Rio’s ears swiveled back and forth, and he could feel the sudden tension in Rio, his cutting horse ready to do his job.
They headed for the bull, and Ellis swung the rope, making a “hep-hep” sort of noise to get the big old boy moving like he wanted him to. The bull ignored him right up until he walked Rio directly up to him. Then he lifted his head and stared.
Ellis swung the rope toward him. “Come on, buddy. Play nice.”
The bull stared. And stood. Still.
Dammit.
He nudged Rio forward, crowding the big animal some, but nothing happened.
“Okay. Time to rope your ass and pull you.”
Rio danced, hooves flashing, happy as a pig in shit to play roping horse.
“I pet the puppy? Puppy! C’mere!”
“I don’t think so, baby sister. Dad, we need a dog!”
He shook his head and got Rio moving so he could throw the loop.
Please, God. Don’t let me mess this up in front of the boss and his family. I’m trying hard to make me a life here. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Rio gave him the perfect turn, and he sent the loop right over the bull’s head, settling it around his neck. This guy had been polled, which meant he had no horns, so that was his only option. He tightened the rope around the saddle hornand got Rio pulling, towing that big old thing kicking and snorting right into the ring.
“Go, Cowboy Ellis, go!”
That was the older girl. Chrissy. No Allie.
Damn it, which one? Allie? The boys were easier because he spent more time with Michael, so he could tell the two boys apart. The girls were little, and it was so difficult to keep track, even though they were six and three or seven and four—however old they were. He let the rope go so he could urge Rio out of the pen, locking the corral gate behind them.
“Can I go out there now, Dad?” Michael asked,
“Don’t go past the fence. You stay at the rail. Let Ellis do his job.” A guy could say a lot of things about Ichabod, but the man was a good dad, and they loved him and minded him.
The kid, of course, came up to peer at the cows over the fence, while he got Rio settled and walked out bit.
“Where did they come from? Do you think they just appeared?” Ichabod’s voice was filled with shock.
“Dad, aliens steal cows. They don’t drop them back down.”
Ichabod glanced at Michael and frowned. “All right, smart ass.”
“Dad, you said a cuss!”
“I’m sorry, Michael, my bad.”
“You didn’t see anybody drop them off? There’s a goodly many.” It should have made some noise over the cattle guard.
“No.” Ichabod’s frown deepened. “You would have thought I would have noticed. And I’m assuming that unloading cattle is noisy.”
“It is. But you don’t have any fence down unless somebody cut what I just strung, in which case I’m going to be hot.”
“You’re already hot.” Ichabod’s eyes widened, and hischeeks went pink. “I mean, you’ve already got to be hot.” Ichabod was suddenly staring very hard at the fence.
“I am pretty warm.” And pretty tickled, but he wasn’t going to say that part out loud. “Well, there’s a couple of options that we got here, one of which is they let them go on the road close to the house, and they smelled feed or water and headed this direction. It could be that someone dropped them off and was being really stealthy, which seems ridiculous.”
“Well, I don’t think they have any brands. I mean, I’m assuming the hair doesn’t grow over the brands.”
