Wild Country

by Anne Bishop

  “It’s a car, not a puppy.” Barb studied the vehicle. “We can haul things in it?”

  “Yes. You being the next thing on my hauling list as soon as we unload.” Jana opened the back, pulled out a box, and handed it to Barb, who stood there with her mouth open.

  “I’ll take one,” Abigail said, wondering what was wrong with Barb.

  “Did he send you to put me in the Me Time cell?” Barb demanded. “What did I do now?”

  “Shh,” Jana said when Virgil turned to stare at them, proving just how sharp Wolf ears were when it came to picking up sounds. “No, this is about getting some of the pets adopted. So help me get these boxes in the house and we can be on our way.”

  Abigail waited until the three of them carted the last load of boxes into the house and Barb went to fetch her daypack and house keys. Then she asked, “Why are the town leader and the sheriff looking at houses with those men?”

  “One of the children is . . . special . . . and Joshua Painter says she needs a house that doesn’t have a stain of darkness—which is something specific that Joshua can sense but can’t explain,” Jana replied. “That’s why they’re all out there looking at houses. They looked at houses that had already been cleared out on another street, but none of those places were right.”

  Special like Becky Gott? Or special like drawing pictures that showed something that could happen in the future? If she hadn’t seen a picture like that when she’d lived in Prairie Gold, she wouldn’t have sensed that Jana’s hesitation revealed more than the deputy realized. Special could be like finding the mother lode. Or being able to identify that kind of special could be information she could trade if the wrong kind of people came wandering down the street and found her.

  “I’m ready,” Barb said, joining them.

  They locked the house on their way out, then paused to watch the group conferring on the front yard of one house before moving on to the next.

  “Think we’ll have new neighbors?” Abigail asked, trying to sound casual.

  “If they choose a house on this street, they won’t be the only new neighbors,” Barb replied. “Some of the terra indigene would move into houses around here to keep watch. They’re kind of intense about protecting—”

  “Barb!” Jana said sharply.

  For a moment, Barb looked hurt. But Jana looked alarmed at what her housemate was about to reveal, confirming that one of the children was the lucrative kind of special.

  “Sorry,” Barb said.

  “It’s all right,” Jana said. “I’m just skittish from yesterday.”

  What had happened yesterday? Nothing that had made the rounds of gossip.

  Jana jingled her keys and looked at Barb. “Let’s get going so I can spend some time with my four-legged ride. See you later, Abby.”

  “See you.” Abigail watched Jana and Barb drive off before retreating to her own house.

  Kelley wasn’t happy living with her anymore. He had a separate bedroom now and was clearing it out and cleaning it up. But he made no effort to help her with the rest of the house. Which meant he didn’t know what was in the house and what wasn’t—including the things they were supposed to turn in.

  And since Kelley wasn’t sharing a bedroom with her, he also didn’t know about the pack she’d hidden in the closet—the emergency pack of essentials she would need if she had to run again.

  * * *

  * * *

  “What I told you about Maddie was said in confidence,” Jana said as she drove the few blocks to the town square. “We can’t talk about her to anyone.”

  “But you said there were lots of people in the store when those men arrived with the children,” Barb protested.

  “And Mr. Sanguinati stopped the men from saying Maddie was a blood prophet. There’s no reason for anyone to know by what he said unless they’d already met one of the girls.”

  Barb stared at her. “Then how did you know what Tolya was talking about?”

  “Your brother told me key words the Others use when talking about the girls. Since he was the one who told me, I thought it would be okay to tell you.”

  She’d been shaken last night when she’d arrived home, had needed to talk to someone. She didn’t tell Barb about Virgil’s threat. She hadn’t wanted anyone to know because she had to work past it. Gods, did she have to work past it or she’d be a wreck before she’d been on the job a week.

  “Look,” she said. “If Virgil or Tolya thinks Maddie is in any kind of danger from neighbors, even if it’s just people acting too curious or asking too many questions, they’ll take the girl away.”

  “You mean relocate the family?”

  Jana shook her head. “The other children would be relocated, separately or together. The dads wouldn’t survive.”

  Barb stared straight ahead. “Someone will figure it out.”

  Jana nodded. “But I don’t want the blame for that landing on our doorstep. Okay?”

  “Okay. But . . . Abby is really nice.”

  “Burch is her married name, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Who was she before she married Kelley?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “And that’s the problem, isn’t it?” Jana glanced at Barb. “This is a fresh start, a new beginning, call it whatever you want. But that means we don’t know who people were before they arrived in Bennett.”

  Barb slumped in the seat. “I don’t want to think like that. I don’t want to talk to people and wonder what they’re hiding.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. And you don’t have to wonder. Just don’t tell anyone about Maddie.”

  “Did you think being a police officer would be like this? I used to tease Michael about running background checks on my dates, but now I wonder if he did.”

  Probably, Jana thought.

  “So did you think it would be like this?”

  I will tear out the throats of those two humans—and then I’ll tear out yours.

  “No,” Jana said. “I really didn’t think it would be like this.”

  * * *

  * * *

  Standing at the gate of the fenced-in yard that held the dogs to be adopted, Tobias scratched and petted the dogs who came up to greet him while he waited for the almost-vet who was taking care of the animals.

  “I appreciate you giving me a job. I learn fast,” Edna “Ed” Tilman said.

  Everything he’d sensed about this new hand indicated that she wanted to be one of the boys, but Tobias still gave her a smile that said clear enough that he was the boss and she was one of his men—and he hoped he wasn’t wrong about her and would end up actually having to say he wasn’t going to allow them to be anything more. His mother hadn’t voiced any concerns about the girl when he’d introduced them. Ed wanted to work on a ranch as one of the hands and not as household help. She’d been real clear about that. She’d demonstrated her ability to ride a horse and lasso animals in a corral. Whether she’d really thought about what it was like to spend a day in the saddle was anyone’s guess.

  Then again, working with someone who wasn’t an Intuit was like learning a different language, so maybe he had been hearing flirting where there was only nerves and enthusiasm. They’d all find out soon enough, and Ellen Garcia, who took care of the Prairie Gold ranch house and the accounts, would take the girl in hand—one way or another.

  Funny how he understood the Wolves who were in charge of the terra indigene settlement near Prairie Gold better than he understood other kinds of humans. He understood Virgil Wolfgard too, and Morgan Wolfgard had told him enough about Virgil and Kane for him to appreciate why they were an asset to Tolya Sanguinati and a danger to the humans settling in Bennett.

  As a sheriff’s department vehicle pulled up, Tobias and Ed turned away from the enclosed yard full of barking, excited dogs. The passenger hopped out and rush
ed toward them.

  “Tobias Walker? I’m Barb Debany. Tolya said you wanted to adopt some dogs and cats?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He looked at the other woman getting out of the vehicle. Glossy brown hair pulled back in a tail. Brown eyes that held friendliness and wariness in equal measure. Trim figure. And the gun attached to her belt and the badge pinned to her shirt made her that much more interesting. Since she wasn’t the sheriff . . . “Deputy . . . ?”

  “Jana Paniccia.”

  “Mr. Walker is going to adopt some of the dogs and cats and take them to the ranches,” Barb said, pulling a set of keys out of her purse. “Hush up all of you and look adorable.”

  Since she’d raised her voice, he assumed she was talking to the dogs and not the people. Even so, he was looking for working dogs, not adorable puffballs. Having been one of the humans who had freed the trapped dogs and set up the feeding stations, he knew most of the dogs wouldn’t suit his needs or the needs of the people on the other ranches. And his mother, who had agreed to take a dog on a trial basis—the trial being that the dog could get along with Rachel Wolfgard and vice versa—wasn’t interested in a puffball either. Jesse Walker was not a puffball kind of woman.

  “Well, I’m going to take a look, anyway,” he said. “Looking for barn cats mostly, and dogs that can earn their keep on a ranch, one way or another.”

  “Then let’s look at the cats first.” Barb led them to the single-story house next door.

  As Tobias held the door open to let the women go in first, he noticed the deputy eyeing his revolver. “Sheriff Wolfgard and Tolya Sanguinati gave me special permission to wear a weapon in town.”

  She nodded as she entered the house ahead of him, but he wasn’t sure if that was acknowledgment of information she already had or that she’d be checking with the sheriff to confirm his statement. In her place, he sure would.

  The cats had the run of the living room, and despite living around animals, he wasn’t sure he’d want to take over this house after the animals were relocated.

  “I’m doing most of the sorting in the rooms that weren’t cleared out before we turned the place into a pet hotel,” Barb said. “Turns out some people are allergic enough to cats that handling something like books from a house that had cats is enough to cause a reaction. So everything that’s left in this house that can’t be washed has to be boxed and labeled and stored in a separate location from the rest of the goods. The birds are in a house across the street.” She looked at Ed. “Would you like a bird?”

  “Ed is a ranch hand. She won’t be at the ranch house every day to look after a bird,” Tobias said. But he turned the thought over in his mind and wondered if Ellen Garcia would enjoy the chirp and chatter. He’d mention it to her and take a look next time he was in town if she didn’t want to come up to Bennett herself.

  He had a good feeling about four of the cats, that they would be happy being barn cats and partially fending for themselves by hunting mice. Barb Debany found carriers for each of them. The cats weren’t pleased about the confinement, but they didn’t cause too much fuss after Barb gave each of them a catnip toy as a distraction.

  The cats he could take or leave. At the Prairie Gold ranch, Ellen Garcia was the one who had a soft spot for the barn cats. But the dogs crowding around him when they returned to the house next door made him sad. They were good dogs that just wanted to be loved.

  Or wanted a job.

  Spotting two border collies, Tobias raised a hand and watched the dogs snap to attention, ready to follow his command. When he lowered his hand and started to turn toward Barb, he could feel them accusing him of dashing their hopes.

  “You have any leashes handy?” he asked.

  Barb nodded. “I’ll get them.” She returned a minute later with a handful of leashes.

  Talk about hopeful.

  He let out a sharp whistle, then said, “Sit!” and watched half the dogs obey the command. Taking four of the leashes, he said, “Stay!” before walking over to the border collies and clipping leashes to their collars. These two would go with Truman Skye, who had experience working with the cattle dogs on the Prairie Gold ranch.

  He eyed the rest of the dogs and decided, with regret, that he couldn’t see them with the Simple Life women who would be keeping house on the other three ranches. Jesse’s vehemence about which Simple Life woman would be working for Truman meant he couldn’t assume the other women would provide a good home for a dog. Didn’t mean they weren’t good people; they just weren’t the right people for these dogs.

  He almost gave the release command when he noticed one young female—white with rust-colored ears and saddle—who had obeyed his command to sit but wasn’t focused on him. She was focused on Jana Paniccia and was struggling to obey the stay command when she clearly wanted to rush over and make friends.

  Giving the release command, Tobias waded through the dogs until he reached the deputy. “You looking for a dog to ride shotgun?”

  “I’ve been thinking about adopting one of the dogs, but I’ll mostly be on horseback when I’m on duty,” Jana replied, petting the dog, who had reached her first.

  Tobias crouched and studied the young bitch. Not more than a few months old. Lots of energy. She would be a good fit for the deputy, and she’d be a good fit with the right horse. Question was, was Deputy Paniccia riding the right horse?

  He handed Jana one of the leashes. “She’ll suit you.”

  “You can tell that, can you?” Jana asked dryly.

  “Yes, ma’am, I can. I have a feel for animals.”

  “Feel? You’re an Intuit?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She gave him an assessing look. “What about Wolves? Do you have a feel for the snarlies?”

  If she hadn’t looked ashamed for saying that, he wouldn’t have answered. “That’s a conversation for another time and place,” he said quietly. “But I can tell you that if you use a disrespectful word for someone when you think about them, sooner or later you’re going to slip up and say it out loud, maybe even within the individual’s hearing, and whatever trust you had built will be gone and you will never get it back.”

  “I know that—and I know better. Heard enough disrespectful words thrown in my direction when I was at the police academy, and I swore I wouldn’t do that to someone else. But he’s so frustrating.”

  He’d known her for only a few minutes, but the way she moved and the look in her eyes told him Jana Paniccia had pluck, so he didn’t need to ask whom she found frustrating. And he didn’t doubt for a moment that Virgil found his new deputy equally frustrating. Only thing was, if pushed, Virgil would do more than bruise feelings. “Well, you’re thinking like a human, and he’s thinking like a Wolf. And not just a Wolf—he’s the dominant Wolf and you’re part of his pack.”

  “So I should learn my place?”

  Tobias nodded. “Sooner you do that, the better you’ll get along with him.” He looked over at a couple of playpens set up in a spot that had been shady but was rapidly changing to full sun. “I have to get people and critters settled today, but I’ll come back tomorrow and we’ll have that talk.”

  “All right. Thanks.”

  “Hold them for a minute.” He gave Jana the border collies’ leashes before he walked over to the playpens, which held the puppies. A few were youngsters barely weaned. But there was one . . . Still had her puppy fuzz, but old enough to have been housebroken—he hoped. He picked her up and cuddled her against his chest while she desperately tried to give him kisses.

  He wasn’t sure if she was a particular breed or a mongrel. Didn’t matter. There was something about this one that gave him a strong feeling that she was the right one.

  “Want to come with me and meet my mother?” he whispered.

  Wag wag. Kiss kiss.

  “Ms. Debany? I’ll need a collar for this one.”

&
nbsp; Barb Debany studied the pup. “I’ll get a collar and a harness. That might work better. The storage place has dog beds and crates and whatever else you’ll need.” She dashed inside and returned a minute later with a choice of collars and harnesses.

  He got the puppy fitted out, collected the border collies, loaded up the cats, and left Barb Debany to do her routine feeding and cleanup, while Deputy Paniccia drove off with her new friend. As he and Ed drove to the building that was serving as a warehouse for household goods and was supposed to have everything the dogs would need, he wondered if his mother was going to take one look at the puppy and then pick up her rifle and shoot him.

  * * *

  * * *

  Pulling up in front of the household goods warehouse, Jana looked at the dog curled up on the seat beside her. She needed to pick up what Rusty would need but couldn’t leave the dog in the vehicle. She could go to the office and put Rusty in the Me Time cell, but she didn’t want Virgil or Kane to find the dog before she got back—and she didn’t want to imagine what she might find when she got back if she did leave Rusty alone in the office before she told the Wolves she had adopted the dog.

  “Deputy?”

  She looked at the man who had helped her load up her household goods that morning. “Could you help me?”

  “Sure. What do you need?” Then he laughed as Rusty climbed into Jana’s lap to sniff the stranger. “Ooooh. Barb roped you into adopting one?”

  Jana put an arm around Rusty. “This one did the roping.” With some help from a good-looking Intuit rancher. “I wasn’t thinking about the logistics of getting her things after getting her.”

  “You need everything?” he asked.

  “Doubled. One for home and one for work.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “You’re bringing her to work? Will . . . they . . . agree to that?”