“No. I don’t.”
He pushed himself up, his face twisting in pain, and Jordan felt her heart wrench with the knowledge that she caused it. She nearly killed him. I could have killed him. “I’m going to call an ambulance for you.”
She started to get up, to go to the truck and her cellphone.
He blinked at her. “A what?”
“An ambulance. To take you to the hospital.”
Arriving at a sitting position, he sat with his arms folded across his chest. He looked at her and shook his head slightly. “No hospital.”
“But you could have internal injuries. A concussion.”
Once again, confusion crossed his scraped and dirty face. “A concussion?”
“Yes. Please, I’m going to call for help.”
“Don’t.”
Torn, knowing it was her responsibility to make sure this man got medical treatment and to make a police report, Jordan also hoped none of that would be necessary. If he’s truly not hurt, then all will be okay, and I won’t have to report any of it. “We need to call the police,” she said, daring to feel relief when once more, he shook his head.
“Help me up.”
He reached out his arm to her, and that was when Jordan realized he was a rather big man. Solidly built and heavy, as she discovered when she put his muscled arm over her shoulder to assist him to his feet. “We could cause more damage by moving you,” she protested as he staggered up.
He leaned against the tailgate of the truck, breathing heavily, then offered her the sweetest grin she had ever seen. “I’m all right.”
“Mommy?”
The man turned his head toward the sound of Caitlin’s call, and Jordan left him to look in at her. She still sat in her car seat, not scared, simply curious. “It’s all right, baby. We’ll be headed home soon.”
“I want to come out.”
“No, you stay there. I’ll be right back.”
Jordan returned to the man, wondering what the hell she was to do with him. “Do you live around here?” she asked, thinking perhaps to take him home.
“No. I live way to the north. At least I did.”
“Where are you staying?”
He gestured vaguely at the surrounding country. “Wherever I happen to stop and sleep.”
Jordan frowned. “You’re traveling on foot, and have no pack or possessions?”
“Right now, I have nothing. I’ve money in my pocket but haven’t used it for anything.”
His response confused her further. Traveling from the north without a vehicle and no clothes save what he wore, Jordan wondered if he was lying to her. Yet she had always had a good sense of when someone was telling the truth. Knox had certainly lied to her enough, and she had caught all of them.
“So, you got a ride from someone? Who dropped you off out here?”
He met her gaze. “Not exactly. But please, I can’t tell you more than that.”
At least that’s honest. “Look, I can’t leave you out here,” she said, dragging her hand through her thick, dark brown hair. “And if you have no place to stay, I don’t know what to do with you.”
“If it’s no imposition,” he said slowly, clearly in pain, “might I stay with you? Just for a few days. I can pay.”
Alarm charged through her. “Uh, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. I don’t know you.”
“My name is Neil,” he said. “That your child in there?”
“Yes, that’s my daughter, Caitlyn. I’m Jordan Masterson.”
“Very pretty name. Jordan, I have no intention of harming you or your daughter. I need shelter until I heal.”
Jordan listened to his odd lilting accent and wondered where he was from. Not even Canadians had an accent like his. While she worried over bringing a strange man into her home, her guilt at hitting him with her truck swayed her into a cautious agreement.
“All right,” she said slowly. “But just know I have a shotgun, and I know how to use it.”
Chapter Two
Aching in every muscle and joint, his head throbbing, his skin on fire, Neil gazed at the beautiful, suspicious woman with amusement. He wasn’t certain he knew what a shotgun was, but if she wielded the name as a threat, it must be a powerful weapon. “I’m sure you do,” he replied easily, unable to halt his grin.
Jordan didn’t halt her narrow-eyed, thin-lipped regard of him. Females with offspring to protect can be savage creatures, indeed. And Neil had known plenty of them. Her dark brown eyes flicked between him and the light still lying on the ground where he had fallen. She went to pick it up, and he knew when the beam “accidentally” struck him in the face, she was inspecting him for falsehoods.
“I suppose you should get in the truck then,” she said, clicking the light off.
It hurt to get his butt off the end of the vehicle and to walk, but Neil limped his way to the door she held open for him. Sitting on the rear seat gave him some relief, and he managed a grin at the pretty little girl who turned around to stare at him.
“Hi,” she chirped at him, eyes like her mother’s gazing at him with frank curiosity and no fear.
“Hi,” he replied. “I’m Neil.”
“I’m five.” She spread her fingers wide for him.
Confused, he glanced at Jordan as she climbed in behind the wheel. I thought she said the child’s name was Caitlyn.
“Baby, tell him your name, not your age.”
“I’m Caitlyn,” she went on brightly.
“And you’re five years old?”
“Uh, huh.”
“Is that a good age to be?” he asked.
“Uh, huh.”
“It is until she turns six,” Jordan said with a nervous chuckle. “Caitlyn, turn around and face the front. Don’t be rude and stare at Neil.”
“Why, Mommy?”
“It just is; that’s all.”
Neil gazed around at the vehicle in curiosity as Jordan guided it back onto the road. Though he knew much about the people he was now forced to live among, there were still many things he was ignorant of. These conveyances were one of them. And how fast they travel.
“Are we far from your home?” he asked.
She waved her hand at the darkness around them. “This is all my land,” she replied. “But it will still take us about twenty minutes to get to the house.”
“What do you do with all this land?”
“I raise cattle and horses.”
Neil knew what cattle were—he had dined on several since he had come south. The name horses sounded familiar, but he wasn’t sure what they were. Nor was it wise to divulge he knew so little about her land and people. “I see,” he told her, gazing out the window.
“What do you do for a living?”
“Right now, nothing,” he answered. “I must find work.”
“What kind of skills do you have? There are places in town that are hiring.”
There’s only one thing I am good at. “I like to fly.”
Jordan chuckled. “We don’t have an airport or an airfield around here. You might have to go to Bozeman or Helena to find jobs flying.”
“Then I may have to learn a new trade.”
Shifting in his seat, Neil ached miserably, and he lightly touched his skinned face. “I’m sorry I walked into the path of your truck.”
“You’re sorry?”
He saw her watching him from the mirror. “I’m the one who should be looking out for you. I’m sorry for hitting you. And I’m just glad you’re not hurt worse.”
“I guess I misjudged how fast you were going.”
“That can happen, I suppose. But I don’t understand why you wouldn’t let me call an ambulance,” Jordan went on. “You still should have a doctor look at you.”
He wouldn’t like what he saw. “No, it’s not necessary, Jordan,” Neil replied, gazing out into the black fields they passed. “I heal fast.”
“Will you let me clean your scrapes when we get to the house?”
He s
hrugged, then winced. “Perhaps you’d better.”
By the way her head lay against the back of her seat, Neil guessed Caitlyn had fallen asleep. “You have a beautiful child.”
“Thanks. She got my eyes, but her daddy’s blond hair.”
“Is your, er, husband at home?”
“No. We’re divorced.”
Neil wasn’t sure that that meant, but at least there wasn’t a male at home who might take offense to his presence. Feeling slightly uncomfortable with the silence that had now fallen between them, he said nothing more. He noticed they passed few homes, and no other cars on the road, and perhaps understood her reluctance to have him in her home a little better.
Lights of a house twinkled ahead in the distance, and Jordan slowed the vehicle to make a turn down a dirt road. “This is my house,” she explained, pointing. “Don’t mind the dog; he’s pretty friendly.”
Turning into a driveway at the house, Jordan stopped the truck and glanced back at Neil over the seat. “I don’t normally let strange men stay under my roof,” she said, her voice slightly anxious.
Neil tried to put her mind at ease. “I won’t be any trouble. I promise.”
It must have been the right thing to say, for she smiled and opened her door. Neil followed her out, wincing as his tender skin stretched at his movement. She walked around the front of the vehicle as an excited barking sounded from nearby, and a large black creature bounded from the shadows toward her.
“This is Axel,” Jordan began as Neil rounded the front of the truck.
The noise of happy greeting changed to snarls and loud barks the instant the creature caught sight of Neil. Stiff hair ridged up along its shoulders and spine, and it backed away from him, still making that terrible half baying, half snarling sound.
“Axel,” Jordan scolded, but she looked sidelong at Neil, her suspicion back in full swing. “Knock it off.” She snapped her fingers. “Come here.”
Growling and whining, the animal stalked, stiff-legged, toward her, its stubby tail shifting from side to side. It still stared at Neil with as much suspicion as Jordan did, but at least it wasn’t barking any more.
“I’m sorry,” Jordan said, rubbing the creature’s ears. “He’s usually friendly to people.”
“I suspect I smell different,” Neil replied.
“Rottweilers are very protective, even if friendly,” Jordan said, walking around to open Caitlyn’s door, and Neil knew he had just received a serious warning.
“How do I make friends with him?”
Jordan plucked Caitlyn from her seat and set the sleepy little girl on the ground. Caitlyn, yawning, walked to the big dog, whose attitude changed instantly. His stump shifting from side to side, he licked the small face happily as Caitlyn, giggling, wrapped her arms around his thick neck.
“Try calling him. If he comes to you, let him smell your hand. Then pet him.”
Neil shrugged inwardly. “Axel.”
The dog turned toward him, then growled. But he walked toward Neil and sniffed his extended hand. After closely inspecting Neil’s hand, arm, boots, and legs, the stub tail started to wag back and forth. His demeanor changed when Neil rubbed his ears as he had seen Jordan do. He sat on Neil’s boots and leaned against his legs; his huge jaws wide open in what Neil thought was happiness.
“I guess you pass inspection,” Jordan remarked dryly. “Come in.”
Axel jumped up to follow Jordan and Caitlyn as Neil more stiffly brought up the rear. Glancing around, he observed several other buildings in addition to the house, equipment, and large animals moving around in a pen. Walking through the door and into the house, he looked curiously at the brightly lit kitchen.
“Caitlyn, take Axel into the other room, please.”
“Can I watch TV?”
“Yeah, for a little while. Keep the volume down.”
“C’mon, Axel.”
Caitlyn ran into another room, her blonde hair flying, the huge dog galloping on her heels. “They’re best friends,” Jordan commented, her eyes watching him.
Her tone was not exactly warm, nor was it chilly with suspicion, either. He knew the dog’s instinctive reaction to him raised her worries about his presence under her roof, yet she would abide by her word and let him stay. He couldn’t tell her the real reason the dog was terrified of him, and it was not the reason she thought.
“I’m glad you have him to protect you,” Neil replied.
Jordan sighed and gestured. “Let’s go to the bathroom and get your wounds looked at.”
Limping after her, Neil glanced into the room where Caitlyn lay on the floor, her head and shoulders pillowed on Axel’s flank. She stared at a big box with moving pictures on its face and music emanating from it, then he walked past. Jordan turned on the lights to a big bathroom and rummaged around in a cabinet.
“Sit down,” she said, and to Neil, it sounded like an order.
He obeyed, sitting on the edge of the bathtub, and glanced down at his torn and bloody shirt. “I have no other clothes,” he murmured.
“I think I can find you something,” Jordan told him. “Knox left some stuff behind when he moved out.”
She piled bottles, cloths, and bandages on the sink’s counter, then eyed him. “You should take off your shirt.”
Neil tried to obey this order too, but his stiff and sore muscles and burning skin wouldn’t permit him to move very well. He finally worked the shirt off over his head, feeling the need to swear, but did not as he was in her presence. Jordan gazed at his bare torso in something akin to horror, and Neil looked down.
Stark bruises and skin sloughed off as though he had been burned covered his chest, belly, and shoulders. His forearms and hands also met the same treatment, and his entire left side where the truck had hit him was black. By the soreness in his back, it probably looked about the same. But he met her eyes with a grin.
“Looks worse than it is,” he said.
“I should take you to a hospital.”
“I told you, I heal fast.”
Jordan shook her head, then wet a cloth from a bottle that had a sharp acrid smell to it. “I’m surprised you don’t have any broken bones.”
She dapped the wet cloth to the injury on his face, and Neil hissed in pain.
“Sorry,” she said. “It stings, but we have to keep the scrapes clean.”
“It’s all right. Keep going.”
She worked her way around him, cleaning the myriad of scrapes and cuts on him while Neil bit his tongue to stop himself from yelling out. “This is quite the road rash,” she commented, working on his back. “I didn’t drag you, did I?”
“I don’t think so,” Neil replied, his voice tight. “I remember sliding on the road before I passed out.”
“I have some pain killers if you want them.” Jordan paused to stare into his eyes for a moment. “You aren’t allergic to them, are you?”
Baffled, Neil shook his head. “I shouldn’t think so.”
“I sure don’t want to give you something and have you go into anaphylactic shock.”
Neil laughed. “You needn’t worry about that.”
“Good. I’m just about done cleaning these but bandaging them will be rather difficult. I can stick something over the deeper ones.”
Watching her move around him, bending close to clean his wounds, Neil unobtrusively studied her. Her rich brown hair swung down from her shoulders; her hands on him felt strong, yet gentle. Her small firm waist so close to his eyes made him shunt them away, slightly embarrassed for having been looking at her like that.
That’s how he discovered they weren’t alone.
Caitlyn stood in the doorway, her arm over Axel’s broad black shoulder. “What’s wrong, Mommy?”
Jordan glanced around at her daughter. “Neil got hurt, sweetie. I’m just fixing him up.”
“Like when Jumper got hurt?”
“Exactly like that.”
Child and dog ambled in for a closer look, and Neil rubbed the dog�
��s ears again. Caitlyn examined his wounds with big dark eyes, and Neil wondered why they didn’t frighten her. “Does it hurt?” she asked.
“Yeah.” Neil grinned. “A little.”
“Jumper got stuck in the fence,” Caitlyn said pedantically.
“Who is Jumper?”
“My pony.”
Unsure of the word pony, Neil decided not to ask and let Axel sniff a wound on his hand, then tentatively lick it.
“No, Axel,” Jordan snapped, pushing the dog away with her knee.
“I don’t think he meant any harm,” Neil said as the dog backed away.
“No, he doesn’t at all,” Jordan replied. “But dogs’ mouths have bacteria that can cause problems in wounds. You haven’t been watching the news?”
“Uh, I’m afraid not.”
Jordan picked up his hand and immediately cleaned it again. “Well, you should be keeping up on these things.”
Setting the bottle and the cloth on the counter, Jordan made a vague gesture toward his torn jeans. “I’ll leave the rest for you to do.”
Neil felt his face grow hot. “Uh, yeah. Right.”
“Caitlyn, run and get Neil some of Daddy’s clothes. A shirt and pants.”
“Okay.”
The little girl ran from the bathroom, the big black dog behind her. “They probably won’t fit you,” Jordan said. “Knox isn’t as big as you are.”
“I’m sure they will be fine. Thank you.”
Jordan nodded, then turned to leave. “I’ll crack the door and toss the clothes in.”
She shut the door behind her, leaving him alone to strip out of his boots, then his torn and bloody jeans. He dabbed the wound cleaner on his hips and thighs, hissing as the stuff burned his ragged flesh. As promised, the door opened a few inches, and a hand tossed some clothes onto the floor. Then shut again.
The shirt was tight, but wearable. The pants, on the other hand, Neil could not fit into at all. Pulling on his old jeans instead, he tidied up Jordan’s bathroom and put everything away. Running water into the sink, he washed his face and borrowed a brush to put his shaggy hair into some semblance of order.
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