“Do you hear it?”
She listened, but didn’t hear a thing. Rick, however, did.
“Yeah.” He listened again, then pointed toward the west, over another small rise. With a sharp whistle and a slight nudge of his boot heels, he had his horse running in that direction. Gunner was right behind him, leaving Kid as surprised as she was.
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but I aim to find out.” She pushed her knees against her horse’s sides, then flicked the reins. The horse jumped into a full gallop.
“Hey! Wait for me!”
She lifted her hand at Kid’s yell, but kept going anyway. By the time she’d caught up, she could see Gunner and Rick still on their horses a few yards up ahead. She stormed toward them, then pulled her mount to a skidding stop when Rick lifted his hand, motioning for her to stop.
“Mallory, stay where you are.”
Gunner tugged on his horse’s reins, holding it back even as it danced and snorted. Rick did the same, then grabbed for Kid’s reins to stop his horse. The men’s bodies tensed as they straightened in the saddle and stared at an area off to their right. She followed their gazes, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
The wail of an animal in distress split the air. How had they heard it from so far away?
“What’s wrong?”
Chapter Five
Rick urged his horse forward. When Mallory started to come along with him, he spun his horse around. “No. I told you to stay put.”
She nodded, although she was dying to see what was making the plaintive sound.
Leaving Kid with her, the men cantered their horses over to a small ditch with Rebel hot on their heels. As tall as she tried to make herself in the saddle, she still couldn’t see anything. “What is it, Kid? You’re taller. Can you see what they’re doing?”
He stretched his long frame. “It looks like they’re hauling a calf out of the ditch.”
“Is it hurt?”
“From the way it’s caterwauling, I’d say so.”
She couldn’t stand back and not help. “Let’s go see.”
“Mal, maybe we should let them handle it.”
But she didn’t wait to argue. Instead, she spurred her horse forward, then dismounted next to their horses and let the reins fall to the ground. “What’s wrong with the poor thing?”
Gunner and Rick struggled with the terrified calf. It couldn’t have been too injured from the way it battled them. Once Rick had shoved it over the edge of the shallow ditch it had lain in, he pulled himself out of the hole and helped a struggling Gunner to pick up the calf and put it on its side.
“Easy, buddy, we’re not out to hurt you.”
A ripple of energy, not unlike what she always felt around the men, wafted over her. The men, their gazes locked on the frightened calf, spoke softly, too soft for her to hear. A few moments later, the calf stopped fighting them, and lay panting, its eyes no longer wild. Rick stroked its neck while Gunner examined it. Amazingly, the animal let them handle it without even a cry of alarm.
“Damn it.”
She tried to see why Rick had cursed, then noted the bloody area on one of the calf’s back legs. “Is that a bite? Is it going to be all right?”
The men were too busy helping the calf to bother answering her questions. Instead, Rick pointed at his horse. “Mallory, reach inside that rolled up pack on the back and pull out a couple of those ties.”
“Ties?” Why would a cowboy carry around a tie?
“Yeah. Hog ties. Two strips of leather to bind its feet.”
“Oh.” She hurried to his horse, then dug in the pack. At first, she didn’t feel anything that reminded her of leather. Then her fingers passed over one, then another. She pulled them out and held them up in a triumphant show.
“Move it, woman. We don’t have all day,” chastised Gunner.
She dashed over to them and held them out as they each took one. Like cowboys going for the win at a calf roping event at a rodeo, they had the animal’s legs bound together, front and back.
“I’ll go fetch the pickup.” Gunner strode over to his horse and was in the saddle with one smooth move. “Kid, come back with me. You can wait on the vet while I bring the pickup back.”
“Will do.” Kid took a lot longer to get into his saddle, but at last he made it.
“What can I do?” She didn’t know how she could help, just that she wanted to.
“Stay with me, Mallory.” Rick had hold of both the bound front legs as well as the back ones. “You can help keep him down and on his side. And as calm as we can get him.”
“Okay.”