Forgetting the scent trail, he called for the dog to heel and then with his handgun ready, he ran as hard as he could toward the sound. He was almost there when he heard another shot and a muffled shout, followed closely by the sound of hoof beats fading in the distance.
Chapter 16
Oh please, God, he prayed silently as he tore through the scrub oaks, let Mesa be safe. As near as he was to panic, he slowed his charge as he approached the area where he’d left Mesa with Bob and the horses. He knew that getting himself killed wouldn’t help anyone so he stopped and listened before exposing himself. He heard a couple of the horses shifting restlessly over by the scrub oaks where they’d been tied and then the sound of a groan, but no other noise. Rafe circled around to get a better view and saw only the palomino mare was gone and then, his heart faltered again as he spotted the shape lying motionless in the shadow of the biggest tree. Keeping his attention shifting between the surrounding woods and himself, he rushed to the form, gun in hand. Kneeling beside it he almost gasped with relief when he recognized Bob. He eased his hand to the man’s neck to check for a pulse and was surprised when he heard a gun cock and the old man rolled onto his back.
“Som’a bitch,” Bob growled. “Move and I’ll kill you.”
“Bob, it’s me, Rafe.”
The old man let the gun in his hand fall to the side and gasped. “That som’a bitch took Mesa. Go get her.”
“How bad are you hit?” Rafe asked, anxious to do as Bob asked, but knowing he had a duty to the old cowboy, also.
“I’ll live. Go after them. Take the roan colt. He’s fastest.” Bob pushed at the lawman leaning over him. “She took a shot at him and I think he’s wounded, but he was able to get on the horse behind her. They’re headed to her house to get a vehicle. Go on, now. Get.”
Rafe nodded. Speaking into his lapel mike, he informed Levi that Bob was hit and that the shooter had Mesa. “You’re on your own, until I finish this,” he said as he swung up on the young roan stallion. “Get an ambulance out here or get Bob to the road to meet it, as quick as you can.” He turned the stallion toward Bob. “Levi’ll be here in a few minutes and he’s calling an ambulance.”
The old man lifted one hand and waved weakly as the big lawman reined the colt back over his haunches and booted him in the side. “Just go,” he groaned, but knew Rafe hadn’t heard him. The blue roan stallion was already tearing through the woods as fast as he could run, the bulldog right behind him.
As he rode, Rafe tried to work through different scenarios in his mind, but knew ultimately, he’d have to take things as they came.
^^^
Mesa felt the pistol that the man held against her side gouging painfully with each stride that the palomino mare took. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t hit him when she fired that same gun. She was a reasonably good shot and missing at such a crucial time was infuriating, especially when he managed to wrest it from her. She was trying not to panic but fear was still a bitter taste in her mouth. She knew this man had no intention of letting her live. She’d seen his face. She prayed that Bob hadn’t been killed, but knew that even if he had survived the initial shot, he was an old man that alone was enough to threaten his future. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to leave Raale, or Rafe…or Jory. Her jaws clenched in anger. She had too much to live for to let this man take her life. If he did kill her, she decided silently, he’d pay a price, because she would go down fighting for everything she held dear.
Behind her on the horse, Fisher swore silently. Damn woman. He hadn’t dreamed she’d have a gun. Of all his hits, none of them, not a single one of them, had ever come close to getting him. He shook his head, knowing that losing consciousness would be his end. Finally, beyond her shoulder he could see the lights of the house and barn appearing in the distance. His confidence grew as they drew closer, and he actually felt stronger. He wasn’t beat yet. When they got to the house, he’d make her get a key and find a first aid kit, then he’d kill her and hit the road. Once he was away from here, he knew a man that could fix him up. Damn Shiver for sending him a bunch of incompetent errand boys to break down the lab and get the meth moved. It might take a while, but he’d see that the ‘honorable’ mayor paid for being so stupid.
Mesa slowed the mare to a slow lope as they traversed the lane that led to the barn. In her heart, she was satisfied that as soon as he knew what had happened, Rafe would be on their trail. She had to try to slow things down and give him a chance to get here. She reined back on the mare slightly, slowing her even more.
“Why’re you stopping?” growled the man behind her.
“When a horse is allowed to run to the barn, they get excited and it’s harder to control them,” she explained. That much was true. “This mare has been known to just go nuts when she gets excited.”
He pushed the gun harder against her and she winced.
“You’ll make sure that doesn’t happen, right?” he said.
“That’s why I’m slowing her down,” Mesa tried to control her fear and her anger, but her anger was growing stronger.
The well trained animal beneath them slowed even more with the shifting of their weight to stay balanced and finally dropped into a walk.
“I need a car. Take me to the house.” Fisher sat up straighter behind her and began casting his attention about, making sure there was no one else around.
Mesa reined the horse toward the house but then paused. “That truck has the keys in it,” she said indicating the truck that Uncle Rance always drove. She’d taken to driving it around the ranch since she’d been home to make sure it ran and she knew the fuel gage was broken. It always showed a full tank, but she also knew it was getting low. Knowing that getting away from this man was the only thing that would keep her alive, Mesa began nudging the mare in one side with her heel. Responding as she was trained to do, the animal began moving sideways, away from the nudge. The harder the nudge, the quicker she moved.
“Hold on,” Mesa cautioned, “she’s starting to lose it.” She nudged the mare back the other way and then pulled the slack out of the reins. Again, as trained, the mare shifted her weight onto her haunches and began backing up at a rapid pace.
Backing as quickly as she was rounded the horse’s powerful hips beneath her and to the man clinging behind Mesa, it felt like the horse was dropping out from under him.
“Make it stop,” Fisher ordered, and for the first time, Mesa detected a note of fear in his voice.
“I can’t,” Mesa gasped, “she’s fixing to blow sky high. We’ve gotta get off.”
For the first time since he’d forced her to mount the horse in front of him at gun point, the handgun moved away from her side and she felt the man slipping to one side. Quickly she booted the mare in the other direction, causing him to slip faster and then he was dropping to the ground, losing his hold on her.
That was the break she’d been looking for. Instantly she whirled the mare around and they charged back up the lane in the direction from which they’d come, leaving Fisher scrambling to his feet behind them, throwing vulgarity after her. The next sound was the pop of the gun, as he took time to throw a couple of shots in her direction. Leaning low over the mare as they tore down the lane, Mesa felt a sudden slap against her left leg and then it went numb, but she held on and was out of pistol range in seconds. She looked down and saw the dark stain spreading into her Wranglers and knew she’d been hit. Surprisingly, she only found it irritating that he’d actually managed to hit her, and then caught herself laughing because she knew it would hurt like hell in a few minutes.
At the end of the lane, being safely out of the range of the pistol, she pulled the mare into a walk and turned into the shadows of the nearby trees. She wanted to remain close enough to watch the place and see if the man left and if he did, to make sure she knew what he was driving.
She’d only been there a few minutes when she heard a horse tearing down the old two-track road in the woods. Feeling sure it would be R
afe, she rode out onto the two-track, and sure enough, he was astride To, racing full out toward the barn.
When he spotted her, he checked the young stallion’s speed and brought him to a stop. Rafe bailed out of the saddle and almost drug her off the mare.
Rafe could hardly believe it when Mesa rode the mare out of the woods as he approached the entrance to the lane. To see her sitting astride the mare alone gave him such a surge of relief that he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t cry. He couldn’t wait to touch her, to know she was real and not just an illusion brought to life by his fervent hope and prayers. When they were both on the ground and she was penned in his arms, he whispered a sincere prayer of thanks to God for her having managed to escape the gunman.
“He’s at the barn. I made him think I was losing control of the mare and he slid off,” Mesa explained hurriedly. “Did you find Bob?”
He nodded. “He’ll be fine. Levi was getting an ambulance started when I left Bob. The old guy was more concerned about you than he was himself.” He could feel Mesa starting to shudder in his arms and held her tighter.
“Rafe,” she started, her voice shaking with trembles. “You might need to get me to the ambulance, too. He threw a couple of shots and one of them hit me in the leg when I was riding away.”
“Oh, Lord,” he groaned, pushing her back until he saw the dark stain saturating her pants leg. He sat her down on the edge of the lane and snatched off her belt to fashion it into a tourniquet around her leg. That done, he sat back on his heels and looked at her. “Sugar, I can’t get an ambulance in here until I can make sure it’s safe. That means I have to leave you here while I go in and secure the place.”
She nodded, thankful to be sitting down. “Then get moving, Sheriff Storm Horse. I’ll wait right here for you.”
He slipped a finger beneath her chin and lifted her face for a quick, tender kiss. “I’ll do this as fast as I can, Mesa,” he assured her huskily. “I love you.”
She nodded again. “And I love you. Now go.”
An exhausted Spur arrived, his long tongue hanging out one side of his mouth, panting from his long run.
Rafe patted the ground next to Mesa. “Spur, down.” He spoke softly and patted the obedient animal as it followed his instructions. “Stay,” he said, quickly turning his attention to his surroundings. He stroked her face tenderly. “He’ll wait with you.”
She nodded and watched silently as he secured both horses to a tree and faded into the darkness afoot.
^^^
Fisher knew he’d hit the bitch with one shot and hoped she died a slow, painful death. He made his way into the barn. Growing up in the city, he didn’t know much about animals, but he did know that ranchers kept medicine available to doctor their livestock. He needed to find it and see if he could stop the bleeding from where she’d shot him in the side. It was bad. He knew that and he really didn’t want to die. Not out here in some stinking barn in the sticks, from a wound inflicted by a damned woman, no less. His plan, if he had a plan, was to go out in a blaze of glory, taking as many others as he could with him. His whole life he’d spit in the eye of conventional values as often as possible, and he saw no reason to change his behavior now.
Staggering through the barn, he found the cabinet and sink in the small room next to the cross-tie wash rack, where the medicinal supplies were stored. Pulling his shirt out of his waistband, he used some clean rags kept in plastic bags to wash the wound, and he shook his head angrily when he realized how serious the injury actually was. It was above and just to one side of his belly-button and he recognized that it was life threatening, probably having torn through some intestines. Soon the fluids in his intestines would leak out into the open cavity of his belly, and not long after that peritonitis would develop, sending his temperature soaring and him out of his head with pain.
He swore loudly and vehemently at the circumstances and the woman that had caused this. The best he could hope for was to get in a vehicle and get to the nearest hospital. All of a sudden, he wasn’t concerned with going out in a blaze of glory. He wanted to live. He affixed a clean rag over the wound and tied it in place with another, hoping to staunch the flow of blood. Then he made his way back to the front of the barn and the truck that was parked there. Just as he reached the exit, he spotted a shadow moving toward the door and swore silently. Somehow, that damned hick sheriff, or somebody, knew he was here. He paused, then shrugged. If he didn’t get to a hospital soon, he was dead anyway. He rushed the entrance of the barn and popped off a couple of rounds in the direction of the shadow and staggered on toward the truck. He didn’t wait to find out if his shots had found the hoped for target or not, but turned the key and fired up the engine. Then he floored the pedal and sent a storm of dust and gravel as the truck fishtailed away from the barn to the highway.
^^^
Rafe had observed the man’s ungainly gait as he rushed to the truck and realized he was hurt. Quickly he hurried to his own vehicle, but instead of giving pursuit, he drove up the two-track lane to where Mesa waited. While he drove, he was able to brief Levi about the situation and get an update on what was taking place at the now disassembled meth lab on the banks of the river. He told them where he was leaving the mare and the stallion and was assured that the animals would be taken care of.
When he reached her, he jumped from the SUV and quickly scooped her into his arms and deposited her in the passenger seat. Making sure her seatbelt was secured, he rushed around the vehicle and slid behind the steering wheel again.
The small path didn’t allow room to turn around, so he shifted the SUV into reverse and backed all the way back to the barn, where he executed a quick turn and headed toward the hospital.
Mesa had known that once the numbness of shock wore off, the leg injury would become painful, but she wasn’t prepared for the magnitude of the pain. By the time she was fastened into the SUV, the pain was making itself felt and she had trouble thinking about anything else. She heard Rafe telling her that he was taking her to the hospital, but could only manage a groan in response, and as they reached the highway and picked up speed, she heard him engage the siren and the emergency lights. She tried to stay conscious, but after a few seconds, her head slumped to the side and she slipped into blessed darkness.
Rafe swore and prayed alternately, fearing that she’d lost too much blood, and when he flew past Rance’s truck in the ditch on the side of the road a few miles down the road, he didn’t even slow down. He called Levi and informed him, telling him the shooter had been injured, and warning them to approach the vehicle with caution. Then he called his night dispatcher and had her alert the hospital that two gunshot victims were in route, so the staff could be prepared for his arrival with Mesa and the ambulance’s arrival with Bob.
He drove through the darkness of early morning, the lights on the top of his SUV flashing and the scream of the siren shattering the first glimmering of light, hoping with everything in him that Mesa wouldn’t bleed out before he got her to help.
^^^
Mesa was cold. Colder than she could ever remember being, but she wasn’t able to do anything to rectify it. Somewhere, in the darkness that surrounded her, she head a moan, but it wasn’t important. She didn’t mind the darkness. Somehow, she knew that she was hiding there from someone or something, so staying there was the safe place to be.
Then, again from some distant place outside the darkness, she heard someone speaking her name. No, she thought silently. Don’t say my name. The…bad thing will find me. She clung steadfastly to the darkness, needing its security.
A nurse in the recovery room covered her with a heated blanket and tucked it in around her and recognized the relief as Mesa’s body began to relax and absorb the warmth.
Secure in the darkness, Mesa’s body welcomed the warmth now surrounding her and for a few minutes she embraced the comfort.
^^^
Rafe stood beside the bed in the recovery room, thankful that she would recover, and that the d
octor had given permission for him to be there as she began to come out from under the anesthetic that had kept her asleep while they repaired the damage to her leg.
“Mesa, baby,” he murmured softly. “It’s over. Time to wake up.”
Still in the cloak of darkness, Mesa recognized his voice. Rafe was here! She was safe if Rafe was with her. But the darkness was thick and hard to move away from. Where before, the darkness represented safety, now it was separating her from Rafe, so she struggled through it and finally managed to open her eyes a tiny crack. “Rafe?” It was barely a whisper.
He grinned down at her and leaned down to nuzzle against her cheek. “It’s over, baby. You’re gonna be fine.”
“I…am?” Her voice was slurred and her memory fuzzy. “What…happened?”
Knowing how groggy she was, Rafe knew there wasn’t much sense in explaining it because she wouldn’t remember it later, so he leaned over and kissed her gently. “Nothing for you to worry about. Just rest and while you’re sleeping, dream about our wedding.”
Her eyes rounded in surprise. “We’re…gettin’…a wed…ding?”
He grinned and nodded, her jumbled question reminding him of Raale.
She smiled, the fog of anesthesia still clouding her thoughts. “Wow,” she sighed happily. “I’m finally…gonna marry… you.”
Uci stood near the door and came forward to take his place beside the bed. “Alright, you’ve seen her awake and know she’s going to be fine. I’m with her and you need to go finish the work you’ve got to do.”
Sweet Talking Lawman Page 23