Read Online Adrienne deWolfe - [Wild Texas Nights 03] by Texas Wildcat - Free Book Online

for?"
    "That's right."
    A big, cheesy grin split Hank's face at this revelation. "Hell, then I say you sheepherders sign up Miss Bailey right away."
    Eldridge's lips tightened in a thin line. "You can't tell us who to put on our team," he snapped at Hank.
    Then Eldridge turned to her, and his iron-gray eyebrows plunged. "Your pa would be rolling in his grave, young woman. If you had a lick of sense, you'd be mending the fences you lost the other night, not bribing your way into our rodeo."
    A ripple of applause wound through the Woolgrowers' ranks.
    "You mean my rodeo, don't you?" she flung back.
    The cowboys snickered.
    "Bailey."
    It was Zack's voice, strained with frustration. Or was that concern? She couldn't tell, since as usual, he was frowning when he addressed her.
    "I know how much you want to be on the sheepherders' team. But President Eldridge has a point. In the face of your recent business losses, it doesn't make good sense to put up that kind of prize money, especially if you have to lease your land. If this drought goes on through the summer, the old Sherridan spring may be all that stands between your flocks and disaster."
    "That's why I have windmills, Zack," she retorted, reluctant to admit even to herself that the risk of disaster could possibly exist. "While your concern for my wellbeing is appreciated, gentlemen," she continued, addressing the upturned faces and their condescending smirks, "frankly, it's unnecessary. I intend to bag that cougar myself."
    At that jibe, hoots and whistles circled both sides. Zack shook his head, banging his gavel again.
    "All right, that's enough." He nodded at her, indicating she should take her seat. "Let's get on with the business at hand. You sheepherders can settle your differences in some other meeting. If Bailey's hell-bent on putting up five hundred dollars as incentive for us to bag One Toe, that's her prerogative. Putting her on the sheepherders' team roster is the sheepherders' prerogative. Neither of these things has anything to do with our business tonight, which is to finalize the rodeo events. I need a motion to make the cougar hunt a team competition, beginning July fifth and continuing until One Toe's hide is produced."
    Bailey battled panic as Zack neatly foiled her plan. She couldn't let the discussion about the team rosters die now. Without the cattlemen to rally around her, the Woolgrowers' Association would never let her compete. If she didn't compete, she'd never be able to prove she was every inch the equal of these men!
    Ignoring the warning bells in her head, she did the only thing left to do. She dragged Zack back into the fray.
    "You seem awfully eager to end this discussion, Mr. Cattlemen's President. What's the matter? You scared I might get on the team and you'll have to compete against me?"
    A rumble, half amusement, half discontent, reverberated through the room. Bailey was treated to the full force of Zack's smoking stare.
    "Come again?"
    "The way I see it"—she hoped he couldn't see the red burn creeping up her cheeks—"Nick's the cattlemen's best bronc buster. Hank's already pointed out Red Calloway is the best marksman on the team. As for fence building, you have less than a mile of barbed wire on your range, and that's only to form the livestock pens near your barn. Without steer roping and bull riding on the agenda, your only real chance at winning one of these events is herding. And that's the competition I plan to win."
    She heard her foreman's soft intake of breath, but she couldn't let Mac's disapproval sway her. She'd come too far to turn back now.
    Hank chuckled, looking immensely pleased with this newest wrench in the works. "Seems like Miss Bailey has a point, boys." He raised his eyebrows at Zack. "'Course, I reckon you could always back out, son, claiming that re-election campaign of yours is keeping you too busy to rodeo."
    The twins took their cue.
    "Hell, you ain't gonna do that, are you, Zack?" Nat called. "She's gone and