“No Chad.” Jessie’s voice was more commanding now. “You’ve done enough for one night. Go sleep it off. You’re drunk!”

“You know what…I don’t think so.” Chad reached down to grab Jessie, but before he could, the flat end of a scoop shovel hit him squarely in the face with tremendous force, sounding very much like a cast iron fry pan being dropped on a hardwood floor. Chad flipped over like a rag doll, landing hard on his back. He found himself senseless, but conscious, and through slightly blurred vision, he recognized the form of Henry McBride standing over him, holding the shovel and smiling down at him.

“Well Chuck,” Henry said. He held the shovel in front of Chad’s face, “that’s the other thing this can be used for.”

Chad did his best to get to his feet and try to make an ill-advised fight of it, but before he could get to a full sitting position Henry’s thunderous right fist crashed down squarely between Chad’s eyes and everything went black.

CHAPTER 23

Henry woke at his usual time the next morning, but found he was quite tired from the overall lack of sleep. After his encounter with Chad during the night, and acting on Jessie’s request, he had gone and found the keys to Chad’s pickup truck among the belongings Chad had packed and set at the foot of his bed the previous day. Henry drove the truck to where Chad still lay unconscious and with Jessie’s help, flopped him in the bed of the truck. He threw Chad’s saddle and bridle in next to him, then went to the bunkhouse, retrieved Chad’s belongings and tossed them on top of the saddle. With Jessie following in her truck, Henry then drove Chad and his belongings ten miles from the ranch and parked the vehicle on the side of the road. Jessie gave Henry a ride back to the ranch, relieved that she was finally rid of the man who had been a painful thorn in her side for over a year.

The way Jessie saw it, drunk or not, Chad’s behavior and actions that night had been completely unacceptable and were the last straw. She had unconsciously wanted him off the ranch almost since the season started, and as time went by that feeling had been creeping ever more into the forefront of her mind. Admittedly, it had taken a while, but eventually she had been able to see through Chad’s elaborate façade. Nonetheless, on a number of levels she felt more than a little used by him, and she had been upset with herself for a while now—not just for keeping him on at the ranch, but also for falling for him in the first place.

Jessie King was not a vindictive woman by nature, and she knew a good part of the blame rested on her shoulders for not looking out for herself better. Still, if the truth were known, more than just a small part of her was actually happy things ended with Chad the way they did. As far as she was concerned, he deserved nothing better than to wake up hungover, battered and bruised on the side of the road with the hot desert sun beating down on him.