“No. If I were tough, I’d have knocked him on his ass.”
Weary, hurting, Natalie stood. “Let’s go to the house. I need to lie down. I’ll tidy the office later.”
“Lock the closet,” Jude advised, standing. “And your office door.”
Those tasks done, Natalie strode through the staring guests with her head high, Jude right behind her. None tried to ask questions, or stop them, and within a few minutes, she was safely in her house where guests couldn’t intrude.
Jude’s arms slid around her from behind. “Come on,” he whispered in her ear. “We both need a nap.”
Natalie refused to go until she popped a few ibuprofen and made Jude take some as well. “Hope your famous fast healing kicks in soon.”
She let Jude undress her and tuck her under the covers before crawling into bed with her. Pillowing her head on his shoulder, she snuggled into his arms, breathing deeply. Sleep hovered nearby, yet it was quite a while before she slept.
Waking a few hours later, Natalie’s head, face, and neck ached nearly as fiercely as they had earlier. Groggy from a long night of no sleep and only a light nap in place of real rest, she listened to Jude’s light breathing. Sliding out of the bed, trying to not disturb him, she picked up her clothes and dressed, observing the fading sunlight through the window.
Closing the bedroom door behind her, leaving Jude to sleep, she paced through the house to the lodge. The scents of Rick’s cooking reminded her that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast, though she didn’t truly feel hungry. Making her way to her office, Natalie unlocked it and went in, checking first to make sure the bags in the closet were undisturbed.
They were. I’m gonna have serious gray in my hair over this shit. Relocking the closet and pocketing the key, she tidied the office after the fight with Peterson, wondering what he would try next, and whether or not he’d succeed in killing her next time. “I can’t even believe I’m in this situation,” she muttered, returning the paperweight to her desk.
“With Peterson?”
Natalie glanced up to find Jude in the doorway. “I tried not to wake you up,” she said, sitting down in her chair.
“You didn’t. Or rather, I woke up and you weren’t there,” he answered, his face still pale, “and I don’t like being away from you. Not now.”
Gently rubbing her face, feeling her swollen cheek, Natalie had to agree. “After this morning, I don’t want to be away from you, either. What will it take to be rid of Peterson?”
Jude strolled further into the room, closing the door behind him. “Do you need me to say it?”
Her stomach churning, her head hurting, Natalie put her face in her hands. “We can hope he’ll be arrested, can’t we?” she pleaded. “Killing him isn’t the only answer.”
She felt him hitch his hip on the desk beside her, his hand stroking her back. “We may have to kill him, Natalie.”
“Why is this happening, Jude? Why?”
Never one to cry easily, Natalie felt her tears close in on her, her throat thick. Tired, scared, feeling as though she had stumbled into a nightmare, she fervently wished Peterson’s mother had aborted him.
“I have no answer to that,” Jude said, his voice soft. “Perhaps there isn’t one. But we have to deal with it the best we can.”
Lifting her face, Natalie tried to smile. “You’re right. I’m just feeling a bit sorry for myself.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” he told her. “We just can’t let self-pity control us.”
“What are we going to do?” she asked. “We can’t just sit around and wait for him to try to kill us again.”
“The next time,” Jude agreed, “he will be more secretive, more subtle. I can stand watch at night, perhaps on the roof, but I need to sleep sometime.”
“I guess it’s long past due to put a security system in this place,” she mused. “Maybe use some of that cash to install it.”
“Money laundering?”
Natalie glanced up to see his grin. “True. But for that, I’m willing to risk it. I’ll make some calls to security companies.”
“Good idea. And put some of that cash to work for you.”
Natalie eyed him with speculation. Standing, she went to the closet to unlock it. Hoping no one came looking for her at that moment, she unzipped one of the bags and pulled out a few bundles of cash. Relocking the closet, she took the money to Jude.
“I owe you this,” she told him, her voice low.
“Natalie, you don’t have to. And that’s far more than what I gave you.”
“Yes, I do. And consider the rest as your salary. If it weren’t for you, I’d have lost this place. As well as my life.”
Rising, Jude stood up and took her into his arms to kiss her. Melting, Natalie rested her face against his shoulder, feeling her cares fall away from her. “Thank you for saving my life yet again.”
“It seems I also owe you for mine,” he replied. “That makes a very powerful bond between us.”
“Yeah. It does.”
Jude gently pushed her away from him, his hands on the back of her neck. “Are you hungry?”
“Not really.”
“I fear I am famished. I’m going to take this to my room, then will you try to eat something?”
Natalie gave a tiny shrug. “Okay. I’ll meet you in the dining room.”
Planting a small kiss to her lips, Jude said, “I won’t be long.”
While Jude went up the stairs, Natalie made her rounds of the guests, greeting some by name, making sure everyone seemed happy. Naturally, a few tried to ask her about the events from earlier. Without going into a great deal of detail, she played it down and admitted that yes, Lloyd Peterson wanted her lodge and was willing to kill her for it.
“You need a security system in here,” one gentleman told her firmly.
“Yes, I’m planning on installing one soon.”
“I know an excellent company,” he continued. “Cameras, coded entries, the works.”
Interested, she asked, “Are they very far away? We are a bit isolated out here.”
“Not too far,” he replied. He gave her the name of the company. “I’m surprised you hadn’t added good security before now.”
“We never felt the need until recently, and I wanted to keep the country atmosphere of the Buck’s Head. Thanks for the information, I’ll give them a call in the morning.”
Joining Jude at their usual table, Natalie finally felt a little hungry due to all the tantalizing odors emanating from the kitchen. Jane came to take their order of steak and fries, then left while Jude lightly touched the knot on the side of his head.
“I owe that bastard one of these,” he grumbled.
“So do I.” Natalie drank from her glass of ice water. “I’ve been far too lax about security, and now we’re paying the price.”
“One can hardly anticipate a situation like this,” Jude commented. “You live in a small town where nothing much happens, right?”
“True.”
“Then you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself.”
Before she could respond, an excited voice rose over the general babble of the diners. “There’s a fire out there,” he said, standing in the doorway of the lodge, pointing out. “A forest fire.”
Chapter Fourteen
Jude shared a concerned glance with Natalie, then both stood up to join the surge of diners toward the front porch. Folks spread out along the railing amid the tables, chairs, and sun umbrellas to gape and talk about the reddish glow, and the smoke curling into the night sky. Sirens wailed in the distance, and Jude scented the sharp, acrid odor of burning trees.
“Oh, shit,” Natalie murmured. “This is very bad.”
“The wind is sending it in this direction,” Jude told her. “Stay here. I’m going to check it out.”
“Jude.”
He paused to glance at her, observing her tense expression, felt her hand take his as though to prevent him from leaving. But all she said was, “
Be careful.”
“I will.”
As the guests and much of the staff stood on the porch watching the fire, Jude went through the lodge and out the back, glancing around for any possible observers. Seeing none, making sure no one stared out of any windows on the upper floors, Jude shifted forms. Launching himself into the sky, he banked over the forest first to gain altitude, then climbed higher.
Feeling certain he would not be seen from that height, Jude circled over the fire and the roiling smoke. Firefighters sprayed water over it from various points, but he saw how easily it could gain ground on them and threaten the lodge. Though the wind was not particularly strong, it could still cause the fire to blow up and expand.
“It’s less than a mile from the Buck’s Head,” he said to himself.
Guessing it was less than ten acres in size, Jude knew it would spread. He suspected the firefighters wouldn’t be able to stop it without a bit of help. He laughed to himself. “How about I fight a fire with fire? Take away what the fire needs to burn.”
Diving low, Jude flew just over the tops of the trees at the fire’s edge, sending his breath of flame down into the forest. Though he couldn’t exactly hover, he beat his heavy wings in such a way as to blow the fire he set back into the original one.
Circling low, he watched as the two fires met and consumed one another, eating all the dry twigs, leaves, and brush. With nothing more to dine on, the flames sank to mere embers. Dipping his right wing, Jude banked over the northern edge of the fire, observing the firefighters in the distance still struggling to contain it.
“I just hope they don’t see me doing this,” he muttered in his head, though he knew he was difficult for a human to see at night.
Once again, Jude flamed the forest trees with precision, and fanned his fire back onto the other, killing it with a sharp lack of fuel. Now contained on two sides, the fire burned lower, ceasing its forward march. Rising higher on the hot thermals created by the fire’s heat, he banked over the forest toward the main fire. The humans had clearly gained ground on it, creating fire breaks, dampening the hot spots before they could burst into flame again.
“I’d better not push my luck,” he mused, rising higher.
Turning back toward the lodge, Jude gazed down at the place, the people still watching from the porch. The urge to fly around for a while longer taunted and teased him, but his worry over Natalie’s safety overruled it. If that fire had been set intentionally by Peterson or his pal Austen in order to drive Natalie from the lodge, she could be in terrible danger.
Settling to the ground behind the Buck’s Head, Jude shifted into his human half and looked around. Seeing nothing and no one, he went back inside. Only a few guests had returned to their meals, and Natalie was not among them. Concerned, Jude went through the front doors to the porch and walked amid the milling people who still gaped at the diminishing forest fire.
Natalie was not there.
Panic niggling at the edges of his mind, Jude pushed his way back into the lodge and grabbed Jane by the arm. “Where’s Natalie?” he demanded.
“I don’t know,” she answered, gazing up at him with alarm. “I thought she was with you.”
“She was on the porch, watching the fire,” he said, letting her go.
“That’s the last time I saw her, too,” Jane told him. “Did you check the office?”
“No. I will right now.”
Thinking that she went there to make phone calls regarding the safety of her business, Jude nearly ran there. Slamming open the door, he found it empty of her presence. He shook the knob of the closet and discovered it was still safely locked. Natalie, where are you?
Returning to the dining room, worry and fear clogging his throat, Jude ran to Natalie’s house. “Natalie,” he yelled. “You in here?”
She did not answer. Dashing around the rooms, he found no sign she had been there since waking from her nap. Jude ran back to the lodge, striding among the guests as they returned from the porch and fire watching. “Have you seen Natalie?” he asked, moving among them. “Have you seen her?”
He received many shaken heads. One lady told him, “She said something about turning on the hoses and wetting the building. She was afraid sparks would fly and catch the lodge on fire.”
“How long ago?”
She glanced at her watch. “Maybe ten minutes.”
Jude’s heart sank at that. “Thanks,” he muttered, running back outside.
Sure enough, long thick hoses for watering the lawns lay on the grass, but there was no sign of her. “Peterson,” he growled. “He knew she would come out to protect her property. He must have grabbed her.”
Still, he reasoned, ten minutes was not a very long head start. “There’s still a chance to catch up to them.”
Hardly waiting until he was out of sight of the people in the lodge, Jude shifted his form and banked over the trees. Knowing that Peterson could not have dragged Natalie to the parking lot and his vehicle without nearly everyone in the lodge observing, he headed toward the logging road. He could fly faster than a car could travel on the narrow, bumpy lane, and soared low over the tops of the trees, scanning the dirt track.
Jude knew the road would come out somewhere at a paved road, and he hoped to find Peterson before he struck it. Natalie had said Peterson drove a Mercedes, but Jude had no idea what one looked like, or how it was different than other cars. But it’s silver. Watch for a silver, four-door car.
There. Driving fast, spinning up a rooster tail of dust behind it, a silver car sped toward the paved street ahead. As Jude drew closer, he heard Natalie’s cries and thumps coming from the truck. You bastard.
He had to stop the car without risking injury to Natalie. Flying low over the top, maintaining the same speed as Peterson, Jude broke the rear window of the Mercedes, then seized the roof. Though he could not pick the entire car up, he could, and did, spin it around. Inside, Peterson yelled out with fear as Jude partially lifted the vehicle, threw his weight to the left, then dropped the rear wheels back down.
Still accelerating, Peterson was no longer headed down the road. Instead, the front of the Mercedes headed straight into the trees. He screamed once as the big car slammed headlong into the trunks. The front end crumpled like a squashed can, and as Jude banked up and over the trees, he heard the hissing from the broken radiator.
Dropping to the ground several yards behind the crashed car, Jude heard nothing from the trunk. Natalie’s cries had been silenced along with Peterson’s. Then the driver’s door opened, and Peterson, stunned, bleeding, tumbled out.
Jude dared not flame him. If the car’s gas tank caught, it would explode with Natalie still inside. He paced closer, intending to rip Peterson apart with his talons. He roared, stalking the man, thinking to kill him before he fully regained his senses.
“Stay away from me,” Peterson shrieked, lifting his gun.
Jude advanced.
He fired.
The bullet caught Jude high in the shoulder, wringing a bellow of pain from him as red hot agony sliced through his body. Ignoring it as best he could, he charged down on Peterson, fully intending to end the problem Peterson posed right then and there.
Peterson proved to be faster. He bolted for the trees, screaming, and Jude’s talons missed him by inches. Ducking under the evergreens and oaks, he vanished under them. Too big to enter with any efficiency, Jude stopped, cursing, listening to him scrambling among the underbrush. Thinking to fly over the trees and find him that way, Jude knew that as badly as he wanted the bastard dead, Natalie needed him more.
With a leaping soar, wings spread, Jude seized hold of the rear of the Mercedes. Ripping the trunk open like a tin can, he stared inside.
Natalie stared back.
“Jude,” she gasped. “Oh, shit, I knew that was you.”
Careful not to cut her with his talons, Jude gingerly plucked her from the trunk and set her, swaying, on her feet. He shifted to two legs, bleeding, in pain, and used h
is one good arm to pull her close to him. She was alive, she was safe, and apparently unharmed, even from the crash.
“Natalie,” he muttered thickly. “I feared I wouldn’t find you.”
“I knew you would,” she replied, her face muffled against his good shoulder. “I had faith.”
Not wanting to let her go, Jude knew that if he didn’t sit down for a few minutes, he would fall down. Gently disengaging from her, breathing hard, he sat on the broken trunk. Natalie gazed at the blood soaking his shirt, then looked down at his blood on her clothes.
“He shot you?”
Jude tried to grin. “Yeah. I made a rather big target. Impossible to miss.”
“We have to get you to a hospital.” Natalie cast around as though expecting the means to do so would instantly materialize. There was nothing around them save for forest and underbrush, and the sound of cars passing by about a half a mile away.
“No,” he told her, trying to examine the wound. “We’ll have to fly back to the lodge.”
“You can’t,” she protested. “You’re hurt.”
“I can fly us part of the way,” he told her, reaching out to grab her hand. “As far as possible, but I may get too weak.”
“Take us the other way,” she insisted. “Where we can be picked up by a car and taken to the hospital.”
“Natalie.”
Jude gazed into her anxious, worried eyes. “My anatomy is different than a human’s, even when in this form. I dare not let doctors or surgeons take a close look at my insides. That will raise questions we cannot permit them to ask.”
“But, you might die.”
“I won’t. I think the bullet went straight through. Take a look.”
Jude turned around so she could examine his back. He felt her light touch on his shoulder, pull his shirt up to look. “It didn’t,” she said, her hand brushing over a very painful spot, “but I think the bullet is lodged under your skin right there. There’s a weird bump.”
“You can cut it out when we get back.”
“What?”
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