by Rachel Lee
“Or a moose.”
“We can hang out here for a while. There’s no telling what might come along.”
She was more than glad to do exactly that, especially when he put his arm around her and hugged her to his side.
She couldn’t think of a better way to spend the morning.
They saw another, smaller herd of pronghorn before Dom judged it time to leave. “We can come back up this evening or in the morning, if you like. Or we can just go back to the house.”
She thought about that as they walked back to the horses. She enjoyed being totally alone out here with Dom, but she enjoyed the ranch, too. Except at the ranch there would be inevitable distractions. The thought that Dom could ignore his horses, their needs and their training if they were nearby struck her as unlikely at best.
She wanted him all to herself for another day, however selfish that might be. Another day to see him smile, to talk about nothing of importance, to give in to the desire that seemed to steam between them even now as they walked through the woods. Somehow she was certain it wouldn’t be quite as easy back at his ranch, even though the boys were at their grandparents.
Returning there would remind her of how soon she needed to leave.
“I’d like to stay,” she said honestly. But even as she said it, another thought surprised her. “I miss Kyle and Todd!”
“I do, too. But this is their weekend to have fun and forget the ranch.”
She turned to look at him. “Then let’s make it that kind of weekend for you, too.”
A smile lit his face. “You got it, lady.” He gave her bottom a playful swat and she squeaked.
“I’m not one of your horses,” she said with mock severity.
“Ah, but it’s such a pleasure to ride you!”
Her cheeks burned instantly. But another fire, one that had only been banked by last night, was flaring, too. Evidently he saw it in her face, because his eyes darkened.
It was a race to get back to the line shack.
During the late afternoon, clouds moved in and the weather turned unexpectedly chilly. They cuddled around the Franklin stove, drinking coffee and eating canned soup and crackers.
“It was supposed to be clear all weekend,” Dom remarked. “I guess this should blow through quickly.”
Courtney listened to wind whistle through chinks in the cabin. “What about the horses?”
“You’re beginning to sound ranch-bred.” He smiled. “They’ll be fine. They’ll find a protected spot in the trees.”
He had unsaddled them this time and brought the saddles and tack inside where the saddles now made decent, if hard, pillows. The saddle blankets themselves were coarse, and not the kind of thing she wanted against her skin.
Of course, tucked into the sleeping bag as she was, the only thing she was wearing was her sweatshirt to keep her shoulders warm.
“Did you ever hear that old joke?” she asked him. “About the lady who wanted the hem of all her nightgowns edged with fur?”
“Sounds familiar, but I’m not sure.”
“Well, her dressmaker asked her why she wanted the fur around her ankles since they’d be tucked under the covers. And the lady answered, ‘My dear, the fur keeps my neck warm.’”
Dom laughed, his eyes dancing.
“Yeah, my mother told me that one,” Courtney said. “I didn’t get how risqué it was because I was so young. I thought she was referring to nightgown creep.”
“They do tend to work their way up.”
Courtney pursed her lips in a pretense of priggishness. “They do creep up…even without assistance.”
Dom laughed again and grabbed her, rolling her onto her back so that he was propped over her. His face gentled suddenly, and he smoothed her hair back from her face. “You’re beautiful,” he murmured. “You seem to be getting more beautiful with every day.”
“You’re just getting used to me.”
“Then I wouldn’t notice that you seem more beautiful.”
She bit her lip, unsure how to reply. The joking atmosphere had vanished. Something rattled as the wind gusted and Dom looked up. He waited a moment, listening, then bent to drop a kiss on her lips. Just a light, gentle one. After the way they’d spent the afternoon, the passion seemed to have quieted at last, growing soft, like glowing embers rather than leaping flames.
He rolled a little so that he was propped on his elbow and she was free to move if she chose. Yet he was still close enough for her to reach out and touch. She liked that.
“Need anything?” he asked.
“I’m fine.” She stirred a little and felt the bulge of her weapon, hidden under the edge of the tarp again. She wondered if he’d figured it out by now, and wondered why she was still concealing it.
Then she knew. It was a link to a life he didn’t seem to fully approve of. Her throat tightened a bit, and she couldn’t help asking, “Do you disapprove of me?”
“Whatever gave you that idea?” He sounded astonished.
“What you said last night about justice. About what could happen to the twins if they found out their mother was murdered.”
“I don’t disapprove of you. I don’t even disapprove of what you’re doing.” His eyes narrowed a bit as if he were weighing what he wanted to say. She waited, wondering if she was about to get hurt.
“I don’t object to justice,” he said slowly. “I don’t object to those guys being brought to justice. If they were willing to do those things, they certainly shouldn’t be walking free.”
“Then what?”
“I told you my thinking. I don’t want my kids to look at that flag and see a betrayal of the worst kind. That’s a kind of innocence I don’t want them to lose. At least not at this age.”
She drew a deep breath. “I can honestly understand that.”
“I suppose you can, after what happened to your dad.”
“I remember his funeral. Every cop who could get away for hundreds of miles around was there. I remember the bagpipes. I can’t hear bagpipes to this day without crying. Do Kyle and Todd remember the honors Mary received?”
“Some of them, I’m sure. I had a videographer record it for them, but I’ve never played it. Maybe someday they will.”
“Maybe. You’re right, I don’t want to take that from them. And right now, I’m not even sure I could.”
“Because of your suspect?”
“Some people are golden. They’re untouchable, essentially, unless you can marshal enough evidence to get past all the roadblocks. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“Can you live with that?”
“I have to. And I’m leaving on Monday so you can get back to your lives. So I can get back to mine.”
He hesitated. “Yes, you do. Anything else would be impractical.”
So all this was just impractical. He couldn’t have chosen a better word to make her feel like dung. She forced herself to agree, though, hoping there was no edge in her voice. “It is.”
“Yeah.” He fell silent, leaving her to wonder where his thoughts roamed.
Her heart hurt, but didn’t want him to know that. She had some pride. “We’re just having a fling.” Never mind that it almost killed her to categorize it that way. Never mind that she figured she was already in well over her head. He clearly wanted only to enjoy her and be done with her.
“Yeah,” he said again. But when he reached for her, she pulled away.
“And I think it’s over,” she said shortly. They didn’t pass another unnecessary word.
Morning dawned cold and gray. Over coffee and breakfast, they talked about what to do.
“I’m satisfied with what I saw yesterday,” she told him. “It was fantastic. But it’s cold out there and what if it rains?” Frankly, being alone with him made her feel irritable because all that remained was pain. In the morning she’d be gone, putting this place behind her before its tendrils could wrap around her heart any tighter. And, God knew, she didn’t want to give him an
y more than she already had.
“I’ve got ponchos. You never travel out here without proper gear because the farther you get into the mountains the faster the weather can change. But I agree, there’s a chance we might just get cold and wet. We can do this again sometime, if you ever want to come back.”
If she wanted to come back? Not likely now. Hadn’t he already said this was impractical? So his invitation to return was mere courtesy. And that made her feel even grumpier.
They were taking the same path home that they had followed up the mountain, but now in the brighter morning light as the clouds began to burn off, Courtney could see more of it. She loved the countryside hereabouts, the shift that was almost sudden from the flat ranchland into high mountains. She loved the fresh, dry air that sparkled with the aroma of fir trees. Around every bend in the trail she discovered some new feast for her eyes.
She caught sight of something in the woods at the same time Marti snorted and bobbed her head. “Dom? Dom…what was that?”
He drew up and looked at her. “What?”
“I saw something in the woods. Maybe a wolf?”
“What did it look like?”
“It was hard to see. Mostly gray with some white.”
“Maybe it was a wolf.” He eyed Marti. “She looks nervous. She must have caught a whiff of something. Come on, let’s go a little faster to settle her down.”
He picked up his speed and Marti followed instinctively. Courtney discovered with pleasure that she was keeping her seat more naturally and comfortably than a week ago. This was kind of neat.
At that instant something happened. At first she couldn’t tell what, but Dom suddenly fell back so that he was a little behind her.
“Arnett’s spooked,” she heard him mutter. Immediately she thought of the wolf.
But suddenly his mount reared, screaming, Marti pivoted sideways, and she watched in horror as Dom was almost thrown. Then in almost no time at all, the horse began to stumble. Dom was out of his saddle and on the ground in an eyeblink.
That’s when she heard the report echo around her. At once she slipped from her own saddle, hitting the ground, hanging on to her rein and she hurried over to Dom.
“Get down,” she said to him, pushing at him.
He crouched immediately and hurried to his horse, which had fallen on its side, screaming and writhing.
“Dom.”
“You get down,” he snapped. “Now!”
She was already doing so, crouching so low that boulders and bushes should conceal her from almost any direction. Marti yanked on the lead rein, her eyes rolling, and she bucked once before coming to a standstill, shivering.
God, Courtney thought, the horse was exposed. But how did you get a horse to lie down?
She turned to see what Dom was doing and gasped in horror. He had his shotgun in his hands and was standing over his horse.
“Dom, get down.”
“Shut up,” he growled. “Some things are too important to put off.” With a twisted face, he put the barrel of his gun to the horse’s head and fired. Arnett fell still.
“Get over here but keep down,” Dom ordered. His voice cracked. She was already on her way, fighting Marti who didn’t want to get any closer to Arnett. At last she lay on the ground beside Dom.
He crouched beside her, and he didn’t say a word when she felt under her sweatshirt and pulled out her service weapon.
“That,” he said grimly, “was no hunter.”
No, she thought. They’d been talking. They couldn’t possibly have looked like deer, or antelope or anything else you might hunt around here.
Dom pointed to Arnett’s flank. There was no mistaking the bullet’s entry wound. Then he pointed upslope toward the trees. “It came from there.”
She started drawing lines in her head, and felt a chill race down her back. “It was supposed to hit me. If Arnett hadn’t spooked…”
“That’s my guess.”
She tightened her grip on her Glock 17 and scanned the area. “We’re not going to see him. Judging by the delay between Arnett’s reaction and the sound of the gunshot, he’s shooting from quite a distance.”
“Yes. But he’s got to know he missed.”
“God, Dom, you shouldn’t have stood up like that. He might have taken you out!”
“I couldn’t let Arnett suffer.” His tone was flat, concealing what she was sure was a world of anger and pain. She’d seen him with Arnett enough to know he held that horse in special affection. “There are some things you need to understand, and that’s one of them.”
She bridled a bit, but not much. Her attention was focused elsewhere, on the shooter and what they needed to do now. All her training argued against her heart, and she had to let training win, no matter what Dom said, no matter that he made her feel stupid in some way.
“Marti,” she said. “What about Marti?”
“I don’t think he’s going to shoot another horse. But we have to figure out what to do fast, because he’s probably coming closer. How far away do you think he was?”
Courtney had shifted into action mode, and all her recent training took over, shoving fear and everything else into the background. “I didn’t time it. Far enough for us to make a break as long as he doesn’t shoot again immediately. We’ve got to make it into the trees.”
“Yeah.” They both scanned the area around. Courtney pointed at what she thought was the shortest route.
“Maybe,” Dom replied. “Keep your eyes peeled. I need to reload.”
She kept watch over the side of the dead horse, her pistol at ready. Marti shifted impatiently, blocking her view, but at the same time she blocked the view of whoever hunted them.
“I know these guys, Dom,” she said rapidly, wanting to fill him in. It was instinct: tell your partner everything. “They can move through the woods like wraiths. I’m just surprised he missed me. But he’s not going to quit until he finishes the job. Not now.”
For a moment, angry eyes met hers. “You were so sure nobody could find you.” He bent back to slip shells into his shotgun.
She had to batter down another urge to fight with him. Adrenaline, she told herself. It was just adrenaline. Be rational. “I was,” she said. “And even so, damn it, I was sure nobody would come after me when there was a witness.”
“Apparently you were wrong.”
She refused to answer. What was happening right now didn’t make a whole lot of sense, they were both angry because they were filled with adrenaline, so let it go. Especially since Dom had plenty of reason to be upset about Arnett.
Dom spoke as he snapped his shotgun closed. “So okay. He’s coming and we’ve got to take care of him. Our best advantage is that I know these mountains like the back of my hand. He won’t. He can’t possibly.”
“No. But he’ll be good anyway.”
“Not as good as knowing where everything is, not as good as navigating the thick growth like it’s your own backyard. Because it is my backyard. No navigation equipment he might have will give him an edge over me.”
“Maybe not. But these guys are trained to handle all kinds of terrain. It won’t slow him much.”
“But it might slow him enough.” Dom sounded grim. Then he rolled over onto his stomach, looking around.
She spoke. “He’s going to hunt us all the way down.”
“Then we need to set a trap. And one thing for sure, help will be on its way soon.”
“How can you know that?”
“Because if I’m late picking up my kids, Mary’s folks will call out the posse. I’m never late. But I’m going to send a message anyway.”
“How so? We don’t have a radio.”
He smiled darkly. “We have a horse.”
He took the lead rein from Courtney’s hand and coaxed a terrified Marti closer. “You’re going to be all the message I need, Marti.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m going to send her home. When she arrives, Ted will know
something’s wrong. And he knows exactly where we came and by what route.”
Courtney protested as Dom rose to his knees, but he ignored her. “Dom, we need her. We can move faster.”
He ignored her and unhooked the reins from Marti so she wouldn’t get tangled on anything, then wrapped them in a loop around his shoulder. He held her by her bridle.
“Okay, she’s going to cover us as we go to the trees.”
“Dom…”
He looked at her, his eyes as flat as slate. “I don’t want anything to happen to her, either. But even less do I want anything to happen to you. So this is how we play it. Whoever that shooter is, he could take us both out while we try to mount Marti. This is it.”
Finally, she nodded, hating the good sense of his argument but recognizing he was right.
“Hold her bridle for minute.”
Courtney stretched up an arm and slipped her fingers through it. “Poor girl,” she murmured. “Poor Marti.”
Dom, lying on his side, opened a saddlebag and pulled out some more shells, stuffing them in his jacket pockets. Then he took the rope he had looped on his saddle and added that to the reins on his shoulder. “Okay. We’re ready. When I say go, we get up and head for those trees fast. Keep the barrel of Marti’s body between you and the upslope. Understand?”
“Yes.”
She understood perfectly. What he was asking of her was part of her training. She just didn’t like having to use Marti as a shield, but she couldn’t afford to think about that too much. Not now. Not when Dom was every bit as much risk as she.
Her mind had begun to work at top speed, the way it did when she was on a mission. One after another she weighed possible actions the shooter might take, considered the things he would be concerned about. Shoved her feelings far into the background.
“Now,” said Dom.
As one they stood, keeping Marti between them and the shooter somewhere above them. Ducking beside the horse, all of them moving fast, Courtney felt as if she were running on automatic, as if she’d prepared for exactly this moment. And maybe that’s what she’d been doing in Georgia.
Then they were in the woods, in a thick stand of pines. Unfortunately there was little ground cover, but there were a lot of shadows.
