by Sylvie Kurtz
The shadow moved. An arm detached from the form, rose.
A string of rapid-fire clicks rent the air. Crazed blue light arced from probe to probe against the black of night.
A terrified whinny curdled the air. From the barn came a choir of anxious answering calls. Horses stomped and snorted and raced, stirring inside the ring in frenzied confusion.
And in the middle of the thrashing hooves was Ellen’s slumped body.
Chapter Fifteen
At first Ellen thought the pounding came from her head. Then she realized that two rhythms hammered at her. The even thump thump of her brain against her cranium and the wild drumming of horses’ hooves in the dirt all around her. The scent of panic thickened the air. Clumps of mud pelted her sides. Horse tails whipped her face. Hooves nicked her back.
Instinctively she turtled on the ground, protecting her head. Dizzy, she blinked, trying to focus her eyes. Black. All she could see was black. Was she blind? What was happening? Why was she on the ground in the middle of petrified horses?
Tessa. The gun. The horses. The ranch. Kevin, ohmygod, Kevin. The blinding clarity of the answer also served to clear her vision. Why were the horses stampeding in the dark? Where was Tessa? Where was Kevin? If Ellen hadn’t been so bent on punishing him, he’d have been with her, and together they could have dealt with Tessa before the situation got out of hand. Now she was alone, and if he was hurt, it was her fault.
Snorting and stomping, the horses slowly wound down. Then a loud snap-crackle-click fired the air, seemed to make it alive with electricity. Apollo trumpeted. C.C. snorted. Luci whinnied. A horse cow-kicked. Another reared. The third made a mad dash away from the rip of electric air. Saucer hooves clipped her arm, her back, her leg. What was that noise? Where was Tessa? What was she doing?
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Ellen said in the calmest voice she could muster, trying to ignore the bruising pain that seemed to cover every inch of her body. “Luci, Luci, Luci. It’s me. Whoa. Please.” Ellen frantically sought to orient herself through the manic stir of legs wildly seeking escape from the nerve-rattling noise. Shadows finally detached from one another, giving shape to the charged horses, the barn, the fence.
The gate. She had to get to the gate and let the horses out, get them away from the noise that was frightening them.
Talking in easy tones she stood up slowly in order not to panic the horses more than they already were. Apollo bumped against her, nearly sending her sprawling to the ground once more.
“Stay down!” Kevin shouted.
Kevin! He was all right. A surge of relief almost knocked her to her knees “The gate.”
“I’ll get it.”
Forcing herself to block out her own mounting panic, she sought out Luci. But the horses’ terror had her dodging blows and desperately struggling to stay on her feet amid rumps and shoulders and heads and feet milling madly.
“Luci, Luci, Luci,” she croaked as calmly as she could. If she could calm Luci, the rest would follow.
Apollo rammed into her, knocking her off balance. She fell on all fours. C.C. hopped over her, clipping the side of her head with his back hoof. Rounding herself into as small a ball as she could, she peered through her arms. Out of control. The horses were out of control. One stepped on her boot, pinching her big toe. A tail whipped her eyes.
She sensed Kevin crouching low to her right, heading for the gate. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Where was Tessa?
At that moment she felt movement to her left. Using the fence as a step, Tessa stood. Grim determination etched her face as she aimed the gun at Kevin.
“Watch out! She’s got a gun.”
The horses were going crazy. Agitated whinnies and snorts reeled beside her, above her, all around her. Hooves cut into her, faster, sharper, harder. She could feel her energy draining with each blow, couldn’t help seeing herself trampled to death, fought to blink away the horrid picture.
Cursing violently, Kevin struggled to open the gate. “It’s jammed.”
Tessa fired. Two probes shot out, lighting the night in a deranged light. Like guided missiles they flew a true course. Snap-crackle-click. Kevin roared in pain, went rigid and dropped to the ground like a stiff corpse.
“Kevin!” Ellen’s shout only served to stir the horses’ terror. It was her nightmare come to life again, watching helplessly as the man she loved drowned and the rough water swelled over her. Unable to move any muscle, she was too weak to help him, help herself—help the horses. Stamps of frenzied hooves pounded all around her. “Kevin!”
“There’s no getting out of this, sugar. You might as well just let the horses finish their job.” The gun fired again—no flying probes, just the nerve-grating noise—sizzling the air with its charge.
Ellen had to get the horses out. She swallowed her panic and ordered herself to breathe, to think. Holding her breath, she rolled to the fence. A hoof caught the dial of her watch, ground it into the mud, pulverizing it. She snatched her arm away. The limp band fell from her wrist.
No time. No time. She cursed and fought the tears blurring her vision. And without Kevin, time wouldn’t matter. Too late. Why did she have to discover the truth in her heart too late?
No, not too late. Never too late. She hadn’t given up then. She couldn’t give up now.
The gate was stuck. There was only one way to get out. Horses were flight animals. Instincts made them run from anything they feared. That left her no choice.
When Luci rushed by, Ellen grabbed her mane. Using all of her strength and will, she vaulted on. As her weight landed on Luci’s back, the mare stopped dead and bobbed her head in her usual riding stupor. Rounding over the mare’s neck to avoid becoming Tessa’s target, she mimicked Kevin’s hypnotic tones and murmured to the mare.
“There’s no other way, Luci. We’re going to have to jump. You can do it. You do it every morning.”
Ellen gave Luci her cue to move and got no response but more insane head bobbing. Ellen’s shaking legs weren’t strong enough to bully Luci into action. She saw the whites of Apollo’s crazed eyes as he collided with them, bumping them into C.C.’s path. C.C. kicked, landing a blow on her shin. Still Luci bobbed her head like a toy in a car window.
Ellen rubbed the sides of Luci’s neck. “Luci, please, Luci. You’ve got to move.”
Then she remembered Calliope and knew she had one hope left. At the top of her lungs she shouted, “Blue! Blue! Come, boy. Blue!”
Mad thumpings and muffled rusty attempts at barking were followed by the sound of shattering glass. The dog flew through the tack room’s stuck window, scattering C.C. and Apollo to the far end of the ring, adding to their maddened stirrings. Wood cracked but held. C.C. bucked. Apollo bugled as he skidded in the mud. Luci kept on bobbing her head.
“Herd, Blue, herd!” Was that the right command? How could she tell the dog what she needed?
Another zap of the gun arced at the weapon’s muzzle. Blue shot toward Luci and nipped at her heels. The mare kicked out with one foot. Blue scooted out of the way. Luci lunged forward.
“That’s it, Luci. That’s it.” Ellen hung on by sheer determination. Blue came at the mare again. “You can do it, Luci. Think of rolling in the mud. This is nothing for you. You can jump this fence in your sleep. Come on, Luci. That’s it.”
With Blue’s help, using knees and weight shifts, Ellen maneuvered Luci to the long end of the pen. She’d get only one shot at this. Pointing Luci at the other end of the ring, she shouted to the dog, “Blue, herd!”
Leaning over Luci’s neck, Ellen spoke soothing nothings into the mare’s ears. “A roll in the mud, Luci.” At Blue’s nudging nip, Luci shot forward. “A roll in the mud.” Ellen guided the horse straight to the fence. Three, two, one, she counted down. “Jump, Luci, jump!”
Ellen tightened her grip on Luci’s mane, closed her eyes, held her breath. Her heart stopped as Luci gathered and sprung. Luci sailed over the fence and landed hard in the yard. The jar unbalanced Ellen.
&nbs
p; She fell. Her back slammed into the ground, knocking the wind out of her.
MUSCLES CONTRACTING painfully Kevin fought the mental haze, the spinning disorientation of vertigo. Gritting his teeth, he willed his circuits back into order. Helplessly curled into a fetal position, he saw Ellen and Luci fly over the fence. C.C. followed suit. Apollo paced the fence, calling frantically, unable to jump with his hurt leg.
Ellen. He tried to shout but his vocal chords refused to respond. Ellen. It came out as a strangled groan. He’d seen her fall, and just as before, he couldn’t do anything to help her.
Footsteps stalked, getting closer. Tessa. She stopped by him, kicked his leg and pulled out the probes still attached to the back of his shirt. Muscles shaking, struggling to control the sluggish neural transmissions, he focused all of his power and lashed out. With both hands he grabbed Tessa’s ankle as she turned to head toward Ellen still slumped on the ground. With a growl he corkscrewed in a crocodile death roll and pulled Tessa down.
She aimed the heel of her boot at his face. He flopped down over her, trapping one of her legs beneath the weight of his body.
“You’re not going to stop me,” she growled, kicking. “Not now. I’m too close.”
Scrambling, she maneuvered to use the gun’s close-up stun feature. Pitching his still sluggish body at her arm, he turned the muzzle toward her and squeezed her hand. Click-click-click. Tessa stiffened and slumped.
On hands and knees, trying to shake the vertigo still tilting the world at a crazy angle, he scampered toward Ellen.
She moaned.
“Ellen.”
She labored to a sitting position.
“Don’t move,” he said as he pushed her back down and patted her, looking for broken bones. Was that blood or mud?
“I’m all right,” she said, and again tackled the task of sitting. “I got the wind knocked out of me, that’s all.”
Even in the darkness, her face seemed completely drained of color in between the dark streaks on her cheeks. Her eyes seemed to fill her face, silver in the dim light. But she was breathing. She was moving. She was talking. He took her in his arms, held her tightly, inhaled her scent and kissed her again and again. Her hair, her cheeks, her mouth. Then kissed her long and hard. He rested his forehead on hers and whispered thickly, “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”
“Trust me, it wasn’t part of the plan,” she said, sniffling and hanging on to him just as tightly. She dug her fingers into his shoulders. “You’re all right? I saw you fall. Tessa. The horses. I thought I was losing everything all over again.”
“It’s okay. It’s over. Tessa stunned herself with her own gun.” His fingers scraped loose hair that had fallen across her cheek and came away wet. He sought the dark, shiny spot smearing the side of her face. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m fine. Luci—”
“She and C.C. are grazing by the house. We need to get that cut seen to.”
Ellen gave a semblance of a laugh through her tears. “They’re probably eating my flowers.”
“We’ll plant more.” His lips brushed the cut on her temple. If she could joke at a time like this, she was all right. She wouldn’t fall into a coma. She would be fine. He chased the horror of seeing her slumped body on the ground out of his mind. She was okay. His heart filled with gratitude and his arms tightened around her.
There was so much he wanted to tell her, but Blue’s low-throated growl reminded him there were still a few loose ends to tie up before he could raise the question of a future with her.
“Can you walk?” he asked, holding her away from him with two supporting hands on her arms.
“Of course.” They stood. She wobbled a bit, then pushed him away.
Reluctantly he let her go. “Call the sheriff’s office. I need to hog-tie Tessa before she’s mobile again.”
TWO HOURS LATER, the house, yard and barn blazed with light, giving the ranch the appearance of midday. The deputy had carted off Tessa into custody. Dr. Parnell had graciously come to examine and treat the horses and Blue after their ordeal. A semblance of normalcy returned with the horses safely settled for what remained of the night, munching on hay.
After assuring himself that Ellen was safe and sound and no more harm would come to her, Chance was heading back home. Kevin cornered him as he reached his cruiser. “Wait up.”
Chance leaned against the cruiser, his face haggard. Tiredness rucked his forehead, bruised his eyes. Kevin knew his brother was itching to get back to his wife. He’d keep it short. But now that Kevin had the means and opportunity, he wasn’t quite sure how to broach the subject that had brought him to Gabenburg in the first place. His hand dug into the pocket of his jeans and found the comfort of Nina’s feather.
“I owe you an apology,” Kevin said, kicking at the ground with the toe of his boot. “I’ve owed you one for sixteen years.”
For a while Chance said nothing. Arms crossed beneath his chest, he just eyed his brother. “When I washed up in Gabenburg, my mind was wiped clean. I couldn’t remember who I was, what happened to me or why.”
Kevin stiffened against the expected lecture on responsibility. “What did you do?”
“I started over. Angus and Lucille Conover took me in as their own. I’ll be forever grateful to them.”
“When…?” Kevin scowled at the toe of his boot.
“Did I remember?”
Kevin nodded.
“Last year.”
“Last year!” Kevin’s head snapped up. “That’s fifteen years.”
“That’s how I found Ellen. By looking for myself.”
Kevin was bleeding inside as the enormity of what he’d done hit him. He didn’t know how to stop it. “I’m sorry, Chance. You’ll never know how sorry I am for what happened.”
Chance shook his head. “Don’t be. I know you tried your best to save me. You left Ellen to come after me.” He paused for a beat. “You were right.”
“I was?” Kevin frowned. “About what?”
“You can’t stop the river. That wild water carried us both to new lives.” He placed a hand over his chest. “I’ve got everything I always wanted. Taryn, she’s my world. And Shauna, she’s my heart. There’s nothing to forgive.” Chance laughed roughly. “I should thank you, actually. Without that unexpected trip down the river, I would never have found them.”
Kevin hunched his shoulders. “I still owe you an apology. I was angry. I didn’t know.” He blew out a long breath. “I loved Ellen so much, it hurt.”
Chance nodded. “Anyone who’d seen you two together could tell you were a matched pair. I knew you’d work it out if I could just get out of the picture.”
“You were trying to walk away and I didn’t give you a chance. I thought… I thought…” Kevin shook his head, desperately searching for the words to explain the unexplainable. “I didn’t know how to deal with it, how to tell her. I thought if I could make you understand, then she would, too.”
“You took that ranch job and hoped to sort it out over the summer.”
A thread of relief hissed out. Chance understood. “Yeah. Then that whole incident at the river changed everything. I never meant to hurt you. You’re my brother…”
“I know.” Awkwardly, Chance cuffed Kevin’s shoulder. “We’ll have plenty of time to catch up.”
Time. How much did he really have? Once he’d seemed to have forever. Now time felt stopped in its tracks. Colorado held no appeal for him, but if nothing else, he always had Nina’s ranch to return to.
“You’re staying, aren’t you?” Chance asked.
Kevin shrugged a shoulder. “It’s not up to me.”
Chance grinned. “I’ll have Taryn put in a good word for you. She likes you.”
“She does?”
“Stop by the house tomorrow. I’ll buy you a beer.”
Kevin nodded.
Chance eased into the cruiser and started the engine. “Kevin?”
Kevin slanted his brother a question
ing glance.
“I’m glad you’re here.”
Kevin swallowed hard. Not knowing what to say, he nodded.
He watched the cruiser fade into the night, then headed toward the barn. He found Ellen crouched beside Blue, talking to Dr. Parnell. She smiled at him. His heart gave a funny little kick, then hummed.
“Dr. Parnell dressed the cuts on Blue.” She scratched Blue behind the ear. The dog gazed up at her adoringly. The sight of the fresh bandage on Ellen’s temple and around her wrist bruised Kevin deeply. She could have died under those frenzied hooves. “He’s a real hero. I don’t know how I would have gotten Luci to move if he hadn’t jumped through the window.”
“He’s a good dog.” If it came down to going away, Kevin would leave Blue here. She needed someone to look out for her.
“And guess what?”
He hadn’t seen her so excited since he’d arrived, and he wanted nothing to dull that lovely light from her eyes. “What?”
“Dr. Parnell thinks he can help the horses, too.”
“Now,” Dr. Parnell said as he dug into his pants pocket and brought out a peppermint, “don’t get your hopes up too high. I said it might work.”
Luci stretched her neck over her stall door and lipped at the peppermint in Dr. Parnell’s hand. With a twinkle in his eye he pretended distraction and let Luci nab the candy from his palm. She crunched it with appropriate delight, licked her lips like a kid, then searched for more.
“It’s an experimental drug,” Dr. Parnell continued, “but it’s had good success in trials with humans who suffer from acute leukemia.”
“No chemo. No radiation.” She looked so pleased that Kevin wanted more than anything for this solution to work.
“Leukemia?” Kevin said. “That’s what’s wrong with the horses?”
Ellen nodded and gave a short snort. “Tessa knew it and wanted to hide the fact because she’s got a newer model of racehorse she was planning to unveil soon. News of this genetic mutation would have ruined her chance at glory. Can you believe that?”