Take Only Pictures Part 14

She stole two more frames of him hunched in the saddle, leadrope stashed under his armpit, both arms resting on the horn of his saddle. The leadrope he tossed at her almost pegged her before she could swing her camera out of the way. All summer she'd been trying to take pictures of the old cowboy, and he'd been pulling similar stunts to thwart her.

"When I'm famous, you'll be happy I took the time."

"I'll be happy when people stop being idiots."

"Who's got you so worked up?"

"d.a.m.n group we packed in today. p.i.s.sheads, all of them. Wish I could throw 'em all on the ground and p.i.s.s on their heads, make 'em wish they were dead." He squirted a line of chewing tobacco juice through his teeth to punctuate the remark.

Kristine had been relieved that she had a scheduled pickup in the backcountry and left the yard before the chaos of the morning could come into contact with her. She'd been mounted and out of the yard with her three mules before the other packers had even made a dent in figuring out how many loads to pack.

"How many mules did it come out to?" she asked, untying the mules from the string.

"Twelve."

"TWELVE! How many people in the party?"

"Eight."

Takeisha, the gregarious day-ride girl who had come over to help out with the ma.s.sive ride, didn't appear to be put out in the least. When she began the season, her gear had all been stiff off the rack, and Kristine had thought the yellow kerchief she wore tied around her neck was hokey. After two months of saddling and riding, she fit right in with the crew with their frayed-at-the- cuff jeans and s.h.i.+rts that were never going to come quite clean because of the oil and dust that had been ground into them. Kristine had grown used to the kerchief, admiring how good it looked against her ebony skin. "I'm glad. It was fun to lead a ride over here, and bringing the string in was totally cool," she said.

"Are they out there for a week?"

"Four nights," Brian said. He'd been roped into helping with the giant party.

"What in the world did they bring?" Kristine asked.

"Five mules alone were alcohol."

"You're s.h.i.+tting me."

"Watch your mouth, girl," Sol warned.

Kristine had to laugh. He could swear up a storm, but she was never allowed to follow suit. "What are you doing tomorrow? Going out of here? Should we put up your stock for the night, or is everything going back down to the Lodge?"

"Overnighter leaving out of the Lodge tomorrow. Leo said he'd be here with the stock truck."

"You want a beer while you wait?"

"Sure, he might be a while."

"Takeisha? Brian?"

"No. If it's all the same to you two, we were thinking of catching the shuttle down to the Lodge. We're hoping Frank's in to tell us more about the bear mauling."

"Bear mauling?"

"Gimme a beer. I'll fill you in." Sol waved Takeisha off.

Kristine brought two beers from the fridge, and Sol unfolded a couple of lawn chairs on the upper dock and lowered his crooked body into one. He took a long pull from the bottle before he leaned back. "We lost that Cisco horse down at Fish Creek."

"In all the years I've worked here, I've never heard of a bear mauling a horse," Kristine said.

"Weren't no bear mauling. Just Leo being stupid and listening to his pocketbook first. Sent that old horse down with some greenhorns. I bet you anything that's what killed 'im."

"And Frank gets to clean him up?" Kristine asked, wondering if Gloria was down with the crew. Even though the topic was gruesome, a flutter went through her stomach thinking about the night they had shared.

"The cleanup is sure to be the s.h.i.+ts, but I'd sure take a dead horse over packing in a.s.sholes like today's group. It's a G.o.dd.a.m.ned tailgate party up there."

"You said that Leo shouldn't be working with this group. What's that about," Kristine asked, settling in next to Sol.

"Last season, they had a trip out of the Lodge. Wanted a base camp out at Second Crossing."

"That's a long ride for a spot. I thought Leo only used that for travel trips."

"Like I said, Leo listens to his pocketbook. He'll agree to anything, even if the packer is riding home in the dark after supper. Didn't even make them change their plans when they rolled in late and had way more gear than they'd reserved mules for. It was late in the season. Everything was out except for the babies. Instead of telling those fools to cut back, he adds the two babies to the string. Barely got them out of the yard with them bucking off the loads.

"So they finally get on the trail. This packer named Pat's got the string. Heather's leading the guests. They're complaining the whole way about how their stuff's been treated, getting bucked off the mules, saying they should get a discount, b.i.t.c.hing about the saddles, about that granite pa.s.s being dangerous. It's the backcountry, not a G.o.dd.a.m.ned hotel.

"When they get to Second, Pat's ready to drop them at that nice camp right by the meadow, good fis.h.i.+ng up and down the river. Great established camp. No. They want to be on the other side of the river. Heather says no. The river's too high. They go back to b.i.t.c.hing about their 'experience' not being what Leo promised when they booked. Said Leo a.s.sured them a more private campsite off the main trail. Pat..." Sol shook his head. "He was new that summer, didn't know you can't cross anywhere near that camp. Just plunged right into the river."

"Gabe said the runoff was huge last year."

"Yup," Sol said. "Swept those mules right away. Panniers filled up with water and pulled them down."

"I never heard any of this. What did Pat do?"

"Tried cutting them apart to see if they could swim, but those d.a.m.n bags were so heavy that they couldn't make it. Not one animal made it out of there. And you know what those G.o.dd.a.m.ned people said?"

"Where's my stuff?"

"Where's my G.o.dd.a.m.ned stuff. No sorry. Not one blink of the fine animals that got killed on account of their stupidity."

"I can't believe they're back this year," Kristine said, shocked.

"Free trip. Why do you think they brought so much c.r.a.p? Leo's doing this for free because of what they lost." He spit in disgust. "They're trouble. Cursed. He should never have let them back in this valley."

"How do you get over losing your whole string like that? Those new babies, too."

"Oh, Pat didn't." Sol drained his beer. "Took off that night. Never saw him again." He stopped, looking pointedly at her. For a moment, she thought he'd ask, bring up the parallel, but he took a deep breath and continued. "Heather's back this year, but she's smart. Wouldn't have anything to do with this group. That's why Takeisha was up here today."

A few of the mules on the tie rail started braying. Kristine tipped her head back, looking up the trail. "Here comes Gabe."

Gabe came in with a string of two mules and four riders. A large black duffel rode across the horn of his saddle.

"Someone lost a top pack," he said, tossing the bag to his sister.

"Son'b.i.t.c.h," Sol grumbled. "I told you that group was trouble. Had to be one of Brian's loads. He was the last one out. If it had fallen after we pa.s.sed the riders, they sure would have b.i.t.c.hed about it right then. They're just waiting for us to make a mistake. I'm sure they'll start b.i.t.c.hing about that the minute we get back in there to haul their a.s.ses out."

"I think there's an all-day ride scheduled out of here tomorrow," Kristine said. "If they're at Shadow fis.h.i.+ng, the guide can swing it up to Rosalie pretty easily."

"I wouldn't touch that bag," Sol said. "Just leave it here for them. They've already gotten more than they deserve."

Kristine looked at Gabe. He rolled his eyes behind Sol's back and shrugged. Kristine tossed the bag into the pack saddle shed. The three shared stories on the dock until Nard pulled in with the stock truck.

"About time," Sol barked. "I was beginning to think you forgot about me over here."

"Dad's a little tied up with that bear lady. She's pretty worked up about that bear down at Fish Creek."

Kristine's ears p.r.i.c.ked at the mention of Gloria, but she concentrated on loading Sol's mules into the truck.

"Jump in, Kristine. I'm sure you'd appreciate the show," Nard said.

"I've got plenty to keep me busy here, thanks."

"Hope that involves getting ready for the photography trip."

"I'm no cook. I told you that," Kristine said.

Nard pulled on his mustache, waiting longer than polite to answer her. "Maybe not. But you are a photographer."

"Nan's much better than I am."

His lascivious smile turned Kristine's stomach. "I told my dad how much you've been missing the backcountry and reminded him about that photography degree you've got. I thought he'd have told you, so you could start thinking about your lessons. Better get crackin'. We leave in four days."

Kristine almost asked when the trip was leaving and whether it left out of the Lodge or the Aspens. She stopped herself, kicking herself for automatically accepting his orders. She didn't have to go. He was messing with her.

"It's going to be like old times," he said, pulling himself into the cab and firing up the engine.

Kristine spun on her heel, overwhelmed. Her mind returned to the strategizing that had gotten her off Nard's Horse Heaven trip at the beginning of the season. Sending someone else wasn't going to work, not if he'd really canceled Nan. They had to have a photographer. She waved off invitations to join the crew for a campfire down at the Lodge. Gabe promised to join them but lingered, wanting to know what it was that wiped her smile off her face, asking what Nard had done to turn her mood so thoroughly. She studied his concerned eyes, on the verge of telling him why she dreaded working with Nard, but she knew he'd blow. She thought again about how angry he would be if he found out. The summer was almost over, and she thought there was a real possibility that she could finish up the season without confronting Nard. Proving to him and the whole crew that she was not a quitter would be enough to allow her to put it all behind her once and for all. Even though Gloria had argued that what had happened was serious, from the cowboys' perspective she knew it would seem like she had run away without reason.

Plus, when Gabe took over their father's ranch, he'd still have to work with Leo and Nard. She didn't want to jeopardize that working relations.h.i.+p. She waved him off with the rest of them, steeling herself for the trip ahead of her, seeing it as the real test of getting back on the horse, completing a trip in the backcountry without letting Nard scare her away. This trip would be the final proof of her strength.

Chapter Twenty-Two.

Gloria's voice was already hoa.r.s.e from trying to talk to Leo. She'd had to leave because she relied on the shuttle back to the outpost and knew the last one was about to leave the valley. She didn't want to be stuck at the Lodge, and she certainly couldn't b.u.m a ride from any of the people she'd just been calling idiots for the last hour.

At the outpost stop, she tossed her backpack out of the shuttle, taking deep breaths, trying to calm down and convince herself to go all the way home. She could just walk past the Aspens and keep on going. She should cool down, sleep on the events of the day. She was in no shape to talk to Kristine. It wasn't her fault the horse was dead. She wasn't the one who booked these trips, made the choices. Her pack settled onto aching shoulders, she trudged down the road trying to ignore the outpost, thinking it better to get back, take a shower, and relax before she saw Kristine. However, Kristine stood at the corral watching the stock, one booted foot hitched up on the rail, the picture of cowgirl charm.

She stopped and closed her eyes, struggling to be rational. When she opened them, her eyes immediately found Kristine's. Wave and keep walking. Tell her you need to clean up, and you'll be back later. Something in Kristine's gaze kept her rooted. She must know already, she thought. In all the evenings she'd walked over from the campground, she'd never found her out at the corrals watching the stock.

"Hear you had a h.e.l.l of a day," Kristine said, breaking the silence.

"You could say that."

"Hungry?"

"No. Actually, I'm not," Gloria responded crisply.

Kristine nodded. "Understandable after seeing Cisco out there like that. Want to talk about it?"

Did she want to talk about it, Gloria seethed. No, she didn't want to talk about it. She was finished talking. She wanted to do something about it. "I'm pretty p.i.s.sed about it."

"Why don't you take that ridiculous thing off. You look like a pack mule standing there. Come on in. Have a beer, at least." Kristine walked to the road and held the pack. Gloria let her take the weight, slipping out of the shoulder straps.

"Heavy," Kristine observed.

"I thought I'd be down there a while, but with that carca.s.s, there's no point in trying to do any conditioning with my bear." Once inside the cabin, she sat down and accepted the beer.

"Sol said he'd bet anything your bear didn't kill that horse."

Gloria couldn't help it, she exploded. "No, your idiot boss killed that horse, sending it down there without any kind of instruction. How can he be so stupid? How can you people take these idiots out into the backcountry, take in food no backpacker would ever carry and just offer it up to these animals. Do you bother telling them how to tie up their food? Do you do anything at all to try to maintain the wildlife?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Kristine said. "How is this about me?"

"You pack people in every day. How prepared are they to coexist with the wildlife when you leave."

Kristine looked like she was trying to choose the right words. "Leo made a bad call with Cisco. But I'm sure the packer who left him down there tried to teach them how to deal with him."

She'd been prepared for Juanita and Leo to disagree with her, but hearing Kristine defend her boss crushed her. "So it's their fault. Not your boss's."

"He always thinks about profit first. h.e.l.l, we used to joke that if he could get a saddle on a deer, he'd call it a mule and send it down the trail. He's running a business."

"I can't believe you're defending him. Don't you at least care about the horse?"

"You learn to not get attached to stock."

Gloria shoved her beer back into Kristine's hand and got up to leave. She'd heard enough.

"Where are you going?" Kristine said, setting both bottles down on the floor.

"I can't talk to you right now. I just spent an hour being ignored by Leo, and, I don't know, I thought maybe you would really listen to me. How is this not bothering you?"

"He keeps the Lodge going. He manages to care for all this stock, all of his employees. He's providing a service to people who wouldn't be able to see the backcountry if not by horseback."

"You ask about my bear research like you're interested in what I'm trying to do, yet you don't have any problem with how your boss works when he makes my job a hundred times harder."

"What happened down there wasn't the bear's deal," Kristine insisted. "Accidents happen, all part of the 'rugged backcountry experience.' They'll get it all cleaned up, and everything goes back to business as usual."

"It's negligent the way he sends these people out," Gloria shot back.

"Maybe the bears pay your paycheck, but they don't pay ours."