The Soldier's Promise

by Patricia Potter

  She took a deep breath. Maybe she’d been magnifying that attraction.

  Maybe he would be even ruder than before. Maybe...

  But Stephanie liked him. She was a good judge of character. Except, apparently, for husbands.

  She walked up the steps. He straightened. His shirt was open and her gaze went to a hard, muscled chest sprinkled with golden hair. She willed herself to look at his face as she came toward him.

  Also a mistake. Lord, but his eyes were mesmerizing. Particularly when they seemed to look inside her and see her errand for the sham it was.

  “Mayor Douglas.” His expression was grim.

  “I received a copy of your deed and I have your building permit. I made copies of both for you.”

  “My attorney is sending me a copy of the deed,” he said curtly. “He also told me that the sheriff had questions about me.”

  Eve felt her face flush. She hated that. “I’m sorry. It seemed a way to dispel rumors. But I shouldn’t have authorized it. The questions should never have been asked.”

  “Discovered I’m not an ax murderer, did you?”

  “Not as far as Tom could discover,” she said. “He’s our police chief. He was supposed to do this surreptitiously. He apparently didn’t succeed.” She tried a small smile. She almost gave him the other reason, namely that one of the deputies had needed stopping, but that would probably be insulting, as well. To both of them.

  His grim expression didn’t ease. His thick hair was combed, but he hadn’t shaved. His eyes were just as cool as they had been during their first meeting. Cool and enigmatic.

  There was pain in the hard lines around his eyes and mouth, reflecting experiences she couldn’t even imagine.

  There was definitely nothing easy about the man. Especially the raw sexuality that he exuded...and it slammed into her.

  He moved to the door and stood aside, an invitation to enter. Frissons rocketed along her spine as she brushed by him and moved inside. She tried to concentrate on the cabin interior and not her sudden proximity to a man who sent all her senses spiraling out of control.

  “I can’t stay. My son is in the truck,” she said. She handed the documents to him. Her hand shook slightly. Stop it. You’re not sixteen. The smell of wet paint permeated the room. Newspapers covered the floor and two walls were painted a sand color, while another was half-done. The only furniture was a well-worn sofa that sagged in the middle.

  “I would invite you to sit but, as you can see, I’m not exactly ready for the visitors who seem to keep coming.”

  “Will you ever be ready?”

  “I doubt it,” he said grimly, but she thought she caught the barest hint of humor in his eyes.

  She saw a dog toy in the middle of the room. “My son loves dogs,” she said. “Would it be okay if he met yours briefly? Then we’ll have to go to baseball practice.”

  “He was out with me, hiding under the porch,” he said, “and he was only there because I insisted. I can tell you he’s even less tolerant of strangers than I am, so maybe it’s not a good...”

  A yell came from outside. The kind of yell that screamed fear and pain. Then there was loud barking.

  Eve’s blood turned cold as she turned and ran out the door. Nick, holding his right arm, stood next to the small porch. His face was white. “Don’t come near,” he said in a trembling voice.

  A dog resembling a German shepherd growled next to him and moved around in attack mode.

  “Amos!” Joshua Manning’s voice was sharp and commanding, as he moved even faster than she had. “Stand down. Amos.”

  “No!” Nick said. “Not the dog. Rattlesnake bit me. The dog’s trying to protect me.”

  Terror thrust through Eve like a spear. She knew from first-aid classes that the first rule after a bite was to stay still. She also knew how fast a snakebite could kill, and that the snake could strike again. There had been several bites in the area in the past two years. Of three victims, one had died and the others had lingering effects. All those facts raced through her head as she saw the coiled rattler and made a move toward Nick.

  “No! Stay still, damn it. You’ll make things worse. You can’t help him by getting bit yourself.” A strong hand shot out and grabbed her arm, stopping her. She fought to get loose.

  Eve wanted to grab her son and run to the car. She started to move again. But he tightened his hold. “You want to do something, get my gun. It’s on the top shelf of the closet in the back bedroom. Ammunition is next to it.”

  He paused. “You know how to load a gun?” Before getting an answer, he turned to Nick. “You’re doing good, boy. Real good. Stay totally still.”

  Reason fought against instinct. His eyes and voice made her listen. They came from someone used to being obeyed. Confident and competent. Still, the fear inside her was overwhelming. She couldn’t lose Nick. She couldn’t.

  Her legs didn’t want to move away from the one person in the world she loved with everything inside her. Nick looked so brave standing absolutely still, just as he was told. How could she be any less brave?

  “Of course I can load,” she said as she ran into the house, frantically searching for the room, then the closet, then the gun and bullets.

  She lived on a ranch with snakes and coyotes and other unfriendly creatures. Her father had made sure she knew how to use a rifle and revolver. She loaded the gun and ran back out just in time to see Manning toss the snake with one of the slats he’d obviously torn from the porch. It landed six feet away from her son and the dog.

  She aimed at the snake and fired. Once, twice. Again and again until the bullets were gone.

  “I think you’ve killed it several times over,” Josh Manning said. “Not bad shooting.”

  He took the gun from her hand with a gentleness she hadn’t expected. “You’ve got one hell of a kid there. Kept his head. But I think Amos has been bit, too. He put himself between your boy and the snake.”

  Eve hugged Nick as hard as she could without squeezing his arm. “I told you to stay in the car,” she said in shaking voice.

  “I saw the dog’s head poking from under the porch. I just wanted to see him,” Nick said. “He tried to protect me.”

  Amos was still standing at Nick’s side. But blood was coming from one of his paws, just as it was coming from small punctures in Nick’s arm.

  “Stand down, Amos,” Josh said softly. “Well done.” His voice was more gentle than Eve could ever have imagined as he ran his hands over the dog, seemingly looking for injury.

  “We have to get your son to a doctor as soon as possible.” He picked up Nick. “Try to keep that arm still,” he said to him. “And a little below your heart.” Then he turned to Eve. “The keys to my Wrangler are on a hook just inside. It has more room than your pickup. Get them. And soap up a washcloth and bring it out. I’ll put the boy in the back of the Jeep.” He paused. “Better take the gun inside, too.”

  He carried Nick to the backseat of the Jeep parked at the side of the cabin. Eve didn’t want to leave Nick, not for a second, but Joshua Manning seemed to know what to do. She knew all the rules about snakebites as well, and he was doing exactly what she’d learned. Get safely away from the snake. Wash the bite to kill bacteria. Keep the patient calm. The less the victim moves, the less damage will incur.

  She hadn’t been very good at the calm part. She ran into the house, replaced the gun in the closet, quickly wet a washcloth and doused it with soap. She grabbed the keys as she ran out to the Jeep.

  Joshua—she thought of him that way now—had a first-aid kit out and had already applied a compression bandage just above the wound. He was in the middle of splinting Nick’s arm with a short stick. She handed him the washcloth, noticing that the arm was already red and beginning to swell.

  “Stay as still as you can,” Joshua wa
s telling her son. “It’s important.”

  “I know,” her son said. “I’m a Cub Scout.” He said it with bravado, but she heard the tremor of fear in his voice. He was also clenching his teeth from pain.

  Eve ran to her truck and found the cell phone, then returned to the Jeep as she punched the number for Dr. Bradley. The number rang and rang, each ring seeming to last an hour. Then, after what seemed like forever, the nurse finally picked up.

  “Janie, Nick has just been bitten by a rattler. Do you have antivenin?” The level of her voice raised with every word. She was choked with fear. She wanted to grab her son away and hold him tight. She listened, then hung up.

  “The doctor’s not in, but his nurse is trying to reach him,” she told Joshua.

  “We’ll drive in. If he’s not there, I’ll call for a helicopter to get us the county hospital,” Joshua said. “I’ll drop Amos off at the vet’s.”

  She stared at the phone, then wrapped her arms around her own body, hugging herself to keep from screaming, only to be jarred by his impatient voice. “Get in the backseat with him. You can put his head on your lap, just keep the wound area below his heart. I’ll put Amos in the front seat with me. Call ahead to Stephanie, will you?”

  “Of course. I have her number.”

  She maneuvered inside the car and raised Nick’s head to settle on her lap, then arranged him so his heart would be above the wounded arm. She held his other hand and the Jeep moved. Her heart pounded. She saw Nick bite his lips and knew he was in pain. She wished it was her pain.

  Her cell phone rang. Dr. Bradley. “Where is the bite?” She heard the urgency in his voice.

  “The lower part of the arm.”

  “You’re sure it was a rattler.”

  “I saw it. So did my son and Mr. Manning. It happened near his cabin.”

  “You’re in luck. We had another bite a few weeks ago, and I ordered extra antivenin. The sooner he gets it, the better he’ll be. Bring him in, I’ll suction out the venom and give him the antivenin. Then I think you should take him on to the county hospital. Oh, and Eve, keep him lying down and still. The arm should be below...”

  “I know. We’re on our way,” she said and hung up. She turned to Josh. “Doc Bradley has the antivenin. He said to bring him in as quickly as we can.” She then called Stephanie and told her what had happened. Steph was in her office seeing patients and said she would be waiting for Amos.

  Doc Bradley was standing outside his clinic when they arrived. “Bring him inside. Did you bring the snake?”

  “No,” Josh said. “But there’s no question it was a rattler. About four and a half feet long. Mayor Douglas shot it—” he looked at his watch “—fifteen minutes ago.”

  Only fifteen minutes. It seemed a lifetime.

  Doc Bradley nodded his head. “Good. Can you carry him inside?”

  Then he saw the dog lying on the front seat, shivering, and gave Joshua a questioning look.

  “He was bit, too. I’m taking him to the vet right after I get the boy inside.”

  Doc Bradley hurried them into a treatment room. Joshua laid Nick on the treatment table and said, “I’ll be back after seeing to Amos.”

  Dr. Bradley examined the fang marks, took blood from the area to determine the amount of venom then applied a Sawyer Extractor to remove as much venom as possible and slow the spread of the remaining venom in the arm. The arm was already swelling, and although Nick tried to hide it, she knew he was terrified as well as in growing pain. Being a Cub Scout, he knew as well as she how quickly a bite could maim and kill.

  “We got it early, young man.” Dr. Bradley said to Nick. “The prognosis is good, but I want you to go to the county hospital for observation. Just to be on the safe side.”

  Nick looked at Eve.

  “Yes. Of course,” she said.

  “I think it’s probably a good idea to go now. I’ll call ahead and they will be waiting for him.” He paused. “Do you have someone to go with you? He should still be lying down. I could call an ambulance, but that would be expensive and I don’t think it’s necessary.”

  “I’ll take her.”

  She’d been so focused on Nick that she hadn’t realized Joshua Manning had returned and was standing right behind her.

  “What about your dog?” she asked.

  “Stephanie has canine antivenin, but she wants to keep Amos overnight. She’ll stay with him.”

  Eve considered his offer. Her father-in-law could take her, but it meant he would have to close the drugstore. She didn’t know where Abby was and her mother-in-law never carried a cell phone.

  She looked at him. “You’ve already done so much.”

  “I would just as well do that as paint,” he said as his lips turned up in the slightest suggestion of a smile. “There’s no hurry to do that. Besides, I feel responsible. It happened on my property.”

  “We were uninvited,” she reminded him.

  “So you were,” he said with that trace of a smile. It lit the green in his eyes, softened the hardness she’d seen earlier. “I suppose you could still sue me, though.” Charm was there, too, and it startled her. The rhythm of her heart quickened.

  “Mom, please. I want Mr. Manning to drive me.”

  She still hesitated. “That’s very kind. Let me call my father-in-law first and let him know what happened.” She punched in his number at the pharmacy and quickly explained. “Nick was bitten by a snake. He’s fine, but just as a precaution I’m taking him to County General.”

  “I’ll take you,” Jim replied.

  “I don’t want you to leave the store,” she said. “Mr. Manning said he will drive us. I’ll call as soon as I get there. If they want to keep Nick, I’ll need you and Abby to go by the house, tend to the animals and pick up some clothes for us.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “He saved Nick’s life, Dad, and he’s here, ready to go.”

  “Just let us know what you need, honey,” he replied. “Abby will go to your house and take care of the animals and pick up your things.” He paused. “I can run over there now.”

  “We’re leaving right now. Doc Bradley really does believe he’ll be okay. This is just a precaution.”

  “We’ll wait for your call, then. And thank Mr. Manning for us.”

  “I will.” She clicked off her cell and turned to Joshua. “Thank you, Mr. Manning.”

  “Josh,” he corrected. “My name is Josh. I think we’re beyond the Mr. Manning stage now.”

  The ogre of Covenant Falls had turned into a Good Samaritan, and an approachable one at that. He had clearly won her son’s approval.

  “I’m sorry about your dog,” she said.

  “He’ll be fine.” he said. “He’s been through worse.”

  “Amos?” She hadn’t paid much attention before when he’d called the dog’s name. She should know. The dog might have saved Nick’s life by preventing a second bite. “His name is Amos?”

  “Yes.”

  He was back to short answers. The doctor appeared with instructions and test results to give to the hospital physicians. He eyed her companion with interest. “Welcome to Covenant Falls, young man.”

  Josh nodded but didn’t say anything. He lifted Nick. “Come on, sport.”

  She took the paperwork and followed Josh to the Jeep. In the back of her mind, she sensed her world had suddenly turned upside down.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  WHAT IN THE bloody hell was he doing?

  “Bloody hell” was a pretty good description. Sometimes nothing else fit a situation, and this was one of those times.

  Why did he volunteer to drive them?

  He carried Nick to the back of the Jeep, opened the door and settled him there, then took the mayor aside. “What about the bo
y’s father? Shouldn’t you call him?”

  “He died four years ago,” she said flatly.

  “I’m sorry.... Your ring...”

  “No reason you would know,” she said as she opened the rear door before he could and stepped inside.

  The safety valve was gone. She was single and had been for four years. Surprising she had not been taken again.

  “Is Amos going to be okay?” Nick asked. He was lying on the backseat, his head cradled in his mother’s lap. “He saved my life. He kept the snake from me.”

  “He used to do that on a regular basis,” Josh said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “He was a military dog. He saved lots of lives.”

  “Yours, too?” Nick asked in an awed voice.

  “Several times,” Josh replied.

  Nick was quiet then, leaving Josh to his own thoughts. He ran through what he should have done to keep a kid and Amos from being injured. He should have mowed the area around the house, boarded off the crawl space beneath the porch and shouldn’t have been distracted by someone he had no business being distracted by.

  She was a widow. And a keeper. A keeper for someone who wanted a keeper. He’d never been one of those. And God knew he had little to offer except nightmares and flashbacks. He was a loner. A wanderer. He and the army were made for each other. He would go nuts if he stayed in this place very long. Everyone knowing everyone’s business.

  “How is Amos?” The mayor’s voice was full of concern, and he realized he hadn’t really answered her son’s question. Maybe because he didn’t want to think about it.

  “Stephanie said we got him the antivenin quickly, and if a dog was to be bitten, the paw is the best place. She thinks he’ll be okay.”

  That was the optimistic version of the vet’s words, but he chose to believe them. He had wanted to stay but Amos was under sedation and needed quiet, and he felt responsible for Mayor Douglas and her son. He couldn’t help Amos now, but he could help the boy.

  The drive was seventy miles and usually took about an hour, but he aimed to make it in forty-five minutes. He figured if he ran into the highway patrol, he could convince them into giving him an escort. He had a pretty woman and an injured kid with a snakebite.