“You did excellent, baby,” Jordan told her. “And you helped, huh.”
“I did, I did.”
“So, they should be safe now?” Neil asked, gazing up the hill where the cattle now grazed peacefully again.
“They should be.” Jordan pointed down the hill toward the break in the line of trees. “There’s a forestry road down there. Knox, or someone else, can drive straight up into the pasture. Then start shooting.”
“But he can stop there and walk up here,” Neil said, gesturing.
“It’s a rather difficult walk in the dark,” Jordan replied. “And then find the cows in the darkness, too. While there’s no guarantee he won’t do it, we just made it harder for him.”
“Mommy, what about the mares?” Caitlyn asked, gazing up at her.
Jordan nodded. “They’re at risk, also. And far more valuable than a couple of cows. We need to move them.”
“Just tell me what to do.”
As Neil went dragon again, he picked Caitlyn up and took to the air. Jordan remounted the bay. She cantered him across the high-altitude fields to the mares’ pastures and dismounted again to get through the gate. Once inside, she waved her hand over her head to Neil.
“Like before, don’t cause them to panic; just ease them along.”
Whether Neil communicated with them or not, Jordan didn’t know, but the mares and their foals followed her gelding quietly enough. Jordan had frantically counted them and found none missing. None appeared to have been injured, either. “Thank God,” she breathed, turning in her saddle to see the mares ambling along behind her. “Knox wouldn’t hesitate to shoot them just to get back at me.”
She glanced back in time to see Neil bank sideways behind the trees to vanish. “What the hell?” she muttered.
A few of the mares perked their ears toward the forest ahead of them, and couple of them whinnied. Jordan looked in the direction they did and saw a man on horseback, carrying a rifle, emerge from the forest.
Chapter Nineteen
Shit, Neil thought as he caught a glimpse of the other rider approaching Jordan. Ducking quickly into a small clearing within the forest, he landed and furled his wings.
“What’s wrong?” Caitlyn asked as he put her down.
Neil shifted. “There’s someone out there,” he said, taking her hand. “I can let myself be seen by other people.”
“Who is that?”
“I don’t know.”
Neil walked with Caitlyn to the edge of the trees, partially hidden, but where he could watch and listen. The rider carried a rifle, which sent alarm racing through him, but Jordan did not appear to be worried as the two met. The man rested the butt of his rifle against his thigh and nodded to Jordan respectfully enough.
“I’m with the Ranger Service, ma’am,” he said to her.
“What are you doing on my land?” she asked, but by her voice, Neil thought she wasn’t angry about him being there.
“Keeping an eye on mountain lion activity,” he replied. He jerked his chin toward the horses. “You having trouble, ma’am?”
“Not with lions,” she answered. “Two of my cattle were shot last night.”
“Shot?”
“Yeah. I believe I know who did it, but I’m moving my animals to higher elevations.”
He shook his head. “That might be putting them at risk of the lions.”
Studying her body language, Neil knew what the man had said troubled her. “These are valuable broodmares,” she said at last. “On one hand, my ex will shoot them if he can, on the other, the lions might attack the foals.”
“Your ex, eh? Have you gone to the police?”
“No, I have no way of proving he did it. But I know it was him.”
The man on the horse looked around, and Neil wondered if he had been seen. Yet he glanced back at Jordan without giving any indication he had seen Neil or Caitlyn.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “Take your horses east to the National Forest land. You can keep them there for a week while you build a case to get your ex arrested. It’s not where the lions have been seen lately, so your mares and babies should be safe enough there.”
Jordan grinned. “Really? Oh, thank you.”
The man grinned back. “Come on; I’ll help you.”
As he reined his horse around to herd the mares in another direction, Neil saw Jordan turn in her saddle briefly to look straight at him. She made a gesture that said stay there, then herded the mares eastward. When they had gone, Neil stepped out of the forest and into the sunlight.
“What’s a mountain lion?” he asked, sitting on a dead tree trunk.
Caitlyn shrugged, then wandered around picking wildflowers. “These are so pretty.”
Whatever a mountain lion was, it must have posed quite a danger to people as well as animals, Neil suspected. If they were around, he had little doubt it would think of Caitlyn as prey. Just like the coyote. Making sure she didn’t wander far from him, Neil kept a sharp watch on the forest around them.
Just when he was beginning to worry about her, and considered taking to the air to find her, Jordan cantered the sweating horse toward them. Caitlyn, her flowers in her hand, yelled with excitement and ran toward her.
“Hi, Mommy. Look at my flowers.”
“They are so pretty, baby,” Jordan replied, dismounting.
“What took so long?” Neil asked.
“The National Forest land is quite far,” she replied. “But Knox will never find them there.”
She picked Caitlyn and her flowers up to plant her in the saddle, then started walking, leading the tired horse. “What’s a mountain lion?” he asked, walking beside her.
“A big cat,” Jordan replied with a smile. “Very shy but have been known to attack and kill people. I might lose a few calves to it, but overall, the cattle will be all right up there. I was worried about the foals.”
He held her hand as they walked. “Are we going to walk home?”
“Just to let this old boy have a rest,” she said with a grin. “Then you can take Caitlyn on home.”
“But will you be all right?” he asked, worried about these mountain lions. “Maybe I should stay with you.”
She read his worry correctly. “I’ll be fine. A lion won’t attack something as big as a horse and rider.”
Neil still didn’t like the idea of leaving her. “I’ll stay with you.”
“Okay. It’s getting late. We’d better hustle.”
Jordan took Caitlyn down and Neil walked away to give himself room to change his form. In his dragon, he gazed down at Jordan, then reached out to pick Caitlyn up. As before, she had no fear of flying, and he leaped skyward, spreading his wings. Flying low over the treetops, he watched Jordan trot the horse down out of the mountains. Keeping a wary eye out for mountain lions, even though he hadn’t thought to ask what they looked like, Neil also watched for people.
If Knox is around, he may try to shoot Jordan. Or me. I make a very big target. Yet he saw nothing, and no shots were fired from hiding. He reached the barn and set Caitlyn down in the yard. Axel ran to them, licking Caitlyn, barking as Jordan rode tiredly in. The sun started to set over the mountains as he shifted to two legs, dusk crossing the landscape.
“Caitlyn, feed the chickens,” Jordan said as she slid down from the tired horse.
Her flowers still in her hand, Caitlyn ran to do her share of the chores while Neil helped her to unsaddle the gelding. While she walked the gelding around to cool him off, Neil fed and watered Cade in the barn. It was nearly full dark by the time the animals were all cared for, and Neil held her hand as they walked to the house.
“I’m too tired to cook,” Jordan said, smiling up at him.
Caitlyn and Axel had already run inside the house so Caitlyn could put her flowers in a vase, and Neil squeezed her fingers. “Sandwiches?”
“That’s sounds good. Maybe some soup, too.”
Neil heard the popping explosion from behind him at the same
instant something hard struck him in his shoulder blade. He stumbled with a grunt as burning fire spread from his back outward.
“Gunshot!” Jordan cried. “Neil?”
Another explosion sounded, and the porch railing splintered into fragments in front of his eyes. “Get in the house,” he roared.
Neil, feeling a terrible weakness seize hold of him, staggered as he followed Jordan at a shambling run up the steps and into the house. He slammed the door behind them, but Jordan vanished down the hall to her room. Knowing he needed to sit or fall down, he chose to sit at the table as Caitlyn stared at him, pausing in her flower arranging.
Jordan returned with the shotgun from her room and flung the door open. Socking it to her shoulder, she fired it from the doorway. Somewhere across the yard, Neil heard a distant yell. A moment later, a car’s engine started and roared away. Jordan retreated into the house, saying, “I don’t know if I hit him—”
She stared at the blood pooling on the floor, then into Neil’s eyes. “You’re shot,” she said, her voice stunned.
“Yeah.”
“I have to get you to a hospital.”
Shaking his head weakly, Neil replied, “No. No hospital.”
“Neil, I have to. You’re bleeding bad.”
“You can fix me.”
As Caitlyn started to wail and cry, Jordan stared at him, clearly scared at what he was proposing. “Neil—”
Using the table as a crutch, Neil stood up, his body trembling under the strain of moving. “The bathroom.”
He walked unsteadily down the hall and shakily sat on the edge of the bathtub. Jordan followed, Caitlyn, still crying, clinging to her legs. “I don’t know what to do, Neil,” she pleaded. “Let me take you to a hospital.”
“I don’t have a human’s anatomy,” Neil said, using his good right hand to tap his chest. “It will raise too many questions. See if you can dig the bullet out.”
Swiping her hair behind her ears, Jordan opened the cabinet and drawers. Taking a pair of scissors, she carefully cut his shirt from him and left it in the bathtub. Grabbing a clean cloth, she held it against his wound, holding it there even as he hissed in pain. “I have to stop the bleeding,” she said.
“I know.”
After a time, Caitlyn ceased her tears, and Jordan dropped the cloth into the bathtub with his shirt. Getting up, she scrubbed her hands in the sink, looking at him over her shoulder. “I need to see if I can find the bullet,” she explained. “But I don’t want to give you an infection.”
Neil grinned weakly. “We don’t get infections. You don’t have to worry.”
“Really?” Sitting back down beside him, she gently probed the wound with her fingers. “I think I can feel the bullet.”
“Can you pull it out?”
“Not like that.”
Returning to the drawer, Jordan seized a pair of tweezers and inserted them into his back. He grimaced in agony but held still as she pulled the lead from his back. “I got it,” she exclaimed in triumph. She held it up for his examination, a small piece of squashed metal within the tweezers grasp.
“Now let me see if I can bandage you up,” she said.
Folding clean gauze, she held it against his wound and pulled it away, soaked in red. “You’re bleeding again.”
“It’ll be all right.”
Hanging his head, Neil closed his eyes to fight the nausea and pain, his head spinning. He knew he needed to lie down before he passed out, which would be soon. “I need—I need the bed.”
“All right.”
Jordan helped him to stand, then resting his good right arm over her shoulders. Caitlyn got out of the way as Neil staggered, needing Jordan’s help to get to the spare bedroom. She helped him to lie face down on the bed, and he felt the swirling blackness of unconsciousness creep over him. Distantly, he heard Jordan and Caitlyn’s voices but did not understand what they said.
Chapter Twenty
With Neil asleep or unconscious, Jordan found it a little easier to care for the bloody hole in his back. “What happened to Neil, Mommy?” Caitlyn asked, tears in her voice.
“Someone shot him,” Jordan replied. “Now, baby, stand back. I need to take care of him.”
Returning to the bathroom, Jordan fetched fresh gauze wraps and a sticky bandage. Folding the gauze, she held it against his wound, which no longer bled, then covered it with the sticky wrapping. Hoping that would hold for a while, she absently wondered if his dragon fast healing would kick in.
Draping a blanket over him, Jordan sat beside him for a long moment, second-guessing her decision not to take him to a hospital. “What if you do get infections?” she murmured. “What if I just killed you?”
She put her fingers to his neck and found a strong pulse, steady and slow. With a sigh, she got up, tucked the blanket warmly around him, then shut off the light. Back in the bathroom, with Caitlyn watching her every move, Jordan cleaned up. She threw away the bloody cloths and his shirt, wiped everything down, then took Caitlyn into the kitchen.
After making sure the door was locked, she asked, “You hungry, baby?”
“No, Mommy. I’m scared.”
Me, too. Rather than say that, Jordan sat at the table and took Caitlyn into her arms. “It will be all right, baby.”
She rocked her daughter, taking comfort from Caitlyn as much as offering it, Axel watching them both with anxiety in his brown eyes. Murmuring soothing words, she continued to rock until Caitlyn’s breathing told Jordan she had fallen asleep. Carrying her to the sitting room, she lay Caitlyn on the couch and covered her with a blanket.
Back in the kitchen, she racked the shotgun and inserted two more shells. Turning out the lights, she sat in a chair, watching, listening, waiting to see if Knox would come back. Thus, she guarded her family through the long night.
When dawn crept over the eastern horizon, Jordan left the shotgun lying on the counter, out of Caitlyn’s reach, then looked in on her again. All through the night, she peeked in on Caitlyn as she slept on the couch, then at Neil, who lay on the bed. Neither of them had stirred much, and now Jordan checked Neil more closely. Sitting beside him, she found his eyes open.
“How do you feel?” she asked quietly, pulling the blanket back to remove the dressing from his wound.
“Like I been rode hard and put up wet.”
Jordan snorted laughter, recalling how she had taught him what the phrase meant. “Let’s see if I gave you an infection by doing everything wrong,” she commented.
Under the bandage, she saw his wound well on its way to healing. She saw no hint of an infection, little swelling, and hardly any redness. “I don’t believe it,” she muttered.
She covered it again with a fresh bandage, then put her hand to his forehead. “No fever. Maybe I did something right.”
Neil’s mouth curved in a grin. “You did it all right.”
“Are you hungry? You should eat.”
“Just thirsty.”
Jordan found Caitlyn waking up, yawning, on the couch. “Go wash your face and hands, and I’ll fix you breakfast.”
“Okay.”
Filling a glass with water, Jordan took one of Caitlyn’s straws, then went back to Neil. She helped him to suck the water down until he was satisfied, then he sighed deeply. “Go back to sleep, predator.”
“Okay.” He sighed and closed his eyes.
Making sure he was covered up; Jordan used the bathroom to take a quick shower while Caitlyn conversed with Axel in the sitting room. Feeling better, despite her night with no sleep, Jordan fixed Caitlyn’s cereal. While she ate, Jordan took the shotgun with her onto the porch and looked around. Not seeing anything she shouldn’t, she still worried that Knox was out there, hidden, with his hunting rifle.
“Stay in the house,” she told Caitlyn, picking up her keys. “I’m going down to the barn. Keep Axel with you.”
“Okay, Mommy.”
Carrying the shotgun, Jordan jumped at every sudden noise, but fed and watered t
he stock. Expecting Knox to jump out at her, she continually watched over her shoulder. Nothing happened; she saw no sign of him or a vehicle he might have used to get to the ranch. Once her chores were finished, Jordan walked the perimeter of the yard.
Not sure what she looked for, other than to make sure Knox wasn’t hidden somewhere, she came upon flattened grass where tires had rolled. Crouching, she found small amounts of dried and blackened blood. “So, I did hit you, you bastard,” she muttered.
Returning to the house, she unlocked the door to find Caitlyn at the table, her empty cereal bowl at her elbow. She played a game on her tablet and only glanced up briefly as Jordan came in. “Hi, Mommy.”
“Hi, baby.”
After putting the shotgun away, Jordan checked on Neil again, then went to the kitchen for a quick breakfast of toast and coffee. As she ate, she speculated on what to do next. She knew she didn’t hurt Knox enough to have stopped him, and she suspected Knox knew he had hit Neil with his rifle shot.
Does that mean he’ll come back to finish the job? Does he think he killed Neil? If he does, will he come back tonight? Not having the answers to any of those questions, Jordan watched Caitlyn play her game and wondered about how to turn her house into a fortress.
Chapter Twenty-One
Swearing under his breath, Knox rose stiffly from his bed when his alarm went off and knocked the thing to the floor. He examined the crude bandage he had wrapped over his injured arm where the shotgun pellets had gone in.
“Damn bitch,” he muttered, heading for the bathroom.
As he dressed for work, he pondered how he had shot the boy-toy the previous night and thought for sure the guy was dead. “One down and one to go,” he told the mirror cheerfully.
With the boy-toy dead, Jordan was more vulnerable. He pictured her cowering in her house, afraid to move for fear he’d be there, ready to kill her. “And I will, bitch,” he mused as he left his apartment. “Tonight.”
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