Give Me Tonight(65)

"It's my water. I was here long before Big George Johnson and all the rest of them. Before the war started, 'bout twenty-five years ago. I couldn't get a town job, so I came out west and claimed the land on both sides of it—which means all the range around it is mine. It always has been. But folks like the Johnsons started movin' in, pushin' in the boundaries of my ranch, expectin' half the water rights, when the river was always mine to begin with."

"I've heard you started out as a mavericker," she said, and he chuckled.

"Nearly everyone got his start that way, with a run­nin' iron and a reata, Everyone did a little rustling, even the first sheriff of these parts. It was more re­spectable then. They didn't hold it against a man like they do now. But the price of cattle's gone up, and now a lot of folk think mavericking should be pun­ished same as horse stealin'."

"They say that Ben—"

"Yeah, he was a mavericker, Almost got himself strung up for it by a vigilante committee before I hired him.”

"Really?" Addie's eyes widened in fascination. "I don't remember that."

"You were away at the academy."

"What made you decide to off him a job?"

"Ben came ridin' up to the main house with a hot-­tempered crowd not ten minutes away, all of 'em bent on stretchin' his neck as soon as they caught up to him. I gave him two minutes to speak his piece. I'll bet he's never talked so fast before or since."

Addie grinned. "I wish I could have seen it. He must have been sweating bullets."

"Little cat. Don't you have any kindly feelin' for him a-tall?" Russell demanded, laughing richly.

"Yes, but he's always so in control of everything. I just like the idea of seeing him a little shaken up."

"He is every time you're around, punkin. I reckon you're the only woman who . . ." Russell stopped suddenly and looked at her as if a brand new idea had occurred to him. He opened his mouth and closed it, as if he wanted to ask something but didn't know how.

"What?" she prompted.

"Oh, nothin'." He shrugged with elaborate care­lessness. "Just wonderin' . . . what do you think about Ben, honey?"

Startled, she stared at him with a sagging jaw. He'd never had that particular gleam in his eye when men­tioning Ben to her before. Hurriedly she collected her­self. "I think he's a good foreman—"

"As a man. You ever think about him that way?"

She shook her head hastily. "Daddy, what a silly question. And don't you dare think about asking him what he thinks about me. There's absolutely no chance of that kind of feeling developing between us."

"Don't see why not. Less you don't like his looks?"

Addie turned even redder. "There's nothing wrong with his looks."

"Nice-mannered and smart too."

"Y—yes-"

"And he's the kind women take to."

"Yes, but . . . Daddy, stop this. I don't want to talk about him."

"S' all right with me. Just askin"." Russell ap­peared to be satisfied now that the subject had been brought to her attention. The music ended, and he walked her back to where they'd been standing before. Addie couldn't help noticing Jeff watching from sev­eral feet away, his eyes locked on her, catching her every movement and expression. Russell noticed too. "That Johnson boy's eyes are gonna fall outta his head," he remarked grimly.

Addie surprised him by laughing lightly. "He's the kind who never wants something badly until he knows for certain he can't have it."

"You still sweet on him?"

"I never was, in that way. He's never been anything but a friend to me."

"Then why the hell did you get so mad when I told you not to see him anymore?"

"Because I don't like to be ordered around, by you or anyone else."

Russell stood still and looked down at her, shaking his head and sighing with rueful pride. "Damned if you aren't me all over again. Don't see why you weren't born a boy."

Coming from him, that was a sizable compliment.

Addie smiled pertly. "I like being a woman just fine, thank you. And getting back to the subject of Jeff, when are you going to change your mind about letting me see him?"

His good mood evaporated. "When it's safe. Which might be a long time from now."

"Safe," she repeated slowly. "Do you suspect we're in some kind of danger from the Johnsons?"

"We are from everyone." He seemed to forget she was his daughter as he talked to her with the frankness of one man to another. "We always have been, always will be. Not one man here who doesn't hate our big profits, not one who wouldn't try to tap into them if he thought of a good way to do it. I fenced in what I own in order to keep what's mine. No one likes that. 'specially not the Double Bar. Until lately I hoped we'd be able to git along with the Johnsons. When you're as big as we are, 'f a man's not your friend, he's your enemy. But now they've made the choice, and it's gonna get a lot worse than this."

"You sound as if you're getting ready for war," Ad­die said, thinking of the danger that was in store for him. "I guess it's not a bad thing to be prepared. You're going to be careful, aren't you? I don't want anything to happen to you."