Running Blind by Linda Howard

out to the ranch every day? Assuming I wanted to work for him anyway, which I don’t, me being a stray and all. We strays don’t like to work hard.” She curled her lip at him to let him know exactly how much she appreciated his choice of words, which was zero, zip, nada.
    But Kat shook her head. “It’s a long drive, at least an hour, that you don’t want to be making twice a day, especially at night. You’d have to get up at three-something in the morning to get to the ranch in time to have breakfast ready, and wouldn’t get home until ten, eleven at night, sometimes. It just wouldn’t work, not even when the weather’s good. The days are getting short now, and once winter rolls around the roads can get pretty icy. This is definitely a live-in job.” She shrugged her shoulders. “And besides, I stay upstairs in the winter when the roads are bad.”
    Yeah, she’d mentioned that before, but Carlin had settled into the attic room and gotten so used to it she’d forgotten. “Oh.” So it was all or nothing. She had to choose Grumpy, or she had to hit the road.
    “From what I hear, Spencer wasn’t doing such a great job before his accident, anyway,” Kat continued, turning her attention back to Zeke, determined to force this situation in the direction she wanted.
    “Maybe he wasn’t, but no one has gone hungry.” An unspoken “yet” hung in the air. Then he admitted defeat, his scowl deepening. “Damn it, if I had any other choice, I wouldn’t even consider—”
    Carlin lifted a hand to cut him off. She’d heard enough. Maybe—probably—she should have her head examined, but instead of deterring her his reluctance had the opposite effect. She
wanted
to work for him, but on herterms, not his. She wanted to make him eat his words—which, honestly, might taste better than her cooking. She was learning, but
learning
was the operative word. And Kat was right. This was a near-perfect, short-term solution. “It sounds to me like you could use some help. I’m willing to take on the job, but only if you agree to some things. I don’t need to be fired in the middle of the winter in Wyoming,” she said, taking control of the situation and warming to it, because his gaze was getting more narrow and hostile by the moment. She was doing good. “I either move on within the next couple of weeks, or I stay until spring.”
    Zeke studied her for a moment with those piercing green eyes that held no sympathy. “If I don’t hire you, where are you going?”
    “That’s none of your business. And even if it was, I wouldn’t tell you.”
    Kat stepped back and crossed her arms, apparently satisfied to set this conversation into motion and then let the two involved parties fight it out.
    The idea of a place to stay for the winter, food and lodging, a ranch that was literally in the middle of nowhere … it was the perfect solution, except for one irate, stubborn ranch owner. She was so tired of running, she’d enjoyed her weeks here in Battle Ridge, and no way was she going to let him ruin this for her. He needed her more than she needed him. Still, she might as well throw him a bone.
    “I’ll work hard, and I’ll stay out of your way,” she told him briskly. “All I ask is that you pay me in cash, keep the name ‘Carlin’ to yourself, and stay out of
my
way. And keep me on until spring. In the spring I’ll move on.” By then she’d have a good bit of cash in her pocket, and—if she was lucky—a plan of some sort that would free her from this prison Brad had created for her.
    Zeke still looked unconvinced and suspicious. “Howdo I know this stalker story isn’t a bunch of bull and you’re wanted by the police? For all I know you’re a con artist, or wanted for murdering your last employer.”
    “Hey!” Kat yelped, outraged on Carlin’s behalf. “
I’m
her last employer.”
    Carlin thought that maybe she should be outraged herself, but she wasn’t. She knew how this had to look to Zeke, but