Midnight Prey Page 2

  “I hope he brings a doctor. You’re going to need those ribs taped.” The man rocked back on his heels. “Now I’ll let you go if you promise not to try to shoot me or get up. That horse smacked you pretty good, and I don’t think squatting over that shotgun blast was real healthy for you.”

  Shadoe started to protest, but she felt the pressure on her shoulder ease as he removed his hand. “Take it easy, now,” he cautioned her. “I’m not certain how much damage you’ve done to yourself.”

  “Who are you?” She started to sit up, but the sudden pain in her chest convinced her to give up the thought.

  Instead of answering her question, he said, “Lady, I can stand here and gab with you, or I can go after that stud of yours. I figure he’s halfway up the mountain by now.”

  “Scrapiron!” For a moment she’d forgotten that the stallion was loose. And the other intruder was somewhere on the premises. She put one hand beneath her and tried to lever herself up, favoring her injured side.

  “Stubborn, as well as stupid. I can see you haven’t changed a bit.” Even as he spoke he put his hand on her, pressing her back into the dirt.

  For a split second, the meaning of his words didn’t register. That he was insulting her was clear, but that the insult also implied that he knew her was a little slower in coming. “Do I know you?” she asked. There was nothing familiar about the man who was either her jailer or rescuer. She wasn’t certain which yet. There was a trace of a soft accent, but not one that was familiar.

  “Shadoe, your stud is gone. The guy who turned him loose is gone. Now, I can waste my time making sure you stay still, or I can go after the horse and see if I can find any evidence of the intruder. I’d say he wasn’t exactly a stranger to this place.”

  The urgency in the man’s voice struck Shadoe. “Did you see the other man?”

  “No, but I would have caught him if you hadn’t gotten yourself run down by a stallion and then discharged your own gun into the dirt.”

  Condescension, arrogance and aggravation were all evident in his tone of voice. And the truth of his words scalded Shadoe. She’d never done such a stupid thing in her life. She still wasn’t certain how it had happened, but she could have killed herself, her horses, or any innocent bystander. It didn’t matter that Scrapiron had come out of the darkness in an unexpected move. What mattered was that she could have killed someone or something. She had been careless, and stupid. But she didn’t need the man hovering over her to point that out.

  “Just exactly what are you doing in my barn?” she asked, turning the tables. “As far as I’m concerned, if you hadn’t appeared at my back like you did, I would have been able to corner the man.”

  “Did you see him clearly?”

  Shadoe started to answer, and then thought better. This man acted as if he knew her, as if he had some right to be on her property. “Who are you? What are you doing at the Double S?”

  The man eased back. One hand, lifted as if he meant to touch her face, hovered between them for a moment and then fell back into the darkness at his side. “It’s Hank. Hank Emrich.”

  As painful as the shotgun blast had been, the name spoken by the man who now eased his hold on her was far more devastating. Shadoe couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

  Hank sighed. “I’m going after your horse, if you’ll loan me one to ride.” He withdrew his hand from her shoulder completely. “I trust you won’t try to jump up and attack me.”

  “What are you doing here?” Shadoe’s question was softly put, but there was an edge of steel to it.

  “It’s a long story. Did you really call the sheriff? I can’t chase the horse and the trespasser at the same time, and I think I’ll stand a better chance of getting the horse. At least tonight.”

  “Billy’ll be here in less than ten minutes.”

  There was the promise of warmth and humor in his voice as he spoke again, and just a touch of sadness. “Billy will make it here in less than five. He’d give his right arm to protect you. You were the daughter he always wanted.” Hank rocked back on his heels and stood up.

  In the moonlight that came in through the open barn door, Shadoe could clearly see the gun that rested on his hip. “You never said what you were doing on my property. …Hank.” She added the name at the last, her voice hesitating, then turning slightly rough as she managed to get it out.

  “I was following the man who came here. I’ve been following him for a while now.”

  “You know him?” Shadoe felt another pulse of undefinable emotion. She might as well be hog-tied. Every time she tried to sit up or move, her ribs screamed a warning. The last thing she needed was a rib through a lung, so she made herself hold as steady as possible.

  “No, but I was tracking him, hoping to catch him doing something illegal. He’s been over a lot of our property tonight.”

  “Your property?” Shadoe knew she sounded just like a parrot, mimicking everything he said. “I thought you left here. I heard you sold out.” What she’d really heard was that Hank had been forced to sell. That hard times and rock bottom beef prices had finally run the Copperwood Ranch into bankruptcy. She couldn’t be certain, but in the moonlight she thought she saw the hint of a smile.

  “I did, Shadoe, but just like you, I couldn’t stay away.” The tiny smile, if it had ever been there, was gone. “You might as well know, I’m here with the wildlife agents to make sure the release of the wolves goes without a hitch.”

  Shadoe let the air out of her lungs slowly. She had to breathe, to accept. Long ago, when she was only a little girl, she’d fallen from her pony and broken her arm. Her father had held her then, as they waited for help to come, and he had taught her how to let the pain out with her breath, to relax her muscles and bones and not fight the pain. She thought she’d forgotten that lesson, but as she absorbed Hank Emrich’s words, she forced herself to relax. Moving very carefully she got up to a sitting position and managed to lean against the barn.

  “I’m sorry to hear that, Hank,” she said, perfectly calm.

  “Maybe, when you get used to the idea, you won’t be so sorry,” he said. He shifted his weight. “You want me to go look for Scrapiron, or you want me to stay here with you and wait for Billy?”

  The one thing Shadoe knew she wanted was for him to be as far away from her as possible. “Take the buckskin in the first stall. Chester. He’s steady but fast.”

  Whatever else Hank Emrich was, he was an excellent tracker and horseman. If anyone could find Scrapiron, it was him, and Shadoe knew that as soon as the shock of seeing Hank wore away, she’d be frantic about her stallion.

  “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

  “Billy will be here any minute. Go for Scrapiron,” she said. “But before you leave, would you load the shotgun and hand it to me?”

  Hank got the gun from beside her leg, broke it open and took out the shells and replaced them with two fresh ones that she handed him. He snapped the breech shut and handed it back to her.

  “I’ll find the horse and be back.”

  Shadoe took the gun and eased it down beside her leg. “Bring Scrapiron back. After that, you’re not welcome on Double S property.”

  Hank Emrich walked to the barn door and stood as if he were intently counting the stars in the brilliant Montana sky.

  His dark silhouette was the body of a mature man, not the slender youthfulness of the young man Shadoe remembered with a pang she couldn’t suppress. He was tall, muscular, well made. She’d heard he’d moved to Virginia. Richmond if she remembered right. Well, he should have stayed there, or Timbuktu for all she cared. Any place but Montana and her ranch.

  Hank stood there for a while before he turned back around. “The wolves are here, Shadoe. Here to stay. There’s nothing you and the other ranchers can do to stop this. Don’t try, or you’ll be sorry.”

  Chapter Two

  “Shadoe! Shadoe!” At the sight of the open barn door Billy Casper had pulled the patrol car into the barnyard and a
imed the lights into the black depths of the huge building. In the glare of the high beams he saw her propped against the barn wall. Fear almost made his heart stop.

  “I’m okay, Billy.”

  Her voice came to him, strong and a tiny bit frustrated, which was the clearest sign that she really was okay. He was beside her in a moment, taking in her stillness as she leaned against the wooden wall, the gun resting beside her leg.

  “I think I’ve cracked a couple of ribs, but nothing serious. Would you help me up?” She gave a rueful shake of her head and forced a smile up at her old friend. Billy Casper had been sheriff of Lakota County for more than six terms, and he had also been her father’s best friend. His lined face showed the hardships he’d endured, but his blue eyes showed his love of life, and his work.

  Billy slipped his hands under her arms and lifted her up, making the motion quick and clean even as she cried out in a tiny.gasp of pain.

  Once on her feet, Shadoe gave a sigh of relief. “Someone was in the barn and I came down to check it out, after I called you.” She forestalled his lecture. “Got down here to the horses and found a nasty surprise.”

  Billy dropped into step beside her as she made her way down to Scrapiron’s empty stall.

  “The stud’s out?” Billy felt a niggle of concern. Scrapiron was Shadoe’s only hope of bringing the Double S back. If that fool stallion broke his leg running around in the dark, or if he jumped into some rancher’s field and started trouble, he might be shot. And she would certainly lose the ranch. Billy took the big flashlight from his belt and pinpointed the light at the floor. Large male footprints were clearly visible in the dirt. “Someone let the stud out, deliberately. He went north and the intruder went south.” He could read the evidence.

  “Scrapiron knocked me down in the aisle.” Shadoe took a deep breath.

  “I’ll radio in to the office and round up some volunteers to find the stud. We’ll have him back by daybreak.” He put his hand on Shadoe’s shoulder and gave the lightest squeeze. Her back was still straight, but he could feel the tension in her. She’d put up everything she had left to reopen her family’s old ranch, but it was more than that. By coming back to the Montana wilderness, Shadoe was confronting her demons. It was a rocky road she had chosen to travel.

  “Well…” She hesitated. “It gets worse.”

  Billy heard the tremor in her voice. “Are you hurt worse than you said?”

  “No.” The word was spoken quietly, her control back. “It’s Hank Emrich. He’s back here. He’s with the team bringing in the wolves.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding.” Billy spoke before he thought.

  “I wish I were.” Shadoe turned to her old friend. “He’s gone after Scrapiron. If anyone can catch him, Hank can.”

  “Best tracker in these parts, except for your daddy.”

  “Yeah, Hank was the eldest son my father always wanted.” Shadoe allowed the bitterness to show.

  Billy put his arm around her shoulders and gently began to guide her toward the house. “Shadoe, honey, if things had worked out differently, you and Hank would have married and been happy here.”

  “Yes, Billy, if my father had lived, my marriage to Hank would have been the thing that pleased him most.” Shadoe felt a surge of emotion so strong, so raw that she wasn’t certain whether it was anger, hurt, loss, or the need for revenge. “But Dad died, and I ran away.”

  “Things didn’t go easy for Hank after you left here. He tried to hang on to his family’s ranch, but he couldn’t make a go of it.” Billy remembered those long-ago days. He’d been sheriff, and he vividly recalled the painful foreclosure on Copperwood Ranch. It wasn’t something he was likely to forget. “You and Hank, that was all twenty years ago, Shadoe. To be truthful, though, after the sale of Copperwood, I never thought Hank would come back to this part of the world. Did he say when he’d come back?”

  “I didn’t exactly have a cozy chat with him.” Shadoe felt the sting of jealousy at the note of sympathy in Billy’s voice. It was almost as if Billy felt sorry for Hank. “If you want to have a reunion with him, he’ll be back with Scrapiron. You two can relive the good old days then.” She stepped out a little ahead of him even though the extra effort caused her ribs to burn with pain.

  Billy let her go, walking slightly behind her as she led the way up to the big cedar house. He couldn’t help but admire her arrow straight back, the discipline she used in walking perfectly erect, even though he knew she was in great pain. Shadoe Deerman had left Montana with a deep, abiding hatred for the land that she felt had killed her father and her younger brother. But she was like the land. And more like her father than she would ever know.

  Hurrying his pace to catch up, Billy sighed with a sense of sadness and foreboding. It was an ugly twist of fate that Shadoe and Hank should both return to the tiny town of Athens, Montana in the same spring. And both end up on opposite sides of what was shaping up to be one of the biggest range wars of the west.

  “YOU CAN LET ME tape those ribs or you can let Billy take you to the hospital.” Doc Adams waved the Ace bandage in Shadoe’s face, his own red from arguing.

  “One or the other,” Billy said, coming to the veterinarian’s rescue. Shadoe wouldn’t hear of going to the hospital, but she had allowed Billy to call her next door neighbor, Dr. Franklin Adams, one of the best veterinarians in the universe. But Doc was having a hard time managing the headstrong woman. “Look, Doc, if she won’t cooperate, we’ll give her a shot of Rompum and put her down for an hour or two. When she wakes up, we’ll have her wrapped, tied and up in a sling where she’ll have to behave.”

  “I’ve seen wild boars with more sense,” Doc snorted as he moved in on Shadoe to wrap her ribs. “Now take off your shirt and sit up there like a.like a grown-up.”

  Shadoe sighed and gave up. Billy and the crusty old vet weren’t going to leave her alone until they’d bound and taped her into submission. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Doc Adams’s judgment, but all of that bandaging and tape were going to be a royal pain.

  “I’ll go take a look-see for Hank,” Billy said as he discreetly left the room. He’d already scouted the barn and surrounding property but had found few clues of the intruder who’d set Scrapiron free.

  Shadoe dropped her shirt and held her arms up for the doctor to bandage her ribs.

  “I hope you know I would be censured by the vet association for doing this. A little appreciation would go a long way, little missy.”

  Shadoe couldn’t resist the smile that crooked up the corners of her mouth. Doc Adams had called her little missy since she was first born. Like Billy, he was always there when she called him. She had a sudden, terrible thought. What would she do without her old friends, these men who were her father’s age or older?

  “Thank you, Doc,” she said, her voice soft. “Thank you and Billy both.”

  Something in her voice made him look up from his bandages and catch her eye. “You’re not hurt someplace else, are you?”

  She shook her head, blinking away tears that came on her so suddenly they almost escaped. “No, but I was just thinking what I would do without you two. You’ve both been good friends to me.”

  “Behave like a young woman and you wouldn’t have to be calling on us,” he admonished. “Find you some man to marry and let him chase the horse thieves in the barn.”

  From anyone else, the words would have infuriated Shadoe. From Doc or Billy, she knew that it was their concern for her. In their world, women married men who could protect them. For Shadoe, none of that was true. She was on her own. And she liked it that way. She had to fend for herself, but she also knew exactly who she could count on.

  She felt the last of the tape smoothed into place and Doc nodded for her to stand. She buttoned her shirt as he lectured her.

  “Rest, Shadoe. Give those ribs a chance to heal or you’re going to be sorry.”

  “Is that what you tell all the young cows you tend?”

  “I tell
them all that, but most of them listen about as good as I expect you will. They’ll go on off and do what they want anyway.”

  Shadoe laughed and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks, Doc.”

  “Don’t thank me,” he said, “Just give those ribs a little time to heal. That shotgun blast could have killed you.”

  “I know.” She walked to the front door and gazed out into the night. It took her a moment to adjust to the darkness, but in a few seconds she saw Billy standing at the barn. And he was waving and calling out. Hank was back!

  As if on cue she heard the scream of her stallion as he called to the mares. There was an answering chorus from the barn, and Shadoe couldn’t help the smile on her face as she reached for her coat.

  “I said rest.” Doc Adams snatched the coat from her hand. “I think you can trust Billy to stable that stud for you.”

  “I want to make sure—”

  “I think I’m a little more qualified to make sure he’s in good shape than you are.” Doc slipped into his own coat. “Now make us some coffee if you must do something.” He slammed the door behind him.

  Shadoe hesitated at the door, but then turned and walked into the large old kitchen. It was her favorite room in the ranch house, a place where she’d spent many happy hours as a child. Lifting the pot of water, she felt her ribs complain, but she poured the water and waited. Doc’s command had not kept her in the house. It was more that she hoped Hank would leave without coming in. She’d made her desire to have him off her property very clear.

  The coffee was almost made when she heard the clump of boots on the front porch and the whisper of the door as it opened. Peering around the kitchen door she caught sight of the three men as they removed their coats.

  Damn! Hank had come inside with them. Billy’s doing, probably, since he felt such sympathy for him. Well, sure, Hank had loved Copperwood, but she’d lost more than a ranch, and now Hank was in a position to make sure that every rancher in the Montana area paid for his own personal loss.