Iris by Greenwood Leigh

Author:Greenwood, Leigh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, western, cowboy, western romance, wyoming
Publisher: Ten Talents Press

Chapter Sixteen

The coffee cup fell from Iris's nerveless hand. "You must be mistaken," she said, certain Zac had misunderstood. "Not even Monty would do a thing like that."

"He would if he thought he should," Tyler said, looking into Iris's eyes for the first time she could remember. "Monty never lets good sense get in his way."

"But why would he fire my crew?"

"No use asking me," Tyler said, turning back to his work. "Tell Zac to fetch you a horse. Then get yourself over there and ask him yourself."

But Zac hadn't waited for Iris. He had thrown himself bareback on the first horse he reached and galloped back to the camp. By the time Iris saddled her horse and reached her own camp, the fireworks were just about over.

Monty stood squarely in the center of the camp. Hen and Salty were close by, but Iris could tell Monty had done this on his own authority.

"What happened?" Iris asked. "Zac said you fired my crew."

"Only some of them," Monty said.

"Who? Why?"

"He accused me of trying to steal from you," Frank said. He jerked his bedroll out of the chuckwagon and threw it on the ground next to his saddle. "He said he wanted us out of camp within the hour." He walked to where the wrangler was bringing up his horse. "He ain't even giving us time to eat."

"And you did this without consulting me?" Iris said turning to Monty. She was confused and surprised. And angry. She had no doubt Monty had a reason for what he had done, but she couldn't believe he would take such a momentous step without consulting her. They were her men. He couldn't fire them.

"If you're going to do something, you might as well do it right away," Monty said, not taking his eyes off the men gathering their gear.

"Are we missing any cattle?" Iris asked.

"No," Frank said. "Not a single one."

"Then how . . . "

"I saw him talking to Quince Honeyman," Monty said.

Iris's gaze whipped around to Frank.

"A man's got a right to talk to anybody he wants," Frank said, angrily.

"I don't trust anybody who consorts with thieves."

"Who said Quince is a thief?" Carlos demanded.

"I said it," Monty said, turning on Iris's brother.

"Anybody but you see him?"

"If a man's thieving, he's thieving whether one man sees him or a hundred."

"I don't think Carlos wants to take your word," Joe said. He said it in a flat voice, but Iris couldn't help but feel he was trying to cause trouble. That angered her. She was only keeping him on because of Carlos.

"He doesn't have to take my word for this or anything else if he doesn't want to," Monty answered. "The trail out of here is the same for him as anybody else."

"You can't fire Carlos," Iris said turning on Monty. She hadn't thought he included Carlos with the men he distrusted. The fear that she might lose her only family made her reckless. "You can't fire anybody unless I say so."

"Maybe you two would like to take a walk down to the river," Salty suggested.

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