Confrentation

Tommy barreled down the road toward the Running Deer. Jude fidgeted in the seat beside him, still pulling on the shoes she'd carried in her hands when she'd run out of the house to join him. He'd have preferred her to stay at the Burning Pear, but not only was he in no mood to argue, he also didn't have a leg to stand on. It was her cattle that might be in jeopardy.

He'd instructed Mason to keep a watch on the Running Deer, but the last person he would have expected to show up in the middle of the night was Liam's foreman. Life was getting more complicated by the minute.

Jude finger combed her hair. "I don't understand why you're so upset about Darius showing up at the ranch. You said that Liam had asked him to oversee the place until it officially changed hands."

"He's there with one of his hands and a cattle-hauling trailer. It's past midnight. Put those two facts together and it sounds more than a tad suspicious to me."

"You think this might be cattle rustling?" She twisted around to face him. "This is exciting. It's just like one of the old Westerns. And I'm riding in with the cavalry."

"Now you find your spirit of adventure." He groaned. "You have strange tastes in entertainment."

"It certainly beats dealing with my problems."

"These are your problems."

:Then it beats dealing with people trying to kill me and run me off the Running Deer. Unless..." She turned to him. "Unless Darius is the one who wants me off the ranch."

"I don't know if he wants you off, but it sure looks like he wants a truckload of your cattle off."

"They're not officially mine yet. And he's surely not stealing them."

"I'll reserve judgement on that until I have more facts."

Jude scooted to the middle of the seat and laid a hand on his thigh. "Aren't you glad I showed up in Kelman, Texas? Without me, your time as acting sheriff would have been a real bust."

"Yeah," he answered honestly. "I'm real glad you came along to add a little interest to my life. But you can slow down any time now. I could use some sleep."

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Jude leaned against the kitchen counter and observed the questioning session. Tommy sat opposite Darius; Mason sat opposite the ranch hand whom Darius had brought with him. She'd seen Darius from a distance at the ranch, but he'd never bothered to ride over and introduce himself. He was a lot younger than she'd thought, probably no more than thirty-five. He was tall, muscular, with a scar that ran through his left eyebrow.

He'd answered a few of Tommy's questions but not to Tommy's satisfaction. Jude could tell the handsome cowboy was growing more agitated by the minute. Strange, but even that added to his rugged appeal. She liked Tommy a lot, way more than she should, considering the circumstances. But she felt so alive around him. So normal. And every inch a woman.

Darius pushed his chair back from the kitchen table. The grating sound of wood on Mexican tile grabbed her attention. "I told you, Tommy, I just brought the truck over here so we could take some of the stock to auction in Eagle Pass on Friday. Liam told me to oversee the management of the Running Deer with the same care I do his ranch. That's what I'm doing. I didn't plan to load the cattle tonight."

"And you expect me to buy the story that you do truck deliveries after midnight?"

"I do it whenever I find the time."

"You had a couple of men working over here this afternoon."

"I have men over here every day. The horses have to be fed and watered. Salt licks have to be put out. Fences need repairs. There's always work to do on a ranch. I don't have to tell you that."

"And if bringing over a cattle truck was part of that routine work, there's no reason you shouldn't have done it when the sun was shining."

Darius stood and leaned over the back of his chair, jutting his chin toward Tommy. "I'm just doing my job. I'm not looking for trouble, but I know there's plenty going around out here since Jude Harrison showed up."

"Exactly what do you know Darius?"

The foreman let his glance walk over her from head to toe before he turned back to Tommy. "I know she conveniently can't seem to remember anything about herself except that she's supposed to inherit the Running Deer."

Anger quickened her pulse, but she bit back the scathing comment that almost flew from the tip of her tongue. She'd let him finish his comments before she jumped into the verbal fray.

"I know she found the place vandalized when she arrived. I know she found some dummy hanging in the bunkhouse and that she got all bent out of shape about it." Darius hitched his thumbs into the front pockets of his jeans. "I know that the talk around town is that her boyfriend came down here from Fort Worth to get her, but that she told him she'd rather stay with you. Evidently, the Quincy money turns her on."

Tommy stood. "You've said enough, Darius."

"You asked me what I'd heard. You can't go ballistic on me for telling you."

Jude stopped biting her tongue. "But I can. I want you off my land. You and your men. I'm Stewart daughter, and he left the ranch to me. I'll run it." She had no idea how she was going to run it, but it would be without Darius's help.

Darius pushed his chair under the table and reached for his hat. "You'll have to take that up with Liam, Miss Harrison. He's my boss, and I take my orders from him."

Tommy stepped into Darius's space and looked him in the eye. Toe-to-toe, Tommy clearly had the upper hand even without the authority of the law behind him. His shoulders were broader, his body harder, his manner far more intimidating.

"I'll talk to Liam," he said. "You can count on that.. But if you show your face on the Running Deer again without Jude's personal invitation, you'll have to answer to me. Is that clear?"

"Oh yeah, it's real clear." Darius shoved his hands deep into his front pockets. "Is that all sheriff?"

"As a matter of fact, it isn't. If I find any indication that you have mishandled the financial records for Running Deer or illegally confiscated any of the livestock, I'll advise Jude to file charges."

"So it looks like Jamie is right. The red-headed sexpot has you wrapped around her little finger."

Darius and his ranch hand stormed out the door, and probably not a second too soon. The muscles in Tommy's arms pushed against the fabric of his shirtsleeves and his hands knotted into tight fists.

"I've never seen Darius like that before," Mason said. "He's always a little cocky, but he usually don't bite off trouble the way he was gnawing at it tonight."

"Maybe he's not usually cornered."

"I reckon not. You know he's up to no good, sneaking that truck in here at night. Of course, no one would have known it if I hadn't been watching the place. He could have loaded it tomarrow somewhere out of sight of the house and then driven it out of here tomarrow night. Like stealing eggs from a one-legged hen."

Jude groaned. "And I'm the one-legged hen. Besides which, I have a ranch with no one to take care of it."

"If you hadn't run Darius of yourself, I would have." Tommy's expression hardened. "I'll call Liam tomarrow and tell him he's been relieved of duty. Stewart's daughter has taken charge of the spread."

She walked over and looked out the window. "All that pasture. All that livestock. I guess I better take a crash course in ranching."

"You can hire some young guys in town." Mason said. "They can keep the horses from starving and take care of any emergencies until you hire a real foreman."

"I don't want any new people coming onto the ranch," Tommy said. "I'll take over the management and I'll send Riff over from the day-to-day operations. I know I can trust him." He turned to Jude. "Unless you have a problem with any of that?"

"No problem."

Tommy could run the ranch and the investigation. All she wanted was to find the metal box. And to find herself. After that, she'd sell the ranch and leave all this behind her. And the only thing she'd miss would be Tommy.

When the men finished talking, Tommy took her arm.

"It's late. Let's go home."

"Your place or mine, cowboy?"

"Well, mine has a bed."

Mason looked at them from the corner of his eye.

She shook her head. "We're teasing, Mason."

"I knew that."

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Jude sat in the porch swing that Riff had installed for her and studied the names and facts she'd pulled up in her genealogical search on the Quincy's computer. More dead ends. Stewart Harrison was apparently as much a nonentity as Jude Harrison.

She'd been in Kelman, Texas, five days now. She'd gone shopping for boots and appropriate ranch wear and spent hours exploring the property. But she was no closer to finding the metal box, a will or anything about her past. The only good news in all of this was that neither Darius nor Jamie had returned to the ranch though Jamie still called her every day and she'd had dinner with him at Gus's once and met him for coffee twice.

His irritation grew more obvious with every encounter. She could understand his frustration. He was the person she should be turning to, but she was never at ease around him. The more he wanted from her, the stronger her urge to pull away from him.

He blamed the alienation of her affection on Tommy, but in truth it was Jamie's attitude that made her keep her distance. He wanted too much from her, wanted her to jump back into the relationship he said they'd had. But she couldn't remember ever being with him, and when he tried to hold her hand or even put his arm around her shoulders, she felt as if the air was being forced from her lungs.

Other than the growing tension that existed between Jamie and her, things were going almost too smoothly. When the next shoe dropped, it would probably be a steel-toed size twelve. Maybe it would take that to spur her memories to the forefront of her mind. She still experienced the sporadic, sometimes almost traumatic, flashes of the past, but the bits and pieces never fitted together in a way that made sense. A puzzle whose edges had been sliced away so that no clear picture emerged.

But oddly enough, in spite of the persisting amnesia, she still retained skills and basic knowledge. Recipes, songs, poems, computer skills, even TV personalities came in loud and clear. And all the while, her name, her age, where she went to school, the town she'd grown up in, her parents--everything that really mattered--was lost.

She'd talked to Dr. Silvers several times on the phone and he'd assured her that this was "normal" for an amnesia patient, that not remembering the name or the face of her fiance was to be expected.

But he'd cautioned that, in her fragile condition, she might emotionally attach herself to another male if one was available and helpful. He'd been right. She had. Her attraction to Tommy grew stronger every time she was near him even though Tommy seemed determined to avoid a repeat of the kiss that had knocked her off her feet the other night. The protective rancher was the bright spot in her days even when he brought bad news the way he was probably on his way to deliver right now.

But good news or bad, she couldn't wait to see him.

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A/N--Thank you all for being patient. I won't take that long again promise. )