Vetted

by K'Anne Meinel

  “Now, what?” Allyssa asked as things took a few days to conclude.

  “Now, we just keep watching,” Fiona told her. They were taking shifts, but it was hard with Fiona’s schedule. She couldn’t afford to be sleepy on the long drives. Still, it surprised her how far the rumors going around had spread, making it into nooks and crannies of the places she attended patients. Ranchers and farmers both saluted her efforts to keep thieves off her place, and a few commented she should have shot the men.

  * * * * *

  The house was nearly done: the roof was on, the rooms were getting finishing touches, and the siding was going up. They’d gone energy efficient wherever they could and that included bricks—real ones, not fake. Both were eagerly anticipating a finish date in the not too distant future.

  It was then that retaliation hit them. Someone started a fire in the house to draw them out. The yells had woken Allyssa, who was wondering where Fiona was and worrying. She was dressed in shorts and a sleeveless tee, not the attire to go running out in, but she didn’t forget to grab her pistol and sling on the rifle and shotgun.

  A bullet ricocheted off the fake lamps they used as lights on the porch of the cabin and Allyssa flattened herself. Having listened to Fiona and watched it on TV, she fired back toward the light where the gunfire had originated, firing off two quick shots. She was rewarded with a shout. She saw the flames licking at the new construction, her heart in her throat at all they had done, anticipating it going up in flames.

  She heard more gunfire down by the barn and assumed it was Fiona, but didn’t dare go running down there to see. Instead, she had moved immediately after firing her own rifle so she wouldn’t be pinned down. She slipped off the side of the porch, using it for protection as she tried to peer out through the darkness. They would have to assume anyone out there was ‘the enemy.’ Allyssa felt weird to be thinking like this and worrying about protecting her home with a gun. This city girl had come far.

  The flames licked up the new construction, lighting up the ranch yard. Allyssa looked around and thought she spotted movement by the garden and more movement by the spring house but held her fire. She didn’t want to shoot Fiona and logically thought it might be her at the spring house trying to pull a hose to fight the flames. She looked at the house again. No, it was going to be toast. Fiona would let it burn rather than put herself in danger. The two shadows she spotted had to be the enemy. Taking careful aim as she had learned with the targets Fiona had set up, she looked aside because looking directly into the dark wouldn’t work. The shadow by the garden moved slightly and the light from the burning house reflected just enough to expose him. In that instant, Allyssa saw he too had a rifle. She didn’t hesitate, she fired off two rounds as fast as she could and confirmed she had hit him before she moved again and looked for the shadow she had seen by the spring house.

  * * * * *

  Fiona had dozed off in the barn where she was keeping guard. She figured they would come eventually, but she didn’t know when and she didn’t know how. She knew that men or women like this would have to use their scare tactics or abandon their operation. There were a lot of cattle on the range. Not only those, but the ‘free’ horses would be too much temptation to their greed.

  It was about four in the morning when she saw movement. At first, she thought it was the dog up by the house, but then she remembered Rex was tied up in the barn for his own safety…and hopefully to wake her in the event of intruders. It was his low growl that had warned her something wasn’t right. She looked first with her eyes and then tried with her scope, knowing it was essentially useless in the dark. She saw fire flare up at the house. “Goddamnit,” she swore under her breath. The house was nearly done and she was just waiting to order the appliances and the furniture! She saw there were at least two men throwing gas on the house and the flames had been started by a third. She aimed and fired rapidly, hitting both men holding the gas cans. She didn’t see, and wouldn’t know until later, that they fell backwards, the gas pouring out on their own bodies and engulfing them in flames. The third man disappeared and then gunfire erupted, aimed at the loft where she was hiding. She rolled away quickly and sprang to her feet, running down the steps of the barn.

  Fiona heard the smaller rifle of her wife’s .22 go off a short time later. She hoped she hit something with it; it could still kill. Hearing a scurrying in the barn, she glanced down at the dog who was looking out at the farmyard. Someone was still there. The dog also heard the scurrying and turned. Fiona dropped and someone went flying over her, his legs hitting her head and knocking her down. Rex lunged and growled as he leapt at the figure, but was pulled up short by his rope. Fiona pulled the knife from her belt and cut the rope while she was down before getting up and following the released dog. Her would-be attacker was fighting off the dog and Fiona let that commotion distract anyone who might be watching, so she could escape the barn. She slipped up to her truck and slowly eased her way around it.

  She saw someone over by the spring house and simultaneously she and Allyssa opened fire on the shadow that appeared. They both saw the body jerk and fall to the ground.

  “Jake? JAKE!” a voice called, and Fiona had no trouble turning toward the voice and shooting sight unseen. She wasn’t sure she hit anything, but whoever was out in the dark had come to destroy, and she wasn’t taking prisoners. This was her home and she was going to protect it. She heard the screams of the man Rex had taken on in front of the barn and ignored it as she moved closer to the cabin.

  “Fiona?” Allyssa’s voice whispered hesitantly. Fiona spun, sure that her wife had a gun trained on her just in case. “Yeah,” she whispered back and was relieved to see her slipping up to the shed.

  “How many do you think?” Allyssa asked, barely audible. It was hard to hear over the screams of the man and the roar of the flames.

  “No idea,” she admitted. That was the problem, they had no idea.

  “Think you can get to the phone?” Fiona breathed in her ear as she came close enough.

  “How about the one in the barn?”

  Fiona, rather than answer, began to make her way back to the large structure. They stayed to the shadows, but because she was close to her Fiona could clearly see the white t-shirt and shorts her wife had worn to bed. She hoped no one would shoot her. They skirted the scuffling dog and trespasser, and Fiona stayed to guard the entrance as Allyssa made the call to 911. She heard her say, “Shots fired,” and, “Falling Pines Ranch,” as well as, “Sheriff and state police.”

  Whoever was on the phone wanted her to stay, but Allyssa wasn’t about to. She was going to stand by her wife.

  The man by the front of the barn was quiet now and Rex was standing over him, unsure what to do with him now that he had him. A shot rang out and the dog yelped in pain.

  “Goddamnit,” Fiona swore again and grabbed Allyssa’s arm in time to keep her from rushing to the now down and crying dog. “Wait, you can’t go out there…not yet.”

  They stood in the shadows of the great barn. The dog was crying piteously. The man was moaning, which showed he was still alive, and the dog hadn’t killed him. Whoever had fired that shot was out in the dark and they still didn’t know if there were others. The sun was coming up and all they could do was wait.

  “We can’t let Rex die.” Allyssa started to cry.

  “Hold yourself together. We have no choice,” Fiona said harshly. She couldn’t stand the whimpers coming from their beloved dog either, but she wasn’t going to risk her life or her wife’s life for him. Whoever had shot the dog was just waiting for them to be foolish.

  The sun had just come over the hills to the east of them, outlining the higher mountains and creating long shadows, when they heard a voice. “Doc, you and the Mrs. might as well come outta there. You know we’re gonna burn this place to the ground and leave no traces.”

  “Who do you think that is?” Fiona asked Allyssa quietly, not willing to give away their position. She tried looking out. It
was so much lighter, and maybe she could spot someone and put him out of his misery. They could clearly see the man lying on the ground and the dog a few feet beyond. They were both breathing laboriously, but obviously not going anywhere.

  “That voice sounds familiar. I know I’ve heard it somewhere,” Allyssa said with conviction, trying to remember where.

  “Think it’s Toby?”

  Allyssa shook her head, certain it was not. “No, he had a deeper voice, more gravelly.” Used to listening to people on the phone, she had developed techniques to remember their clients and greet them by name. Caller ID only helped so much. “Let’s get him talking some more and maybe we can place him.”

  Allyssa had no idea the double entendre she had just made, but Fiona did and grinned appreciatively. If they could place him, they could shoot him. If she identified him, they could have him arrested. She was certain they would do exactly what he said and burn this place to the ground, leaving no witnesses and no evidence.

  “Yeah, right,” she called in a derisive voice. In the early morning light, she pointed toward the steps, indicating for her wife to take them, but was annoyed when Allyssa shook her head and nodded towards the other entrance of the barn, turning her back to her wife as she headed towards it. She looked odd with the pistol clipped to her shorts band and a shotgun looped over one shoulder, a rifle in her hands, and barefoot.

  “C’mon, you shoulda just turned a blind eye to what we were doing. We coulda let you in on a good deal,” the voice answered, but it had moved. That was a good move on his part, so Fiona couldn’t get a bead on him.

  “You never offered me terms,” she called out, looking closer at the man who had fallen and the dog, checking to be sure they were breathing before she scanned the rapidly lightening ranch yard. She was going to install a light or two when all this was done, assuming she got out of this alive. She thought of Allyssa then and the danger she was in and her heart clenched, her throat cut off, threatening to choke her.

  “Welll,” he drawled, drawing it out and sounding like a real hick, “You were too damn ethical, just like those grandparents of your’n. If they had just cooperated...” he added.

  At that moment, Fiona and Allyssa both realized that the deaths of her grandparents hadn’t been accidental. The voice was becoming increasingly familiar to Fiona, but she still couldn’t figure out who it was. She was certain it was someone she knew, but she knew a lot of people from her travels around the countryside for work. The voice was niggling at her consciousness. She knew it, she just couldn’t place it.

  It was then Fiona became aware that someone else was in the barn with her. She whirled in time to see a gun on her. The person had used her distraction outside the barn to slip up on her. He’d let her wife slip out the same door he had used to slip in. He knew the thick walls of the barn would protect her and shooting it out with her wouldn’t be to their benefit. He shot as soon as she turned, but he missed. Fiona’s shot didn’t miss; however, it wasn’t fatal. Fiona walked towards the man, keeping her back to the wall of the surgery stall as she watched him. He groaned, trying to reach for his gun, but she kicked it out of his reach. Quickly, she frisked him, removing the knife from his belt and finding no other weapons on him. Using piggin’ strings that she carried for an assortment of jobs, she tied his hands behind him and then tied his knees together. She would have tied his feet together, but thought he’d slip out of his boots.

  “Jeezus, help me,” he pleaded, but she ignored him as she yanked his hands together and then turned him on his back again.

  “It’s just a flesh wound,” she told him, looking at the line of bleeding flesh on his hip. Her turn, the fact that she was in darkness, and his moving had saved his life. Otherwise, she would have hit him in the belly, and that would have been a horrible way to die. Still, she ripped his shirt and tucked it between his jeans and the belt holding them up to pad the wound and slow the bleeding. She was more concerned about whoever was outside. Just then, she heard a shotgun blast and a man’s agonizing scream. She cautiously bolted to the door to look out.

  * * * * *

  Allyssa had left through the back door of the barn, but certain that whoever was talking was in front of the barn, she slipped around the sheds, the truck, and the cabin to peer anxiously towards the burning house and the spring house. Nothing other than the house was in danger of burning, but she was certain whoever was talking was in or near the spring house. That voice bothered her. She knew that person; knew she had met him.

  She glanced around, and at the sound of shots being fired in the barn she watched for anyone to make themselves known. The person in the spring house made to run across the yard and she pulled her shotgun, unsure how many bullets were in the rifle and forgetting her pistol. “Banker,” she called as she identified the voice and the man. He’d only gotten about five long footsteps before she confronted him. Charlie Hutchins had been in on a good deal. He’d not only helped these men acquire land and cattle over the years, but also helped hide them. He knew all the banking business around and could direct them. When the older Herriot began to sell off their stock, it had alerted him to this area of the country. After a couple of years, when he was sure the grass had grown up, he had alerted Toby and his men. Toby had approached the elderly couple a few times, had tried intimidation and threats, but they had been feisty, so one of his men had rigged an ‘accident’ in the house and burned it to the ground…with the old people inside. And then, the son hadn’t inherited, the granddaughter had…and she had brought a wife with her. That was not only unnatural but immoral in his eyes. As he saw the younger dyke, his gun came up to fire. Allyssa shot him with the shotgun. The spray took him right in the chest. A few of the pellets went across his neck and face, but it threw him to the ground and he lay dying, his gun thrown from his hand.

  * * * * *

  “You okay?” Fiona called as she came cautiously from the barn, looking about as she approached her wife and saw what she had done.

  Allyssa nodded, but she was swallowing. A shotgun blast was not pretty and he was bleeding out. There was no hope for him. She finally looked away from the gruesome sight.

  “We have to look...” Fiona began, but Allyssa interrupted her. “I got it. You take care of Rex,” she said firmly, still swallowing but determined as she broke open the shotgun and slipped in another cartridge.

  Fiona watched her wife walk firmly away on her bare feet towards the spring house with her jaw hanging open. She had never thought to see the city girl look or act like this. She turned back to the barn and their dog.

  “Help me,” gasped the man the dog had attacked. He was quite lacerated from the dog’s teeth. Fiona flipped him on his stomach and tied his hands behind his back and his knees together, using up the last of her piggin’ strings. Looking around the yard, she saw that Allyssa was done at the spring house. She inspected the garden for a moment and headed towards the still burning house. She glanced around the other buildings, wondering if there were any more men hiding and then she picked the dog up in her arms and hurried him into the surgery.

  * * * * *

  After a trip to the emergency room, Toby Colbert and the man Rex had ripped up, who was later identified as Tucker Blackwell, were charged with a whole list of things including: assault with a deadly weapon, murder, rustling, and a host of other charges the sheriff was going to heap on him and try to make stick. And that was before the Bureau of Land Management hefted federal charges on them for the mustangs.

  The body bags that were taken from the Falling Pines Ranch told their own tale, and after the sheriff and the state police took their reports, no charges were to be filed against the two women. They had, after all, been defending themselves.

  Rex would recover, but the bullet hit a rib and grazed his spine, causing temporary paralysis. He was bandaged up and lying groggily on the steps of the cabin where he would stay for weeks. He was also getting used to a sling and having his owner walk him to his favorite peeing bus
hes again…it wasn’t his first go-around with a severe injury.

  The sheriff had just left, as had the insurance adjuster who promised a quick turnaround on the paperwork. It was clearly arson, but not by the two ranchers, and with the state police and the sheriff backing up their story, the insurance company would process their claim promptly. The builder was going to come out tomorrow to get it rolling once again. They’d do it all the same with only a few adjustments, which included built-in solar-powered sprinklers.

  As Fiona and Allyssa stood silently beside each other looking at the ruins of their house, they leaned into each other. As they turned to look around the ranch yard, they saw the pile of rubble they would have to dig out again. The fire had burned hot enough to destroy the foundations. They sighed, each lost in their own thoughts.

  “Gonna stick it out with me, partner?” Fiona asked, looking up at her wife who had her arm around her.

  “We’re gonna rebuild,” she mimicked her wife’s accent, which was much more western than her own.

  They both gazed at the old cabin with the dog on the porch watching them sorrowfully, a cushion around his neck, then turned to take in the large barn and the outbuildings. Two horses and a llama looked at them from their corrals, watching to see what their humans would do next. The two women looked out at the rolling hills, then up at the high mountains. Both, at the same time, squeezed the other tighter in agreement.

  THE END

  If you have enjoyed VETTED by K’Anne Meinel, we have included a couple of chapters from her best-selling novel: DOCTORED for your enjoyment:

  A brilliant child protégée, she dreams of becoming a doctor and a surgeon…and accomplishes her goals. Unfortunately, her youth and round, child-like face work against her. No matter how skilled she becomes, how knowledgeable, the old school, male-dominated medical hierarchy wants to keep her in ‘her place.’