[Texas Rangers 03] - The Way of the Coyote Read Online Free Page B

had done it.
    "In the scatteration after the raid, they couldn't find Andy. Tonkawa Killer told them he had seen the kid turn coward and run away. When Andy showed up with me at the Comanche camp he made Tonkawa Killer out a liar. You never saw a madder Indian. Andy had no choice but to put an arrow in him. Now he's got Comanche blood on his hands. It's like he's been orphaned a second time."
    James listened soberly. "He'll feel better after Mother Clemmie fills him up with hot vittles and fresh milk."
    "It'll take more than good cookin'. What he really needs is family."
    "You can play big brother to him."
    "I'll try, but I'm not sure how. I never had a brother before."
    James said, "I did." Bitterness pinched his eyes. "The rebels took him away from me."
    "Those that did it are gone now."
    "Into the hottest fires of hell I hope. I'd be willin' to go there myself if I could get at them again. I'd keep pokin' them with the devil's pitchfork til I knew they were well done."
    "Don't rush it any. We'll all get there soon enough. I want to stay around awhile and see what happens to Texas."
     
    * * *
     
    One of James's younger sisters opened the corral gates, then moved back toward the main log house to avoid spooking the cattle with her long skirt that flared in the wind. They balked anyway, suspicious of the opening. A brown dog came running through the corral, barking, and almost spilled them all. James shouted at him to go back, and the dog retreated. A young heifer saw him as a wolf and instinctively chased him. The rest of the cattle followed her into the corral. Evan Gifford closed the gate before they realized they were trapped. They milled around the fence, stirring dust, slamming against the logs and looking in vain for a way out. From a safe vantage point, the dog kept barking. The heifer hooked at the fence, trying to reach him.
    James growled, "I've got half a mind to kill me a dog. He ain't worth two bits Confederate."
    Vince Purdy warned, "If you hurt that dog, Clemmie and the girls will burn the beans for a month."
    Rusty's gaze followed Evan Gifford as Evan tied his horse and strode toward an older, smaller log cabin where Geneva waited in the roofed-over dog run between the structure's two sections, holding a baby in her arms. Envy touched him as the couple embraced. The emotion was futile, but he could not help it.
    She ought to've been mine, he thought darkly. That baby ought to've been mine.
    It would be easy to resent Evan, but he could blame no one. Duty had called upon him to neglect Geneva in favor of his ranger service. Duty had called upon her to tend a badly wounded soldier. Nature had ordained the result.
    The girl who had opened the gate started back now that it was closed. She walked at first, then picked up her stride. She called, "Rusty? Is that really you?"
    He felt buoyed by the sight of her. Her smile was like sunshine breaking through a cloud. "It's me, Josie."
    She seemed unsure whether to laugh or cry. "I couldn't tell for certain, all those whiskers." A tear rolled down a smooth cheek spotted with tiny freckles. She reached up and gripped his left hand in both of her own. "We'd begun worryin' you wasn't comin' back."
    "For a time, it looked that way to me, too." He found himself compelled to stare at her. Josie was looking more and more like her older sister Geneva, the same bright eyes, the same tilt of her chin.
    She glanced toward Andy, riding beside her grandfather. "You brought him back." It was less a statement than a veiled question.
    "Things didn't work out for him."
    "I'm sorry, and then again I'm not. He's probably better off."
    "It's hard to convince him of that."
    She asked hopefully. "You stayin' with us awhile?"
    "Long enough to rest the horses." He rubbed his face. "And to shave my whiskers. I feel like a bear fresh out of its winter cave."
    "You look fine to me. You always look fine to me."
    Rusty's face warmed. Josie had a forward manner that disturbed him even as he