{Chapter 1}

“Git outta here a’ fore I blow you across the county, mister” Toni Curtis pulled off a shot and hit a tree near Harlan Downs, who was holding a fat wallet in his hands.

“Please think rationally Miss Curtis. It’s obvious that you aren’t using the land!” Downs tried to reason.

“Maybe not, but I’m using this rifle if you don’t mount yer ride and burn the breeze!” Toni said through clenched teeth.

“I’ll up my offer my ten percent!” Downs offered.

“My answer’s still the same. I ain’t sellin’ one acre of my land to no one. Especially someone like you” Toni pulled off another shot, a little closer to Downs.

He finally took the hint and fumbled to mount his ride. “I’ll give you a few days to think on it, Miss.”

Toni shook her head and set her rifle in the rocking chair on her little porch.

“What’s the shootin’ about, Boss?” Her foreman, Wade Dylan, came from the barn where he had been saddling their horses. “Is Downs back again?”

“The man can’t take a hint, Dylan. He’s a dumb as a… well, he’s just dumb,” Toni sputtered.

“One day he’ll give up on ya. He’s just stubborn” Wade walked toward the horses and Toni followed.
“Two can play at that game,” Toni muttered.

“Rawhide, Ben, and Tiny are all out takin’ the herd to that south pasture already” Wade grabbed the pommel and swung up into the saddle.

Toni nodded and mounted her own black stallion, Storm. “Any more missing?”

“Three head. A mare and her colt and--- and Scottish Thunder” Wade’s voice faded at the last words.

Toni’s heart sank. Surely not her prized stallion. She had bought him from an old Scottish man, hence the horse’s name, who was looking to get out of the breeding business.

“Please tell me you’re joking,” she breathed.

“I’m sorry, but it’s true” Wade put his head down.

Toni growled out a few choice words that would have made any other woman blush. “I’ll kill ‘em all when I find ‘em.”

“We’ve gotta get these rustlers under control, Boss. There aren’t very many more horses worth rustling,” Wade said.

“I know. I ain’t cryin’ to the law, though. You know how that Sheriff feels about me runnin’ this place, he ain’t gonna do squat diddle about it” Toni grumbled.

“A Sheriff who doesn’t do his job ‘cuz of personal preferences deserves to be in the calaboose along with his prisoners,” Wade said.

Toni shook her head. “Any luck on finding a bronc rider? I need that new mustang broke more than ever now. We need the money.”

“Nothing has shown up. I’ll ask around in town tomorrow when I go to pick up that mare,” Wade said.

Toni nodded. Seemed like she was spending a lot of money but not getting any in return these days.

**********

“Fired? How am I fired?” Erik McBride asked the foreman of the KD Ranch.

“I’m sorry, McBride. I really need a man like you, but Boss said you had to go” Elliot Samuels shook his head.

“Why?”

“It’s Carlie,” Elliot groaned.

“No, No. She’s a twelve year old girl!” Erik couldn’t believe his ears.

“Boss don’t like how she’s always talkin’ about you and always bugging you when you’re working. He says she too young to be fraternizing with the hands,” Elliot said.

“So he fires me. I have a sister who’s about to be engaged. I’d like her to have a decent wedding. That takes money, Mr. Samuels,” Erik said.

“I know, and I’m sorry. If you’d like to talk to Boss…”

“No, I’ll pack up. Besides, I’m sure there are plenty of people needing bronc riders, right?” A lot of good it did him to know all he knew about horses if he couldn’t hold a job down for more than a couple of months.

“I’m sure there are. Especially for one as cheap as you” Elliot slapped him on the back.

Cheap? He hadn’t known that his rates were low. If anything, he thought he was expensive.

He was packing his few items of apparel later that day when there was a small rustling sound behind him.

“Erik?” a squeaky voice said. “You’re leaving?”

“Uh huh” was all that he said. He didn’t need Carlie being around him when her father came back from the herd.

“Why?”

“Because I got fired” Erik buckled his saddlebags and slung them over his shoulder, facing her.

“Fired? Why did Daddy fire you?” Carlie followed him out to his waiting horse.

Erik was tempted to tell her, but refrained from it. “Ask your father.”

“You’ll be back, won’t you?” Carlie asked.

Erik slung his saddlebags over his horse. He decided that the quickest way out of this conversation was to say nothing. He put his boot in the stirrup and mounted his horse.

“Bye, Carlie” He said simply before turning his horse around and spurring him into a trot.

If the truth were known, he was glad to be leaving.

His sister sure wouldn’t like to be hearing of him jobless again, though…

**********

“Mr. Cluck! You stay away from me, ya hear?” Tiny Morgan inched his way closer to the chicken coop and the demon-possessed rooster. The big white bird looked at him through yellow eyes that pierced his very soul.

“Be brave,” he mumbled. “It’s just a chicken. Chickens are dumber than cows. Everybody knows that” Tiny inched closer, fully aware that he was now talking to himself.

“Is it gunna take you all day to get those eggs? Boss’ll kill you if she found out that you were scared of Mr. Cluck” Ben Smith leaned against the other side of the chicken coop, grinning from ear to ear.

“I know, so be quiet about it. I don’t see why he only comes after me,” Tiny said.

“Cuz you’re ugly. Unlike me” Ben ran his hand through his hair.

Tiny shook his head. Ben might be young, but he was so ugly that a fly wouldn’t light on him.

“Tiny? Where are you with those eggs?” Boss’ voice rang clear to the chicken coup from her perch on the steps.

The loud noise caused Mr. Cluck to startle and he ran after Tiny, who promptly took off running to the highest surface he could find. On top of the corral fence.

“Get back, you dumb chicken!” Tiny hollered, kicking at the rooster.

Mr. Cluck flapped his wings and tried to claw at Tiny’s boots.

Tiny scrambled completely over the fence and ran for the barn, pleased to find that Mr. Cluck didn’t follow him.

There were only two things a man as big as Tiny was afraid of, and those two things were Mr. Cluck and his Boss.

**********

Toni shook her head as she watched one of her drovers run across the yard with a chicken at his heels.
“Why did I have to pick three of the dumbest humans on earth to help me run this place? We have enough to do without wasting energy running from chickens,” she said to Wade.

“You won’t find men like them working for this cheap, Boss. There aren’t very many people left around here that need work what with the town growing as it is” Wade said.

Toni sighed as Tiny hopped onto the corral fence and kicked at the rooster.

She was doomed.

Sorry it's so short and that it's taken me so long to update. I have no idea how you can get writer's block on the first chapter of a book, but I got it:) -God Bless! Caitlyn C