by R. C. Ryan
“Not that you’re jealous or anything. But I am, after all, his baby forever.”
Josh chuckled. “I’m sure glad my babysitting days are over.”
“You.” Quinn shook his head. “What about me?” His voice took on a perfect imitation of their grandfather’s growl. “ ‘Quinn, take your little brother along. Don’t let him out of your sight, boyo. Did you let Jake ride that ornery stallion? Shame on you, boyo.’ ” He chuckled. “I’m surprised he and Pa didn’t ask me to take you along on my dates.”
“You went on dates? With girls?” Jake pretended to be shocked.
Josh and Quinn shared a laugh.
Josh nudged his brother. “You had him fooled, Bro.” He turned to Jake. “I bet you thought he was tracking wolves whenever he slipped away after dark.”
“And just who were you seeing?” Jake demanded.
Quinn put a finger to his lips. “Some things are better left a secret, little bro. But I will tell you this: Francine Hurly may be one of the best kissers in all of Wyoming.”
“Fancy Francie? You actually dated her?”
“I don’t know if you could call it a date. But whenever we met in her daddy’s barn, we used to melt the snow for a hundred yards or more in all directions.”
After sharing a laugh, Jake shook his head. “And I thought I was the only one Francie ever kissed.”
“Francie kissed every guy in this part of Wyoming. But what about your wild fling with that flame-haired niece of Flora’s when you were sixteen?”
Jake’s smile faded, as he remembered his first mad crush. “She was dating three guys in town and telling me I was her one true love.”
“As I recall, Bro, you moped around for days after you found out about the other guys.”
Quinn nodded. “And when Phoebe found us teasing you, she ordered us out of the room so she could have a little talk with you about life.”
Jake’s frown turned into a smile at the memory. “And Phoebe became some kind of mama grizzly, even ordering Pa and Big Jim out of the house, as well. And the next thing I knew, I was telling her everything. And she told me that I’d just experienced an important life lesson. Hearts, she told me, were very resilient organs. They could be broken again and again and, given enough time, would eventually heal.”
“Good for Phoebe.” Quinn put a hand to his heart. “I wonder why she didn’t tell me the same thing when Francie dumped me for one of her daddy’s ranch hands?”
“Maybe because you never bothered to confide in her.” Jake looked over at his oldest brother. “Did Francie break your heart?”
Quinn grinned. “The only thing she wounded was my ego. It wasn’t very cool to be dumped for a guy who was missing some teeth and a few brains, as well.”
The three shared a laugh.
“Anyway, I survived without Phoebe’s sage advice.”
“And moved on to college girls,” Josh added.
“Well, they did take the sting out of my bruised ego.”
While the fire burned low the three brothers continued nursing their beer and reminiscing together until at last, drained by the emotional events of the past few days, they were forced to give in to the need to sleep.
Quinn climbed the stairs to his old suite of rooms on the second floor.
Inside he kicked off his boots and stripped off his clothes before turning down the bed linens.
Before he could climb into bed he heard the distinct howl of a wolf. Low and mournful, it carried on the night air.
The sound always had the same effect on him. It shivered through his veins and seemed to touch his very soul.
He crossed to the window and leaned against the sill, watching the darkened silhouette against the snow on a distant hill. The very sight of the wild creature sent a thrill coursing along his spine.
He loved his family. There was no place he’d rather be than here on his ranch. But when he wasn’t needed here, there was no doubt where he would be found. Out there. On the trail with his pack.
CHAPTER THREE
Quinn framed the wolf in his long-range viewfinder and snapped off a couple of quick photos. The male’s coat, thick and shaggy, was matted with snow from the blizzard that had been raging now for three days.
After Quinn had left the ranch and returned to the mountain, it had taken considerable skill to locate the pack, despite the homing device implanted in the male. Cut off from their den by the storm and with the alpha female about to give birth, the pack had hunkered down in the shelter of some rocks near the top of a nearby hill. Since there’d been no sighting of the female, Quinn was fairly certain there would be a litter of pups before morning. That would create a problem for the leader of the pack, whose hunting ground had been narrowed considerably by the unexpected spring snowstorm. The alpha male would have to provide food and shelter for his pack, and all would have to wait out the storm before returning to their den.
Quinn saw the male’s attention fixed on something in the distance. Using his binoculars, Quinn studied the terrain. When he spied a small herd of deer nearly hidden in a stand of trees, he understood what had snagged the wolf’s interest.
The springtime blizzard had caught all of nature by surprise, it would seem. As Quinn watched, a doe dropped her newborn into the snow and began licking it clean of afterbirth.
Sadly, the doe and her fawn, in such a vulnerable state, would be the perfect mark for a hungry pack of wolves desperate for food during their own confinement.
The male wolf took up a predator position, dropping low as he crept slowly up the hill until he reached the very peak. For a moment he remained as still as a statue, gazing into the distance.
Quinn watched, transfixed. Even though he knew this would end in the bloody death of a helpless newborn fawn, he also knew that it would mean the difference between life and death for the pack of wolves unable to go forward until their own newborns were strong enough to travel. Their strength, their survival, depended upon sustenance. The female, too weak at the moment to hunt, would trust her leader to provide fresh meat while she nursed her young.
Quinn felt again the familiar thrill as he saw the alpha male rise up and begin to run full speed across the rim of the hill. The raw power, the fierce determination of this animal, never failed to touch a chord deep inside him.
The wolf dipped below the rim of the hill and was lost from sight.
Quinn experienced a rush of annoyance. He wanted to record the kill for his journal. But something had caused the wolf to veer off-course at the last moment. Snatching up his camera, Quinn was on his feet, racing up the hill, half-blinded by the curtain of snow that stung his face like shrapnel.
He was halfway up the hill when he heard the unmistakable sound of a rifle shot echo and reecho across the hills. It reverberated in his chest like a thunderous pulse.
Heart pounding, he ran full speed the rest of the distance.
When he came to the spot where the male had fallen, Quinn stared at the crimson snow, the beautiful body now silent and still, and felt a mingling of pain and rage rising up inside, clogging his throat, tightening a band around his heart until he had to struggle for each breath.
How dare anyone end such a magnificent life. Why?
He studied the prints left in the snow made by a single horse.
Far off in the distance, barely visible through the falling snow, was a tiny beam of light.
An isolated ranch house, it would seem.
Clouds scudded across the rising moon, leaving the countryside in near darkness.
Quinn knew that he needed to return to his campsite soon and settle in for the night or risk freezing. But he was determined to confront the rancher who had just robbed Quinn’s pack of its leader. A cruel act that had not only left the vulnerable female and her newborn pups without a guardian but had also cut short the scholarly research that had consumed the past five years of Quinn’s life.
With a heavy heart he turned away, knowing that by morning scavengers would have swept
the area clean of any trace of carnage. It was the way of nature.
Even if he were so inclined, there wasn’t time to dispose of the wolf’s body. Quinn needed to follow the tracks in the snow before the storm obliterated them completely. Already the surrounding countryside had fallen under the mantle of darkness.
He returned to his campsite and began to pack up his meager supplies. As he did so, anger rose up like bile, burning the back of his throat and eyes.
All attempts at scholarly disinterest were swept away in a tide of fury at the loss of the wolf Quinn had come to love.
He could no longer hide behind a professional wall of anonymity.
This was personal.
He needed, for his own satisfaction, to confront the rancher who had snuffed out the life of the creature that had consumed every minute of every day of his life for the past five years.
As he shouldered his supplies and began the trek in the darkness he found his thoughts turning to his father. There was no comparison between this despicable act and the horrible trauma Cole had suffered at losing Seraphine. Still, the loss was so deeply felt that it connected Quinn to Cole Conway in a way that nothing else ever had.
Was this how Cole had felt when he’d faced the greatest loss of his life? Had he been swamped with this helpless, hopeless sense that everything that he’d worked for had just been swept away by some cruel whim of fate?
Cole had been, in those early days, inconsolable. A man so grief stricken, even the love for his children and his father, Big Jim, hadn’t been able to lift him out of the depths of hell. Cole’s only coping mechanism had been to throw himself into every hard, physically demanding chore he could find around the ranch, many of which would have broken a less determined man.
Right this minute, Quinn would welcome any challenge that would lift him out of his own private hell.
Quinn moved through the waist-high drifts, keeping the light of the distant ranch house always in his sight.
Someone would answer for this vicious deed.
Someone would pay.
As Quinn drew close enough to peer through the falling snow, he could make out the sprawling ranch house and, some distance away, the first of several barns and outbuildings.
He was turning toward the house when he caught the glint of light in the barn. Pausing just outside the open door, he watched the rancher forking hay into a stall, where a horse stomped, blowing and snorting, as though winding down from a hard ride. The snow that coated the rancher’s parka and wide-brimmed hat was further proof that he’d just retreated from the blizzard that raged beyond these walls.
Quinn stepped inside, holding his rifle loosely at his side. It wasn’t his intention to threaten the rancher, merely to confront him. But right this minute, Quinn relished the thought of a good knock-down, drag-out fight. For one tiny instant he was that helpless boy again, confronting the rancher Porter Stanford as he’d gloated over the needless deaths of a wolf and her pups. Then Quinn snapped back to the present, though the thought of that long-ago scene had his voice lowering to a growl.
“I’m tracking a wolf-hating rancher. Looks like I found him.”
The figure whirled.
Quinn continued to keep his rifle pointed at the ground, though his finger tightened reflexively on the trigger when he caught the glint of metal as the rancher lifted the pitchfork in a menacing gesture.
“Who the hell do you think you are?”
Quinn blinked. The voice didn’t match the image he’d had of a tough Wyoming rancher. It was obviously female. Soft. Throaty. Breathless, as though she’d been running hard.
“My name is Quinn Conway. My spread’s about fifty miles east of here. And you’d be…?”
“Don’t act coy with me. You know who I am. You’re trespassing on my land. I’ll give you one minute to turn tail and leave, or you’ll answer to this.”
Quinn realized that, though her left hand continued to hold the pitchfork aloft, her right hand had dipped into the pocket of her parka and she was holding a very small, very shiny pistol aimed at his chest.
He lifted a hand, palm up. “I didn’t come here to hurt you.”
“Oh, sure. That’s why you burst into my barn holding a rifle?”
“I’m here to get some answers.”
“Sorry. I’m fresh out.” She tossed aside the pitchfork and in one quick motion pocketed the pistol and grabbed a rifle leaning against the wall. Taking careful aim, she hissed, “Now get, whoever you are. And tell Deke I have no intention of changing my mind. If he thinks he can send some bully—”
Quinn reacted so quickly she didn’t have time to blink. He kicked aside her rifle, sending it flying into the air. Before it landed in the hay he’d leaped at her, taking her down and pinning her arms and legs with such force beneath him that she was helpless to move anything except her head.
She let loose with a stream of oaths that would have withered a seasoned cowboy. That merely reinforced Quinn’s determination to pin her down until her fury ran its course.
In the process, his own anger seemed to intensify. He’d come here to confront a cold-blooded wolf killer. What he’d found was a crazy woman.
“Let me up.” Teeth clenched, she bucked and shuddered with impotent rage.
“Not until…” His breath was coming hard and fast and he found himself having to use every ounce of his strength to keep her pinned. In the process, he became aware of the soft curves beneath the parka, and the fresh, clean evergreen scent of her hair and clothes. “… you agree to give me some answers.”
“Go to hell.”
Damn her. He wanted to end this tussle, but she wasn’t going to make it easy for him. And the longer he lay on top of her, the more aware he became of the woman and less of the enemy he’d come here to confront. “You’re not going to cooperate?”
When she made no response he dug in, using his size and weight to intimidate. “You shot a wolf out there on the trail. I want to know why.”
“A wolf?” She stopped fighting him.
He absorbed a small measure of relief that she seemed to be relenting.
She was clearly out of breath. “What business is this of yours?”
“That wolf is my business.”
He saw her eyes go wide. “This is really about the wolf?”
“What did you think it was about?”
He saw the way she was studying him beneath half-lowered lashes and realized how he must look, hair wild and tangled, his face heavily bearded from his days on the trail.
He decided to take a calculated risk. Moving quickly, he got to his feet and held out a hand.
Ignoring his offer of help, she rolled aside and got her bearings before turning to face him.
Her hand went to the pocket where she’d stowed her pistol but didn’t dip inside, remaining instead where he could see it.
“Let’s start over.” He fought to keep the anger from his voice. “My name is Quinn Conway. I study the life cycle of wolves. I was tracking my pack when the alpha male was shot. I followed the shooter here. Now I want to know why a rancher would kill a wolf that was only hunting food for his pack.”
When she held her silence he arched a brow. “It’s your turn to introduce yourself and say… ‘My name is… I shot the wolf because…’ ”
“My name isn’t important, but the wolf is. It was threatening my herd. That’s what wolves do. And what smart ranchers do is shoot them before they can rip open a helpless calf.”
“My wolf was stalking a herd of deer.”
“Your wolf?” She eyed him suspiciously. “I didn’t realize he was a pet.”
“He isn’t. Wasn’t,” Quinn corrected. “He was, in fact, the object of years of scholarly research.”
“Uh-huh.” She shot him a look guaranteed to freeze a man’s heart at a hundred paces. “I wouldn’t know anything about scholarly research, but common sense told me he was about to take out one of my calves. And I got him before he could get to my herd. Now if you don
’t mind…” She turned away.
Before she could reach for her rifle Quinn caught her arm. “I don’t believe you. I saw the herd of deer.”
She yanked herself free of his grasp. “I don’t give a damn what you believe. I know what I saw.”
“Prove it.”
Her head came up sharply. “I don’t have to prove anything to you.”
“You already have. The fact that you’re a liar.”
Her eyes narrowed on him. “Look. I don’t care what you call me. I know what I saw.”
But even as she spoke, he could see the wheels turning as she cast a glance at the snow swirling in the darkness just beyond the barn. Neither of them was eager to face the blizzard. But neither of them was willing to concede that fact.
She took in a breath. “You can saddle up the mare over there.”
Without another word she turned away and began saddling the big roan stallion she’d been tending.
Quinn crossed to the other stall and began saddling the spotted mare.
When both horses were saddled and ready, Quinn and the woman moved out single file, into the stinging snow and darkness of night.
Each of them was carrying a rifle.
Neither of them was willing to give an inch until this trek was over.
In Quinn’s mind, it would end with this crazy woman admitting her mistake and apologizing for the wrong she’d done. Not that it would make anything right. The wolf would still be dead and his pack left without a leader. But for Quinn this was all about justice.
Once again he flashed back to that incident in his boyhood. He hadn’t been able to do anything about that female wolf and her pups. But things were different now. This time, he would have the satisfaction of knowing he’d done all he could to persuade at least one angry rancher to give the wolves of this world a fighting chance to survive.
CHAPTER FOUR
They rode the entire distance in silence. Quinn noted that the woman, riding ahead of him, was paying very careful attention to her surroundings. As though expecting at any moment to be attacked. By wolves? he wondered. Or by the person she’d named during their scuffle?
