whistled his dogs out of the woods adjoining his main pasture and back to heel. They were panting, wagging their tails and obviously pleased with themselves.
“Too bad you guys can’t talk,” he told them. “I’d sure like to know what you were chasing out there.”
Patting his thigh to bring them along, he’d just turned and started back toward the house when he heard the rumbling echo of a motor. It didn’t sound like a tractor or an ATV, more like a pickup truck, perhaps one with a diesel engine.
He and the dogs all froze. They looked west so he did, too. It was difficult to see far into the forest, even this early in the spring before the oak, sycamore and hickory trees leafed out.
Travis squinted against the rays of the setting sun. Something glinted in the distance before rising dust obliterated it.
Okay, so there was a vehicle out there where it didn’t belong. That might be nothing more than a hunter training a dog or one of the neighbors chasing a loose cow. Many of the outlying areas weren’t fenced. Anybody could have wandered onto his property without realizing they were trespassing.
If it hadn’t been for Emma’s paranoia he would have dismissed the incident.
Because of her, however, he jogged back to the house, penned the dogs to keep them safe, fired up his ATV and returned to where he’d glimpsed the reflection.
Dismounting, he bent over to examine the rutted dirt track, hardly more than a wide path through the forest. There were fresh tracks, all right. Looked like the tires of a heavy pickup with dual wheels in the rear. They led to a narrowing of the spaces between the trees where they stopped and reversed, thereby obliterating any crisp imprints.
Travis followed the trail for a short distance on foot. Sunset was near. His ability to spot the truck or anything else would soon be gone. But somebody had been there, just as his dogs had indicated.
And whoever it was had not been a local or he would have known that the trail he was on was impassible in a full-size vehicle. Therefore, the interloper had to have been a stranger. Could he have been after Emma, as she’d feared?
Only one thing was certain. While Emma was under his personal protection, he was going to make sure nobody got another chance to hurt her the way she had been before.
He set his jaw. After he sorted out all the details involved in keeping Emma safe from outsiders, he was going to have to face the roots of his own motives. Considering the way he instinctively reacted every time he saw her, he was afraid his protective urges were not as innocent as he’d been telling himself they were.
Pondering that emotional uncertainty, Travis returned to the ATV, fired it up and revved the engine. Its loud, rattling roar echoed through the otherwise silent forest.
Astride, he dropped the small vehicle in gear and took off for home. Before he had gone fifteen feet he sensed an imbalance and stopped to get off and check.
One of the two rear tires had gone flat. “Terrific. Just what I needed—a long walk home.”
He crouched, expecting to spot what he’d carelessly run over in his haste to get back to the house.
The nearby trail was clean. No sharp rocks, no broken stubs or branches, nothing.
Before Travis could straighten again he heard the pop of a small-caliber rifle, followed by the singing whine of a bullet.
He ducked. Heard the shot impact the ATV. The flat tire was no accident! And now somebody was trying to flatten him!
Staying low, he duck-walked into the brush, then turned and headed cross-country instead of sticking to the normal trails. In the fall it might be possible for a foolish hunter to make the mistake of shooting at another human being because of the thick cover, but not this early in the year. Whoever had been taking potshots at him had meant to do harm.
If he could have been certain that he wasn’t outnumbered and outgunned, he might have stood his ground.
In this instance, however, there was only one thing on his mind. Getting back to Emma. Before it was too late.
Emma dressed in the comfortable lavender outfit Cleo had loaned her, then went back to the upstairs window while towel drying her hair. Shadows had lengthened, giving the farmyard a more somber aura. There sat Travis’s truck and the stock trailer, just as he’d left them.
She unlocked the window and raised the sash to let in fresh air, inhaling deeply and sighing. No matter what was wrong with her, this was the best place to be. She didn’t know how she could be so certain of that, yet she was. Her heart insisted.
The sound of barking dogs reached her and she listened carefully. They didn’t sound angry anymore. Their yelps were shrill, as if they were keyed up and frustrated.
By leaning slightly to the side, Emma was able to view the source of the noise. All three of the dogs Travis had taken with him were confined in a pen next to the barn and jumping at the wire gate, acting frantic to escape.
Her throat tightened. Her pulse sped. If the dogs were there, where was Travis? Did he pen them up every night or was this evening different? There was only one way to find out.
Donning her tennis shoes, Emma hurried down the stairs in search of Cleo. They met in the kitchen where the older woman had hold of the old dog’s collar while it whined and scratched at the back door.
“What’s going on?”
Cleo was clearly worried. “Don’t know. Bo all of a sudden wants out.”
“Why not let him go?”
“Because I don’t know what became of Travis. I heard him come back with the other dogs while you were taking your shower but then he hopped on the ATV and left again.” She kept trying to calm the antsy hound.
“I could see from upstairs that he’d put the others in a pen. Is that normal?”
“No. We let the young ones patrol at night to keep the wild critters away from the chickens and such.”
“Then call the police,” Emma said, trying to mute her burgeoning fear.
“But you said...”
“I know what I said,” Emma replied. “But that was when I thought I’d gotten away clean. If you think Travis is in trouble you need to call the authorities.”
“What kind of trouble?” Cleo demanded. “Who’s chasing you, girl?”
“I don’t know. Honest, I don’t. But I sense enough to be afraid. Do you have another gun?”
“Lots of ’em. This is hunting country. Why?”
“Because you should go arm yourself. Now.” She reached for the collar. “I’ll hold on to Bo for you.”
She was glad to see Cleo was taking her seriously. The sense of foreboding she’d had all along was building so rapidly it was making her light-headed.
Alone
