The Guardian (The Wolfe Series) (21 page)

             
“You young uns just be careful out there.”  Anthony looked at the dark clouds gathering over the distant mountains.  He helped Laurie mount, adjusting the stirrups to accommodate her long legs. 

             
“Thanks, Anthony, we’ll be careful.” Laurie drew the reins into her hands and easily controlled the Arabian which was prancing around the yard in her eagerness to run. 

Jake shook his head when he saw Laurie pat Sugar’s neck, which immediately quieted the animal.  There was no doubt in his mind that Laurie had a way with animals, much like horse whisperers had with horses.  He couldn’t help but wonder what she would think of a big bad wolf?

             
“Sugar?” Laurie asked, her eyebrows raised in question.  She and Jake had traveled in silence for several miles before stopping at the edge of a deep arroyo.  “Surely this Arabian has a much grander name.”  Laurie hoped to break the stilted silence that had settled between them since their eyes had collided in the stables.

             
Jake was gazing off into the distance, concentrating on the storm clouds brewing high up in the mountains.  After several long moments he glanced down into the arroyo and said, “My mother died when a flash flood roared into an arroyo like this one.  When a violent thunderstorm breaks over the mountains, the runoff from the rains runs into the steep canyons in a matter of minutes.  Walls of water sometimes ten to thirty feet high rush through the canyons and arroyos, picking up mud, boulders, trees and other debris.  Plants, animals and people are sometimes caught and swept along, battered by the torrent.  Flash flooding in an arroyo like this one can take just seconds to develop.”

             
“I’m so sorry, Jake.  It must have been devastating losing your mother that way.”

             
Jake shook himself, releasing the unpleasant memory.  “Rand thinks our mother committed suicide, or at the very least, didn’t fight to survive.  I tend to believe she did fight, that she never would have left us without battling that raging flood.”

             
“Rand, that’s your other brother?  The one I haven’t met yet?”

             
“Yea, he was the youngest of us boys and took it the hardest.  He’s convinced she committed suicide and who knows, maybe he’s right.  She had been fighting depression for a long time.  Her death, or suicide as he believes, made him hard toward women, though.”  Jake sighed at the thought.  “Oh, he’ll have the occasional one night stand but he doesn’t let anyone get close.”

             
“What about your father?  You never speak of him.”

             
Jake’s spine stiffened at the mention of his father.  “He was a bastard and probably still is.  Haven’t heard from him in years.” 

The time was coming when he
would tell Laurie the truth, that his father had decided not to change their mother and had allowed her to think that he’d been out with other women when in fact he’d been running the ranch in his wolf form.  After that the depression had set in. 

Jake was determined to be nothing like his father.  He wouldn’t take a mate unless the woman fully understood his other side, his wolf side, and what it would mean living with him.  He was
convinced that Laurie was such a woman . . . if he could persuade her to stay.

Laurie longed to take Jake into her
arms and comfort him, remove the pain she saw in his eyes.  She nudged Sugar closer to Jake’s stallion and laid her hand on Jake’s thigh.  “I’m sorry, Jake.”  A whiff of hot-blooded virile male with a hint of wood smoke and citrus filled Laurie’s senses as she reluctantly withdrew her hand.  The uncanny attraction between them made her whole body light up.

Jake
gritted his teeth when Laurie’s touch ignited a rush of desire that charged through his blood stream and settled uncomfortably in his groin.  “We’d better be heading back.  Those clouds are starting to move in.”

Laurie turned her horse away from the arroyo and nudged her mare up alongside Jake’s much larger stallion.  She’d been confused by Jake’s sudden with drawl and wondered if she’d done something to upset him.  As they started back toward the ranch house, she decided to concentrate on the night ahead and the seduction she had planned.  And then she would do what she had to do.
  She would leave the ranch and whatever chance they might have had at happiness.

“Last one back to the barn has to muck the stalls,” she shouted as she spurred the Arabian
mare into a full out gallop.

             
Jake grinned, his depression disappearing instantly as he and Golden Cloud took up the challenge and thundered after the fleeing pair.

              Neither Jake nor Laurie noticed the coyote who was standing on a nearby hillock, nor did they notice the rifle he held trained on them.  But Manuel Ortega saw them and he smiled grimly when he thought of the bounty that Enrique Perez had placed on the woman’s head. 

Manuel was of medium height with the dark hair and
coloring of his Yaqui ancestors.  He had spent most of his adult life shepherding illegals across the Mexican border.  Over the years the harsh desert sun had turned his skin leathery but he figured he’d have enough money to fix things like that after he collected the reward.  He would then buy a place far away from the desert and with all that money and a new face he could have whatever women he wanted into the bargain. 

Manuel
watched the pair ride nearer, the man drawing closer to the woman and her hard-charging horse.  He figured taking out the man would stop the woman long enough to give Manuel time to get to her.  Carefully, he sighted down the long barrel of his rifle and fired.

“Shit!”
Manuel exclaimed when he saw his bullet hit the woman instead of the man he’d been aiming for. Manuel didn’t stop to see what damage his treachery had wrought.  He ran for his horse, hastily shoving his rifle into a leather scabbard before climbing aboard.  He would be a dead man if Enrique Perez ever found out he had killed the Kincaid woman thereby depriving Perez of his revenge.  Manuel kicked his horse ruthlessly in the flanks and headed for parts unknown.

             
The rifle shot sounded like an explosion to Jake’s sensitive ears.  He watched as though in slow motion as the bullet struck Laurie’s shoulder, knocking her out of the saddle and tumbling her head over heals until she landed in a limp heap beside a barrel cactus.  Jake pulled Cloud up abruptly, sitting the stallion back on its haunches as horse and rider slid to a stop in a cloud of dust near where Laurie had landed.  Jake jumped from Cloud’s back before the stallion had come to a full stop, grabbing the stallion’s reins and using the animal to shield Laurie and himself from further gunfire.  The stallion’s eyes were white-rimmed in fear but he stood obediently when Jake dropped the reins, effectively ground tying the animal.  Jake could see the shooter riding hell bent for leather in the opposite direction.  He would have to track the man later, his first priority right now was tending to Laurie’s wound.

             
“Laurie!” Jake shouted as he dropped to his knees beside her.  He pushed the hair from her ashen face, and saw that she was conscious, her eyes straining to focus on Jake’s face as he took inventory of her bruised and battered body.  Jake couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped his lips when he saw the arterial blood pumping from the bullet hole in her shoulder. 

             
“Does it hurt awful bad?” Jake asked as he ripped his t-shirt off over his head and wadded it up into a ball before pressing it against her wounded shoulder.

             
“No, Jake, it did at first, but not now,” Laurie whispered, her eyelids fluttering closed.

             
“Stay with me, Laurie, just stay with me!” Jake shouted into her face.  Adrenaline flooded his veins and he pressed the blood-soaked cloth against her wound even harder.  He was losing her to shock and loss of blood and his wolf howled at the brutal realization. 

             
“I’m so cold, Jake.  Am I going to die?” 

Jake could see the
fear in Laurie’s eyes and he raged, “No, damn it, you’re not going to die!  There’s one way I can save you, Laurie.”  If he was able to Change her, if she hadn’t slipped too far away, she would heal quickly, the bullet wound healing almost overnight.  “Do you want to live?”

Laurie used the last of her waning strength to caress the side of Jake’s face with her fingertips.  She
marveled at the moisture she felt there, and the tears she saw coursing down both sides of his face.  “Yes, Jake, I want to live.  More than anything.”  Her eyelids fluttered closed as she said, “I’m sorry, I should have told you about . . .”

Jake didn’t’ need to hear anything else as he quickly
stepped out of his jeans.  His transformation into wolf form was painless.  He welcomed the stretching of muscles and tissue, the soft fur next to his body and the coarser outer coat that added layers of protection.  His jaw lengthened into a muzzle with lethal-looking teeth erupting in his mouth.  He was a shape shifter, a thing of myth and legend, a werewolf.

             
Laurie reached her hand out and touched the black wolf tentatively, seemingly unafraid of the beast that towered above her, its iridescent blue eyes riveted to her face.  She didn’t feel the pain when the wolf dropped its head and nipped her wrist.

“I remember you,” Laurie whispered as she slipped into unconsciousness.

C
hapte
r
N
ineteen

            
 
H
e didn’t like dealing with Enrique Perez but as Enrique’s second-in-command he found it a necessary evil if he was to enjoy the riches that could be had as a member of the Crótalo cartel.  Poncho Vega stretched his arms above his head, his muscles stiff from hours in the saddle as well as on ATVs searching for Laurie Kincaid.  He had organized the hunt at Enrique’s request, spreading the word and ensuring that every coyote, rat and mole in southern Arizona knew about the handsome reward that was being offered for the woman’s return.  The woman was running, and who could blame her considering who she was running from.  Poncho had seen her from a distance when she’d first come to the estancia.  Laurie Kincaid was beautiful beyond compare with her elegant figure, silky blonde hair and green eyes whose depths a man could easily get lost in.  He could well understand why Luzaro had became obsessed with her.

             
But the woman had chosen to run, for whatever reason, and now it was his job to make sure that she was found, either dead or alive.  Enrique had been very specific about wanting the woman returned unharmed.  Poncho knew of the man’s proclivities and would have felt sorry for the woman if those kinds of sentiments hadn’t been beaten out of him so long ago.  Enrique hadn’t said that her charms couldn’t be sampled, though, and Poncho planned to do just that if he found her alive.

             
Poncho stiffened his spine when he saw Enrique walking toward the security command post where Poncho had a small office.

             
“Report,” Enrique snapped as he stepped into Poncho’s office and took a chair near the window so he could still see the courtyard and hacienda beyond.

             
“I have men on the lookout all over Arizona.  She’s either dead or gone to ground.  If she’s alive, we’ll find her when she surfaces.”

             
“The woman is not to be harmed.  Make sure everyone is clear on that.” 

             
Poncho was certain that Enrique was saving that pleasure for himself, the bastard.  “We’ll find her.”

Enrique watched the Kincaid woman’s horse grazing peacefully in the far paddock.  He hadn’t thought of a way to use the animal yet.  Luzaro always had a guard on the horse which irritated Enrique to no end.

              “I expect results, Vega.  If you value your position here you’ll see that I get them.”  Enrique got to his feet and stalked out of the office. 

             
“Sure thing, boss.”  Poncho said, wondering if there wasn’t some way Enrique’s plans could be thwarted.

              It was large for a Mesquite tree, at least twenty feet high with three-inch thorns tough enough to penetrate the soles of sneakers or to puncture tires.  After collecting the horses and making sure they were secured for the night, Jake had tied the ponchos together that he’d removed from the backs of their saddles, threading them through the lower branches of the tree to make a shelter.  The storm he’d seen in the distance earlier was almost upon them.  Jagged bolts of lightning spit the heavy air and thunder boomed moments later, shaking the ground beneath Jake’s feet. 

             
Assured that the bleeding had stopped and that Laurie was sleeping peacefully, Jake took a few moments to gather up all of the dead wood near their makeshift lean-to. 
Why didn’t the shooter come after us?
   The question kept rolling around in Jake’s mind allowing him little peace.  He could have easily taken the man out with the rifle he always carried, but at what cost to Laurie?  He’d been relieved when he saw the gunman riding away instead of coming after them because there wouldn’t have been time to confront their attacker and take care of Laurie, too.