Midnight Prey

by Caroline Burnes

  Footsteps approached the kitchen and she heard Billy clear his throat. He shut the door for a moment’s privacy with her.

  “Scrapiron’s fine, Shadoe. Hank caught him up in Ryland’s pasture. You’ll have to get together with Kyle and check his mares. I don’t think he’ll be too upset if Scrapiron bred a few of them.”

  “Tell Mr. Emrich he has my thanks. Then ask him to leave.” Shadoe couldn’t help the anger in her voice.

  “I couldn’t walk in and leave him standing in the barnyard.” Billy tried to lift her chin but she jerked her head away.

  Shadoe knew her feelings of betrayal were stupid. Worse than dumb, they were inaccurate. Billy hadn’t chosen Hank over her, he was just being a reasonable, warm man. Like he always had been. But every issue around Hank was fraught with emotion. Shadoe had deceived herself that she’d put him behind her long ago.

  “How about that coffee?” Billy got mugs out of the cabinet and began pouring them full. “We could all use a cup. Doc and I have to get back to town and I don’t want to fall asleep on the drive.”

  Shadoe twitched with guilt at his words. He’d driven halfway up the mountain to come to her rescue and now she was treating him as if she were angry with him. She walked up behind him and gave him a quick hug. “Sorry, Billy. I guess I’m acting like a fool.”

  He didn’t turn around, but kept preparing the coffee tray. “Not at all, honey. You’re acting like someone who’s been hurt. Sometimes a wound doesn’t always heal clean. Sad to say, but there are some things that will always give you a twitch or a twinge. The trick is to keep going forward. You can’t let those little twinges stop your life.”

  She hugged him again and let him go. “Well, I’m going to keep going. I think I owe Hank at least a thank you for finding my horse.”

  Billy picked up the tray. “And I want to ask him some questions about the intruder. You said Hank had been following him?”

  “That’s what he said.” Shadoe disappeared through the door, going to the den where Hank and Doc stood before the fire.

  The sight of Hank, standing with his back to the flames, was so natural that past and present were momentarily confused and she stopped. It took only a few seconds for her to see the differences, and they were significant. Hank had been seventeen when he’d been as much a part of her life as her father or brother Joey. He’d spent almost every evening of his senior year in high school sitting in the den with the family or standing in front of that same fireplace, warming his back, as he and her father had talked about the mountains, about the vast wilderness land that bordered the Double S. About life and history and a way of believing. About a future where Hank and Shadoe would be a team.

  Billy put down the tray and left, and Shadoe walked forward and offered coffee to Doc, then Hank. She looked down as he put the one spoon of sugar in his cup, unable to meet his gaze.

  “Hank’s turned into a man,” Doc said to break the silence that filled the room with an electric tension.

  At last Shadoe looked up and met Hank’s dark blue gaze. “Yes, he has.” She could say that truthfully. He was very much a man. She hadn’t caught a clear look at him in the barn, but she could see him now, and he was strikingly handsome. She turned to put the tray on a table and lifted her own coffee cup.

  Tall, blond, broad-shouldered with a quiet confidence, he was everything she had once dreamed he would be. Gone was the lanky, awkward boy with the sincere brown eyes and the hesitant smile. Twenty years had given Hank his maturity, and an abundance of poise. She swallowed.

  “Shadoe has grown up, too.”

  Hank’s words brought her back around to face him. His voice was deeper, his words slower, but it was a voice she now recognized. She felt as if she were standing nude before him and his voice was a touch.

  Hank spoke again. “She’s every inch a woman, though she could use some training in how to handle a shotgun.”

  His remark was like a slap, and it effectively startled her out of the past. “You never did tell me why you were following the man who turned Scrapiron loose.” She lifted her chin and held her gaze steady with his. She wouldn’t back down. He couldn t make her. Not this time.

  “In case you haven’t heard, not everyone in these parts is real excited about the prospect of those wolves.” Hank’s brown eyes drilled into her as he spoke. “We’ve established our camp up on the mountain, and we’ve been having a little unwanted company.”

  Hank let the words hang in the air. When he’d first returned to Athens, he’d heard that someone had moved into the Double S ranch. He hadn’t believed the rumors that it was Shadoe Deerman. Even when his initial investigation showed that a thirty-six-year-old female named Shadoe Deerman was involved in the movement to stop the release of the timber wolves, he hadn’t acknowledged it. He actually hadn’t believed it until he’d seen her in the barn this very night. And then he hadn’t wanted to believe it because every instinct he had told him Shadoe and the man he’d been following were somehow involved.

  The fact that her prized stallion had been turned loose hadn’t changed his mind about that, either.

  Hank’s unspoken accusation was like gasoline on a fire. “Are you insinuating that some of the ranchers have been fooling around your camp?” Shadoe took a deep breath to calm herself and felt her wound react with a painful jab.

  “I’m not insinuating anything. I’m stating it as a clear fact.” Hank met her challenge. This was not the young girl he’d fallen in love with twenty years before. He had to remember that single fact. This was a woman, a capable female who had been tempered by loss and regret and anger. The girl he remembered was tender, innocent—erased by tragedy. His gaze fell on the rise and fall of her chest the movements shallow because of her ribs, but deep enough to show her outrage, her anger.

  “The ranchers are opposed to the release of the wolves. That’s not a secret. But we have no reason to sneak around your camp. What good would that do?”

  “None,” Hank said. “Unless you intended to try to sabotage the release. As a wildlife agent, I can promise you that won’t happen.”

  Shadoe felt the stab in her ribs, but she drew in the breath and held it until she could speak without shouting. “I think you should leave.”

  Billy and Doc moved toward Hank simultaneously. “Listen, Hank, I know you federal boys are all tied in a knot over this wolf business, but to go around accusing the people here of sabotage, that’s a little extreme.”

  Hank reached into his pocket and pulled out a small red capsule. “Is it, Billy?” He handed it to the sheriff.

  “What is it?”

  “Arsenic. We found it in some ground beef that someone left in one of the cages. Lucky for the wolves that we checked the empty cages thoroughly before we turned them loose in the pens.”

  Billy held the capsule. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Shadoe. Her olive complexion had paled. He noted that Hank saw it, too.

  “Do you think someone who really meant to kill the wolves would have been stupid enough to bait an empty cage?” Shadoe had finally found her ability to speak. Hank’s accusation was so low, so disturbing.

  “I think desperate people will do just about anything.”

  Before Shadoe could respond, Billy stepped between them. “That’s enough, Hank. As sheriff of Lakota County, I resent what you’re saying. You have no proof that any citizen here was involved. There are other factions in this mess, not just the ranchers. Those wolves are a political issue now. It isn’t just the ranchers against the animals.”

  “Then you tell me how come I was able to track someone all the way from our campsite to this farm. The tracks came here by the easiest paths. The man I was following knew his way around these parts, and he made a beeline for Shadoe’s barn.”

  “Get out.” Shadoe didn’t wait to think through what he said. She pointed at the door. “Get out now before I have Billy arrest you. How dare you.” Her voice trembled and she stopped.

  Billy put a hand on Hank
’s shoulder. “I think it’s time for you to go, Hank. I can only say that I sure do hate to see things come to this. You and Shadoe have known each other a long time. A real long time. There’s a lot between you two and even though things didn’t work out in the past, you’re making some serious charges here.”

  Hank let Billy move him toward the door without protest. But as Billy swung the door open, Hank turned to face everyone in the room. “You can tell the other ranchers that those wolves are going to be set free. They have a right to the wilderness. As much right as the ranchers. And Shadoe, if you could ever get past your personal loss, you’d know it for the truth it is. Your daddy taught you that much.”

  Billy pushed Hank through the door. Before the lawman could close it behind him, Shadoe heard him speak, his normally easygoing voice roughened with anger.

  “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, Emrich, coming in here and saying things like that to Shadoe. I’m filing a report tomorrow with the Fish and Wildlife Service. If anyone is out of line, it’s you.”

  “Right.” Hank’s response was followed by the sound of his angry footsteps going across the porch and down the steps.

  “Shadoe, girl, I’m sorry about that.” Doc Adams picked up his bag and walked over to pat her arm. “Seems to me that Hank isn’t the boy he used to be. But then I guess none of us are. Time has a way of making all of us pay.”

  Shadoe nodded. She was still in shock from Hank’s verbal attack.

  Billy cracked open the door and stuck his head inside. “I’m going to take Hank back up to the site. He came down on foot and I think it would be best for everyone if I made sure he got back to the camp safely. Tomorrow morning I’ll be back and check out the tracks he said he found. Whoever let Scrapiron free is the man we need to find to resolve all of this.”

  “Thanks, Billy.” Shadoe forced a smile for Billy and Doc. “You two go on now. I’m perfectly fine. In fact, I’m going straight up to bed and finish out the night.”

  “You’re going to have to rest, Shadoe. No riding. No lifting. No fence building. None of the usual activities, you hear?”

  “I promise, Doc.” Shadoe didn’t see how she could obey, but now wasn’t the time to argue. The work had to be done, and she wasn’t funded to hire a crew.

  “I’ll be by tomorrow to check.”

  “There’s no need for that.” She saw the futility of her protests in the set of his jaw. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She gave him a light kiss on the cheek and then went to kiss Billy, too. “Thanks, both of you.”

  “Shadoe, honey, don’t pay any attention—”

  She shook her head. “There’s a lot of scar tissue between me and Hank. You said it earlier, Billy. Not all wounds heal clean. When I left here, I hurt both of us. Hank hasn’t forgiven me.” She tried for a smile and settled for a shake of her head.

  As she closed the door behind them, Shadoe felt the pressure of the tears in her eyes.

  ON THE ROUGH RIDE up the mountain, Hank maintained a stoic silence. After the first ten minutes, Billy felt the first rush of his anger begin to dissipate and he turned to the wildlife agent.

  “Those things you said to Shadoe were pretty harsh, Hank. Don’t you think you’re carrying an old hurt a little too far?”

  “The past has nothing to do with this.” Even as he spoke the words, Hank knew they weren’t completely true. The past had everything to do with what had happened tonight.

  Every thing…and nothing. He had come down the mountain, tracking the man who had always stayed just two hundred yards ahead of him. Every time Hank took a shortcut, he found that his quarry also knew the same tricks. It didn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that the man he was chasing was as familiar with Saddleback Mountain as Hank himself was. It wasn’t a stretch to put two and two together and come up with the fact that the man he was chasing had gone to the Double S intentionally.

  But if Hank had been completely honest with Billy—or himself—he would have admitted that with each turn in the path, each shift in direction toward the Double S, Hank had felt a number of emotions, the most prevalent being anticipation. He’d heard Shadoe was back at the Double S. Heard and doubted. Heard and hoped.

  The simple truth was that he’d wanted to see her.

  Hank cast a glance at the sheriff, and saw that Billy was content to let him stew in his own juices as Billy drove the old Jeep higher and higher up Saddleback.

  “The facts don’t lie, Billy. You know that as well as I do.”

  “I also know there are a lot of ways to interpret facts. Tell me, Hank, do you honestly believe Shadoe would have risked that stallion? For any reason?”

  When Hank didn’t answer, Billy continued. “If anything happens to that horse, she’ll lose the Double S. She put everything she had into fixing up that ranch and bringing that stallion here. She’s got some nice mares and a show gelding out of Scrapiron that she’s going to campaign in the competitions. The gelding’s valuable, but it’s the stud that will make or break her.”

  Hank stared straight ahead.

  “You federal agents have college degrees. You figure it out,” Billy added, a touch of anger in his voice.

  Hank saw Billy’s point, but he also knew that people didn’t act rationally when their emotions were aroused, and the prospect of releasing a pack of timber wolves had ignited some powerful fears in the entire wilderness area. Folks were afraid their herds of cattle, sheep or horses would be destroyed. They were scared their children would be attacked and dragged off into the woods. They were simply afraid of nature. They wanted to subdivide, pave and neon everything in reach. What they really wanted was to destroy the wilderness, to bring every single element of it under their destructive control the way they had the rest of the country.

  “I want your word that you’re going to stay clear of Shadoe.” Billy put the Jeep in lower gear to make a steep incline.

  “You have my word I’ll protect those wolves.”

  Billy slammed on the brakes, holding the vehicle in the middle of the road. “If I have to take it to your boss, Hank, I will. If I thought any of the ranchers were involved in poisoning the wolves, I’d tell you. But I know Shadoe Deerman wouldn’t do such a thing. If you look into your heart, you’d know it, too.”

  “I know that when Shadoe’s security is threatened, she’s capable of anything, Billy.” He turned to look at the sheriff, a hard, angry look. “I probably know that better than anyone alive.”

  Chapter Three

  “I’ll get out here,” Hank said when Billy pulled into the narrow timber trail he indicated. “I can walk the rest of the way. It isn’t far.”

  “Afraid I’ll find your camp and go back and report to the ranchers?” Billy spoke with anger. It took only a few seconds for him to apologize. “I’m sorry, Hank. The chip you’re carrying on your shoulder is beginning to rub off on me.”

  “If I act suspicious of everyone, it’s because I am.” For the first time there was more regret than anger in Hank’s tone. “Billy, I need to tell you this anyway. We’ve gotten threats against the wolves and the agents up here. Serious threats.”

  “How serious?” Billy felt the skin along his neck tighten. For all the ways Hank Emrich had changed, Billy didn’t believe he’d lie about something this important.

  “The arsenic was the most overt. One of the other agents, Cal Oberton—someone drained the brake fluid out of his truck. Luckily he was able to drive into a tree and stop it without too much damage.”

  Billy nodded as he stared over the steering wheel into the total blackness of Saddleback Mountain. They had driven up to the highest part of the mountain, the area that looked, from a distance, exactly like the horn of a western saddle. Locally it was known as Stag’s Horn because of the abundance of wildlife. The federal agents had picked well when they’d chosen the release site for the wolves. “Any suspects?” he finally asked.

  “No one specifically.” Hank cleared his throat. “That’s the trouble. Who
ever is doing this is smart and knows this area like the back of his hand. Or her hand.” He didn’t flinch when Billy turned to glare at him.

  “Why are you so determined to point the finger at Shadoe?”

  “Maybe because I’m so determined not to let the past get in the way of my job now.” Hank was surprised by the truth of his words. “And there are things about Shadoe you don’t know.”

  “I know her pretty well. And I knew her dad better than anyone in the world. That girl’s a lot like her father, Hank. You should know that. Jimmy Deerman might not have cared for wolves in his backyard but the man respected the right of nature. Hell, he taught you to respect it. And Shadoe, too, for that matter.”

  Hank felt an old familiar stab of pain. He’d thought it was long gone but he should have been smarter than that. It had merely hidden, waiting for a new opportunity to attack. Jimmy Deerman’s death had been a terrible tragedy. A double tragedy along with little Joey’s. Shadoe had been devastated. Had blamed herself. And finally, because she couldn’t bring herself to blame her father, she’d blamed the very wilderness she’d once loved. She had lost her father, her brother, her home, her beliefs. Eventually, even her mother. She had lost everything. But Hank had lost, too. A lot more than most people knew. More than he’d ever let on to anyone.

  “Billy, we’ve got files on all the area ranchers. It’s a standard workup in a case like this. We feel it’s better to be prepared and try to avert a tragedy than wait for something to happen and then enforce the law. We want this release to go smoothly, without either side suffering losses.”

  “Hell, Hank, you sound like you’re geared up for a war.” Billy was chilled by the dispassionate note in Hank’s voice. “These people were your neighbors once. You went to school with Kyle Ryland and Andy West and Jill Amberly. Don’t you remember them?”

  Before he did, Hank dropped the curtain on his memories. He could remember them, but he didn’t want to recall the feelings he’d had back then. Emotions got in the way of his job. “That’s the past, Billy. Folks change.”