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.Buck would return and take her to town.By the time he and the men came in for supper, she would be gone.So what was his problem? He knew it was the idea of leaving her alone even for a few hours.Who knew what kind of trouble she could get into?He glanced around, feeling as if someone was watching him.He knew he couldn’t be seen through the pines from the cabin.Reggie would probably still be doing the dishes anyway.Taking another glance around, seeing no one, he entered the tent.The cowhands should all be out rounding up cattle, trying to keep each other in sight.So no one could sneak back for any reason, right?He knew what was nagging at him.Luke Adams.He was surprised that the cowhand would leave in the middle of the night without a word.Especially if Luke was the person Reggie had been whispering to out in the woods.Luke’s disappearance on top of the disabled truck left him feeling all the more uneasy.He’d already checked and knew Luke’s gear was gone.But still he wanted to have a look around the tent.He checked each man’s gear but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.He straightened, hitting his shoulder on the tent frame.He thought he heard a sound, a soft rustle, like something shifting over his head.He looked up and noticed something odd—an object had been stuck between the layers of canvas in the frame.He wouldn’t have noticed it at all if he hadn’t hit his shoulder and dislodged it.He reached up and sliding his hand into the space touched cold metal.His heart leaped to his throat as he pulled out the 9 mm pistol.J.T.knew that each man had a rifle or pistol on him when he was gathering cattle.Sometimes a man had to put down an injured cow.Or scare off a bear or mountain lion.Even put down a horse with a broken leg.His camp rule, which he was sure Buck had shared with the men, was no alcohol.And no firearms in the tent or cabin.He’d heard too many stories from his father and grandfather about cowhands getting drunk and having shootouts in the middle of cow camp.So why had one of the cowhands hidden a gun in the tent? As he stared at the gun he wondered not only who it belonged to but also what the owner was planning to do with it.Sticking the pistol into his coat pocket, he stepped from the tent, glanced around and saw no one, then went to his own tent and hid the pistol beneath his cot for the time being.As he exited his tent and started toward his horse, he heard a noise come from the cabin.He told himself he was just imagining the banging sound, looking for an excuse to go back to the cabin and Reggie.As he looked toward the cabin, he realized he half-expected to see it on fire.It was that damned night mare he’d had last night.Through the trees he could see a portion of the building and the only smoke rising out of it was through the chimney.But the memory of the night mare coupled with everything else left him anxious.The banging sound seemed to be getting louder.He stared at the cabin, telling himself not to go back there.He had six hundred head of cattle to get out of these mountains before the snow hit and the sooner the better, all things considered.But it was impossible to ignore this much racket.And there was no doubt that the incessant banging was coming from the cabin.He shook his head and headed toward the sound.What in the devil was she up to now?REGINA HAD RUSHED to the kitchen, grabbed the largest pan she could find and a good-sized spoon.Out on the porch, she heard the creak of a floorboard groan under the weight of the bear.It was on the porch!She began to pound the bottom of the pan with the spoon like a mad woman.To her horror, the earsplitting banging didn’t seem to phase the bear.She beat the pan harder and realized she would have to open the door.Obviously, the bear couldn’t hear it well enough.Hadn’t she read somewhere that bears ate people in Montana? Grizzly bears.Was this a grizzly? Probably, with her luck.From the size of the bear, it looked as if it could get into the cabin without any problem and she had no doubt that it would break in if she didn’t scare it away.She beat the pan as hard as she could, her heart pounding louder than the spoon on the bottom of the pan.Moving quietly to the door, she opened it a crack and looked out.She couldn’t see its shadow on the porch anymore.Maybe she’d chased it off.She stepped farther out on the porch.No sign of the bear but she kept beating the pan just in case as she inched along the porch to the side of the cabin.The bear reared up in surprise to see her.Not half as surprised as she was to see it.She turned and ran, afraid to slow down to make the ninety-degree turn back into the cabin let alone to get the door closed and locked before the bear burst into the cabin.Her feet barely touched the porch as she flew across it expecting to feel the bear’s breath on her neck any moment.Climb a tree! She was looking for a tree she could climb, pounding the pan as hard as she could as she ran, afraid to look back—Something clawed at her shoulder with enough force to spin her around.She shrieked, and instinctively closed her eyes and swung the pan.She heard the pan thump off something solid and swung again.J.T.LET OUT AN OATH and grabbed for her, but she nailed him again with the pan, knocking his hat into the dust.“Dammit, Reggie! What in the hell is wrong with you?”She opened her eyes.They were bigger and bluer than ever in her pale, frightened face.“I thought—” She seemed to be trying to catch her breath, her substantial chest moving up and down with the effort.He rubbed the knot rising on his forehead with one hand and leaned down to pick up his hat from the dirt with the other.“Are you nuts?”She grimaced as her gaze went to his bruised forehead.“Sorry.”“Yeah.” He gingerly settled his hat back on his head and took the pan and spoon from her.The woman had beat huge craters into the bottom of the aluminum pan.He frowned at her.“Why in the world were you—”“Buck told me to do it.”He eyed her.“Are you sure you got the directions right? What exactly were you trying to cook?”She mugged an unamused face at him and stepped around him to point back toward the cabin.“I was trying to scare the bear away.”He turned.“What bear?”“It must have gone into the cabin.”He shot her a disbelieving look.“You’re sure it was a bear?”“I know a bear when I see one.I think it’s a grizzly.”He nodded, skeptical on all counts.“Come on,” he said impatiently as he started toward the cabin.At the porch, Reggie hung back.He shook his head as he crossed the porch.The woman was going to be the death of him.As he peered around the doorjamb, he was relieved to see that there was no bear in the cabin but he heard something around the corner.Moving to the end of the porch, he looked around the corner and spotted a small black bear rummaging in something along the side of the cabin.He turned to find Reggie had joined him, hiding behind him for protection.“Buck told you to bang on a pan if you saw a bear?” he asked incredulously.He hated to think what she’d have done if he’d given her a real weapon.“It’s a grizzly, isn’t it,” she whispered
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