by Vivian Arend
“You’ll have to get in line. Sounds as if Karen is ready to do that with her bare teeth.” Finn told them what little she’d shared before looking at his best friend. “If I remember correctly, there are two ways to get to that field.”
Zach tightened the cinch on his horse. “You want me and Cody to come in along the north fence line?”
He considered the route, even as he placed the bridle over Mywaye’s head. “Josiah goes with Cody. You and I will approach from the south. If by some chance the guy tries to escape straight east, we’ll have security waiting.”
“I’ll give the guards a shout as soon as we’re riding,” Cody promised.
“Are the girls okay?” Josiah asked. He sounded more concerned than expected. “I mean, this was supposed to be a fun moonlight ride, not a roundup.”
Finn thought over the list of women who had headed out that evening. “They’ve got three newbies but also five highly-skilled horsewomen. They can handle it.”
It seemed to take forever, but he knew they were out of the barn faster than usual. He led Zach to the same path he and Karen had walked only days before. They moved cautiously, but the sense of urgency was there. And it wasn’t about the horses, and it wasn’t even about whatever the hell was going on at the ranch.
It was about making sure Karen was safe.
Hoofbeats rang loudly against the hard-packed dirt.
The instant Karen got off the phone with Finn, she started handing out orders. “Finn’s taking care of our mystery man. We need to make sure Thor doesn’t take off with our mares. Tamara, are you good to stay here with Tansy and Rose and make sure everything’s dealt with?”
Tamara nodded. “We can head back to the ranch the same way we came once the fire’s out. You’ve got the trail well marked. I’m okay if we go slowly.”
“Someone will come back to meet you as soon as possible,” Karen promised. She turned to her other sisters and Kelli. “We’ll deal with the herd.”
Three heads nodded, all of them moving toward their horses without any questions.
“What about me?” Brooke asked.
She’d been the most competent of the three inexperienced riders on the trip up, and Karen needed one more set of hands. “You okay coming with us? You’ll ride with me to the bottom of the hill and then work as a backup.”
“No problem.”
The smooth grace with which everyone responded made Karen proud.
Starlight had done the trail enough times that he moved confidently even in the darkness. It gave time for Karen to talk to Brooke about what her task would be.
Once they hit the bottom of the hill, Karen helped Brooke to the ground then directed Lisa and Kelli to the trail leading north. “Julia and I will go south for ten minutes then head toward the river. I’m hoping with the fuss over by Red Boot ranch, the stallion won’t be interested in moving in that direction. He’ll wait for the mares to come to him. We should be able to cut them off before they join his herd.”
Brooke held up her phone. “And if the wildies head in this direction, I set off my alarm so they don’t take the trail up past the fire pit and spook the rest of our group.”
“Just don’t set the alarm off unless you have to, because none of the horses are going to like that sound.”
The five of them headed in different directions. Karen was amazed at how quickly the group had gone from laughing and joking to dead serious and a competent team.
But then again, she’d worked with some of these women most of her life. She knew what they were capable of.
Maybe that was part of what had called her to Heart Falls. Called her to make this home, because even in the midst of not knowing what the hell was going on, it seemed she was in the right place and with the right people.
As she and Julia moved quietly along the trail, Karen took the time to loosen the straps holding her shotgun in place.
Julia noticed. “You think that’s necessary?”
“Hope not, but I don’t want to have to scramble if I need it.”
“Understood.”
They rode across a new section of land, the low brush backlit with moonlight that turned the edges of green leaves into shimmering silver where the dew had begun to gather. It was beautiful and surreal considering they were currently sneaking up on a herd of wild horses.
The murmur of the water grew louder as they moved in.
“How deep is the river here?” Julia asked quietly enough to not carry farther than Karen’s ears.
“We can ford it if we have to.” Karen strained to make out details as the moon played peekaboo behind clouds. She lifted a hand. “The stallion.”
“Your herd.” Julia pointed farther to the east. “That’s good. They haven’t moved very much. They’re still close to the fence line.”
“Your eyes are better than mine,” Karen said, hauling out her binoculars to check.
She’d just got them in view when the quick crack of a gunshot went off. Instantly, the mares panicked, turning to run. They left behind the fence and headed toward where Julia and Karen stood on the far side of the water.
“It’s that idiot again,” Karen said even as she urged Starlight forward. “Come on. Let’s stop them before they hit the river.”
Water sprayed upward as she and Julia ran their horses across the shallows then up and across the land toward the panicked mares. To the east, the fence line was clear except where a batch of trees blocked her sight line.
There was no sign of the shooter. After checking to be sure they were far enough away to not be a target without a person visibly moving toward them, Karen concentrated on the horses.
Julia pivoted to the left, Karen to the right. The mares instinctively moved together, slowing their motion and circling back toward the familiarity of their new home.
Another circle, and the horses slowed again, heads and ears twitching as they tried to figure out what to do next.
Across the river, Kelli and Lisa eased toward the wild herd to push them back toward government land and the wilderness where they belonged.
Finn and Zach left their horses in the shelter of the trees and made their way to the fence line, sneaking up on the man who just stood there, shouting every now and then at the horses who weren’t doing what he wanted.
“Tackle him?” Zach murmured softly.
“Take him down.”
Then the bastard pulled out a gun and shot into the sky, and everything went sideways. Zach grabbed Finn, hauled him to the ground, and settled into one of the low-lying dips not even thirty feet from where the man stood.
They both lay motionless, expecting to be discovered at any moment. When nothing happened, Finn cautiously poked his head up to discover the man still had his back toward them, staring at the horses.
Zach took a peek as well, and when he laid back down, his friend pointed toward the mountains. “Horses to the west,” he whispered. “And the girls.”
Ice-cold terror ran through Finn’s veins. “How close?”
“Far enough for now.” Zach tilted his head toward the man. “Rush him?”
It was agony to lie there, making a plan instead of getting it done. “Can he shoot the girls?”
Zach shook his head. “Too far. Not even a lucky shot.”
Then that was the answer. “We wait. He moves, we move. He shoots, we move.”
His friend dipped his chin in agreement.
They sat in silence. One minute. Two.
Time inched like slow-melting water down the side of an icicle.
Another crack went off, only this time the horses didn’t bolt. Just shuddered as if they really wished Julia and Karen would make this night go away.
“What the hell is going on?” Julia asked. She glanced back toward the fence line. Pointing again. “Over there.”
It was the briefest moment where a single form was silhouetted by moonlight. A second man came running out of nowhere, tackling the first to the ground, while again gunshot echoed.
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br /> Karen glanced at the herd, but they were milling around Julia as if she were the holy grail. “Stay here,” Karen ordered before turning Starlight and heading at a run toward the batch of trees closest to the fence line.
“What the hell?” Julia’s voice faded in the distance.
Maybe this was a stupid move, but every instinct Karen had told her to do it. She put her head down and rode.
Finn hit the ground with a stranger under him, pain streaking along his weak right leg. Fists pounded against his ribs as the man attempted to throw him off.
Zach cursed in the background, a gasping sound, and Finn was distracted for just long enough that the man under him kicked him off. The stranger scrambled for the gun that had been knocked from his hands.
He lifted it, pointing directly at Finn’s midsection.
Goddamn it.
Finn slowly raised his hands in the air. “Careful.”
More curses sounded, but this time they were from the man in front of him. A familiar voice, completely unexpected.
Anger flared. “Brandon?”
His mentor’s son pushed back his hoodie and glared. “What the hell are you doing out here?”
“Talking to a piece of shit horse thief.” He turned his back on Brandon and hurried to see what was wrong with Zach. He knelt beside his friend. “You okay?”
Zach was on the ground, clutching his shoulder. “I dove the wrong direction,” he said, his voice shaky. “Fuck.”
Finn moved Zach’s torn jacket aside to see enough to infuriate him. The shot hadn’t gone through his friend, but it was a bad enough graze it probably hurt like hell.
He put Zach’s hand back over the wound and pushed down hard. “Pressure. We’ll get someone to fix you up right away.”
He pulled out his phone to call Josiah while Brandon kept shouting random bullshit in the background.
Rising to his feet, Finn snapped at Brandon, “Shut up, right now. I don’t know what the hell’s going on, but we’ll figure it out after Zach’s been fixed up. Put that damn gun on the ground and get your ass over here.”
Brandon just stood there, hand shaking, gun still pointed in Finn’s direction. “Did I shoot him? I didn’t mean to shoot him.”
He was on the edge of tears, definitely not coherent.
“You don’t pull out a gun and point it at a person unless you intend to shoot them.” Finn roared the words. “Put the damn gun down now.”
Nothing changed. If anything, the gun wiggled even more.
“I didn’t mean it,” Brandon cried again. “It was an accident.”
Hell. Finn raised a hand, trying to calm the man, but it was no use. Brandon grew more hysterical, the shotgun waving in the air with zero finesse as he shouted accident over and over.
“Of course, it was an accident. He’s fine,” Finn said loudly, trying to break through the panic.
“It’s your fault, you know.” Brandon raised his gaze to Finn, and the damn gun rose again.
In spite of the man being an absolute chickenshit, at that moment Finn was convinced he was about to be shot anyway. When a loud crack rang out, he even flinched, waiting for pain to rip through his body.
Instead, Brandon screamed. He fell to the ground and clutched his lower leg.
All the breath whooshed out of Finn.
He glanced at Zach.
His friend shook his head, pointing toward the river. “I’ll be damned.”
Out from the nearby cluster of trees, Karen Coleman stepped cautiously toward them, a rifle in her hand and a steely look in her eyes as she made her way forward.
Finn met her at the fence line, stopping en route to remove the gun from Brandon’s proximity.
“Good shot,” he told her.
She raised a brow and answered without a trace of irony. “He looked like he needed shooting.”
A comment which for some reason struck Finn as absolutely hysterical.
Behind him were two men in need of medical help, but in front of him was the woman he loved, who had been willing, and able, to put a bullet in someone for his sake.
He brought her over the fence and into his arms.
23
The next hours passed in a blur, and Finn’s hand in hers was the only thing that kept Karen centered.
It wasn’t even the shock of having shot a man. There had been a gun pointed at Finn, and Brandon’s obviously increasing stress had made that move a given.
It was everything else. The interrupted trail ride, chasing down the wildies. Finding out Zach had been shot—
Thankfully, it was only a surface wound. It had only taken a couple minutes for Julia to bandage him up. “You’ll have a nice scar, but it shouldn’t affect your range of motion.”
She took care of Brandon’s calf wound as well, and the EMT had been perhaps not quite as gentle in her caregiving as Karen had seen her with other patients.
Now Brandon sat on a chair in Cody’s office, being watched closely by their foreman as they waited the arrival of yet another visitor.
Another visitor who wasn’t the RCMP, which added more confusion on top of the rest of it.
“You sure we don’t have to call the police?” Not that Karen wanted a record or any of the rest of it, but contacting the authorities just seemed the thing to do after shooting a man.
Well, technically two men, since Brandon had shot Zach as well.
“Alan said not to, and considering who did what to whom, we’ll just wait until we hear what he has to say for right now.” Finn pressed a kiss to her temple and poured more tea in her cup. “Relax.”
It wasn’t as if everybody knew, either. Right now, Julia, Zach, and Finn knew she’d taken the shot. The rest of them assumed Brandon had been injured with his own gun during the wrestling match. Finn had not gone out of his way to correct the assumption.
Karen’s friends and family had gone home after everyone had returned from the wilderness and the mares had been led back to the barn.
Now she, Finn, and Zach waited in her living room for their bigshot lawyer to arrive.
“You know this is weird, right?” Karen told the two of them pointedly. “Most people don’t have this kind of relationship with a lawyer.”
“You mean the type where the man hops on a private plane in the middle of the night to come deal with dicey situations?” Zach lifted his glass in the air, the bandage on his shoulder pushing against the fabric of his T-shirt. “Welcome to the family.”
“I should be drinking what you’re having and not this tea,” Karen muttered.
Finn offered his glass. “All yours if you want.”
“I need my head about me in case this lawyer of yours expects me to be coherent.” She stole a sip before she handed the glass back, though.
Once the burn of liquor faded, she cuddled up against him. The room went slightly hazy as her eyes drooped. Finn and Zach continued to talk softly while the fire crackled in the stove.
She must’ve fallen asleep, dropping after the adrenaline rush, because the next thing she knew, there was light on the horizon and someone rattling around in the kitchen.
She was still on the couch and in Finn’s arms, which struck her as pretty much perfect.
Karen glanced up to find him gazing at her contentedly. “Hey.”
He bumped their noses together. “Hey. Want to go get freshened up? Alan’s about two minutes out. He’ll talk to Brandon first, then we’ll get this dealt with so we can move on. Okay?”
Which is how half an hour later she ended up at her kitchen table with a stranger in a five-thousand-dollar suit to her right and the man she’d shot directly across from her.
There had to be a better way to phrase that. Because really, she’d only shot him a little.
Alan’s expression screamed disapproval as he stared at Brandon before focusing his attention on Zach and Finn. “Here’s what it comes down to. Brandon’s been trying to sabotage your plans to be operational in time to win the challenge.”
&
nbsp; Zach mock gasped. “Colour me shocked. Brandon? Deceitful and underhanded?”
The lawyer continued. “He paid someone else for the first while, and then when you increased security and his hired help ran, he decided he had to come out and mess with you himself.”
“You rat bastard,” Zach said softly, his amusement vanishing. “You had someone light the fire and steal supplies, didn’t you?”
Brandon stared at the floor.
Alan spoke firmly. “He also personally booby-trapped the building that fell in on Finn.”
The entire situation had been unreal, but that comment broke through her incredulousness. Karen’s palms hit the table. “What? What did you just say?”
“It was only supposed to make you fail the challenge so I could get what I deserved.” There was zero trace of repentance in Brandon’s voice.
The numbness inside flared to fury. Karen found herself on her feet, staring at the man who’d caused Finn so much pain. “I should have shot you three feet higher. You might have killed Finn.”
“It was supposed to collapse when no one was around,” Brandon insisted. “It was an accident.”
“Just like you accidentally shot Zach?” The fury inside her wasn’t healthy. “We’re pressing charges.”
“Wait, you can’t do that. You deliberately shot me,” Brandon whined, his gaze darting around the room as if hoping someone would take his side. “You’ll be charged too.”
She leaned in, staring into his frightened eyes.
This asshole had caused Finn to be hurt, and while the man she loved had recovered, he’d suffered needlessly.
She was beyond pissed.
Every bit of the protective anger roiling through her rang out as she snapped her response. “Bring it. No jury on earth would convict me.”
Finn caught her fingers in his, tugging her into his lap. “Let’s hear what Alan has to say.”
His grip was less of a restraint and more a claiming. Holding himself in a circle around her, yet allowing her power to remain visible—and she had to be vibrating at the moment. She was ready to reach over and pull Brandon’s head from his shoulders with her bare hands.