Page 82 of Ransom
"Bring him back in one piece, Ranger."
"Yes, sir."
"That wasn't a request."
"No, sir. I heard you."
Ransom came in last, hat back on his head, and dropped into the chair beside me. He picked up his fork. He didn't look at me.
"Five o'clock," he said. "I'm driving."
"Yes, sir."
He narrowed his eyes at me. "Don't start."
We finished dinner. Or they did. I pushed the Frito pie around my plate and waited for the meal to be over. The boys cleared their own places, stacked them on the counter without being told. Sierra accepted the help with grunts that meant he was still mad, but it wasn't their fault. Rafe retreated to his office.
After, I followed Ransom out to the barn.
"Saddle up, Ranger."
"I thought we said tomorrow."
"We did. Saddle up."
I didn't ask where we were going and saddled Faye.
Ransom worked Galahad on the other side of the rail. The horse stood for him without fussing, which I'd seen Galahad refuse to do for two of the ranch hands and one of the vets in the few days I'd been there. The big bay let Ransom tighten a girth that any other horse on the property would have argued about. They had an arrangement, those two.
"He bite you yet?" Ransom said without looking up.
"Faye? She's an angel."
"I meant Galahad."
"I haven't gotten close enough."
"Smart."
We led the horses out into the yard and mounted up.
"Where we going?"
"Up."
He clicked his tongue at Galahad, and the horse moved out. Faye fell in behind without me having to ask her to.
The track climbed through caliche, then dirt. Galahad knew the way and Ransom didn't have to do anything to him. Faye didn't either. The horses walked single file, hooves clean against the dry caliche.
After fifteen minutes, Ransom reined Galahad up on a flat shelf of rock at the top of a rise. He swung down, and I swung down after him.
The night was warm and dry, the air full of sage and dust and something animal that had passed through earlier in the day. The sky overhead was black, deep enough that the Milky Way ran right up the middle of it.
Ransom let Galahad's reins fall. Faye dropped her head and started cropping at something I couldn't see in the dark. Galahad didn't move.
"He won't wander?"
"Not without me."
