Montana Sky

wrong with him?”
    “Just a flu bug, but he ain’t feeling up to snuff. Bess made a sweet potato pie. Be nice if you took it over. He’s got a partiality for sweet potato pie, and for you. Be neighborly.”
    “And I could work on my lack of social skills.” She glanced at the desk, the papers, the work. Then looked back at the man who’d taught her everything worth knowing. “All right, Ham. I’ll run over and see him.”
    “You’re a good girl, Will,” he said, and sauntered out.
     
    H E ’ D GIVEN HER PLENTY TO THINK ABOUT ON THE DRIVE over, two new men, another two hundred head of cattle. Her own stubborn need to prove herself worthy to a man who had never cared.
    And, perhaps, her lack of sensitivity to a man who had always cared, and had always been there for her.
    Had she been infringing on Ham’s territory the last few months? Probably. That, at least, she could fix. But his words on the murder, however steady and sensible, couldn’t wipe out her sense of responsibility.
    Or her fear.
    She shivered, bumped up the heater in the rig. The road was well plowed, easily navigated. Snow was heaped on the sides so that it was like driving through a white tunnel with white peaks spearing up into a hard blue sky.
    There’d been an avalanche to the northwest that had buried three skiers. And some hunters camped in the high country had gotten caught in a blizzard and had to be brought out by copter and treated for frostbite. A neighboring ranch had lost some of its range cattle to wildcat looking for food. And two hikers climbing in the Bitterroots had been lost.
    And somewhere, despite the brutal nature of winter, was a killer.
    The Big Sky ski area was doing record business. More fortunate hunters claimed game was so plentiful this year that they hardly needed a weapon. Foals were already beingdropped, and cattle were growing fat in feedlots and basin pastures.
    Regardless of life and prosperity, death was lurking much too close.
    Lily was flushed with love and planning a spring wedding. Tess had nudged Nate into a weekend away at one of the tony resorts. And Ham wanted her to put on her dancing shoes.
    She was terrified.
    And hit the brakes, hard, to avoid running into an eight-point buck. She swerved, skidded, ended up sideways across the road, as the buck simply lifted his head and watched the show with bored eyes.
    “Oh, you’re a beauty, aren’t you?” Laughing at herself, she rested her head on the steering wheel while her heart made its way slowly out of her throat and back to her chest. It took a fast leap back up when someone tapped on her window.
    She didn’t recognize the face. It was a good one, angelically handsome, framed with curly golden-brown hair under a dung-brown hat. As his lips, accented with a glossy moustache, tipped up in smile, she slid a hand under her seat toward the .38 Ruger.
    “You okay?” he asked when she rolled down the window an inch. “I was behind you, saw you skid. Did you hit your head or anything?”
    “No. I’m fine. Just startled me. I should have been paying more attention.”
    “Big bastard, isn’t he?” Jesse turned his head to watch as the buck walked regally to the side of the road, then leaped over the mound of snow. “Wish I had my thirty-thirty. A rack like that’d go fine on the bunkhouse wall.” He looked back at her, amused to see fear and suspicion in her eyes. “Sure you’re okay, Miz Mercy?”
    “Yes.” She slid her fingers closer to the gun. “Do I know you?”
    “Don’t think so. I’ve seen you around here and there. I’m J C, been working at Three Rocks the past few months.”
    She relaxed a little, but kept the window up. “Oh, the poker ace.”
    He flashed a grin, and it was as formidable a weapon as the Ruger. “Got me a rep, do I? Gotta say it’s a pure pleasure taking your money, indirectly, that is, through your boys. You’re a little pale yet.”
    He wondered what her skin would feel like. She was part Indian, he remembered, and had the look of it. He’d never had a half-breed before. And wouldn’t that just fix Lily’s butt if he went and fucked her sister?
    “You ought to take a minute to get your breath back. If you hadn’t had good reflexes, I’d be digging you out of the drifts now.”
    “I’m fine, really.” He had gorgeous eyes, she mused. Cold, but beautiful. They shouldn’t have made her insides curl up in defense. “I’m on my way to Three Rocks, as it happens,” she continued,