley-colored bovines were at full clip, hemmed in at the back and sides by four whooping riders. Connie squinted to see Cody riding his big bay hell-for-leather on the left flank with Beau hovering watchfully.

  A sense of pride swelled her chest along with a little motherly concern—the boy had absolutely no fear.

  “Christ, Connie! He rides as hard as you used to.”

  “Doesn’t he? He’s doing it because he loves it, Jack. I’ve never pushed him into anything.”

  Cody slid his horse to its haunches just inside the gate, creating a billow of dust to join the pall hanging over the milling herd. Excitement sparkled in his blue eyes, and joy was written all over a face so much like his father’s it had made her heart sore to look at him in the early days. “You shoulda seen Josh, Mom! They’d put themselves up in that box canyon and wouldn’t let us in. He rode straight down the cliff behind them. It was awesome!”

  A smile twitched Connie’s lips. Everything was “awesome” at the moment. “Go and walk your horse to cool it down. I’ll have a word with Josh about the fine example he’s setting later.”

  “Aw, Mom…”

  “If you want to ride your horse that hard, you take care of it.” She nodded to where the Prestons had just dismounted. “Look, Colt’s walking theirs.” Connie watched as Cody hurried off to join Colt.

  “I still don’t know how you tell them apart so easily.” Jack shook his head. A lot of people were astounded at her innate recognition of which twin was which. She was more surprised they couldn’t tell them apart. “I’ll start bringing the heifers into the race if you want.”

  “Sure. That’d be good, Jack. Get these guys to give you a hand. Hal’s half useful, but the others have got a long way to go. At the moment your little schoolteacher’s of more use than they are.”

  Jack chuckled and rode away, giving out orders to her new hands and whipping them into some kind of semicohesive unit to get the job done. The army had forged him into a true leader. The younger men followed his casual-sounding directions without thought or argument.

  Fingers tapping, Connie’s gaze swept the cattle camp, looking for Beau. She was itching for a cigarette. She spotted him heading over to his vehicle. Smoke was more than happy to crop at the sweet spring grass when she dismounted and dropped his reins near the campsite.

  She glanced around casually, making sure everyone was accounted for and busy. Beau was the only one missing. She slipped behind his Chevy pickup and found him leaning against the tailgate. He glanced at his watch. “I thought you would have been here at least thirty seconds ago. Them boys had to be driving you mad while we were all gone.”

  His crooked smile never wavered as she opened his jacket and reached into the inner pocket, plucking his packet of cigarettes free. She did her best to ignore his clean masculine scent and inviting body heat as she tapped one free. There was a twitch to his lips and a sparkle in his light-gray eyes as he paused for a second or two before reaching into the front pocket of his worn old Wranglers and pulling out a lighter. “I hoped if I stood there long enough you’d go looking for it yourself.”

  “Hope is a virtue.” Connie took a deep pull on her cigarette when he lit it up for her, trying to overlook his pointed comment and her body’s instant, primal reaction. If Beau ever knew just how he affected her, all the years of friendship would be jeopardized. He was her late husband’s best friend, even if he did tease like he wanted to be more occasionally.

  “Christ, this is terrible. I’m hiding like a schoolkid smoking behind the bleachers.” She kept her eye out for anyone approaching.

  “Hell, I always found better things to do than smoke there.”

  “I bet you did.” For all his quiet reserve, Beau had always been a ladies’ man. He would have cut a wide swath in high school. “How many bases did they let you steal?”

  The dimple beside the lef
t side of his mobile mouth sprang into being, and she silently cursed her ovaries as they sat up and said hello. His face was all clean lines and sharp angles, hard and uncompromising, until he smiled. Then he was truly beautiful.

  “Trying for any more than second at school is just stupid. I had a truck for home runs.” He tapped the tailgate. “Well okay, I struck out at third more than once, too.”

  Connie could only smile as she enjoyed another deep drag on her illicit cigarette. She passed the half-finished smoke to Beau as she felt more than heard movement on the other side of the truck. Beau reached in his other pocket and pulled out a pack of gum.

  She’d just helped herself to a stick when Josh spoke up. “What’s going on over here?”

  “Connie was just giving me an ass-chewing over letting Cody ride like a madman,” Beau blatantly lied.

  “You can chew on my ass anytime, Con.” Her nipples puckered at the pure sexuality Josh’s voice seethed with.

  The man was sex on legs, and he knew it. She gritted her teeth when he gave her ass a brief tap on the way past. That heavy touch certainly didn’t help the state of her nipples none.

  “Josh, there’s not enough disinfectant in this world for me to contemplate putting my mouth anywhere near your ass.” If Beau could lie, so could she. The twins had damn fine bodies. They just scraped six feet, but they were burly and strong. Half the world knew just how fine those bodies were. They sure weren’t shy when it came to getting their shirts off.

  “Shit, Beau. I thought you gave those damn cancer sticks up.”

  He came and leaned against the back of the truck on the other side of her to Beau, effectively hemming her in. He hooked a heel on the tow hitch, and his knee lolled out to rest against her thigh. He and Colt were both casual touchers. They thought nothing of it, while the slightest brush of Beau’s hand carried weight. The problem was that her body didn’t care about intent. It just craved the contact.

  “Hey, I have an occasional smoke, Colt chews sometimes, Connie shoots things—we all got our bad habits.”

  “Not me. Live like an angel, work like a Trojan, and play like the devil.”

  Connie had to laugh at Josh’s description of himself. It was accurate, but only to a point. “Your bad habit is bitching about everyone else’s bad habits. It always has been.”

  “Speaking of bad habits, when are you gonna quit hiring boys to do a man’s job? I swear they’re getting younger every year. None of this bunch even shave regular.”

  “They do what they’re told and they’re too young to drink. It works for me, Josh.” Connie willed back the burgeoning blush. None of them could possibly know she’d been more than a boss to any of her summer help.

  “I wish you’d hire girls.”

  “Yeah, that would be just great.” Her sarcasm was thick enough to carve. “Then you guys would be more useless than those boys. One hormonal bitch is enough on the Lazy J, and I’ve taken that position.”

  “You’d prefer to put up with adolescent testosterone flying about?”

  “God, yes. You males are so much simpler. All that your hormones tell you to do is fuck and fight. Hard work tempers those urges, and I’ve got plenty of that to keep them occupied.”

  “Speaking of which, we’d better get on with it if we don’t plan on being stuck on the mountain for a few days. That northerly is starting to smell like snow.”

  Connie didn’t question Josh’s statement. Both he and Colt were uncanny with their weather predictions. Their father was one-quarter Lakota, and they’d gotten more than their near-black eyes, gorgeous cheekbones, and permanently tanned skin from him. They were both highly attuned to the world around them.

  She lifted her chin, hoping her no-nonsense attitude would mask the arousal assaulting her. She could feel her heartbeat throbbing in her clit as Josh’s leg lolled heavier against her thigh. If either of the Preston twins knew how they affected her, she would die of shame. Beau was different. They’d always had a connection. He’d seen straight through the façade she’d put up for Jake. He’d known she was a fraud.

  The twins had never looked at her with anything but brotherly affection before Jake’s death, but over the last three years they’d set out just to piss her off. They never hid their intentions from her. Hell, Colt had told her straight out that he and Josh could show her a time like no other if only she’d give them a chance. When she’d laughed it off, he’d told her they’d never give up until they had her burning up between them. Just the thought of it sent more blood pounding through her clit and clenched her cunt.

  She pushed away from the truck and temptation. “Let’s get this done then.”

  Wayward thoughts played havoc as she walked away. Visions of being totally possessed by two pairs of black eyes while light-gray ones looked on bombarded her.

  A smile twitched Connie’s lips. Maybe this year she should think about inviting two of her cowboys to stay back and play for a few days.

  * * * *

  “How long is she gonna keep running for, Beau?” Josh stayed where he was and watched Connie walk away from him for what had to be the millionth time.

  “Until she’s done with it.”

  It pissed Josh off to no end that Connie wouldn’t acknowledge her attraction to them. “Well I’m about done with letting her walk away. You know how fuckin’ turned-on she is. If she got back on that horse right now, she’d soak the damn saddle.”

  “Connie ain’t a mustang you can throw a loop over, Josh.” Beau sounded as calm and even tempered as he always did.

  His older brother’s control of his emotions was superhuman, and that irked Josh, too. He knew Beau had had a soft spot for Connie from the first day Jake had brought her home. He knew a lot more than either of them suspected. He set out to rattle Beau’s calm. “This snow’s likely to put a damper on your full-moon martyrdom.”

  “Yep.”

  So much for rattling him. “So what do you do? Put out a saucer of milk and lure her in like a wild kitten?”

  “Nah, she likes scotch, and kitten is the last word I would use to describe CJ.”

  Josh looked over toward the milling cattle, spotting Connie smiling at the Oklahoman boy who hadn’t even started filling out his big frame. He’d known she’d taken lovers over the last two years. The first year had been a Kansas lad very much like Hal. Big, mild-mannered, and a genuinely nice kid—cut from exactly the same cloth Jake had been. She’d had red eyes for a week afterward. Last year it had been another Jake lookalike. She hadn’t cried afterward. With the way she was sizing up Hal, Josh knew that kid was going to get an end-of-season bonus he wouldn’t forget in a hurry, unless they did something about it.

  “Cougar is more like it.”

  Beau actually chuckled. “She had to build her confidence back up from somewhere, and I personally would hate to be labeled a rebound fuck. Connie’s a grown woman, and she needs the itch scratched same as we do. Giving those boys a night to remember don’t mean nothin’.”

  It might not mean anything, but Josh still hated to think of any man but him or his brothers with his hands on that woman. “I’m done with waiting, Beau. I know you asked us to back off and give her time, but it’s time to get serious. Jake’s been gone five years. I’m tired of watching her work herself into the ground, and I’m tired of watching kids get a taste of what should be ours—what would be ours if you were man enough to call her bluff instead of just letting her drink your whiskey and watching her sleep each time she rides over in the dead of night.”

  Beau kicked his boot into the dirt a few times and then tilted his head. He was a hard man to read with his steady gray eyes that never changed hue, but this time Josh spotted a rippling along his half-brother’s jaw that made him hold his breath. Beau was actually considering it.

  “You realize this is a one-shot deal? We fuck this up, we’re never gonna get another chance.”

  “I know.”

  “You and Colt prepared to play those odds?”

 
“With or without you. It’s your call.”

  A smile spread across Josh’s face as Beau stood and pulled his hat down tight. “You two are gonna get me shot.”

  Josh could see the sense of purpose wrapped around his elder brother as he headed for the woman who had plagued their thoughts for years. He was soft-spoken and mild mannered, but they didn’t come more hard-headed than Beau Preston when he set his mind to something. Connie didn’t stand a chance.

  Chapter 2

  Fat white flakes were falling thick and fast as Connie twitched the last wire. Already a thin, cold layer blanketed the ground, and the low, pregnant clouds promised plenty more where that came from. The cattle had headed for the timber and the protection it provided, but Connie held little worry for her herd. The calves were well grown enough to handle a cold snap, and their mothers knew where the sheltered pockets could be found.

  “We don’t have to do this now, Connie,” Beau said for the third time in as many minutes.

  “Yes, we do. I can’t believe you sent Josh to fix the fence.” There was one gulch that allowed the cattle to leave the grazing range without passing through either of their properties, one that just happened to lead straight out onto the interstate. The fence that blocked it needed repairing every year when it was decimated by the spring runoff. The two ranches traded off repairs, and this year had been the Prestons’ turn. She would have been better off doing it herself.

  Colt rolled a big boulder beneath the low point with the help of his much-chastised brother. The pair had been unusually quiet, but their black eyes burned with an intensity that frightened her just a little. Quiet wasn’t their forte.

  Josh straightened up and rolled his big shoulders before fixing her with a direct look that had little of his usual devil-may-care attitude behind it. “Okay, Connie, I fucked up, pure and simple. It’s fixed. Can we get the hell on with life now, or are you gonna beat me over the head with it for the next six months?”

  Connie copped that one on the chin. She knew she held a grudge better than most. “You’re right. It’s fixed now. I’ve had my hissy fit. I’ll let it go.”