by Snow, Nicole
Holy frigging balls.
My heart claws at my throat when I see what’s happened to the barn.
The front sliding door is flapping in the breeze like a metal lid half torn off a can at an odd angle, still attached by only one roller. The track looks flayed away from the main building, hanging down over the opening.
I can see inside the lit building, and a few steps later, the stock trailer.
No movement.
No silhouettes in the darkness.
Nothing.
My heart throat punches me again as I glance around, looking for a missing tiger. Half ass wondering if I should whisper, “Here kitty, kitty.”
Not.
But hell, I have to see if he’s still alive, still here.
With grave caution, I make my way to the barn like I’m back in Fallujah with enemy snipers crouched around every corner, constantly checking all directions with an attentiveness I haven’t needed since Iraq.
The service door is barely attached by the hinge, and I carefully enter, stepping up on the tongue of the trailer to peek inside.
Mother-fuck.
Empty.
Of course it’s empty.
I shoot back out the door and search the grounds, furiously splashing through huge puddles and throwing my gaze everywhere, wishing I could grow six more eyeballs.
Sure as shit, near the side of the barn, I spot them.
Tiger tracks in the mud. Extremely fresh ones, I hope.
Like a bat out of hell, I bullet over to the house, bellowing Willow’s name before I damn near rip the door off.
She comes flying upstairs, still pulling her dress on over her head.
“Grady? What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Bruce. He’s...fuck, he’s gone.”
“What?” She looks at me like she’s just been shot.
Her soft, tight body zips past me, dashing out the door before I have a chance to tell her what happened. Noting the flip-flops she must’ve dropped on her panicked way out, I grab them and chase her out the door, beelining it to the barn.
“Brucey? Bruuuuce!” she screams, both hands cupped around her mouth for volume.
“He’s not here!” I say, answering her shouts.
“Ugh, yeah, I can see that...”
“It was straight-line winds. Had to be. That shit snapped the security light and blew the door off one hinge.” I point at the ground near the side of the barn. “See there? Tiger prints in the mud.”
She flies past me for a look. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you keep doing that, toots. Running around like a hen on fire before I can get a word in. Look, darlin’, we gotta calm both our asses down.” Still holding her shoes, I follow her outside and stop next to her. “Here. Put these on.”
She takes the shoes, drops them to the ground, and steps into them while ignoring the mud already caked to her feet. She goes back to examining the ground.
“They go this way, down along the fence, almost to...the road. Oh, no. Oh, shit, Grady! He...he could’ve left the farm. And if he was scared by the storm, he could make it all the way to town in no time. He can run over thirty miles an hour.”
I don’t have the energy to groan. I just slap my thigh, digging in my pocket for my keys.
“We need to move,” I growl.
She grabs my arm. “Wait. Give me a minute to think. We’re going to need the trailer if—no, when—we find him. And look at that door! The way it’s bent...we can’t get the trailer out!”
“Dad! Willow! What’s wrong?” The set of tiny voices calling out behind us gives me a whole new reason to shudder.
“Get inside, girls! Right now. Lock the door. This is not the time for questions,” I shout to Sawyer as she steps on the porch. “Go on!”
“Wh—what happened?” She stops as Avery points at the barn. “Is...is Bruce okay?”
“Dad!” Avery shouts. “Your phone’s ringing!”
Willow looks at me, her blue eyes ablaze.
I know she’s thinking what I’m thinking.
Dammit all. We both run to the house.
Avery hands me my phone as soon as I’m inside, taking a second to make sure both girls are in and they’re not going back out.
“It’s Drake,” I tell Willow, swiping at the Incoming Call icon.
“Grady,” Drake says, sounding out of breath. “Dude. Please tell me your tiger’s in your barn? I just...first I got a phone call from Dean Coffey while he was out storm chasing down the highway. He swore he saw something big and orange on four legs, black stripes, mean-looking scowl before it ran off in a cornfield. Then, an hour ago, Thelma Simon said she saw the biggest cougar she’d ever seen creeping around her fence. Please tell me they’re seeing things, man.”
Sonofabitch.
I clear my throat before I drop the bomb. “Yeah, Drake, they are seeing things...like a goddamn tiger, for one!”
“Fuck!” Drake growls. “Oh, Jesus. Shit. Okay.”
“Exactly,” I say into the phone, looking at Willow, whose sweet face has turned paler than driven snow.
While Drake was talking, I heard Sawyer tell Willow that Drake is with the Dallas Police Department. He actually is the police department, mostly, or at least by far the most active and skilled deputy around these parts with nothing but a skeleton crew and an aging sheriff.
“Grady...I wasn’t done with the bad news,” Drake says. “The storm tore a hole in our fence. Edison and Edna are missing, too.”
Shit, shit, shiiit!
We just went from an emergency to a dick-on-fire panic.
Even if an encounter isn’t real likely, Bruce could kill those two horses in less than a heartbeat.
“We’re gonna start looking for him right now, but we need a trailer. Ours is trapped in the barn,” I say. “You got a spare?”
“Stop by and grab one of mine,” Drake answers without hesitation. “Bella and I are heading east, straight to Big Fish Lake, Edison’s usual getaway place.”
“Okay. We’ll grab the trailer and be right behind you.”
“Are we going to look for Bruce?” Sawyer asks as I hang up the phone.
My jaw clamps shut.
I can’t have them with me, not for this, and definitely not if Bruce attacked one of the horses...
That would traumatize them forever.
But it’s also night. I can’t leave them alone, and Willow sure as hell won’t stay behind to save her life with her boy MIA. And I’ll be damned if I’d let her go off on a wild tiger chase alone.
She shuts the door and looks at the girls. “Bruce might come back here, all on his own. I really need you two to stay inside and keep your eyes peeled for him. Understood? Keep checking all the windows, and if you see him, call your dad immediately. Whatever you do, don’t take a single step outside. I mean it, girls. You can do that, can’t you?”
“Y-yeah! We can,” Avery says, standing up tall and proud.
Huh. This might work, but I have my reservations.
My hand lingers on my phone, half a mind to call Hank, even if I have to fess the hell up about this insanity to one more soul.
“Listen to Willow or you’re grounded for life. Also, I have to kill the power going to the yard light,” I say. “Can’t leave it hanging like that—it could short out and start a fire.”
“We don’t need the yard light, Dad!” Sawyer says. “The barn lights are on and we’ll turn on all the porch lights. We’ll stay inside and call you right away if we see anything. We won’t go outside, honest.”
I turn to Willow. “You think he might come back?”
“He could...it’s familiar turf. Sort of. He hasn’t been here super long but...it’s hard to say.” She shrugs, a worried frown sagging on her face.
It’s the best solution for now, and we’re short on time.
“All right. I’ll go hit the power to the light and get the truck. Drake said we can use one of his horse trailers.”
“I need my sh
oes for this. These flip-flops won’t cut it,” Willow says, already running.
I give the girls another heavy warning about staying inside at all times, and, just for good measure, add that they’re not to try and coax Bruce near the house if they see him.
“We promise!” they tell me for the dozenth time.
If we make it through this, I think today might be the day my little girls grew up.
Just for good measure, I fire off a text to Hank.
Hey, man, hell of a storm tonight. Did some damage to the barn. Everyone’s okay but I have to run into town for some supplies, plus the Larkin horses are on the loose again...can you check in with the girls every ten minutes? I’ll fill you in later.
I’m relieved he’s still awake and sends back an affirmative a minute later.
Then I’m outside in a flash. Willow meets me in the pole shed a minute later.
“So Drake Larkin is a cop?” she asks, her brows knit together.
“Yep.”
“Why’d he call you about a tiger sighting?”
“Because he knows about Bruce, about you and, well...everything.”
“What?” Her eyes grow wide and snap with anger. “Jesus, Grady. How many people have you told about us?”
“Just a few close friends. People I know who can help, who’ve dealt with shit like this before. They’ll keep their mouths shut, same as Faulk, I promise you. Drake’s one of those folks and he’s a good man.” I give her a look that says I’d stake my life on that claim.
“Well...” Her hands are on her hips and she sighs. “I hope your daughters learned to keep secrets from their mother, but...fine.”
I grin. Not about to get into a pissing match with her right now, I say, “Drake has two horses missing. Edison and Edna.”
“Shit,” she hisses. “Not good.”
“Exactly,” I say, knowing she shares my worry about Bruce eating them up. “Edison’s like a living legend around here. He’s old now, very old, and hyper-intelligent. His mare, Edna, she’s too friendly with everyone. She’d probably let Bruce come right the hell up to her for a sniff. We have to find that tiger now.”
She runs both hands through her hair.
“All right. I’ll take the four-wheeler. You take the truck and go get the trailer and—crud! I can’t use the GPS on my phone to let you know where I’m at, can I? Not with the risk of getting tracked...”
I nod, glad she remembered.
“Go grab a phone from one of the girls. They keep theirs unlocked and they only need one while they’re here. Plus, I already have a tracking app for them on my phone.”
She runs out of the pole shed while I pull the truck out, then the four-wheeler.
She’s back with Avery’s phone, climbing on the ATV with her pretty brown hair that should’ve been in my fist fluttering in the wind.
“Do you know how to drive one of these?” I ask.
“Yes!” She shifts the ATV. “And I’ve tracked a tiger before at night, so hopefully we’ll have the same luck pinning him down.”
She’s gone then, long chestnut hair flying behind her as she speeds down the driveway.
I glance at the house.
The girls have the door shut and wave to me through the window. I wave back and jump in my truck, rocks spraying behind my wheels as I race for the road.
How the hell has my life come to this in just a couple weeks?
Leaving my girls home alone.
Almost having the hottest fling ever with a woman I barely know.
Searching for a fucking tiger in the dead of the night!
Clearly, fate decided to drop me on my head somewhere along the line.
I’m not the same Grady McKnight I’ve known my entire life.
* * *
Halfway down the highway, my phone rings.
Drake again. I answer.
“On my way to your place,” I tell him.
“Good. We’re almost to the lake and haven’t seen any signs of the horses or the tiger, but I wanted to let you know I have a tranquilizer gun with me. We got a few from county animal control last year.”
“Shit. You really think it’ll be enough to take down a roaming tiger?” I ask, thankful as hell we won’t have to resort to lethal force. I hope.
“Remember last fall, when Arthur Snowden’s bison got loose and came charging into town, knocking over like ten trash cans and a big blue mailbox? I’ve kept a few on hand for emergencies ever since.”
Watching the lights of the four-wheeler that’s turning off the road toward the old front pasture, I say, “Willow’s tracking her boy off-road on an ATV right now. She’s headed cross-country to your land.”
At the rate she’s going, she’ll be there before me, because I have to stay on the road.
“I’ll keep an eye out for her. Update me ASAP if anything changes.” Drake clicks off.
I’m so distracted I accidentally call Sawyer’s phone when I mean to dial Avery’s, which is Willow’s temporary phone.
“Dad? No sign of him yet,” Sawyer says as soon as she answers. “We’re looking out the windows constantly.”
I smile because I’m sure they are.
They’ll never forget this excitement their entire lives. If nothing bad comes from this shitshow, then maybe someday I’ll be glad my girls got to experience chasing down a tiger on the loose.
“Okay, peanut. Keep in touch with me or Hank,” I tell her.
“We will!” I hear both of them chime.
Then I hang up and call the right phone.
“I’m following his tracks, as much as I can make out the trail...looks like they stopped a little while ago after some big breaks,” Willow says.
“Damn. I figured as much. Just wanted to let you know there’s a fence about a mile ahead. It’s barbed wire, and if you go another half a mile south, there’s a gate to get through.”
“Good to know. Thanks! I think he’s been the only thing through here, judging by the mud trail a few paces back. I saw the prints.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Drake,” I rush out, hoping to tell her.
“No, I’m the one who’s sorry. I-I just...I have to find him, Grady,” she whispers heavily into the phone.
“We will. And I should tell you, Drake has a tranquilizer gun, so if you hear a shot, that might be it. I think it’s the kind that lets him fire from a distance. No worries, though, he’ll do everything he can not to hurt your boy.”
“Oh, that’s good to know. I see the fence coming up, so I’d better go, but Grady, thanks.” Her voice trembles. “Thanks for all you’ve done and keep doing for me and Bruce. I’ll make it up to you, somehow, I swear.”
I grin to myself.
“By starting back up where we left off earlier?” I ask with an exaggerated growl that makes her laugh.
“That, too, Mr. One-Track Mind. Bye.”
I press my foot harder on the gas pedal and click on the app to show the movement of her phone on the truck’s display screen.
She’s up along the highway for a short time, and then makes it past Drake’s place. Not too close to their house by the looks of it, which hopefully means Bruce didn’t catch a whiff of the horses heading for the lake.
I get to his ranch a short time after she crosses the road.
My gut churns hellfire.
She’s heading for Big Fish Lake now. I hook up the horse trailer in record time, and then take the field road winding toward the lake. It’s shorter than going off the main road, at least.
The screen shows Willow tracing circles by the time I’m closing in. I’m not sure if that means she’s lost the trail or found Bruce.
I just keep going as fast as I can, but it’s not quick enough.
Fuck, I need to call her.
“I’ve lost his trail,” she says immediately. “The grass is short, so it’s not lying down through the fields, and there are lots of trees.” She pauses. “I’ve been seeing plenty of fresh horse tracks, though.”
<
br /> Crap. That means Edison and Edna ran off to their favorite lake retreat for sure.
“On my way, keep your eyes peeled,” I tell her.
“I will.”
My phone dings.
“Drake’s calling me,” I grunt.
“Okay!”
She hangs up and I answer Drake.
“We see Willow and we’re moving in,” Drake says. “Looks like the horses are somewhere close to her, too. We found their trail, and now I can see the lights on the ATV.”
“She says she’s seen horse tracks. I’m about five minutes out. Meet you there.”
My heart is fucking pounding by the time I hang up.
It’ll be a dark damn day for Dallas if anything happens to this town’s favorite horse.
Never mind the fact that Bruce doesn’t belong anywhere in the North Dakota wilds. Scared, lost, he could attack anything in sight, including Willow.
I pound my foot into the gas, scouring the night with eagle eyes.
It seems like ages before I see lights. A pickup with a stock trailer and a four-wheeler driving toward the truck. I drive faster, causing my truck to bounce hard along the rough trail.
The pickup pulls forward and the ATV approaches.
“Drake! I just saw a black horse,” Willow yells as I roll down my window. “Follow me.”
She spins the vehicle around and barrels on.
I have to slow down once I catch up to Drake’s truck and trailer because the rough road narrows.
Can’t see anything around his rig, and it’s driving me nuts.
He stops as I slam on my brakes, throw the truck in park, and jump out.
Willow is ahead of Drake’s truck, and I run past him while he’s climbing out.
“There! Right there,” Willow whispers, pointing into the trees. “See the horses?”
“That’s them, all right. Edison and Edna,” I say with a nod.
Bella, Drake’s wife walks up beside us, along with Drake himself, carrying the long tranquilizer gun.
“See them?” Willow asks, again pointing into the copse of trees.
“Edison, Edna! Meet you at the barn,” Bella says with a whistle.
A horse nickers in reply.