by Kim McMahill
Deuce stood and began unbuttoning his shirt. Niki glanced up and their eyes met. The look in his eyes was something she didn’t recognize. She thought she knew all of his moods and expressions, but this was something akin to desire.
She tried to look away, but as he pulled the shirt tail out of his jeans, she was helpless to respond. Niki hoped the expression on her face didn’t disclose her open appreciation for his very masculine body. His muscles were taut and well-defined and just enough curly dark hair could be seen on his chest to make her fingers itch to explore. She didn’t know where the thoughts were coming from. She had known Deuce all her life and had always had strong feelings for him, but she had never had to fight the urge to touch him. Though she probably hadn’t seen him without a shirt since he was fourteen and he had definitely grown up since.
A wadded up shirt hit Niki square in the chest. She blinked her eyes several times and looked down at the blood-stained denim cradled in her hands, willing her mind to focus. She stood and glanced at Deuce. By the smile he flashed her, she felt certain he knew exactly what she had been thinking. Color tainted her cheeks, but she didn’t walk away. The large bruises on his shoulder and ribs drew her closer to him. She pressed her hand to his ribs and he flinched. The heat from his bare skin seemed to fuse her hand to his body.
“Do you think any are broken?”
“Doubt it, just sore. I broke a couple once when a horse rolled over on me and it hurt much worse.”
Her fingers gently followed the pattern of a large round bruise. Clearly his face hadn’t taken all of the Colonel’s fury. The texture of his skin and his hard muscled abdomen fascinated her, but it was the black and blue marks which held her attention. She hated to see him hurt and had to fight the tears threatening to fall.
Deuce grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips. He turned her hand over and placed a light kiss on her palm.
“I’m okay, really. I look much worse than I feel. Now go do the washing, woman.”
“You’re lucky I saw the bruises before you made that comment or I would add a few of my own.” She spun around and ducked into the tent to retrieve the laundry soap and stain remover.
She heard him laugh and wasn’t sure if she should be amused or angry. At the moment she was more embarrassed than anything else, so she waited until she was sure he had left before emerging from the tent and heading for the creek.
Niki knelt by the creek, scrubbing at the dried blood in Deuce’s shirt and cursing herself under her breath. “He must think I’m such a fool. The only feelings he has for me are brotherly and even those have been severely lacking for years. Every time I think he’s going to let down his defenses, he says something stupid that makes me want to slug him.”
Even as Niki tried to convince herself Deuce had no feelings beyond brotherly for her, she couldn’t shake the memory of the look in his eyes as he began unbuttoning his shirt or the gentle kiss he placed on her palm. And, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t push the image of him standing in front of her, chest bare, solid and muscled, out of her mind. The thought made her scrub even harder.
“I have to get this thing washed and dried quickly. Papa needs my full attention. I can’t revert to being thirteen again, following Deuce around with puppy-eyes. It only makes me look pathetic and ridiculous,” she scolded herself as she wrung the cold water out of the shirt.
For the rest of the morning, Niki avoided Deuce. Until he put his shirt back on she wasn’t sure she could trust herself to be near him without making a fool out of herself again. She tended to her grandfather and packed up camp, except for the tent, while Deuce worked on Bernie’s new bed.
By noon the shirt was dry, and to Niki’s relief, back where it belonged, on Deuce. They’d finished packing up and were ready to make the move. Using the old pack horse they hauled supplies, two canvas panniers at a time, until everything except Bernie and his old cot sat at the new location.
They secured the front of the travois that still supported Bernie to the pack horse and Deuce lifted the back end to keep Bernie as level as possible. Niki jumped on the back of the horse and rode slowly across the meadow, parting through the mass of grazing sheep, until they reached the new campsite.
Niki was exhausted by the time everything was moved and reestablished, but at least the hard work had kept her from worrying too much about their predicament or daydreaming about something that would never be. She glanced around at the new camp and was satisfied with their work. The tent was tucked into the hillside and they had camouflaged the roof by using pine bows to cover the canvas. They now had a direct view of the sheep and the most likely approach if they were discovered. The move across the meadow hadn’t been a great distance, but the new position of the tent made Niki feel more secure and less exposed, enabling her to push thoughts of death further from her mind.
Niki let Deuce make dinner while she sat at her grandfather’s side. The old man had slept most of the day and his color was still pale. She didn’t think he had gotten any worse from the day before, but he still looked to be in a lot of pain, though he tried to deny it whenever she asked. His breathing was labored, but as long as his chest continued to rise and fall, there was hope, and at the moment that was about all they had.
Deuce ducked inside the tent and handed her two plates loaded with corned-beef hash, canned green beans and biscuits. He left and returned seconds later with his plate and sat down next to her. The three of them sat in the glow of the hurricane lamp and ate their dinner in silence.
Niki felt the urge to say something, but there were no words to express the amount of comfort she felt from Deuce’s shoulder touching hers. She thought it was possible his feelings might be changing toward her, but at the moment all that really mattered was that she was surrounded by the most important people in her life and they were safe.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Niki woke to the smell of brewing coffee and bright sunshine warming the side of the canvas. Slipping her stiff cowboy boots on her sore feet she ducked out of the tent and stretched her aching muscles while scanning the area for Deuce. Niki spotted him a hundred yards away saddling Traveler. She poured herself a cup of coffee and strolled off in his direction.
“Where are you headed?”
“I thought I’d better do some more scouting. We need to find the best escape routes, hiding places and trails we can take on horseback as soon as Bernie can ride where dirt bikes can’t follow. I also want to locate the closest rise that’ll give us the clearest cell phone reception. I only have enough battery left for one short call and Bob is expecting me to phone in tomorrow.”
Niki didn’t like the thought of being alone, but didn’t want Deuce to return to his “helpless city girl” train of thought, so she tried not to let her concern show. Cradling the cup between her hands, she took a sip of coffee to camouflage the disappointment she feared was etched on her face.
“Let me get you the rifle and some ammo in case those soldiers decided to come after us.”
“No, you keep it. If anyone shows up that you don’t recognize, shoot first and ask questions later.”
“I won’t let you go unarmed when we have more weapons here than I can shoot by myself. Even though Bob claims I’m exceptionally gifted with a variety of firearms, I can generally only pull one trigger at a time. Though, if I had a pair of revolvers and a gun belt I guess I could start practicing the old western quick-draw.”
Deuce studied Niki. Her arms were crossed over her chest, her stance was wide and the expression on her face told him there was no point in arguing. Besides, she had a point.
“Fine. Give me your damn girl gun.”
Niki smiled triumphantly and pulled the small pistol out from behind her back. She hadn’t so much as gone to the bushes to the bathroom without the weapon ever since they had returned to camp.
Deuce took the gun from her hand, checked the load and shoved it into his jacket pocket. “Stay close to camp,” he warned as he mounted and rode
away.
Niki walked back to the tent and busied herself with breakfast, changing her grandfather’s bandages and doing dishes. She also planned to visit the creek and clean up a bit before Deuce returned. Despite this being a very unusual situation she still hated Deuce seeing her look like a tornado survivor.
“Your color’s a little better this morning,” Niki said as she propped her grandfather up in his new cot-turned-hospital bed.
“I feel okay, but I’d be even better if you’d let me out of this darn contraption,” he grumbled.
“Papa, don’t make me hobble and cuff you. If you have a break or even a serious fracture, three days isn’t near enough time to heal either one. But I do think it would be a good idea to attempt a little physical therapy on you. We’ll bend your knees, rotate your ankles and have you pump some weights with cans of hash and that sort of thing. We can’t have you going soft on us.”
Bernie chuckled and motioned for Niki to sit down.
“I think it’s time to catch me up on things. I’ve caught bits and pieces of conversation between you and Deuce, and now I want to know what’s really going on around here. The helicopter that spooked Sally wasn’t one of ours, was it? Something pretty bad must be going on or you two would have me stuck in some hospital by now, whether I needed it or not. And there must be a better reason than his admiration for your pretty face for Deuce to be camping out here with us instead of taking care of the ranch, especially with Bob in D.C.”
Niki hadn’t wanted to burden him with the hopeless situation, but he would find out eventually, so she told him everything. When she finished, he clutched her hands and his eyes glistened with restrained tears. She had never witnessed the tough old man emotional before and the site nearly did her in. He had always been a rock, her rock, and she hated to watch him crumble.
“My sweet little girl, you could have been killed trying to save my life. You should’ve never had to go through that. You should’ve come back to me when you realized something was wrong at the tower.”
“But if I hadn’t gone to the ranch, Deuce would be ... dead.” Her voice broke as she forced the last word out.
“He’s lucky it was you that found him and not Joe. That old geezer would starve to death in the mountains if he had to shoot his own food,” Bernie replied in an attempt to lighten the anguish he witnessed on his granddaughter’s face.
“I didn’t even think about it. I just pulled the trigger,” she said as her eyes misted over. “Papa, I killed a man, a man who will be missed by family somewhere and his death will no doubt put us in additional danger.”
“You didn’t have a choice. Sometimes we are forced into situations where we have to do things we wouldn’t normally be capable of. That doesn’t make us bad people, just survivors.”
Niki nodded as she bit her lip.
Bernie gave her hand a loving squeeze. He knew she would never admit it to him or even to herself, but Deuce meant the world to her and if anything had happened to the young man, Bernie wasn’t sure if Niki would have been able to survive the heartbreak.
He hated watching the two of them pretend not to care when it was clear they were meant for each other. No matter how many pretty girls came by the ranch trying to catch Deuce’s attention, he never seemed too interested. But whenever Niki was around the boy was flustered, moody and never too far away. Someone else could have escorted Niki into camp, but it hadn’t surprised Bernie at all to see Deuce ride up or that he had wanted Niki as far away from the tower guards as possible.
“Don’t think about it anymore. You did what you had to do and it’s over. You can’t go back so there’s no point beating yourself up, and even if you could, I’m sure you would do it again. Niki, you had no other option and I can’t tell you how proud I am that you didn’t crumble under such tremendous pressure.”
Niki nodded, wiped her eyes and tried to smile. “Get some rest. We can talk about it more while you’re doing your physical therapy later.”
She didn’t really want to talk about anything that had happened. Every time she had to relive the story, she was forced to experience the terror all over again. Niki hoped her grandfather wouldn’t ask anything else and she suspected he wouldn’t. He always seemed to know when she needed to talk and when she needed to let a topic rest or die. It was that instinct which had made him so therapeutic to be around during her summers growing up and why she had always cherished their short time together.
Niki grabbed a carrot and headed for Storm. She knew she should quit feeding fresh produce to her horse under these unusual circumstances and save it for themselves, but the gelding deserved a treat after everything he had been through and the gesture was one thing that still felt normal.
* * *
When Deuce rode up, he saw Niki clutching the big palomino’s neck. He had never been particularly fond of Storm, but the stubborn horse and Niki had always clicked. They had a special bond he didn’t understand, but was now thankful for. Deuce knew the horse was strong, both mentally and physically, and for that reason he used him fairly often. He hadn’t given the gelding enough credit, but far worse, he had severely underestimated the small woman clinging to the muscled horse as if it were an overgrown teddy bear.
“Everything okay?”
Niki stepped back and pushed the strands of hair, which had escaped her ponytail, out of her eyes, tucking them behind her ear.
“Yes, Papa’s color is returning and he’s already itching to get out of bed. I haven’t seen or heard anything from the soldiers, so I’d say it’s been a pretty good day so far. How about you?”
“No sign of the soldiers or the helicopter.”
Deuce stepped off Traveler and began unsaddling the horse. The young gelding wasn’t as tall as Storm and hadn’t filled out in the chest yet, but he would make a fine ranch horse when he got a few more miles under him and a little more muscle and weight on his frame. He had a good disposition for such a young horse and Niki could see why Deuce liked riding Traveler.
When Deuce finished unsaddling the horse, he turned to Niki and could tell she had been watching him and he had to fight the desire to reach for her. Lord, how he missed her when she was gone, but he had convinced himself these past years that keeping his distance was best for both of them—now he couldn’t really remember why. He turned away from her and ran the curry comb down Traveler’s back, fearing he might weaken and say or do something he’d regret if he looked at her for even a moment longer. He always fought the control she seemed to have over him, but now with death so near he was torn with the desire to stop fighting his feelings, but old habits were hard to break.
“As I thought, the only way anyone could sneak up on us from behind would be if they circled around or had a helicopter drop them off deeper in the mountains and hiked back. I found a place we could more easily hide camp that still has good feed for another month or two for the animals and a good source of water. As soon as Bernie’s up for traveling, it might not hurt to move deeper into the mountains.”
“Another month or two? How long do you think we’ll have to hide out here? We could start getting snow in three or four weeks, maybe sooner, especially if we move any higher into the mountains and what about the rest of the animals at the ranch?”
“Hard to say how long this will last. Hopefully Bob will know more when I call, but we could hold up here indefinitely if we had to. The horses at the ranch are on pasture so until snow covers the grass they’ll be okay unless they get themselves into trouble with all the commotion, the chickens are free-range and can scavenge, the cats are pretty good hunters and all the cattle are still in the mountains. So hopefully the animals can weather the storm. Unfortunately there’s not much we can do about it without risking lives. As for us, we have a whole herd of sheep, fish, and wild game to eat, though we shouldn’t waste ammo unless we have to and water’s no problem. We just have to get Bernie healed up and stay warm and out of sight.”
Niki’s heart sank. She loved to camp ou
t with her grandfather each summer, but being forced to live the rest of her life like a trapper didn’t sound all that appealing. She’d miss hot steamy showers, television, eating out, traveling, going to movies and sleeping in a dry warm bed with a real roof over her head. But, if this was her life, there were no two people she’d rather share it with.
She walked around the horse opposite Deuce, forcing him to look at her. She took the curry comb out of his hand and continued to brush Traveler’s rich sorrel coat. She gave Deuce her most innocent smile.
“You feeling lucky?”
She could see the shocked expression on Deuce’s face. She watched with amused satisfaction as he cleared his throat nervously.
“Excuse me?”
“You can use Papa’s pole. Whoever catches the first fish doesn’t have to clean or cook the trout or wash the dinner dishes.”
“You’re on,” he said with a relaxed grin.
Deuce knew he had probably taken a bad bet. Whenever Niki got that mischievous twinkle in her deep blue eyes it usually cost him money or at least a good chunk of his pride. She didn’t really have a poker face, but she had a smile which made men do stupid things and not even care. He had done a lot of ridiculous things when it came to Niki, but he was beginning to think the stupidest of all had been pushing her away.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“You know, for some reason fish always taste better when someone else cleans and cooks them¾don’t you think?” Niki asked as she licked cornmeal off her fingertips.
Deuce shook his head and looked back to where Bernie sat in his cot. They had pulled the flap back and secured it so the old man could eat dinner and visit with them and not feel like such an invalid.
“Only a foolish man bets with my girl when it comes to fish’n,” Bernie said.
“I’ll remember that in the future. Right now I’m just thinking about paying off the rest of my losses. I still have dishes to do.”
