He laid his staff down and moved in closer. “Let me help.” Everything became blurry and he shook his head to clear the cloudy images.
“No. You come in contact with this water anymore and I’ll be lugging your dead ass up the hill. Not a good idea. The mist off the water is already affecting you and me.”
“Not really. I’m okay. Scout’s honor.”
“Liar. Not the time to be brave. Let me get the test tubes filled and labeled then we can go.”
Remy set out three empty containers followed by three more containing a yellow solution that bubbled when moved. A purple one that turned blue when it came in contact with the water she dripped into it and a clear one that turned black when it came into contact with the same water. To him, it all looked like a collection of magical potions rather than what a wildlife vet would keep on hand.
“I didn’t know you could test on the go? Hell, I didn’t know you were an apothecary.”
“A person can have knowledge of more than one topic, no? And normally we can’t test on the go, as you say, but my grandmother and I created a portable system that can help test if water is potable for humans to consume. Let me back up. My grandmother was the apothecary. She taught me everything she knew. I think that is why my mother loves flowers so much, come to think of it. Anyway, one time, outside Vancouver on the U.S. side we ran into a case where several animals died because of water pollution. It could have all been prevented if we could test the water right then and there. A bunch of government red tape and paperwork. So, my grandmother devised a concoction from plants and herbs that helps me do on the spot testing for contaminants or poisons. Obviously, it’s not foolproof. The water I tested in the last months must not have had enough of the poison for my kit to pick up the small traces.” She tsked and fell silent a moment before continuing. “You’d be surprised by what the natives in Africa use to clean wounds and purify water.”
The soft tone of her voice lulled his eyelids closed. She carried on, but his brain checked out as her sweet voice carried on the soft current of cool air coming off the water. She talked when she was nervous. He smiled.
Dew coated the grass where he reclined. Small shallow breaths came and went until his eyes drifted shut. Ten minutes. That was all he needed.
“Ethan, wake up. Wake up, damn it.” Fear in Remy’s voice lured him from the blackness that cocooned around him, locking him in place. Roars of anger rattled in his head but his body refused to respond.
Fire stung his cheek and his eyes shot wide. Stark light drove spikes deep into his pupils.
“What the hell, Remy.” He sputtered and choked as she poured some kind of nasty-tasting liquid down his throat.
“Swallow. All of it.”
She poured. He worked his throat. That or drown.
The more he drank the less he felt like a jackhammer replaced his heart and the clearer his mind became.
“It looked like you stopped breathing. We have to move away from the water. The mist from the lake is poisoned and we’re breathing it in.”
The morning mist collected on his skin and burned his eyes. It had to be doing the same to her. “Step back from the water. Go. I’ll take care of myself.”
What did she give him? He inhaled and nearly vomited from the vileness that oozed down the back of his throat.
“You have to move now, Ethan. The medicine I gave you isn’t strong enough to counter what you already have in your bloodstream and what you’re breathing in, too. You need more and if we stay here you’re going to die. Do you hear me? Now move!”
Medicine? It was more like acid.
“What did you give me?” He gritted through the pain and forced himself to his knees.
“Fireweed and yarrow, now can we move?”
His eyes watered from the burn and it took every ounce of strength inside him to pry his eyelids open.
“Come on, aren’t you a fucking badass mountain man?” Arms braced beneath his arms, she hastily lifted. Bless her for trying. No way his sweet little woman could lift him.
“Water.” He pulled his shirt off as she poured some from a bottle she carried in her pack over his wadded shirt and helped him clean the poison from his eyes and then did hers. A few more swipes across his face and breathing became a little easier.
Pure adrenaline and a side dose of her juju flushed his veins and he hauled himself to his feet. “What the hell just happened?”
“You passed out. The heavy dose coming off the water mixed with what’s already in you and it hit like a ton of bricks. But get this, I found something.” She talked as they gathered her things and started out toward his brother’s place at a slow pace and away from this fucking death trap. Excitement worked into her energy. It gathered behind her eyes and spilled over through every part of exposed skin as she talked.
Repeatedly glancing down at her and their surroundings, he asked, “How damn long was I out?”
Remy leaned in close and placed her hand over his heart. “Too long.”
He cringed and doused his face with more water from the bottle she offered him instead of meeting her worried gaze.
“It took me five minutes to get you to respond. I had to resort to slapping you. Any longer and I would have started pounding on you with my fists or anything else I could find.”
He grunted.
“What are you smirking at, Ethan Savage?”
“You slap like a sausage-handed Italian mob boss.” He rubbed at his face. “It still stings.”
“Good. You scared the crap outta me.” Her nose wrinkled up and caused her glasses to slip. Again. What a weakness to have. God have mercy. Ethan wanted to resist the urge to pull her up for a kiss, but he gave in to the battle and decided losing the war wasn’t all that bad after all.
They didn’t have time for what he wanted to do to her, but he needed to taste her, feel her alive in his arms to settle the fucking panic attack wanting to take over him.
“Your medicine has worked, it seems.” He took another step, placing more weight on his injured leg. “Thank you,” he whispered against her lips.
“I thought I would leave this mountain and you once my job was complete and now…” Her thoughts faded.
He tightened his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “Not in a million years.”
She stared up at him and smiled in a way that made the pain fade to nothing but background noise.
The farther away from the water they walked the easier they both breathed. “I think I’ll be fine now. Did you get your samples?”
“Got more than that. I know what Brax used to poison you and I know how to counteract it. That’s what I gave you.”
That had his eyebrows climbing and them both coming to an abrupt halt. “You what? Really?”
“It’s all pretty simple. He concocted a poison that flew under the radar from a couple of plants no one would have suspected. Pretty smart, if not totally freaking insane. Another few doses to the water and it would have been strong enough to kill humans and wildlife well into the hundreds instead of just making them ill.”
“We’re lucky you sampled the water and knew the counteractive steps to take.”
He let her continue talking uninterrupted from there. When she got started on the business end of her degree, he knew better than to try and jump in. She fixed her glasses and started off with a flourish of old Latin names and concoctions he’d never understand unless they were written in his field guide of how to care for a broken leg or high-altitude sickness.
“Doc, hold up, you lost me at Epilobium ang-something or other. Back up to the Silverleaf nightshade. You can confirm that?”
“Yes. I don’t know how he made the compound so concentrated, but yes.”
“What the hell?” Flooded with fear for his family and loved ones that lived around this lake and used the water, he balled his fists at his side, leaned back and let loose a deep roar of frustration. “Why? Damn him. Why!”
“It’s what I used to clear th
e land of the filth. Savage filthy.”
Darkness rose inside him and every muscle in his body flexed with hatred. Raw and brutal hatred. The familiar grating voice whipped them both around. Lips peeled back from his teeth, he felt the burn to kill.
“Fuck you, asshole,” Ethan rumbled long and low until every cell in his body hungered for a fight.
For blood.
Ethan’s gaze darted from side to side as his senses scanned the area for more potential threats. Through the mist, a single pair of pale blue eyes stood out first. Ethan’s attention shot to the right then left when he picked up on additional rustling.
“Run. Or stay back, but don’t you dare get in the middle of this,” he snarled at Remy.
He could feel her eyes on him and her presence grow even stronger on his radar.
She wanted blood too.
“Brax. You should have stayed away because this is only going to end one way.” His fists clenched by his side as he scooped an arm around him to keep Remy out of harm’s way. If she didn’t want to run, she sure as hell wouldn’t be putting herself out there to protect him again. Not while he breathed. “You son of a bitch. Why don’t you come closer so I can sink my fist into your face?” he rasped out with all the hatred eating at his gut.
Red-rimmed eyes bored into him from where Brax stood several feet away. He’d seen eyes like that on a man once and he was as fucked up as Brax.
A smirk smeared across his face. One he’d gladly wipe off. Shoulders slumped, he barely recognized the man he’d known for the better part of a decade.
Dried, crusted blood smeared across his neck and shoulder where Remy’s bullet hit him.
“Easy brother. I’m not here to kill you. Yet,” the sleaze-ball added with a little hum to his words while slithering a dirty look over Remy, who stood by Ethan with a fierce expression of her own. She worked her way to the side, and he took another step in front of her but faltered when his stomach tumbled into his throat. Dry heaves fisted around his insides and he hunched over, gasping for air.
Steel nerves and sheer fucking hate brought him back to his full height.
“Breathe through it. Nostrils then mouth. It will pass,” Remy leaned in and whispered.
He did as she suggested.
“Having trouble, bro?”
“Looks like your plan worked, Brax.”
A voice came up behind him and he angled sideways in time to see beefy hands wrap around Remy’s arms. A man who looked way too similar to Brax for it to be a coincidence licked a slimy tongue up her cheek while provoking him with a challenging glare.
The world turned red. The thirst for blood flooded Ethan’s senses.
The stranger holding Remy backed away quickly, leaving him to face Brax.
He didn’t know who swung first but he took great satisfaction when his fist plowed into the asshole’s face. Drops of blood quenched the thirst of the earth at their feet. And he kept pounding.
“Ethan. No. You can’t kill him.”
Yes. He could. And he would.
Chapter Eight
Ethan let out a roar of rage as Brax somehow managed to throw him off. The brute that held her from behind let out a loud whoop that deafened her right ear. She flinched and angled her body just so to avoid the slimy kiss the bastard wanted to plant on her cheek and who knew where else. He smelled of dirt and at least three days’ worth of grime. From the dingy white shirt and the mucked-up jeans, she’d say this one had forgotten the need for soap and a toothbrush.
An abrasive wind laced with the poison from the lake wound through the trees and felt like a thousand fire ants against her skin. And all theirs too. She could tell because the guy with python-like arms around her growled through the pain as he damn near shattered her ribcage in the process until the wind subsided.
Irony at its best.
Tremors rumbled across the ground. Chunks of dirt flew through the air and pelted nearby trees as Ethan and Brax fought. Fierce power drove Ethan’s fist into ribs. A few more punches and Brax fell to the ground bloody and gasping for air.
Ethan reared back, wild rage in his eyes. She used the distraction to throw her weight left and lifted her legs to knock the man holding her hostage off balance. Free from him, she ran to Ethan and pulled him off Brax.
“Stop! Ethan. Listen to me.”
Chest heaving, he pushed her behind him. “Are you okay?” he asked harshly.
“It’s okay. I’m okay.”
In unison, they turned back to back as stranger number one and Brax started circling them. She had to admit, Brax could take a beating. While Ethan probably fought all the time, this was only her second real time kicking real ass. The wrestling match she did with her brothers didn’t count.
Deep, deeper than she could ever remember digging, she searched for the strength and nerves of steel she would need to face their enemy.
The Brax’s slithery friend with the permanent lopsided grin on his face nodded to a man she failed to see until now. Another brother she assumed. Ok. Three against two. Because even hurt Ethan was a man to reckon with. Brax wore the evidence of that truth on his face.
“Okay, Ethan,” she uttered over her shoulder, her eyes never leaving the three douches. “We’ve got ’em right where we want them.” She swayed in her sumo pose. Her brothers once underestimated her short stature. Then she proceeded to put one in a chokehold and break the other’s arm. They were eighteen at the time while she was a twelve-year-old sister with a point to prove. Like now.
These fools only saw a girl when they looked at her. Weak. Their mistake.
If Ethan could take two more, she could hold off the other one while he caught his breath to finish the job.
Her throat grew dry, but she stood her ground. “You think you’re all big and tough, huh?” She bet they did. And they were. Taunting them probably wasn’t the best idea.
“You’re going to feel how big we are when we take care of your man there.” Brax’s friend, brother, cousin—who knew—rubbed himself while leering at her. “We’re all going to have a go at you and whatever is left over we’ll leave for the animals to have.”
She narrowed her eyes at the man and behind her, Ethan laughed darkly. A sound that sent the chills of death up her spine.
“You can try.” Is all he said and if it made her hair stand on end, she knew it did theirs too.
“Like he said. You already have one brother suffering a few broken bones for laying a hand on me. I’d be careful if I were you and mind what you say. It might mean your death?” She’d rather die alongside Ethan than be touched by these cretins.
Behind her she heard an audible crack when Brax lunged out of the thick fog and nailed Ethan in the jaw, taking them both down to the ground. In the shuffle, she lost sight of the third brother, who tucked back into the fog.
Shit.
The two men rolled on the ground. Bones cracked. Trees shook and for a second it sounded like the whole forest would come down on their heads.
Lopsided-grin dude got the bright idea of reappearing and lunging for her. Fat fingers got a death grip on her upper arms, and she used his chunky weight against him. Using the solid toe of her boot, she hauled back and poured all her might into a front kick that would make any Kung Fu master proud.
Crack.
She cringed and shoved down the churning butterflies gnawing at her insides. “Oh, that hurt even me.” For all of three seconds he released his hold. It was all she needed.
Tucking her chest in, she rolled forward, pulled her pistol and aimed.
“Whoa there, girl.”
Girl, my ass.
“Where the hell did you get that?” The douche was nervous.
“A man’s arrogance is his downfall.”
No hesitation. She squeezed back on the trigger, gaze steady.
Crimson blossomed across his shoulder, plastering the cloth of his shirt to his shoulder. A thick trail of blood ran down his arm and dripped into the parched forest floor. He fell forw
ard holding his arm and groaning so loud you’d think she shot him in the gut.
She moved to where she had all three men—Ethan, Brax and the guys she just shot—in her line of sight just as a third man stepped up behind the guy on the ground.
Another brother.
“You can hightail it or get a matching slug. I’m not such a good aim without my glasses. Your brother was lucky. So the next one might end up between your eyes or take off your tiny pecker.” She squinted an eye and cocked the hammer.
Both men’s lips peeled back with a snarl.
She pushed to her knees, her aim dead center on the idiot that wanted to push her limits.
With a pull on the feather-light trigger, another round fired off close enough to the newcomer’s head to make his eyes nearly pop out of his head. “That’s right; don’t test the crazy-ass lady with the gun.”
“I’m going to kill you. You’re gonna die, little girl.” The man kneeling behind his brother sure was a brave talker.
She tried to look for Ethan and Brax but they’d disappeared into the forest. She heard faint grunts and thuds but that was it.
Shit. Shit Shit.
“Try it and you won’t make it two feet before your brain is fertilizing the ground.”
She swung around at the sound of a deep, slow voice full of malicious intent that caught her off guard. She tensed and then suddenly every muscle in her body wanted to freaking weep with relief.
To her left where the ground crested over a ridge, three silhouettes weaved through the trees before she could make out solid details. Morning light had yet to touch that end of the woods. But she didn’t need night vision to know all hell was about to break loose and the Savages would be the ones dishing the mandatory ass whooping.
There wouldn’t be a day in her life she didn’t recognize that unique chiseled jaw and golden, piercing eyes of the Savage crew.
Her heart jumped for joy, but she didn’t dare let her finger off the trigger. She had four more rounds ready to pop a cap in anyone’s ass that came too close.
Claimed by Her Mountain Man: A Steamy Mountain Man Friends to Lovers Romance (Her Savage Mountain Men Book 2) Page 7
