Just when I was moaning while he laid me down on top of the hay, I heard a noise outside my window. I jumped, pulled up the shades and looked out. About thirty yards away, just sitting there in the moonlight was the wolf. I couldn’t be certain it was the same one, but I had an uneasy feeling it was, and it knew who I was too.
“Holy crap,” I hissed as I reached for my Glock, but when I looked back out the window, he was gone. I ran out of my room and outside barefoot, walking around my trailer gun drawn searching for any sign of the beast. Disappointed, I walked back into the kitchen and stared at my phone.
You have to call him, I told myself. Calling him at 1:22am in the morning about the wolf is not the same as a booty call. I waivered back and forth for another five minutes, then finally decided to call.
“Hi, you’ve reached the home of Cash Newcomb. I’m not here, so leave a message...beep.” Shit, shit, shit. I hated leaving messages. Anything I said, while sounding fine in my head, came out like I was on drugs.
“Um, Hi Cash. You’re probably asleep. This is Shelby Flint; you came to my house today about the wolf?” Yeah, like he’d forget what happened four hours ago, idiot! “I’m just calling to let you know I just saw the wolf outside of my place. I searched around for a while but caught no sign of him. Please tell me you’re going to do something. I can’t afford to lose another calf this year. Thanks.”
Hoping to cut my losses, I hung up and thought about what I’d just said. Oh Hi Cash, this is Shelby, you know, the girl who wanted to jump you today? I mocked myself as I walked back to bed. I looked out the window once more before going back to sleep, but didn’t see the pair of blue eyes staring back at me through the trees.
The phone woke me up at five. I had hoped to sleep in a couple hours. I didn’t have anything to do that day besides finding my herd and checking a stretch of fencing, so a couple hours wouldn’t make a difference one way or another. I was beginning to think someone up high didn’t like me.
“What?” I grouched into the receiver. Everyone who knew me knew well didn’t call me before ten if they valued their skin.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Flint. Did I wake you?” A smooth, deep voice purred on the other end of the line. Wide awake now, I sat straight up and got a better grip on the phone.
“Oh no, I’m up,” I lied, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. “I take it you got my message?”
“I wasn’t asleep.” Oookay…whatever that means.
“So what do you think?” I asked, skipping over the vaguely suggestive comment. “About the wolf, I mean.”
“Well, I’ve asked around, and no one seems to have seen this elusive wolf of yours. I can come back out, but I probably won’t be able to make it until the afternoon.”
I sighed and covered the receiver with my palm. “Does he always have to be so damn patronizing?” I muttered at Reggie.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get that.”
I put my mouth back to the phone. “It was nothing. Umm, that’s okay. As long as I don’t get arrested if I shoot the thing, you don’t have to bother yourself by coming back out here.”
“I’d be surprised if you could hit it. Wolves are very fast. I guess I’ll just have to see you around town then. Goodbye Shelby Flint.” Ignoring the little zing I felt when he said my name, I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah, not if I can help it. Bye warden.” Happy to get in the last word, I hung up. Petty as it was, the satisfaction helped me get up and I was halfway through a pot of coffee before I realized I was whistling tunelessly to myself like grandpa used to do when he was happy.
I rode a five mile stretch of fence line which I suspected had some holes. It would take me most of the morning and into the afternoon, so I had packed several water bottles and a protein bar. Since it was nearing the end of October and the snakes would be going into hibernation, I’d allowed Reggie to jog along next to us. Walking at a leisurely pace which Roanie could keep up almost indefinitely, I relished the warm sunshine on my face and the cool breeze tugging wisps of my hair.
I had plaited my straight, waist-long blonde hair into a French braid and my straw cowboy hat hung off the pommel of my saddle. It was a legitimate straw hat, not like the cheap, pink ones drunk girls wore at rodeos. Those made me want to tear them off and rip them to shreds with my bare hands. I have issues.
There wouldn’t be that many nice days like this once winter set in so I was determined to enjoy it. The seasons here fell like a curtain dropping; it would be a crisp, fall day only to be a miserable, cold and rainy day for the next three months, only then to heat up to the hundreds at the drop of a hat. Seasons? Blink and you’d miss them.
I was now at the bottom of a little ravine that used to be one of Raymond’s many salt and pepper granite quarries. The fence ran up the side of the rock, and I knew, even if there were holes up there, no cows would be able to scale the smooth surface and get through.
I had about a quarter of a mile of granite in front of me so I relaxed in the saddle. My mind began to wander and I thought of Cash’s strong hands running down my back and his slightly curved lips kissing my neck. Warmth spread from my face to my thighs as I thought of all the wonderful things those hands could do.
Before I realized what had happened, I felt Roanie tense underneath me. On instinct, I grabbed a handful of mane and tightened my grip with my thighs as he bolted sideways. Deftly reining him in, I scanned the underbrush of the gully searching for whatever my horse had scented and didn’t like. I glanced down at Roanie and could see his eyes rolling as I struggled to keep him in one place.
Something out of the corner of my vision caught my attention, so I pulled his head around. I hadn’t noticed the column of large black birds circling overhead. Turkey vultures were nasty creatures. Their ugly red, bald heads and wicked curved beaks made them great scavengers. They were also so large, they resembled in size their namesakes. Several times I’d come close to pegging one with the Blazer when it didn’t get off some road kill fast enough.
No! Not another calf, dammit! Roanie was still pranced around nervously, and for the first time in years I had to work to keep him calm. Horses are very sensitive to the smell of death and if I could smell something rotting, I couldn’t begin to imagine what he smelled.
I rode in a wide circle, using the vultures and Roanie’s ever growing unease as my guide, I tried to zone in on whatever was dead. My hope was that it was just a deer or a boar and not one of my calves. But I had a dirty feeling that whatever I did find wouldn’t make me happy.
Underneath a copse of buck eye fig and poison oak I saw what looked like a boot. What the hell is that? Nervous, I rode a few feet away, got off Roanie and tied the reins to an oak branch. I pulled out my trusty .45 and approached it wearily. As I got closer I could see the boot belonged to a man in a pair mossy oak pants and jacket.
I knelt and saw the guy had been shot point blank in the chest, and from the look of him, he’d been dead several days. His body was bloated and it reeked. The vultures had done a number on his face. His eyes and part of his face were gone. It also looked like the coyotes had found him too.
I scrambled away quickly and threw up.
From my front porch I watched the coroner’s van pull down and out of my driveway. Jesse was in my kitchen brewing a pot of coffee while her husband Tyler stood outside several feet away talking with Cash.
After I’d finished spewing my guts out, I had leapt up on Roanie and loped balls out back home to call the sheriff. Unfortunately, when they arrived and I described the area the body was in, they had no way of getting back there except on foot. I had to get on my Honda and shuttle the sheriff, Tyler and Cash all back out to the body.
I really didn’t want to see it again, but none of the others were familiar enough with the land to find it on their own. Luckily, once I dropped them off they had allowed me to escape back home, where I found Jesse waiting with a hug. The sheriff, CSI techs and the coroner were gone along with the body, but I still sho
ok like a leaf.
“Here, drink this. It’ll help you settle.” Jessie handed me the warm mug and sat down next to me and we watched the two men talking quietly, heads together. Not willing to think about the dead guy any more, I let myself admire Cash’s sweet butt. No man should be allowed to be that hot. It wasn’t fair to womankind, like we could stand a chance against that much goodness. As if I had called out to him, Cash turned and looked at me, one eyebrow quirked up in a question.
Embarrassed to be caught staring, I took a big gulp from the mug and swallowed fire.
“Crap, Jesse!” I wheezed. “Could I have a couple more drops of coffee to go with this whiskey?”
I’d had a fifth of Jack above the fridge for medicinal purposes and she must have put a ton in the coffee to make me notice. My throat was still raw from losing my lunch so the alcohol felt like napalm.
She gave me a superior look. “I figured it was appropriate considering the shock your system got today. If finding a dead body on your property isn’t an occasion to self-medicate, I don’t know what is.”
“Indisputable logic, my friend,” I raised the mug to her. “Skól.”
I took a big swig while Jesse grinned at the drinking phrase we’d picked up from watching Three sheets marathons. If you knew the rules, you could get really drunk watching that show. Although, I could barely pronounce Pleepleus’ name sober.
“Who do you think he was?” Jesse whispered.
She stared at the end of my driveway where the coroner’s van had been. I didn’t think either of us would forget the sight of that big, black plastic bag on the gurney any time soon, and I knew I’d have nightmares of that ravaged face.
“I don’t know, Jess. I only have one guess why some guy wearing camo would be on my property, and I don’t like it very much.”
Jesse gave me a sidelong glance. “What do you guess?”
I shook my head and took another gulp of the booze and sat quiet for a few minutes.
“The only thing I can think of is a pot stand. I know they like to have them out in rural areas, away from people, but I thought they only had them up in Yosemite National Park or North Fork.”
When Jesse and I had gone to high school, North Fork was famous for all the Marijuana grown secretly in the woods. Millions of dollars in pot had been found, and it was only from a few marijuana stands.
“Shit!” Jesse hissed.
I nodded in agreement. The people who managed the pot grows were ruthless. Most of them were heavily armed, and I’d heard all sorts of horror stories about law enforcement and even innocent people who were killed when they wandered into one. Those drug dealers were deadly serious about guarding their product.
I knew Jesse was worried for her husband. It was the sheriff’s department, along with the Game Warden’s responsibilities to track down pot grows and destroy them all. It was dangerous stuff. I could see the Springfield M1-A1 in the gun rack in Cash’s truck; No one came empty handed. I couldn’t help but think about all the damage they’d be doing to my land.
Another big problem about marijuana growers wasn’t just the drugs and guns, but all the trash and filth they left behind. I knew people who had whole areas ruined by jugs of fertilizer and oil, food wrappers and buckets of human waste just left to poison the ground and nearby streams. It made me sick to my stomach. I threw back the last bit of my ‘cowboy coffee’, looked up and saw the two officers walking toward us.
They stopped a few feet in front of me and I could see Cash warring with himself about what to say. I let him flounder for a bit before I broke the silence.
“Well, what do you boys think?”
Tyler who spoke first. “Shells, Cash here seems to think we’ve got some Mary Jane growers crawling around. Don’t worry, we know it wasn’t you.” He winked. I rolled my eyes. “Looks like he was shot pretty close up with a .22, and the coroner said the bullet probably bounced around, shattered and then shredded his heart. He’ll have to open him up to know more.”
Jesse gave him a dirty look, probably upset he was rehashing the gory details with me. He didn’t get the hint. God bless him, but Tyler wasn’t the brightest. I winced, knowing full well he would get an earful when Jesse got him home.
“I can’t imagine what ol’ Roanie must have thought when he smelled him. You must have had a time trying to keep him from takin’ off. Ed thinks the guy must have been in the gully for several days.” Ed Smith was the local large animal vet and emergency coroner.
“Yeah, Tyler, it was a blast, let me tell you.” My voice dripped with sarcasm. Cash’s eyes crinkled a little, and I knew he appreciated my tone. Exhausted, I stood up.
“Well boys, as much as I love going over old war stories of finding smelly dead guys, I’m tired and I want to take a hot shower and go to bed.” I gave Jesse a big hug. “Thanks for coming over. I don’t know what I would do without you and your logic.” I chuckled and lifted the mug. She smiled and grabbed Tyler’s hand as they walked to his sheriff’s car.
I turned toward the warden. He looked boyish as he stood there, eyes down with his hands in his pockets, all he needed was to kick a rock with his foot and say “aw gee”. I watched the deputy and Jesse drive down my driveway and yawned. Too tired to be irritated, I started to say goodnight, but when he looked up at me with such amusement in his eyes I froze, wary.
“You know, if you wanted to see me today, you didn’t have to find a dead body. You could have just called.” I stood there, stunned, with my mouth hanging open. Okay, I guess I’m not that tired anymore.
“Of all the stupid, narcissistic—” I breathed, but before I could flinch, Cash had closed the distance between us and held my face in his hands. Too startled to move, he kissed me. Not just any kind of kiss, either, but a full on, overpowering, knee buckling kiss. His lips were full and soft on mine, and I let out a small moan and sank into his chest.
Not one to waste an opportunity, he darted his tongue in my mouth and started to explore. I reveled in the taste of him. Something in my head clicked, and I felt like this was where I was supposed to be. His strong arms were wrapped around me, pulling against his warm, hard chest. Even his musky scent smelled like home. Where have you been? A small voice in my head asked.
As abruptly as it had started, he pulled away and stepped back, breathing heavily. I swayed a little when he let go of me, sure I was about to pass out. His eyes were intense, like blue lasers cutting right through me, but he smiled.
“Don’t go riding by yourself anymore, Shelby.” He tweaked my nose. “I don’t want you bumbling into a pot stand and getting yourself killed. It’s too much paperwork for me.” And then he was in his truck driving away. I raised my hand to my lips and stared after him bewildered.
What had just happened?
Chapter Six
At two in the morning I sat up in bed so fast my head swam. Something woke me up out of the best dream I’d had in a very, very long time. Whatever it was, it would have one mad woman to deal with. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and glanced out the window. There, once again, was the wolf.
He sat on his haunches in a patch of moonlight, staring right back at me. The moon was full and high in the night sky, and he was lit up as if it were day. Afraid to take my eyes off of him, lest he dart out of my sight again, I reached for the Glock on my nightstand. He stood up and made as if to leave, so I snatched my hand back.
He might have been reading my thoughts, but as soon as I pulled my hand away from the gun, he tilted his head for a moment, and then sat back down. Curious, I slipped my bunnies on my feet and hustled down the hall and out the door outside. I circled around toward my bedroom, and there he still sat, watching me with apparent ease. Not wanting to spook him, I knelt down in the dirt and reached out a hand. He was so huge, even though he was sitting we were eye to eye. I must be out of my mind.
The wolf sat there regarding me for what seemed like ten minutes before standing and lazily walking toward me. Suddenly the position I’d put myself
in registered and fear gripped my legs and wouldn’t let me move. There is a 200 pound wolf coming toward you who probably wants to have a taste, my brain screamed at me. Run, you idiot! But right as I prepared to stand to bolt back to my front door, the wolf stopped in front of my outstretched hand and sniffed it.
Frozen, I let it continue to smell me. It didn’t seem aggressive at all, just curious to know what I was. For some reason I was emboldened by its friendliness and I stretched my hand out and stroked its head. The wolf flinched, but then leaned into my hand as I scratched the same spot behind the wolf’s ears that Reggie loved so much. Floored, I continued to pet the wild beast until it darted forward and licked my face.
I was so startled, I sat down hard, landed on a rock and winced at the bruise I knew would be there tomorrow. The beast gave me a wolfy grin, its tongue lolling out the side of its mouth, and then darted off into the night. I sat there in the dirt unmoving for a while, staring out in the dark, until I realized I was freezing in my boxers and t-shirt. I stood up and brushed off the dirt from my behind and limped inside and back to bed.
The next morning, wondering if it all had been some weird dream, I walked out with a mug of plain coffee and examined the set of wolf tracks that led around my trailer and by my bedroom window.
“You did what?!” Jesse screeched as she returned with my Coke.
I had gone with Reggie to the general store for a hamburger. The store used to be a traditional dry goods store when Raymond had been on the stagecoach road up to Yosemite Valley. Now, it was sort of a quickie mart/café. Part of the building was separated into a small grocery store, with the necessities like flour and sugar, Cheetos, beer and ice cream. The other half of the store, partitioned off by shelves, were tables and chairs and a small kitchen that served simple diner fare like hotdogs, hamburgers and French fries. Reggie sat underneath my table, happily munching on the hot dog I’d owed him.
Hunter Moon (Lupine Moon Series) Page 4
