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“I couldn’t stay there” The determined lilt in her voice warned him that she wouldn’t be ordered back

His hard glance flicked past her to take in the sight of Jessy just co up to him Her dress had been replaced by jeans, boots, and a hat

“Coffee?” She handed hiht Cat with me,” she admitted

“Since you’re here”—his attention reverted to his sister—“etbefore pinching arette “This is no place for her”

“That’s a man’s opinion,” she returned evenly “But he usually isn’t the one who’s sitting ho to happen to you You’re just about all she has left Besides, I figured it would be just as hard for her to sleep alone in that house as it would be in the back end of one of these trucks”

“Maybe” Ty grudgingly conceded the point, his attention running again to the machinery parked on the roadside “Were there any calls or es from Silverton, the attorney?”

“No Someone at headquarters would have contacted you by radio if there were” Jessy understood that patience was so Ty had learned, but it didn’t always ride ith hi in him

“Silverton’s trying to get so Dyson fro the land title” He explained the things that were being worked on, things out of his hands

“What do you think Dyson’s going to do next?”

“I don’t know” The cigarette was sround the butt under his boot “This ht be a diversion to keep us occupied here while he slips in somewhere else” With a turn of his head, hehere, Jessy?”

The s features was beyond aher fate either good or bad; but still, that was not all he saw in her There were other things he couldn’t nalory pass close to hi years for it

“I thought so that concern from him

“Right” An evening star twinkled in the purpling night sky It re after his sister Jessy noticed the change in his expression, the faraway look of a man troubled by his dreams Guiltily, she moved away

As darkness settled over the land, the tension dined and bedrolls spread out in and around the pickups It was nearing ht and Jessy was cocooned in a blanket, propped in the corner of a truck’s rear bed Froe point, she couldin Repp Taylor’s arms But Ty had not rested, and she doubted that he’d try to before

Aroundthe next day, a horse and rider cantered in from the north to approach the ranch pickups clustered around the gate Ty walked to the edge of the outer vehicles before ascertaining the rider was Culley O’Rourke and not one of his men