“Pretty sure you do.”
“I’ll just find my way.” He may have saved her life, but he was still a stranger. “If you're expecting payment, you'll have to wait. Give me your postal instructions and I'll have money sent when I can. I’m good for it.”
He blinked at her, eyebrows knotting under the shade of his hat’s brim. The man frowned and shook his head slowly.
“Miss… this here is Dawn Ridge. The caravan comes though about twice a season and the wild’s not safe if you aren’t armed.” He sounded exasperated, like she’d done something wrong by refusing him.
“Well, I’ll just…” she bit her lip and looked around again at the small road. She hadn’t heard of Dawn Ridge, but it couldn’t have been far from the town, much bigger than this one, where she’d finally found one of the hideouts Zey and his men used, her brother among them. She hadn’t been in the back of the wagon that long on the way up to where Zey's men dumped her, a few hours at most. If she set off down the cart-road, surely she’d reach somewhere else eventually. That was what roads did, anyways, her mind babbled. Connected one spot to another.
“You’ll come back to the ranch, get a hot meal and some rest. After that I can bring you back here if you’re still determined,” he insisted firmly. The man was practically glaring at her. He folded his muscular arms over his chest, his legs shoulder-width apart and shapeless beneath his thick leather trousers.
She was never going to be free of the debt she owed him, not if she accepted evenmorehelp from him. And she was probably never going to see her brother again. And she didn’t even know where she was on a map. It had been a very long week. She was about two bad thoughts from bursting into tears, and her rescuer was a little intimidating. Why was hesointent on her leaving in a cart with him?
“I’ll find my own way. Always have,” Cassia told him stubbornly.
He sighed and rubbed his face, then frowned down at her again.
“No, miss. I can’t let you wander off like that. Stay put.”
She fretted the whole five minutes it took for him to catch the bull, guide it to the cart, hitch it up, and lead the creature—tack jingling and cartwheels squeaking—up in front of her. Should she run back inside the clinic? But Evelya had spoken well of the man, and hehadsaved Cassia. She really had no other options, even as little as she liked being cornered by a stranger. She was completely lost in the world and without any resources except a small pouch of borrowed coins.
She eyed the bull, who eyed her back before snorting a puff of smoke, his wide nostrils brightening with internal fire. Cassia gulped. Her short time in Zhavek wasn’t enough to make her comfortable with the beasts.
The back of the cart looked like storage, not seating; it was cluttered with equipment she could only assume had some purpose in ranching. The only other place to sit was the long wooden driver’s bench where the man lounged, his legs wide. It was high off the ground, but a wooden side-step on the edge of the cart provided a foothold.
She hesitated again, wavering, knowing she had no good alternative but still fighting the cardsshe’d been dealt.
“My mama said not to take rides from strangers,” she informed him when he patted the seat beside him, reins and whip gathered in the other hand. The man only nodded sternly instead of laughing.
“Smart,” he told her. “Name’s Aevrin, Aevrin Riveker. And there’s another woman at the ranch, if that’s what’s making you nervous. It’s my gramma’s place.”
Somehow thatdidput her nerves at ease, even though she was well aware he could be lying.
“I guess I don’t have anywhere else,” she admitted, taking a step towards the cart. “But, your home? I couldn’t…”
The man turned his eyes up to the cloudless blue sky, as if begging Saint Meldran for patience, and shook his head.
“Look. I’m trying to do right, but I’m running on about thirty minutes of cat naps and I’m all out of awake. Please, would you stop fussing and get in the cart?” he snapped.
Maybe he was trouble, maybe he wasn’t. She was already in over her head either way. With a sigh of resignation, Cassia reached for the cart’s side and hauled her aching body up onto the seat beside her rescuer.
Aevrin
Theydrovebetweentheclose-clustered buildings that made up Dawn Ridge town. Then the buildings abruptly stopped. The road became thinner, more overgrown, tufts of clover and nettle sprouting in the middle where the cartwheels didn’t roll. The wild of the canyon spread before them.
Out this way was nothing but the three ranches that shared Dawn Ridge’s acreage. Patches of burnt growth lay along wide swathes of tough greens, squat cacti, and wildflowers. The fire nettles out here liked to burn; it made them edible for the cattle, which in turn spread the plants’ seeds. The ground never looked dead long, no matter how many cattle had come through. The stuff grew fast. Burned fast, too. Just now he could see tufts of smoke and steam rising from the burns recent rains had extinguished. Quick-blooming wildflowers rippled in the wind, colorful and tall after the storm that had passed through while Cassia slept.
Exhausted after a sleepless night, Aevrin kept his eyes peeled on the empty road. Even with the rancher’s dragons patrolling their land plenty of pesky beasts still came to prey on the armored cattle and on the unwary humans that made even easier targets. It would take twenty minutes to reach his family’s house, which sat on the near end of their land. Theirs was the furthest ranch that still claimed the name of Dawn Ridge.
He was painfully aware of the silent woman next to him. He could see she was a beauty, but right now with the bruises and ill-fitting clothes she just looked uncomfortable. He couldn’t get the memory of finding her out of his head, that first horrible moment when the torch light passed over her body, and he hadn’t known whether she still lived. Ranching was dangerous work, but he wasn’t used to seeing hurts inflicted by another person.
And he had no doubt somebody had hurt her. Somebody nearby. Sure, a bad fall could kill you, but there was something deliberate about her wounds.
Evelya and sheriff Boone had both told him the girl refused to speak. How the hell was Aevrin supposed to get any sleep, knowing someone had brutalized her inhismountains? And what about his gramma, the women in town? His sister Ash when she came home? Weretheyin danger? It was a pretty remote area.
And she wasn’t local. He knew everyone in Dawn Ridge.
A rustler’s woman. She had to be. Did she know where his missing cattle were?
