Surviving Seduction by Maia Underwood Page B

of the other four revealed that they were al equal y lean and sinuous. Their skin was leathery and tan, making their ages difficult to discern. Al these observations pointed to one obvious fact: their lifestyle was hard.
    “We’re not here to cause any trouble and we wanted to make sure you weren’t going to either. Since it looks like your company is civilized, we’d just like to visit. We don’t get many new travelers and an operation this size has me curious.”

    “Is that Jack Thompson?” the man asked, squinting as though he had trouble seeing.
    “Bil ,” Jack said with a nod.
    “Wel imagine that. You sure do get around, don’t ya?”
    He turned his gaze back to Dan. “You known him long?”
    Dan shook his head. “Not at al .”
    “Huh,” came Bil ’s reply as he leaned down comfortably on his saddle horn. “Careful around that one,
    ‘special y you, miss. He’s a bit too persuasive, you might’ve noticed.” Now he squinted in Selena’s direction and the examination lasted just a little too long for her comfort. His four companions were eyeing her as wel . She glared back at them.
    Dan studied Bil intently until he had the man’s attention again.
    “Wel , I’m Bil . This is Ed, Chris, Tony, and Pete.”
    “Dan. This is Cal and Selena.”
    “Need your word that you’l al behave. You’re just a bit outnumbered,” he informed them with a look that was supposed to be a smile. “We don’t take kindly to disrespect.”
    “Our word,” Dan echoed in agreement. “I’m speaking for three of us.”
    “Of course,” Bil answered as he turned his mount to head back for the tents. “As for you, Jack, I think Roark has a dispute on a bet he made with you. I know Josie’d appreciate it if you would keep it peaceable.”
    They al fol owed Bil in the direction of the camp.
    The dust from the cattle had almost disappeared entirely as the wind slowed and changed course.
    “I’l take it from here,” Bil told the other men who promptly turned and rode back to the cattle. Dan pul ed up beside Bil and just a neck behind.
    “Got some questions, if you don’t mind,” Dan told him.

    “Ask away. Then I’l tel you if I do.”
    “What do you eat, aside from the cattle?”
    “Don’t mind that question at al . They’re most of what we eat, but we have foragers that bring down game and find edible greens here and there. Got eight of them out now. Let me tel you, if those old farmers had any idea how much of their crops would grow wild after they were gone, I think they’d be mighty surprised. We rode through a mile of tomatoes a couple months back.”
    Selena thought about that. The places she’d traveled didn’t have much in the way of surviving crops. Without irrigation, most of the plants that were farmed in those areas just died. The climate wasn’t right for them. She hadn’t considered that some areas were natural y suitable for what was grown there. Very interesting.
    “So you don’t know what kind of food you’l have from one week to the next aside from the beef,” Dan said.
    “That’s right. We cover a lot of ground though. We’ve got to. It’s feast or famine, nothing in between. ‘Course it’s never truly a famine since we’ve got the cattle. We’l live, but we won’t get everything we need in our diet for weeks or months at a time. It’s enough to live off of.”
    By now, they’d reached the tents, and Bil wended through them. In every direction, there were people busying themselves with various tasks, but al watched curiously as the four outsiders rode by. A lot of whispers were exchanged by the women and young girls. The children eyed them curiously. Most of the men stared at Selena, a few of them offering a smile and nod in the way of greeting if she made eye contact. She began to feel numb to the overwhelming activity around her. It was simply beyond her ability to process, so it al began to feel like a dream.
    Selena watched Dan as he rode in front of her. In this