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After Jasper had left, Rose stood back to survey her sh to keep out any predator It would be wonderful, waking up to the crow of the rooster and gathering fresh eggs for breakfast

She was glad she’d kept the old ca tools and chicken feed As for the trailer, now that the generator and tanks had been hooked up, it had become the perfect little home She could even shower and cook in it Bull had hired aher from the worry of maintenance

To repay a siven hiun that had belonged to her grandfather She knew Bull had long admired the weapon that had killed Haed to Don Ra Rose into his care After Raht it back to Texas Now the powerful gun belonged to Bull He had accepted it as his due, without protest It seeht, somehow, that he should have it

Even so, the thought of all that Bull had done, and continued to do for her, raised a troubling concern Her dwindling cash reserves were bound to run out in the next few months She couldn’t be dependent on Bull She needed her own inco she could sell

Eggs? That was a nonstarter Three hens wouldn’t lay enough eggs to sell And people around here already had places to buy eggs She’d thought about goat cheese, too María had taught her how to make the wonderful cheese she’d sold on market days back in Río Seco, before the cartel took over But this wasn’t Río Seco There were governulations, and the oats and no place to set up a cheese- operation

On her last trip to town she’d picked up a local newspaper, in the hope of finding a job But there was nothing suitable for a wo to hire her as a truck mechanic or a ranch hand

But one ad in the For Sale section had caught her interest A far off surplus lambs

Rose knew a lot about sheep The Ortega family had raised a small flock of sheep in Mexico The days she’d spent in the saddle, herding sheep in the desert with Don Raiven her soht about the two young one off to work and she’d never heard froe in the United States? Had they gone over to the cartel? Were they even alive?

But back to the lambs Rose had cared for her share of orphaned and abandoned la up every four hours to feed the them under a blanket to keep them warm How much would it cost her to buy several lambs and raise them to sell in the fall?

What would it take? Rose could al into action She would need a strong, sheltered pen to keep the If the lambs weren’t weaned, she would need bottles, nipples, and formula mix And she would need to pay a veterinarian for services like vaccinations Could she e all that and still sell them at a profit at the end of the season? It was a scary prospect but one that excited her

When the laraze on their own, she could run theeland that bordered one end of her property Keeping theht would be a full-tiood herding dog If the plan worked out this year, she could raise even more sheep in the future

She was surveying her yard, thinking about the best spot for a sheep pen, when another thought slammed her like a cold fist

Bull

He wasn’t going to like this Bull was a cattle hie rass off all the way to the root, leaving the land barren where they’d grazed Bull didn’t just dislike sheep He hated them

Her agreeht to use her land any way she wanted That included raising sheep But if she chose to do this, she couldn’t expect any more help from Bull, and probably none from Jasper, either She would be on her own