Montana Sky

use a needle.”
    Willa rolled her shoulders. “I think we’ll leave her to play with the chickens. For now, anyway.” And now was what mattered, she decided, as she watched a newborn calf begin to nurse for the first time.
     
    “A ND SHE WAS UP TO HER ELBOWS INSIDE A COW .” TESS shuddered over her brandy. Evening had come in cold and clear, there was a fire roaring in the grate, and Nate had come to dinner. The combination made her brave enough to recount the experience. “Inside, dragging out another cow.”
    “I thought it was fascinating.” Lily enjoyed her tea, and the warmth of Adam’s hand over hers. “I’d have stayed longer, but I was in the way.”
    “You could have stayed.” Willa had a combo of coffee laced with brandy. “We’d have put you to work.”
    “Really?” Though Tess moaned at Lily’s simple enthusiasm, Lily just smiled. “I’d love to help tomorrow.”
    “You haven’t got enough brawn to pull, but you could medicate. Now you,” Willa continued, giving Tess a long, considering look, “you’re a big, strapping woman. Bet you could pull a calf without losing your breath.”
    “Just her lunch,” Nate put in, and earned chuckles from everyone but Tess.
    “I could handle it.” Gracefully, she skimmed back herhair, making the rings glitter on her pretty manicured fingers. “If I wanted to handle it.”
    “Twenty says you’d chicken before you were in to the wrists.”
    Damn it, Tess realized. Cornered. “Make it fifty, and you’re on.”
    “Done. Tomorrow. And Mercy Ranch adds another ten for every calf you pull.”
    “Ten.” Tess sniffed. “Big deal.”
    “Pull enough and you’d be able to pay for your next fancy haircut in Billings.”
    Tess flipped her hair again. She was about due for another trim. “All right, then. I say you’re going to be springing for a facial as well.” She raised an eyebrow. “You could use one of those yourself. And a paraffin wax on those hands. Unless, of course, you like skin that resembles leather.”
    “I don’t have time to waste in some silly salon.”
    Tess swirled her brandy. “Chicken.” She hurried on before Willa could hiss out a response. “I say I’ll pull as many as you, and if so, Mercy Ranch treats all three of us—you, me, and Lily—to the works. A weekend at a spa in Big Sky. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Lily?”
    Torn between loyalties, Lily fumbled. “Well, I—”
    “And we could do some shopping for the wedding. Check out a couple shops Shelly talked about.”
    “Oh.” The thrill of that had her looking dreamily at Adam. “That would be lovely.”
    “Bitch,” Willa murmured at Tess without rancor. “You’re on. But if you lose, you’re back on laundry detail.”
    “Oops.” Nate took the coward’s way out and studied his brandy when Tess snarled at him.
    “Meanwhile, I’ve got to finish recording the birth information from today.” Willa rose, stretched. Then froze. Had that been a shadow at the window? Or a face? Slowly she lowered her arms, struggled to keep her features composed. “I wouldn’t stay up too late,” she said to Tess as she started out of the room. “You’re going to need your strength tomorrow.”
    “I’m really going to love hearing you scream during yourbikini wax,” Tess called out, and had the satisfaction of seeing Willa’s head jerk around and her face register sheer horror. “I love having the last word,” she murmured.
    “Excuse me a minute.” Adam rose and followed Willa. He found her in the library, loading a rifle. “What is it?”
    So much for the poker face, she thought, snapping the chamber closed. “I thought I saw something outside.”
    “So you’re going out alone.” As he spoke he chose a shotgun, loaded it.
    “No use spooking everyone. It might have been my imagination.”
    “You don’t have a well-developed imagination.”
    She shook her head at that and decided it was hard to be insulted by the truth. “Well, it won’t hurt to do a quick walk around. We’ll go out the back.”
    They bundled into their outdoor gear in the mudroom. Though it was Willa’s instinct to go out first, Adam beat her to it, gently easing her aside.
     
    S OMEONE WATCHED THEM . IT WAS COLD , AND BITTER , BUT Jesse stood in the shadows, watching while his hand flexed eagerly on the weapon he carried. He dreamed of using it, on the man, taking out the man, leaving him bleeding.
    And just taking the woman, dragging her away, using her until he