Hunter Moon (Lupine Moon Series) (10 page)

“Hey Shells, it’s Jess—” She waited to see if I’d pick up. “
Oookaay…
I take it you’re still pissed at me. I’m really sorry. I didn’t know you were out of bed; otherwise I wouldn’t have let him in the room. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a pretty face. Plus, he seemed pretty eager to see you.” I thought about picking up, but I was still upset, so I figured I should let her squirm.

“Look, Tyler is going to drop me off to pick up the planet and then he’s going to want to talk to you about last night.” We called her Saturn ‘the planet’ because it was slow and it was blue and green, she had an accident and never got the door painted to match. “We’re going to come by around five. I hope you know I love you and I am truly sorry.”

 I had been sitting on my couch watching
Bones
reruns all day. I had hoped that the ice pack on my head and watching David Boreanaz would make me feel better about being betrayed both by my BFF and the guy I wanted to F in the same day.

“Oh, David.” I sighed. “If only all men were as good looking and brave as you are.”
Booth would’ve come to my rescue,
I told myself petulantly.

My phone rang again and I let it go to the machine with all the others. “Hi Shelby, this is Vince.” I thought about picking up the phone so I could talk to him, but I didn’t have the energy, and I had a feeling he wasn’t calling to tell me good news.

“I’ve spoken with your cousins’ lawyer and it seems that they’re going to try and prove you had undue influence over your grandfather since you lived with and cared for him in his later years. You and I both know they don’t have sufficient grounds to prove that, but I just wanted to let you know.” It was a good thing I hadn’t picked up the line because I was cussing up a blue streak at my cousins.

“I’m still pushing for arbitration, and I’ll keep you informed of whatever transpires. I’ll talk to you soon.” Vince hung up and I sat staring at the answering machine.
The absolute
nerve
of those people!

I was absolutely stunned that they could even think that I pressured grandpa into giving me the ranch. I would have given it all up just to have more time with him. I imagined that they were just using transference, since that’s exactly what they would have done if they had been in my position. They had so much and I only had my ranch, why couldn’t they just leave me alone?

Tired of feeling sorry for myself, I got up and changed into my Wranglers and boots.

“Come on, Reg. We’re going for a ride.”

I grabbed my .45 and my 30.30 saddle gun and walked out of my trailer with my faithful hound at my feet. By the time I had Roanie saddled, the rifle secured in its holster by my right leg and my pistol in its holster on my thigh, I had acquired another canine. Never able to be confused with a dog, the wolf sat on its haunches next to Reg, who looked more than comfortable with his new companion.

“Well, maybe it’s a girl wolf. Is she your new lady friend, Reg?” I asked as I led Roanie out of the barn. The horse didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the wolf either. As we walked, the two trotted up to flank my horse and the wolf lifted
his
leg to pee on a tree. Ah.

“Okay, not your lady friend. Boyfriend maybe?” As if the wolf understood, he let out a low, menacing growl. Roanie shied away, his eyes rolling. “Okay, just friends then,” I said as I soothed the horse.

The wolf quit growling and let its tongue loll out its mouth as it jogged alongside me.
How weird…it looks like he’s smiling at me.
We walked for about a half hour, until Reggie barked and took off up the hill. Wolfie stayed right by my side as I turned to follow Reg over the hill.

“I need to give you a better name than Wolfie,” I said to him. He tilted his head and regarded me solemnly. “How about fluffy?” He snorted. “No? Hmm…well, you did save my butt the other night. Maybe I should call you Angel? As in guardian Angel?” He stopped and glared. “No again? I guess I’ll have to think about it more.”

As we came up over the rise, I saw what Reggie had been barking about. The cattle were all worked up. Someone had set a series of small fires that had the cows milling about in a congested circle. It was the middle of October, but we hadn’t had any serious rains, so the grass was still dry, plenty of fuel to feed a large wildfire should these get out of control. The fires weren’t big yet, but there’s no way I was going to be able to put them out by myself. My first priority was to move my cows out of the path of the flames.
Things could not get any worse…

I kicked Roanie into a trot and doubled back between the fire and the cows, urging them back the way I had come. Fire tends to travel up hill, rather than down, so if I got them moving back down toward my trailer and the corral, I could pen them in long enough for the CDF guys to do their job.

“Reggie, get a heel!” I yelled over the bawling cattle. Reg, like the good cow dog he was, nipped at the cattle’s back legs, urging them forward away from his snapping teeth. The wolf, weaving like a ghost in and out of the cows, was an even better motivator for them to get moving. Soon, between the three of us, the cattle were moving down the hill at a trot. While Reg continue his job, I loped out ahead and vaulted off Roanie when I got to my trailer.

I sprinted inside and grabbed my phone, pounding 911 on the keys. Still breathing hard when the operator answered, I demanded to be transferred to the CalFire department.

“Yes, my name is Shelby Flint and I’m on the Flint ranch in Raymond. Someone has set several small fires, which by now have probably grown to several
big
fires. Please hurry!”

It was only a scant ten minutes later when I heard the blades of the chopper, heading past to drop water from Hensley Lake onto the fire. Three fire trucks drove down my driveway ten minutes later, and I helped by shuttling a few of the men to the fire in my Blazer and the coincidence was not lost on me.
Fireman in a Blazer, ha!

The fire trucks weren’t able to get to the flames without getting stuck. Luckily, the fire department had deployed the Helicopter quickly enough that the fires were easily containable by the firefighters who arrived later.

I had an uncomfortable sense of Déjà vu as I sat on my front porch and watched the fire trucks leave down my driveway. I didn’t remember when, but sometime during the chaos, the wolf had slipped off and disappeared. Covered in soot and ash, my lungs aching from the smoke, I stumbled into my house and took a shower. Too lazy and exhausted to care, I stepped out, wet hair and all, and curled up under the covers and slept.

I came up out of a deep slumber during the night long enough to feel a presence against me. It smelled of pines and smoke. I smiled to myself and went back to sleep.

“Shelby.”

Someone shook me. I groaned, fighting to stay inside the wonderful dream.

“Shelby! Wake up!”

More shaking. I felt like I was surfacing from deep underwater. I tried to open my eyes, but they weren’t working properly.

“Shelby Rae Flint, if you don’t wake up this instant I’m going to slap you into next Sunday!” I finally got my eyes to open but they wouldn’t quite focus. I saw a blurry brunette standing over me.

“Jesse?” I rasped. My mouth and throat were dry and sore.
Why was that?

“Thank goodness, Shelby. You had me worried. I’ve been trying to wake you up for five minutes!” She sat down on the bed beside me and handed me a glass of water.

“Here, drink this. You look like hell.” Gratefully, I took the glass and gulped it down. It was a touch painful, but I felt more human for it.

“What time is it?” I croaked, still disoriented. It was light outside, so I must have only slept for a few hours.

“It’s seven.” She gave me a weird look.

“Oh, I guess you and Ty are picking up your car then?”

She arched an eyebrow. “Shells, it’s seven in the afternoon. Friday. We picked up my car yesterday. You never answered the door. When you didn’t answer your phone this morning, I was worried. What happened to you?”

Shocked, I sat up and looked around. Everything was just as I left it. My towel was still on the ground, and the trail of my sooty clothes led into the bathroom.

“Holy crap,” I said as a wave of dizziness overwhelmed me. I had to sit back against the pillows. “Jess, I’ve been sleeping for 28 hours. I think my blood sugar is a little low. Do me a solid and get me some orange juice from the fridge?”

She left, eyes wide, and returned with a huge glass of OJ. Seeing she was about to burst from all the questions, I appreciated that she waited to attack me until after I had drunk half the glass.

“What is going on with you, Shelby?” She hissed. I winced as the rest of the juice stung its way down my poor throat, raw from the heat of the fire.

“I really wish I knew, Jess. I was out avoiding your and Cash’s phone calls yesterday morning and Vince called to tell me my cousins are claiming undue influence and then someone started fires right by my cows. I had to move all of the cattle out of there and called CDF in to put them out.” Jesse sat on the edge of my bed hanging on every word with a horrified expression on her face.

“By the time I had shuttled all the firemen back and forth, I was exhausted. I guess I just sort of conked out after I took a shower. I’m really sorry if I made you worry. But honestly, you do kind of deserve it.”

In typical Jesse style, she skimmed over my last statement. “Who do you think started the fires?”

 It didn’t take me long to respond. “I think the man who came by here the other night probably did it. For some reason he’s trying to scare me off.” I raised my eyebrow at Jess. “Honestly, I’m shocked Tyler didn’t hear about the fire. I had a chopper and three CDF crews here.” A look of shock flitted across her face and was replaced by a deeply suspicious one.

“If that husband of mine thinks he can hide stuff about my best friend from me, he is deeply mistaken.” From the ominous look on her face, I didn’t envy Ty when she got through with him. “And why didn’t Cash say anything to me either? I’m sure he knew too, and he stopped by the store yesterday. I asked about the fire and they told me it wasn’t anywhere near your ranch.”

At the mention of Cash’s name, I blushed deeply. Jesse looked at me quizzically. “What is
that
all about?” she asked pointing to my face.

I honestly didn’t know. The dream I’d had of Cash wasn’t in the least bit erotic. He had just lain next to me in bed, stroked my hair, and said sweet things to me, all the while smelling reassuringly of trees and campfire. It was one of the best dreams I’d ever had.

“Oh, we had a little bit of a fight. That’s why I’m avoiding his calls too.”

She nodded sagely. “I thought he would go after you when he raced away from my house yesterday morning. It was either that or he ran for the hills, which is what I did.” She winked.

Jesse knew she’d already been forgiven. We never stayed mad at each other long whenever we had fought.

“Regardless, I hope those boys have some idea who’s doing all these nasty things to my best friend and why.” She had that same determined look in her eyes that she’d gotten whenever she’d wanted to do something she wasn’t supposed to. I sighed, got up and threw on some sweats.

“At this point, all I want is some food. I’m starving.” Realization dawned. “
SHIT!
” I barked and I sprinted out of my bedroom. Jesse yelped and ran after me.

“What is it? What’s wrong? Shelby!” I ran out the door, heedless of my bare feet, and ran to the barn.

“I didn’t feed the—” I stumbled to a stop as I saw that Tahoe and Roanie were munching contentedly on what was left of a flake of hay. Confused, I looked around, searching for any sign of an intruder. I turned to Jesse who had just arrived, huffing.