Ambush Before Sunrise: Bonus Story (Cardwell Ranch Book12; Montana Legacy

the breakfast bell brought him up with a start. By then, Ella and Brick had been already dressed and headed for the chow hall. Angus had quickly followed. The other two wranglers had straggled into the ranch kitchen a little later.
“I’d like you to ride point with me,” Jinx told him at breakfast.
“Happy to,” Angus said. He and the ranch woman would be riding at the head of the line of cattle. He’d felt her studying him as if trying to understand why he seemed familiar, he figured. Maybe he’d tell her once they were alone on the cattle drive. Not that she would probably be happy to hear their first meeting story, he thought, touching his scar.
Jinx turned to Ella and Brick. “I thought the two of you could work the flank and swing positions farther back.” She considered Royce and Cash. “You’ll be the drag men bringing up the rear, picking up stragglers and keeping the line moving.”
“Whatever you say, trail boss,” Cash had said with a smirk.
Jinx seemed to ignore him. “We’ll see how that works out. Max will be bringing up the rear in the chuckwagon.”
At daybreak Angus and the rest of the wranglers saddled up and began to move the large herd of cattle toward the mountains. They left the valley floor for the foothills dotted with tall pines. Angus felt a sense of relief to be riding away from the ranch.
The days ahead would be filled with long hours on horseback, herding cattle up into the towering mountains of western Wyoming. He loved cattle drives and always had. It was a peaceful existence. At least for the moment, he thought as he looked back down the road. Soon they would start the climb up into the mountains.
He found himself looking over his shoulder, wondering how long it would be before he spotted riders coming after them. How long it would be before he saw T. D. Sharp again. By then, they would be far from civilization. They would be on their own since Jinx had said their cell phones wouldn’t work until they reached the top of the mountain—and even that was sketchy.
They moved cattle all morning and now trailed them along a creek through the pines. Cattle tended not to trail in a group, but string out in a long line. There were natural leaders who would take their places in front, while all the rest trailed behind. A head of a thousand could stretch out a mile or two so the wranglers worked in pairs on each side of the line.
The day had broken clear and sunny, reminding Angus how much he loved this work. He breathed in the spring air, rich with sweet pine, the scent of bright green spring grasses. It mixed with the scent of dust and cattle on the warm breeze. He lived for this and couldn’t imagine any other life, he thought as he turned his face up to the sun. He knew his mother hoped that one day he would return and help run Cardwell Ranch in the Gallatin Canyon near Big Sky, Montana.
Lately, the ranch had been calling him. He could feel his time of being a saddle tramp was almost over. He just wasn’t sure his brother Brick realized it. Or how his cousin Ella would take the news. Knowing her, she had already sensed his growing need to return home.
He’d grown up on Cardwell Ranch, fished the blue ribbon trout stream of the Gallatin, skied Lone Peak and ridden through the mountains on horseback from the time he could sit a saddle. But as he took in this part of Wyoming, he thought nothing could be more beautiful than its towering snowcapped peaks.
His gaze shifted to the woman who rode opposite him. He could see her through the tall pines. Like him, she, too, was smiling. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” she called to him as if sensing him watching her.
“Sure is.” Jinx in her element was more beautiful than the country around her. Her long, copper-colored hair was tied off low on the back of her neck. Her straw cowboy hat was pushed back and her freckled face turned up to the morning sun making her brown eyes sparkle. He couldn’t help staring.
At a sound behind him, he turned as his brother rode up, all smiles. “You have a nice herd here,” Brick called to Jinx. “Excuse me for saying it, but you look real pretty this morning.” With that he spurred his horse before he turned back to his flank position.
Angus rolled his eyes at him and rode off to pick up one of the cows that had wandered off, before falling back into line. He saw that Jinx had dropped back to say something to Brick and shook his head. His brother. If there was a pretty woman around, Brick was going to try to charm her.
But Angus suspected his brother was wasting his time. Jinx had already fallen for one cowboy whom she was now trying to get rid of. He didn’t think she was in the market for another.
ELLA SAW THE exchange and chuckled to herself. Her cousins were so competitive that her aunt Dana said they had probably arm wrestled in the womb. Ella wouldn’t have been surprised. She’d grown up with the two of them always trying to outdo each other as boys and now as men—especially for the attention of women.
She wasn’t worried this time, though. Jinx, she suspected, could see through anything the two did to impress her. She just hoped they all knew it was only for fun. Maybe she needed to remind Angus of that, though. She’d seen the way he had looked at Jinx earlier this morning. It surprised her and worried her a little.
Right now both Jinx and Angus were vulnerable. Jinx, because of her father’s death and her upcoming divorce. Angus, because he’d finally gotten over his heartbreak from the last woman he’d fallen for and he now exhibited signs