Montana Red. Genell Dellin

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СКАЧАТЬ got behind it, the truck moved smoothly out into her—no, his yard.

      Buck steered, holding the door open with his foot. Debris scattered everywhere and a large piece of shiny metal fell and bounced away into the grass when Buck put on the brake.

      Dear God. This was going to take every penny she had saved. She might as well drive into Pine Lodge tomorrow and apply for a job at a McDonald’s restaurant. If they even had a McDonald’s. There must a café or two, at least. Could she learn to carry a heavy tray above her head on one hand?

      Buck got out, closed the door and started up the little slope toward her. Jake went back to the trailer, picked up his paper sack of belongings from the ground, and he and Teddy followed Buck. Jake’s face, what she could see of it from under the brim of his hat, struck her as incredible. Heart-stopping.

      Would he let her get some more pictures of him? No. She didn’t know him, but she could not imagine him willingly posing for a photographer.

      She reached down, turned the key and looked at the protruding gooseneck of his trailer again. She’d better keep her mind on her business.

      She looked for Ariel. Thank goodness, now she was nowhere to be seen.

      Clea made herself draw in a deep, calming breath. Her insides were still a little shaky from all the havoc of the morning but now that was over. It had just been a terrible shock when she’d seen the snake and then three men rolling up into her yard with a trailer. Men who could easily have been sent by Brock to take Ariel back.

      They hadn’t come for that at all. Brock still didn’t know where she was. She’d take these men to their cabin, find out where hers was, then come back and load up. She’d be settled again by tonight. Everything would work out all right.

      Buck opened the door behind her. “All right, Miss Clea,” he said. “Yore way is clear. Let’s you and me run off and leave them two sorry so-and-so’s.”

      He kept chattering away as he climbed in, as if they’d known each other for years. Clea had the sudden thought that she might’ve wrecked the only vehicle they had. What if she had to drive them everywhere they wanted to go until their truck was fixed?

      Montana was turning out not to be quite as solitary as she’d expected.

      Jake glanced back at his trailer as he walked up to Clea’s truck. It wouldn’t be easy to get past it without messing up one or the other or both, and one wrecked new vehicle was enough for one day. What a waste!

      Natural Bands might have deep pockets and probably had good insurance but he wasn’t going to enjoy trying to explain to Celeste how this had happened.

      He opened the passenger door as Teddy got in the back.

      “I’ll drive,” Jake said.

      Clea gave him a disdainful look. “Why should you?”

      “In case you can’t drive any better than you can shoot.”

      Her eyes narrowed. “Get in.”

      “That trailer’s the only one we’ve got,” he said. “And you panicked.”

      She sat up straighter and glared. “If you want a ride, get in. If not, shut the door.”

      He held the stare, trying to intimidate her, but she wouldn’t give in or look away. Her eyes were blue, instead of brown like Victoria’s, but they were just as sure and hard as Tori’s had been when he tried to talk her out of leaving him.

      Yep, here was another woman too stubborn for her own good. Too stubborn to have good sense. Why was that the only kind of woman who ever crossed his path?

      He couldn’t by rights throw her bodily out of the seat, therefore he ought to stay on the ground to direct her, at least until she got around the trailer.

      But that’d be a good way to get killed, judging by the way she was looking at him now. So, damn it, let her prove what she could do if she thought she was such a hand.

      He moved her fancy piece of luggage—one of those with letters and little French symbols printed all over it—to the floor, set his paper sack on top of it and got in.

      Clea put the truck in Reverse and her eyes on the mirror, released the brake and started rolling back the rig.

      “You can do it,” Teddy said from his seat behind Jake. “Just take ‘er slow and steady.”

      “You bet,” Buck said. “We’ll spot you. You git around that gooseneck, you got’er made.”

      “You’re all right,” Teddy said, looking out the back window. “Jist do what we tell you now.”

      Clea didn’t take her eyes off the mirror but she pulled in a deep breath and lifted her chin. The way her hair moved when she did that—so smooth and sleek and shiny, falling back from her perfect face—reminded him of Victoria again, although Tori’s hair was dark. Maybe that was why Clea’d irritated him from the get-go—besides shooting the hell out of his truck, she was a spoiled rich girl.

      Jake stared out the window and tried to ignore her. The old guys would direct her. He’d just sit here and be ready to grab the wheel if she got in a jam.

      “You’re all right,” Teddy said. “Just keep on comin’.”

      She was moving at about an inch per hour.

      “Cowgirl up,” Buck said. “Don’t let nothin’ git you down on the day you killed your first truck.”

      She jerked the wheel. The trailer jerked, too. She got it back.

      “Thanks a lot, Buck,” she said through clenched teeth.

      The old guys laughed. Jake shook his head. They’d probably rattle on until they unnerved her completely.

      Then she pressed the accelerator and backed a little faster. Another second or two and she could crash into the gooseneck.

      “Want me to unhook you?” Jake asked.

      “I’ve backed a trailer before,” she snapped.

      “Once,” he muttered, under his breath.

      Spoiled rotten, determined to do whatever she wanted whether she knew how or not. Wouldn’t listen to reason. He hated that.

      She sped up a little more but she was still just creeping. In spite of that caution, her trailer seemed to be going in a more and more crooked path.

      “There you go,” Buck said. “You’re nearly to the hard part. Come on, now.”

      Clea clenched her jaw even harder and pressed down on the gas a little more. Jake kept his eyes on the outside rear-view mirror.

      Buck muttered, “Go for it.”

      “Watch it,” Teddy said. “Crank ‘er to the right, just a hair.”

      “No, she’s okay that way,” Buck said. “Send ‘er toward the house, Clea, and then hold ‘er there. Straight back.”

      “You СКАЧАТЬ