“She always has,” Aaron agreed. He looked at Elizabeth and then at the tall man beside her. He gingerly dabbed at the cut on his cheekbone with his finger. Some of the frustration ebbed from his face as he said to Asa, “I assume that’s a trait you’ll be working on?”
“I’ve about got it under control,” Asa answered with irritating confidence.
Elizabeth jerked on her hand. “I’m not deaf and dumb, gentlemen.”
Asa didn’t let go, but his “Of course not, darlin’,” was immediate enough to set her teeth on edge. The approving look Aaron gave him finished the job. What was it about men that drove them into an instant fraternity when they had a chance to gang up on a woman? Three minutes ago, Asa and Aaron were looking to kill each other, and, now, they couldn’t be more united than if they were brothers.
“You know,” Cougar broke in, his tone thoughtful, the cigarette between his lips bobbing like an exclamation point on every syllable. “If I’m remembering correctly, the trouble on the Rocking C started about the time Jimmy hired on.”
Aaron looked to Asa for confirmation. He nodded.
“From the books, that looks about right.”
“Jimmy might be our man, then.”
“Or not,” Elizabeth interjected before the idea could gain more momentum. “As much as I hate Jimmy, I just can’t see him masterminding a plan as complex as this one.”
“The man knows cows and the way a ranch works.” Asa shrugged. “Wouldn’t need much more than that.”
“But why?” she asked. “What did he hope to gain?”
Asa squeezed her hand. “The Rocking C.”
“And you,” Aaron added grimly.
“Pretty sweet reward for a year of easy pickings,” Cougar agreed.
Elizabeth remembered Jimmy’s constant pawing. Outright disrespect. Not a moment of his attention had been spent trying to get her to see him as her savior. Just the opposite, as a matter of fact. She said as much. She might as well have saved her breath.
“Never said the man was good at courting,” Asa countered.
“Jimmy was probably as ham-handed at that as he was at breaking horses,” Cougar agreed.
Aaron pinned her with a glare. “One of these days, you’re going to have to explain to me just how ham-handed a beau he was.”
Not while she was breathing, Elizabeth thought. All she needed was for Aaron to go looking for Jimmy and have Jimmy find out about it and shoot him in the back. Meanwhile, Cougar’s comment played on her memory. The plan to drive the Rocking C under was well-orchestrated, requiring finesse. The same sort of finesse required in courting.
“Brent was excellent at courting,” she observed aloud.
Her observation landed in the silence with the startling impact of glass shattering.
All three men stared at her like she’d lost her mind. Asa was the first to speak. “You can’t be seriously thinking that little pissant had anything to do with this.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “I think the chance bears investigating.”
“No offense, ma’am,” Cougar offered, “but your first husband didn’t have enough meat on his bones to toss a day-old calf.”
“It doesn’t take muscle to drive a ranch into bankruptcy,” she pointed out. Her observation fell on deaf ears.
“You may want to get back at the gambler,” Aaron reasoned, “but I met the man, Elizabeth. He was a spineless wimp.”
“My point exactly,” she agreed. “Just the type to lurk behind the scenes and take advantage of innocent women.”
“If that were the case,” Asa asked, “how come he didn’t kick up more of a fuss when you threw him over?”
“Yeah,” Aaron challenged. “He could have tied things up for years in court, rendering anything Asa tried to do useless.”
She didn’t have an answer for either of them. “I don’t know,” she admitted.
“Trust us on this one, Elizabeth,” Aaron said, reaching for his hat from the floor. “Jimmy had the knowledge and motive for driving the Rocking C under.”
“Brent just doesn’t have a motive that we can identify right now,” Elizabeth cut in.
“None that can be identified at all,” Asa countered.
Elizabeth yanked her hand free of Asa’s. She knew she was right, but without facts, she didn’t stand a prayer of busting through all that male self-importance.
“Anybody up for checking in town to see if anyone’s noticed Jimmy hanging about?” Cougar asked, rolling to his feet with an easy movement that drew the eye. He was, Elizabeth realized as he took the cigarette out of his mouth, a very masculine, very good-looking man in his prime.
“Good plan,” Asa agreed with a growl. Elizabeth glanced up and saw his gaze had followed hers. She bit back a smile.
“And soon,” Aaron cut in as he settled the brim of his Stetson to the proper angle on his head.
Asa waved Cougar ahead of him as he headed for the back door where his own hat was kept. “Yeah. There isn’t much time and, with bullets flying, I’m not sure how safe it is for the ranch hands.”