Her Shadow

by Aimée Thurlo

  Lucas saw Jake taking Marlee to his truck and silently thanked the former Ranger. Looking around, he searched for his brother. Just as Gabriel reached the road, the dynamite went off. The concussion knocked him halfway across the road. Seeing his brother fall, Lucas rushed up to him. Grabbing Gabriel’s arm, Lucas pulled him diagonally toward a drainage culvert. He heard the ominous rumble, and felt the ground shake as tons of rock started to slide down the hill. Lucas pressed on, refusing to look back.

  In less than five seconds, both men were off the road and inside the culvert. Rocks and debris rained down just outside. Lucas grinned at his brother. “Good thing for you I was around.”

  Gabriel rubbed his knee. “You’ve been dying to say that for years, I’ll bet.”

  “And how.”

  Gabriel laughed.

  “You okay?” Lucas asked, checking his brother over for injuries.

  “I’m fine. I smacked my knee when the concussion threw me to the ground, but it’s no big deal.”

  When the rumbling stopped, both men crawled out, working together to remove a few boulders that had nearly blocked the end of the pipe.

  The cut in the hillside was piled high with car-sized rocks, rubble and mud that had been produced from the heat of the blast melting the snow. Turning back toward Four Winds, Lucas could see Jake checking that people were unhurt. A few were outside their cars already, staring at the spectacle of a road completely obliterated by tons of earth and rock.

  “Well, we won’t have to worry about the roadblock being a source of contention anymore. It’ll take days to clear this road now. Not even a bicycle could get over that mountain.”

  Gabriel brushed the dust and snow off his uniform and called out to the stunned citizens standing by their cars. “Go home. I think you’ve all done enough out here today.”

  “Sheriff, you better pray your brother finds an answer, and fast. Without that road, there’s not going to be any food, gas or anything else coming into town except on foot Between shortages and this sickness, we’re going to be fighting for our Lives,” Lucinda said. She looked at the crowd, then threw her shoulders back in a gesture of defiance and got back into her car.

  Lucas stared at the massive rock pile that now blocked the road. “You realize that I’m going to have to hike around this rubble and get to a car on the other side before I can send the samples I’ve collected to the county hospital,” he said to Gabriel. “And we still have to get the doctor through.”

  “I’ll find a bulldozer and get men to clear a lane or make a detour. We can’t let the road stay blocked.”

  “They won’t be safe. I have a feeling that group of charmers on the other side will do their best to make sure this road stays closed.”

  “I have options. I’ll be calling in the state police to break up that little gathering and to protect the road crew.”

  Marlee and Jake approached a moment later. Lucas’s gaze stayed on Marlee as she walked toward him. Her gentle smile touched him, stirring his blood. He needed her softness, her tenderness, her warmth. Desire clawed at his gut, overwhelming and fierce.

  Unaware of his thoughts, she came to stand beside him. “They don’t know the harm they’ve done,” she said, her gaze on the blocked road. “We’re going to be pretty isolated for a while.”

  “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes, Shadow,” Jake commented, his voice weary.

  “Yeah, I know,” Lucas said. “If I don’t offer Four Winds some answers fast, the threat our own people will pose to each other will rival that of the deadliest virus.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The following morning, Lucas sat with Marlee in Gabriel’s-office. The doctor they’d been expecting hadn’t managed to get through on the blocked road, but he’d managed to contact the police dispatcher, leaving word that he would complete his journey by helicopter.

  Gabriel looked at his brother, then at Marlee. “He’ll be landing in the field next to Riley’s cow pasture. This Dr. Soto has already had an eyeful of our situation. Apparently he’d been held up by some of those county residents who set up the roadblock. He saw the explosion and rock slide, then was told to go home and forget all about it. So he turned back and made alternate plans.”

  “Any doctor who has worked in an emergency room or attended trauma patients has seen people at their best and worst.. I’m sure he’s aware that when panic sets in, anything can happen.” Lucas rubbed his right shoulder, trying to work some kinks out. “But why is he landing so far out of town? There are other possible landing sites closer in.”

  “I’d rather people didn’t know when or how he’s arriving. I think that’ll be safer for all concerned. Come to think of it, I’m going to have to find a vehicle I can place at his disposal. I suppose you-know-who’s vehicle is still out of the question for a doctor.”

  “He won’t need the old man’s van, or any other vehicle, for that matter. I can take him wherever he wants to go,” Lucas volunteered.

  Gabriel shook his head. “Sorry, Shadow, but as he pointed out, his business is to find out about this mysterious illness and see how much of a threat it poses. Daily medical emergencies are no concern of his while he’s here. He’ll still serve as your consultant and adviser, as he normally does from Santa Fe, but that’s it.”

  “Oh, great. So I have to talk to him by radio? I thought he was here to help us, not study Four Winds.”

  “The man won’t win any popularity contests with his superior attitude, but he’s supposedly got a great reputation. The town council was told Dr. Soto used to work for the CDC in Atlanta.”

  “How did he end up in Santa Fe, then?” Marlee asked.

  “Apparently he wanted a less stressful position.” Ga-briel leaned back in his seat. “I’ll need to have someone deliver my wife’s sedan to the doctor. I was hoping you’d take it out,” he said, looking at Marlee, “then ride back into town with Shadow.”

  “No problem. Glad to do it,” Marlee answered.

  Lucas looked over at her. She was tired. It had been a while since she’d had a full night’s sleep, yet she was always ready to help whenever she was needed. Sorrow and frustration knifed at his gut as he realized that no matter how badly he wanted to, he couldn’t protect her from a town that had gone crazy. But it was the intensity of his desire to protect her that rocked him clear down to his boots.

  As they walked outside, Marlee looked up and down the street. “The town looks deserted. I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s nearly ten in the morning, but no businesses appear to be open at all. Did you know that Rosa’s taken to keeping her door locked? She opens it only if you tell her specifically what you want and if she has it available in the store. She’s also raised her prices by fifty percent.”

  “After seeing what happened out there at the roadblock yesterday, I’ll believe anything.” As his gaze traveled over Marlee, he wondered about the life they might have had if things had been different.

  They’d just reached Lanie’s car when Lucas’s cellular phone rang. He spoke into it briefly, then turned his attention back to Marlee. “I have to go check out Mrs. Davenport. She hasn’t been able to eat much of anything for three days now. She’s young and strong, but she’ll need to get some liquids down.” He glanced at his watch. “Looks like the doc will have to wait.”

  “Let me deliver Lanie’s car to Dr. Soto, then. I’ll catch a ride back into town with him.”

  Lucas exhaled softly. “The roads are icy and treacherous on that stretch, so be careful.” He gazed into her eyes and caressed her cheek with his palm. The way she leaned into him, like a cat being stroked, made a rush of desire fork through him like lightning.

  He felt her shudder and nearly lost his control. Flames raced down to his groin. He had to let her go now, or they’d both be very late to their next destination. With effort, he stepped away from her. “Stay in touch.”

  Lucas held Marlee’s gaze a moment longer than was nec-essary, hoping to convey with that one look all the emo
tions he couldn’t put into words. As he drove off, he saw her nod as if she’d understood and had listened to the silent words his heart had spoken.

  MARLEE DROVE Lanie’s old sedan down the access road bordering Riley’s snow-covered alfalfa field. The helicopter was scheduled to arrive soon, if the weather hadn’t delayed it. As she waited, she glanced at the bare branches of a row of apple trees along the road. They jutted out toward the sky like skeletal limbs, imploring heaven for help.

  She’d only been there for a few minutes when the unmistakable thump of rotor blades signaled a helicopter circling in from the south.

  Marlee stepped out of the car and walked out into the field to greet the middle-aged, energetic-looking doctor who jumped down from the chopper. He was thin, too much so, but his strides were filled with purpose.

  He came toward her, holding a medical bag in one hand, while pulling his wool coat closer around himself with the other. “Don’t tell me. You’re my escort, whether or not I want one, right?”

  “I’m only here to deliver a car to you, and tell you you’re staying at my boardinghouse, but I’d sure appreciate a ride back to town, too,” Marlee said, introducing herself.

  “I’m Dr. Soto,” he said, shaking hands with her. “I saw what happened on the. road leading out of town yesterday. Things are certainly tense in this little burg of yours. I sure hope people aren’t thinking that I can work any miracles.”

  The abrupt statement took her by surprise. “I don’t think so. They just want answers.”

  “It sounds to me like that medic Blackhorse is handling things fine. I probably won’t have any new answers to give them, not for a while.” He threw his bag in the back seat of Lanie’s car, then got into the passenger’s side. “Time’s wasting. Let’s go.”

  Marlee got behind the wheel and tried not to smile. She’d worked with doctors like him before. To them, there was purpose in motion, in pursuing a goal. Resting was purposeless, and had no place in the field. She’d shared that philosophy most of her adult life, too.

  “I’ve checked the samples Blackhorse sent in to our lab for testing,” he said. “Nothing’s come back positive. What I’d like to do now is interview some of the people who’ve come down with this mysterious flu.”

  “All right, no problem.”

  He glanced over at her. “You haven’t been infected with this, I gather. Do you have any theories as to why not?”

  “I’m hardy?”

  “In other words, you have no theory.”

  Poor Lucas would have his hands full with this one. “I can’t come to any conclusions without more information, doctor. You, of all people, should know that.”

  They spent the next hour gathering data. Marlee stayed out of his way as Dr. Soto talked to Lucas’s patients, asking the same questions over and over with the tenacity of a pit bull. She had to hand it to him; he didn’t know the meaning of the word no. Whenever he was denied anything, he simply overrode it by refusing to accept any answer contrary to the one he wanted.

  Two hours later, after a thorough look at the grocery and Sally’s Diner, which included taking numerous samples for testing, Dr. Soto sat at one of the tables in the lunchroom at the seniors’ center, entering data into a laptop computer and sipping coffee. Marlee didn’t interrupt him.

  “I have no answers, conclusions or even theories, so looking at me with a million questions in your eyes won’t help,” he clipped, not glancing up. “I can feel you staring at me, but you might as well stop wasting your time. Now, let’s go take a look at your medic’s records, those specific to this outbreak. I want the latest data he’s got.”

  “I’ve been helping him gather information, so I can tell you with absolute certainty that transmission, host factor and cause still remain a mystery.”

  His eyebrows shot up, and this time he extended her the courtesy of actually looking at her. “You’ve worked in the medical profession. Were you a nurse or a tech?”

  “I picked up the terminology along the way,” Marlee hedged. “My job here is to run the boardinghouse.”

  He held her gaze for a second, unconvinced, then leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. “I’ve entered all my data, and from what I see, what we’re dealing with here doesn’t appear to be an airborne virus. Otherwise, we would have had a greater incidence of cases, particularly among families and here where people are most susceptible. But, of course, that’s only a guess at this stage. The good news is, that since you haven’t had any deaths due to this illness, I don’t think it’s something to be overly concerned about.”

  As they traveled to the high-school portable, Marlee filled him in about the fire at the clinic that had forced the move.

  “Pets,” Soto mused after a pause, “and livestock. Do any of the people who are sick now also have pets or livestock who are, or were, sick?”

  Marlee thought about it. “No, and I would have heard by now if that had been the case.”

  “What about wild animals turning up sick or dead around here?”

  “None that I’ve heard about, and certainly not in the numbers you have in mind. Whatever’s happening here is more understated than that.”

  As they headed out the highway, it started to snow heavily.

  “Law-enforcement personnel and the medic all have sep-arate food and water supplies now, correct?”

  “No. Everyone buys from the same grocery store, and except for some outlying farms with their own wells, we share the municipal water. The water supply has been checked for viral and bacterial contamination, though.”

  Marlee glanced in her rearview mirror and saw a vehicle approaching rapidly down the snow-covered highway. She gripped the wheel even more tightly, wondering what idiot would speed under road conditions like these.

  Hearing the cellular phone ring, she reached into her purse and brought it out. Her heart did a little dance as she heard Lucas’s voice.

  “How’s it going?” he asked.

  The rich, throaty timber of his voice sent a delicious shiver up her spine. Sensing Dr. Soto was looking at her curiously, though her eyes were on the road, she kept her voice businesslike as she gave him a rundown. After a moment, she handed the doctor the phone. “Lucas Blackhorse would like to speak to you, Dr. Soto.”

  Marlee continued driving, only half-tuned to the segments of the conversation she could hear. The truck behind them was too close, and getting closer. The driver’s recklessness angered her. She studied the road ahead, peering through the blanket of windswept flurries, searching for a place to pull off to the side and let the other driver pass. She didn’t want him tailgating all the way back to town.

  “The symptoms vary in severity, but they’re consistent with an intestinal flu, a virulent one to be sure,” Dr. Soto said. “What’s especially significant is that there doesn’t seem to be any upper-respiratory involvement.”

  Marlee kept a close watch on the truck through her rear-view mirror. It looked like Bill Riley’s monster truck, not the semi he used for work, but the pickup with the oversize tires and spotlights above the cab. But she’d never known Bill, who regularly brought supplies into Four Winds, to drive so recklessly.

  She heard the blast of the horn as the truck came up behind them. It wanted to pass, which was all right with her. Without a clear place to pull over, Marlee moved to the right, pumping her brakes to avoid skidding as she slowed down.

  Suddenly the truck’s grill filled her rearview mirror. Pa-nic filled her as she guessed his intent. A heartbeat later, the truck slammed into the back of their sedan. The doctor cursed loudly, the phone dropping out of his hand. Marlee’s mouth was dry. Panic burned through her. Fighting the wheel, she managed to keep the vehicle on the icy road, and sped up, trying to pull away from their pursuer. Dr. Soto didn’t say anything; he was too busy looking for his seat belt.

  Just as she thought that perhaps they would make it, the truck caught up and slammed into them again. This time the force and weight of the larger vehicle sent the
m hurtling off the road.

  The snow-covered field provided nothing for the wheels to use as traction, and the sedan rocketed down the hillside. Seeing a large pine ahead, Marlee tried desperately to force the wheel to the right. The wheel turned but the sedan continued on its course, slower but sideways. Fear twisted through her as she realized they were going to crash.

  Chapter Twelve

  Marlee knew her only chance was to try something desperate. She swung the wheel all the way to the right, hoping against hope that the car wouldn’t roll. Something in the front grabbed, and the car straightened out. They slid backward, but missed the tree by three feet. Steering by the rearview mirror, she fought to keep the car from slewing to the left or right.

  As they reached the bottom of the hill, the car slowed, and Marlee touched the brakes gently several times. Finally they came to a jolting halt against an old wooden rail fence.

  She sat there for several moments, her gaze frozen in the rear view mirror. Eventually Marlee looked out the front windshield. For one terrifying second, as she squinted through the snow-smeared windshield, she wondered if her vision had been damaged.

  “Are you all right?” Dr. Soto’s voice brought her back to reality.

  “I think so. You?”

  “Well enough to move—which is a good thing. I detect the smell of gasoline. The fuel tank must have sprung a leak. Let’s get out of here.”

  Marlee picked up the cellular phone from the floor. Lucas was still on the line, his voice frantic as he tried to find out what had happened.

  She explained quickly as she unbuckled her seat belt with her left hand, an awkward move. “We’re okay, but we’ll need help.” After she and the doctor climbed out of the vehicle, she gave Lucas a description of the vehicle that had run them off the road, and asked him to let Gabriel know.