Texas Baby Sanctuary by Linda Conrad

Author:Linda Conrad
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-10-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Hector Robles drove a pickup along a ranch-to-market road near Chance, Texas, in the early spring sunshine. Hector’s partner, Pedro, sat shotgun. The truck belonged to Chance County rancher big Jim Ed Thacker.

The men were performing duties for their new jobs, running errands for Thacker’s Double-T ranch. Being ranch gophers didn’t pay much, but then the work gave them both plenty of reason to meet the people of Chance and hear local gossip.

Almost to Main Street, Hector downshifted and said, “I think we need different jobs. Something that gets us closer to the interior of the Chance ranch.”

“Then you believe that rumor of a baby living at the old Chance homestead is true? You haven’t informed Senor Serrano.”

Hector didn’t bother answering. Sometimes he got sick and tired of explaining things to Pedro.

“How do you plan on getting close to the old homestead?” Pedro leaned forward in his seat until the seat belt cut into his thick neck. “That casa is supposed to be miles inside the last gates. And word is, the background of everybody who gets hired out there is checked and double-checked. Seems to me, they act like they’re expecting trouble.”

“Of course they are. That’s what makes me so sure the rumors are true.”

But Hector was ten moves ahead of whoever made the rules for the Bar-C. He had it all figured out. Now he simply had to put his plan into action.

“Admit it,” Pedro whined. “They’re too smart for us. And Serrano will kill us if we can’t capture his baby alive.”

There were times when Hector would be grateful to Serrano for putting a bullet hole between Pedro’s eyes. First, however, he needed his partner’s added gunpower.

To have any hope of even getting that far, Hector needed to find a way of keeping his damned partner’s big mouth shut. “Don’t talk anymore. Don’t say a word. Especially around strangers. Let me do all the talking—and all the thinking.”

Pedro shut up, but his stare was sending threats.

Okay, Hector wouldn’t mind killing his idiot partner even if Serrano didn’t do it for him.

Right after they safely tucked the baby into the boss’s waiting arms. Hector figured it wouldn’t be long now.

* * *

As they made their last stop at the Feed and Seed Store, Hector got the news he’d been waiting to hear from one of the stockboys. A contractor was in town hiring temporary hands for spring cutting on the Bar-C.

Spring on a huge place like the Bar-C, where they raised sheep and angora goats in addition to quarter horses and cattle, was the busiest time of year. Sheep and goats needed to be sheared. Cows needed cutting and weaning, castrating and branding. Horses would have to be broke, castrated and earmarked.

There’d be plenty of work for fifty or more good men in addition to the regular ranch employees. And as dull as Pedro was, he was good with a rope and a horse.

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