When Roses Collide

Chapter One

That was seven years ago and he'd been working here ever since. Not only did Travis keep him from a future of jail cells, or worse, but he taught him how to be a man. A real man, not a puffed out cock trying to impress the hen house and for that, Brady would be eternally grateful. Not many street kids got the chance to live their lives out playing cowboy on one of the greatest spreads on the planet. He sometimes still needed to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Yup, Brady considered himself pretty damn lucky indeed and he smiled as he looked out at the endless rolling fields of green.

"Your saddle tickling your ass or is there a reason you're grinning like a damn buffoon?" Travis growled. Brady burst out laughing, but quickly stifled it when his boss sent him a rather prickly glare.

"Sorry boss, just enjoying the day." Brady pulled his hat further down hiding his grin, but failed miserably. Travis snorted and rolled his eyes.

"I would be enjoying it a lot more if you kept your eyes peeled on the fence and stopped daydreaming," Travis snapped. "Sometimes I swear I'm depriving some poor village of its idiot." He cocked a disapproving eyebrow at his most trusted ranch hand.

Out of the 20 something cowboys working at the DR, Brady managed to quickly rise in the bunch, until he'd become Travis's second. Hell, he had a little soft spot for the runt he picked up off the streets like a stray. Although all his men were good at what they did and loyal to the bone, Brady was the one Travis could turn to when needed to go above and beyond the normal ranching duties. Ever since he took the kid in, Travis was impressed with his eagerness to learn. A lump of clay willing to be taught and molded into the ranch hand he was now.

Seasoned men were always handy to have, no doubt about it, but each one came with his own ways of doing things which a lot of times, butted heads with the way Travis liked to get things done. Sometimes, those conflicts weren't easily solved and so those hands either learned the ways of it, or they hit the road. Either way, it was a complication he didn't have the patience to deal with. He was not a man who liked to repeat himself and he certainly didn't appreciate having his authority questioned.

Having trained Brady himself, the guy was the least inclined to irritate him and so he got the good fortune or misfortune, however you chose to look at it, of being his right hand man. You could even say through the years they had become friends, of sorts. Travis snorted to himself. But that didn't mean Travis cut him any slack. It wasn't his style to be a candy ass for anyone. "Doug says we're missing three heifers. Two with calves, one without and they must have come this way."

"I probably know which rotten heifer lead them astray. She's meaner than a junkyard dog with fourteen puppies when she's got a calf at her side." Brady's looks of annoyance on his face as he continued to curse the troublesome cow, almost made Travis crack a smile. Almost. "I've never met a harder headed stubborn piece of..."

"Good, then you can be the one to rope her and haul her ass back with you, since you two have such a great bond going," Travis interrupted Brady's tirade. The dismay on his face at the thought of having to wrestle the obstinate cow all the way back to the corrals, made Travis chuckle.

"Oh, now you're in a good mood? Anyone ever tell you you're a miserable SOB?"

"Every damn day of my life." Travis gave a harsh laugh and spurred his mount into a trot.

After another few hours of searching, neither cowboy was in a very jovial mood. They rode miles upon miles of fence, only to turn up nothing. Travis flagged a few sections needing some new cedar posts and maybe a few wires here and there that needed tightening, but he saw nothing which would allow the cows to escape.

"I don't understand it, Trav, it's like they just disappeared. This fence isn't in bad shape and none of it looks broken or flattened down." Brady pulled up his mount next to his boss as he handed him a canteen. "I can't believe that walking all beef patty would have come this far." Just as Brady spoke, the slight breeze they'd been enjoying for the last half hour, changed directions and brought music to their ears. Country music if he wasn't mistaken. But, at this distance, it was difficult to tell. "Do you hear that?"