Shifting Calder Wind Read Free Page B

that’s the case, then somebody should be wondering where I am. They may already be trying to track me down.”
    “You mean someone other than the guy who tried to kill you,” Laredo inserted dryly.
    “Yes, he’s the wild card in the deck,” he murmured thoughtfully.
    “Something tells me he’s doing a little sweating about now, wondering whether you are dead or alive. It’s bound to be driving him crazy that you haven’t turned up anywhere yet.”
    “He could have cut and run.”
    “It’s possible, but not likely.”
    It was the certainty in Laredo’s voice that prompted him to challenge him. “Why not?”
    “Because he isn’t sure yet how scared he should run. He knows you were hit, and so far you haven’t surfaced, which has to make him think you died. If I were him, I would hang around just long enough to find out.”
    “It takes a man with cool nerve to do that.” And, he reflected, it said a lot about Laredo that he thought that way.
    “I think he already established the coolness of his nerve when he laid in wait for you. It was pure luck on your part that he didn’t succeed.” Laredo idly swirled the coffee in his mug. “It strikes me that you have two options. You can either stick close to the ranch and wait for your memory to come back—”
    “That could take days, weeks—even months,” he broke in, his voice sharp with impatience.
    “I had a feeling that’s the way you would react.” A small smile edged the corners of Laredo’s mouth. “At the same time, if you show up around the old Stockyards, asking questions and trying to find somebody who might recognize you, you would be tipping your hand—maybe even giving him another chance at you.”
    “I know,” he acknowledged grimly, aware he was between that proverbial rock and a hard place.
    “There’s another alternative,” Laredo said.
    “What’s that?” He studied the cowboy with a watchful eye.
    “I could do the asking.”
    “I thought you were supposed to be leaving soon. That’s what you said.”
    Laredo moved his shoulders in an indifferent shrug. “If I’m a few days late crossing the border, my friends won’t worry about me.”
    “I see.” Common sense told him that Laredo’s suggestion was a sound one, yet it grated on him that he would have no active part in it.
    “I know you hate the idea of sitting here and waiting, but it’s the most practical solution. By now others will have noticed you are missing and started asking questions. It wouldn’t arouse anybody’s suspicions if I nosed around, too.”
    “No, it wouldn’t,” he agreed. “But I can’t help wondering why you want to involve yourself in my problem.”
    “Curiosity, pure and simple,” Laredo replied. “I can’t help wondering who you are. Besides,” he added in jest, “I saved your life. The way I figure it that makes me responsible for you.”
    Hattie walked into the bedroom, saw Laredo sitting on the bed, and made a sharp pivot toward Duke. “What are you doing out of bed?”
    “Drinking coffee.”
    “You can finish that in bed.” She plucked the mug from his hand and set it on the dresser top before he could raise an objection.
    “I’ve laid in it long enough,” he protested.
    “I’ll be the judge of that,” Hattie informed him. “And I say this afternoon you rest. Tonight you can have supper at the table with us.”
    “Not me, Hattie,” Laredo inserted. “I won’t be here for supper.”
    “You’re leaving, then?” Her expression became shuttered to conceal her disappointment at the news.
    “Not permanently,” Laredo replied. “I’m going into Fort Worth and see if I can find anybody who remembers Duke.”
    “You’ll be careful, won’t you?” she asked in all seriousness.
    “I always am.” He matched her tone and look.

Chapter Two
    L ightning raced in jagged streaks from the black clouds. On the heels of it, thunder boomed and rolled across the plains of eastern Montana as the rain fell in sheets,