Wyatt turned to Ellie. “Turtle made dinner tonight. Said he cooked on a ranch as a kid.” Wyatt smiled. “It wasn’t half bad. Not as good as your cooking, ma’am, but not half bad.”

Ellie returned the smile. “I’m grateful for the help.” While the men finished talking, Ellie went on up to the house. Turtle had left food on the stove, the last of a pot of stew, but Ellie was too tired to eat.

Something was bothering her about all of this. Shooting a couple of steers? Maybe a guy who got fired would be angry enough to go that far. Shooting Kade’s dog was definitely personal. But setting off a bomb in a mine? Shooting one of the ranch hands? Why would a guy go that far? If the shooter was Keller, it had to be more than just getting back at Kade for firing him.

The question stayed with her as she showered and got ready for bed. She needed to talk to Kade, see if there was something else he could tell her, maybe something he had forgotten.

She brushed out her hair, pulled on a soft fleece robe, and headed barefoot down the hall to his study. There was no light beneath the door. He had probably gone up to bed.

She thought of the day they had spent, the ease with which they had worked together. She thought of the way her gaze kept drifting over him, the wide shoulders and long legs, the way he sat his horse, as if he and the buckskin were one inseparable being.

She thought of the competent way his big hands held the reins, imagined how they would feel skimming over her body. In scuffed boots, a long canvas slicker, and a battered cowboy hat, he looked as if he’d walked off the set of a western movie. The chaps he occasionally wore outlined the masculine bulge at the front of his jeans and made her feel hot all over.

Several times during the day, she had noticed him watching her the way she’d been watching him. She hadn’t missed the heat in those golden-brown eyes.

Ellie shook off the notion. She couldn’t risk getting involved with Kade. She didn’t trust men in general, especially not one who undoubtedly had left a string of broken hearts in his wake.

She looked down at her fleecy robe. She wasn’t dressed for seduction. She just needed to talk to the man.

Renewing her resolve, Ellie climbed the stairs and knocked on Kade’s bedroom door. When he abruptly pulled it open, she stumbled forward into his arms.