They were going to eat me!
I opened my mouth to scream and frighten them off when I felt powerful jaws close in on my good shoulder. Pure fear took over. Kit’s wolves were going to eat me alive.
The fear was such that I blacked out.
Kit
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I saw the faint orange glow in the windows from the top of the driveway and every cell in my body solidified with horror. What the fuck? She was in my house while I was not there! While that dangerous stalker was still running around?
“The lights are on in your place, man,” Billy said.
The road was pure ice and I could run faster than the car could drive up. “Stop the car,” I shouted as I pulled the handle, and jumping onto thick snow ran as quickly as I could to the house. The wolves were on the porch, gathered around something. My heart was pounding like crazy.
In one horrified glance I saw the marks in the snow my wolves had made when they dragged whatever they were guarding along the driveway and up the steps onto the porch.
I put my boot on the first step and even before I saw her, I saw the arrow. My wolves did not come to me, lick my hands, or show their usual greetings. They stood up and slunk away nervously to the edges of the porch.
I dropped in front of her. The warmth of the animals had permeated the whole area, creating a little oasis of heat in the dead of winter. She looked pale, but just the way she did when she was asleep. I touched her neck. Her skin was cold, and her pulse weak, but she was still alive. I touched the area around the arrow. She made no sound.
I shook the shaft very gently and I knew that it was not lodged in bone. Fortunately, the arrow had missed her scapula. An arrow that powerful would have shattered her scapula like a commemorative Elvis plate and damaged it forever, but it was unlikely that she had been lucky enough that it passed through the only safe place it could in that area, a triangle smaller than the size of her open mouth.
Even if there weren’t any serious internal injuries, the arrow head would have to be located and removed. I yanked the arrow out of Chepi’s dead body, but I couldn’t pull it out of Lara. It would have ripped the head off and left it in her body.
A smooth bullet could be safely allowed to remain encased in bone or tissue, but an arrow head was sharp and rough, and would continue to injure and inflame the tissue around it, ultimately resulting in infection and death.
The local hospital had closed its doors three years earlier, and the nearest one was nearly an hour away. In these road conditions it was an hour and a half journey at least, but there were no other options.
I could hear Billy running up the driveway. Carefully, I lifted her up in my arms, and hoisted her up.
“What the fuck happened?” he said behind me.
“We need to take her to the doctor.” My voice was shockingly calm.
We got her into the car and I wrapped her in my coat and held her close to me. She moaned a few times, but I spoke softly to her and she drifted off to sleep. I was afraid. I was very afraid of what was happening inside her body. That hour and half turned out to be the longest hour and half of my life. I thought it would never end. I felt so helpless I wanted to smash something or scream.
As soon as we arrived at the emergency doors, my buddies had to disappear. They couldn’t even be seen in that location. I carried her in and yelled for help. They were quick to respond and she was wheeled away from me. I went to the waiting room and stood gazing blankly out of the window. A small girl was waiting with her mother. She skipped up to me. I could see her reflection in the glass. She was blonde with pigtails. Her dress was pink with little blue and white boats on the front.
“Are you here to repair your face?” she asked me.
“Holly, come here and stop bothering everyone,” her mother scolded.
She skipped away.
I looked at my hands. They were full of dried blood. I could cry for Chepi and Roger, but I couldn’t cry for Lara. The pain was too great. The thought of losing her was incomprehensible, intolerable. The thought that I had left her in danger made me so angry I wanted to hurt myself by punching the walls.
I went to a chair and sat down. The little girl was playing with blocks. She didn’t approach me again. Someone came to call the mother and they left the room. I was alone. I didn’t move. I just sat there as if I was stoned until the doctor came. He was an overweight, middle-aged, balding man. He wore steel-rimmed glasses. Behind them his eyes were a watery blue.
“Mr. Carson?”
“Yes,” I replied standing up. My legs felt like jelly; they felt as if they could barely hold me upright.
He smiled. “She’s going to be all right.”
That was when tears filled my eyes. Tears of pure happiness. “Can I see her?” I asked.
“You can, but she’s still unconscious.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. It was one of those moments. If he had asked me to get on my knees and suck his dick, I would have. I felt so grateful, I wanted to kiss him.
“She’s one lucky girl. The arrow broke her third rib and passed right through, nicking her lung, and causing it to fill up with blood. We sorted that out. It also broke her fourth rib on the left side on its way out.”
“I thought you said she was lucky,” I croaked. I had prayed her lungs would not be touched.
“The arrowhead was millimeters away from scraping her brachial artery. If it had it would have been like pulling the drain on a bathtub. She would have bled out into her body cavity and been dead in minutes.
My heart felt as if it was on fire. To think she had come that close! Silently, I followed the doctor into the little room she was in. She looked small, white, and pitiful. There were bleeping machines all around her.
A nurse came in and I asked if I could sit and wait for her to wake up, because I wanted the first thing she felt when she woke up to be my hand.
She smiled kindly. “I don’t see why not.”
That was what Lara felt when she came around a few hours later: Me sitting up on a chair holding her hand.
“Kit,” she mumbled.
“I’m here. I’m never leaving you again.”
“My heart and chest hurts,” she whispered.
“I know, baby. I know. I’m sorry.”
“What happened to me?”
“Shh … Rest now. We’ll talk about it later.”
I stood up and kissed her forehead, and waited for her to drift back to sleep. I watched the even movement of her chest, then I walked out of her room. It was already light outside.
In the car park I found my pickup. As we had agreed, the guys drove my pickup here and left the key behind the visor. I got into it and drove into town where I found a diner and went in for breakfast.
I ordered a big breakfast, the whole works, and I ate it like a starving man. I drank two cups of black coffee, then I went to the phone box at the side of the restaurant and called Sheriff Bradley. I told him what had happened and asked him if he could tell Elaine about the incident.
“Was there any evidence left behind?” Sheriff Bradley asked.
“Nope. None at all. You don’t have any clues, do you?”
“Not off the top of my head. Must be kids foolin’ around your place again. I’ll have to send out a stern warning.”
“I’d appreciate that, Sheriff. Mighty good of you to do that. I’ll be right here in Tapley for the next few days,” I said. “I saw a motel as I was passing, I’ll probably check in there.”
“What’s it called?”
“The Big Blue.”
“Yeah, I know it. If anything comes up, I’ll let you know.”
“Much appreciated, Sheriff. Much appreciated.”
Kit
As I expected, Elaine came rushing through the doors before lunch. She looked white-faced and frightened. I was waiting at reception waiting and as soon as I heard her say Lara’s name I walked up to her.
“Elaine?” I asked.
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She whirled around. Pretty girl, auburn hair, big, green eyes, and one of those cupid mouths that was no longer popular, but I thought was rare and special. She was taller and curvier than Lara. She was exactly Roger’s type. If he’d been here he’d have gone for her big time.
“Kit Carson,” she gasped, clutching her chest as if I was Count Dracula himself.
I stretched my lips into the most friendly shape I could twist them into. “Yup, that’s me.”
“Ah, right. How is Lara?”
“She’ll be all right.”
She sagged with relief.
“She’s sleeping right now. Come on. I’ll take you to her.”
The lift was ancient and very slow. We didn’t speak. Once her eyes slid sideways, and then dropped away very quickly when she met my eyes. She cleared her throat and looked up at the lighted numbers above her head. When the door creaked open, slower than an old coffin, I indicated the way.
I opened the door and saw that Lara was still asleep. Elaine moved quickly towards the bed. Normally, I would have waited outside and given her some privacy, but I was curious to see her reaction.
She looked down at Lara and began to sob softly. That told me everything I needed to know. I knew then I could trust Lara with her. Quietly, I slipped out of the room. I leaned against the wall and waited for her to come out.
When the door opened, I straightened. “Can I buy you a coffee from the vending machine?”
“Yeah,” she said and smiled weakly.
We walked to the machine. “Want a candy bar?”
She shook her head. I dropped some coins into the slot and got us our coffees. They were truly terrible, but I needed an excuse and I could drink a million cups of coffee if it was going to help Lara. I guided her towards a nest of sofas.
“I can’t understand it. Sheriff Bradley said there had been a hunting accident. I dropped her off at your place. She was just fine when I left at about 7:00 p.m. What happened?” she asked, sniffing and wiping her nose with a tissue.
“When I came back, I found her with an arrow buried in her body.”
Her eyes narrowed and glinted with suspicion. This was no naïve girl. She was bristling with intelligence. “An arrow?”
“Why do you think Sheriff Bradley told you it was a hunting accident when it is not even hunting season?”
“What do you think happened?” she asked cautiously. She had just turned the tables on me.
“I think Lara has a dangerous admirer,” I said, watching her closely.
She stared steadily into my eyes. “Sawyer. His name is Sawyer Buchannan.”
“Is he engaged to be married to someone else?”
“Yes.”
“Is his fiancée from a rich family?”
“The richest.” Her voice was hard.
“Why do you think it was him?”
“Because he’s always had a thing for her, but he couldn’t resist the lure of high cotton, of being Rhett Haverbrooke’s son-in-law.”
I nodded.
“Are you going to talk to him?”
“No, I’ll leave him to Sheriff Bradley. Can’t take the law into my own hands.”
For a second she frowned. Then she smiled. A big sunny grin. “Yes, I think that is the best way forward. I like that idea. That way everybody gets exactly what they deserve.”
“Everybody gets what they deserve,” I repeated softly.
“What are the doctors saying about Lara? When can she go home?”
“Barring no complications I’ll probably be able to take her back in a week, but her recovery will take about six to eight weeks. She’ll have to take it easy during that time.”
“That’s good. I guess I better go see if she’s awake.”
“That’s a fine idea. She’ll be happy to see you.”
She nodded and walked away. I watched her throw away her untouched coffee cup into a bin, but my mind was already busy thinking of something else.
I’d say this for Sawyer Buchannan. He had the decency to make it super easy for me to hunt him down. He drank at the local watering hole.
I watched him come out of the bar swaying drunk and get into his car. Then I followed him until he got onto a quiet stretch of road. When he was nearly upon an area where the trees thinned out on one side of the road, I put on my illegal police siren.
He pulled over instantly. Very compliant.
The shock on his face when he saw, not one of his law enforcement friends, but me appear at his window paid for his birth certificate. I wish I had a picture.
“What do you want?” he blustered drunkenly.
I didn’t waste time talking. I punched him by the side of his face and knocked his lights out. Then I started walking back to my pickup. If anyone came by they’d think he was passed out.
I drove my vehicle into the woods and parked it out of sight. Whistling, I walked back to his car and pulled him into the passenger seat. Fortunately for me I never met a single person on the road as I drove him back to my place.
I threw him over my shoulder, carried him into the forest behind my house, and dumped him in the hole I had dug earlier. To my surprise he woke up and looked around him blearily.
“What are you doing?” he demanded. He sounded belligerent and frightened.
“It’s good that you woke up for your funeral,” I said coldly.
He tried to stand up. I took my gun and shot his kneecaps out. Two bullets. I’m a crack shot.
Whoa, what a racket. I’d seen a lot of men die in my time, but he took the cake. I stared at him curiously. I’d never enjoyed killing before, but watching him suffer actually made digging the hole worth it. Winter ground is a bitch to open and I broke my back doing it.
While he was still screaming with pain and horror, I picked up my shovel, and began to chuck cold dirt on him. You should have seen the way he clawed to get out. Every time he put his hands at the edge of the hole I smacked them with the shovel.
It was torture pure and simple.
He lay in his grave and tried to explain. Something about it being an accident. That fell on deaf ears. He started apologizing. Should have said his last rites instead. He begged, he cried, he threatened, he promised, he shouted, he cursed, but nothing stopped the earth from falling. Eventually, his mouth was filled with earth and even the muffled choking and gasping sounds were gone.
Silence was restored to my land.
Swinging my shovel, I returned to my house. I removed the plates from his fancy car and put new ones on. Ten minutes later my buddy Grayson and his pal Ted came by. Ted drove off in the car they had come in, and Grayson and I got into Sawyer’s car and drove to the spot where my pickup was hidden. He said goodbye and I got into my pickup. We went our separate ways.
No money changed hands.
Lara
A week went by in the hospital. Kit and I never talked about that day. I knew he didn’t want to stress me and it suited me fine because I knew I wanted to wait until I was at his home before I told him my decision. Today was my last day at the hospital and Kit had gone to get some medication when a man came in.
“Hello, Lara,” he greeted. His voice was cultured, but steely. “You don’t know me, but I’m Rhett. Rhett Haverbrooke.”
I drew my breath in so sharply it hurt my lung. I relaxed my body and took a few shallow breaths.
“I’m sorry if I startled you,” he said, coming closer.
“What do you want?” I asked suspiciously. I didn’t want any trouble with Mr. Haverbrooke’s powerful family.
“I wanted to thank you.”
My body stilled with astonishment. “Thank me? For what?”
“For taking care of my problem.”
I frowned. “Problem? What problem?”
“My daughter was about to marry a worthless gold-digger. Nothing I could say would make her change her mind. Sheriff Bradley tells me thanks to you, young lady, he seems to have completely disappeared from the scene. Run away with his tail between his l
egs.”
“Oh, that,” I said softly. “Yes, it is a good thing Kayleigh did not marry him. He was not a good man.”
“Well,” he breathed out. “I thought I’d drop by and let you know that I’d like to return the favor. If ever you are in need of something, don’t hesitate to call on me. If you need anything at all. Money? Whatever? Just contact me.”
I shook my head. “Thank you kindly, but I don’t need anything, Mr. Haverbrooke.” Then I stopped. “Actually, I do need something. Do you have connections in Hollywood?”
“I believe I do,” Mr. Haverbrooke said, and I could hear the smile on his face.
“Good, because I’ve got a friend that could do with a bit of help. You mustn’t tell her though. It has to be done in secret.”
“Well then, it’ll be our little secret,” he said as Kit came into the room.
“You must be Kit. I’m Rhett,” he said civilly.
“Pleased to meet you,” Kit said, but his voice was cold and hard.
“The pleasure is all mine. You and Lara should come around for dinner. Meet my wife and daughter.”
“I’m not one for going out much, Rhett, but thank you kindly for the offer.”
“Well, I’ll be going then. Good day to both of you.”
“I’ll contact you about my friend. Her name is Elaine.”
“What was that about?” Kit asked me.
I gleefully told him about Rhett Haverbrooke’s offer to help.
A nurse pushed me out of the hospital in a wheelchair, and Kit helped me into the pickup.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Remember, if at any time you feel shortness of breath, sudden sharp chest pain, fever over 101° or the incision starts weeping, tell me immediately because we have to go back to the hospital,” he said worriedly.
His Frozen Heart: A Mountain Man Romance Page 32
