LITMIR.BIZ

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shot once. I know all about this stuff. I’ll stop the bleeding and you’ll feel better.”

      Within a few minutes, she’d stripped off her jacket. She was about to tell him to close his eyes but that was silly. Without a flashlight pointing at an object—in this case her—it was darn near invisible. She pulled the sweatshirt over her head, then put the jacket back on over her bra.

      The sweatshirt got cut into a dozen strips and patches with his pocketknife. “It’s not bleeding too much anymore,” she finally said as she tied the last soft strip of cotton around his shoulder. “Did you ride your horse?”

      “Yeah. How about you?”

      “I brought Bagels.”

      “After what you went through today, you saddled Bagels and rode him all the way out here?”

      “Yes. All by myself.” She didn’t mention getting lost once or twice. No need for details.

      “I doubt he’s still around.”

      “I don’t know. I tied him up pretty good.”

      “Judging from the way he reacted to your tension earlier today, the gunfire must have terrified him. Don’t worry, he’ll find his way home, but it means you’re stuck here with me because I’m not leaving this cave. Will you dig my phone out of my left pocket?”

      “You can’t stay here!”

      “I’m not leaving.”

      “I’ll stay, you go home.”

      He laughed—oblivious in the dark of her narrowing eyes—but his voice, when he spoke, was soft. “Please, Echo, just help me get the phone.”

      She did as he asked, squeezing her hand into his front left pocket. It was a tight fit and she could tell her hand fishing around down there had a predictable effect on his libido, which was pretty amazing given his current condition. She tried to make the search as impersonal as possible. Still, his arousal intrigued her—perhaps he wasn’t indifferent to her, after all. Hooking his phone, she dragged it out of his pocket and handed it to him. “Who are you calling?”

      He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Cody. He can come help us so we can go back to the ranch. I need to make arrangements to have this site protected.”

      “But your father—”

      “To hell with my father. You could have been killed tonight.”

      She diplomatically chose not to point out that she wasn’t the one with a bullet in the shoulder. Instead, she cleaned up the makeshift medical supplies while Adam called his brother. As he talked, she went downhill in search of Bagels and found he’d bolted just as Adam had predicted, all but breaking off the limb to which he’d been secured. Then she marched uphill and found Adam’s horse quietly munching weeds and staring into the dark as though this was just a night like any other.

      But it wasn’t.

      She leaned her forehead against the big horse and wrapped an arm around his neck. He produced a soft sigh and nuzzled her hair.

      Eventually she wandered back to Adam’s side and found he’d scooted up sideways to lean against a tree. A quick once-over with the flashlight revealed he was ashen beneath his tan and his teeth were clenched.

      “Cody is on his way,” he said.

      She sat down beside him. “How are you doing?”

      “Peachy.”

      “How are you really doing?”

      “Nothing I can’t handle.”

      “Are you cold?”

      “A little. You?”

      “Yes,” she said although she wasn’t. All that running up and down the hill had warmed her up, but he looked like he could use a little TLC. She moved closer, snuggling against his right side and doing her best to remember she was there for warmth and comfort and nothing else.

      “I have to hand it to you,” she said.

      He’d sunk down a little. “Why?”

      “Well, I thought life on a ranch would be kind of, I don’t know, predictable.”

      “It is,” he murmured.

      She didn’t respond. Nothing she’d experienced since getting here had seemed even remotely predictable.

      In a halting voice, he added, “Normally it’s all about the ranch. The cows. The animals. Things happen in a pattern, seasons bring different challenges. Pulling calves—”

      “What’s that mean?”

      “Helping the mother give birth. Anyway, nothing that’s gone on today has anything to do with ranching.”

      She leaned closer until their heads touched. He didn’t draw away. “So this isn’t another day at the office?”

      “No,” he murmured.

      They sat quietly until she noticed his breathing had grown deeper and his weight against her arm heavier than before. “Adam?” she whispered.

      No response. For a second her heart froze—what if he’d gone unconscious or even died? Then he made a soft groaning noise. Just asleep. That meant it was up to her to keep watch. Sitting as still as she could, she concentrated on night noises and was astounded by how many of them there were.

      What would she do if she suddenly heard the sound of a returning motor? There was no more ammunition. The concern had no sooner sprung to mind than it turned real.

      “Adam,” she said again, this time more urgently.

      He jerked awake. “What?”

      “I hear an engine.”

      He tilted his head and listened. “Relax, it’s coming from the lake trail and our thief comes around from the mountain. It must be Cody.”

      She took a deep breath and got to her feet, hoping he was right.

      By the time Cody appeared, his vehicle’s headlamp sweeping the clearing, she’d collected Solar Flare and helped Adam stand.

      Cody was slightly taller and heavier than Adam, good-looking as all the Westin men were, in an outdoor tough-as-nails way. Where Cody differed the most from Adam were his eyes. It wasn’t only that they were darker. It was the No Trespassing sign that was impossible not to notice. She knew his marriage had fallen apart several months earlier, but really, in this day and age, besides Adam, who hadn’t suffered that fate? She herself had been in and out of different relationships for years, even tying the knot once for a whole eleven months.

      “Hello, Echo,” Cody said as he got off the vehicle, produced an electric lantern and held it aloft. “I was hoping to see you again before you left, but not like this. Are you okay?”

      It was like the Wyoming question of the day. “Fine,” she said. “It’s your brother who’s about to drop.”

      Cody directed the light and looked at Adam closely. He whistled. “Man, you look like hell.”

      “I feel like hell.”

      “You want to carry that bullet back to the ranch or do you want me to dig it out here?”

      “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman here says the bullet isn’t in there.”

      Echo rolled her eyes.

      “You were lucky you weren’t up here alone when that happened,” Cody said.

      Adam’s fingers grazed Echo’s arm. “I know.” His attention once again on Cody, he added, “Sorry I had to wake you.”

      “You didn’t wake me. The two oldest Garvey brothers showed up at the house about an hour and a half ago, drunker than skunks. They swear Open Sky owes them two hundred bucks in Lucas’s back wages.”

      “They

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