Page 35 of Mountain Men Heroes

“I think you put a hurting on him. He’ll never mess with a girl in the woods again.”

She turned his knuckles over and skimmed the forming bruises. “You gave him another good parting gift to remember us by, too.”

“Nothing beat your bullet.”

She shook her head and took a little more of his weight as she helped him sit up. “I’m not even sure if I wounded him or not.”

“You did. You grazed this fucker’s shoulder. I bet he’s thanking whatever god he prays to that you didn’t aim a little to the right or he’d have dropped where he stood.”

“Oh, God, Ethan. I almost killed someone.”

His lips tightened. “It was either him or us. Besides, you didn’t so don’t worry about something that didn’t happen.”

Okay. That made sense. “You’re right.”

“He’s lucky you pulled the trigger when you did. That knife he pulled had me seeing red. I wouldn’t have stopped until he was dead, friend or not. I still feel like chasing him down and putting him in the ground for touching you.” His words tore from him like a promise made on a deathbed and carried enough raw, untamed revenge she almost felt sorry for the other guy.

Ethan pushed to his knees and then feet, but stumbled forward, using the tree at his side for support. He swayed, unable to fully stand from the amount of blood loss.

“Whoa, big guy. Take it easy and slow.”

“I’ll be fine. I just need a minute.”

“Okay, well, let’s get you back to the cabin. Then I can see what I can do to treat the wound.”

Ethan gave a dry chuckle. “Sure thing, Doc. Just give me a sec, will ya?”

She nodded, scanning the horizon for any sign of a repeat encounter.

“Don’t worry. He won’t be back anytime soon. It’ll take him a while to recover from the good ass-kicking.”

“I know. Now let’s get moving.” She mentally patted herself on the back for sounding braver than she felt, but her shaky bravado waned with the adrenaline spike and didn’t stop a flourish of goosebumps from rushing over her exposed skin. It made her want eyes in the back of her head something fierce.

Ethan dropped down to a knee again.

Living in fear didn’t sit well, but she wasn’t exactly in her environment. She worked large zoos and local wildlife. Not wide-open spaces where crazy men more dangerous than the animals had easy pickings.

She kneeled beside Ethan and set to work cleaning off the wound the best she could. He tracked every move she made. The longer she took, the more aware of the simmering anger he locked down tight just below the surface. It swirled like a cloud around him and edged out any other emotion until it consumed his entire body with how he tensed beneath her touch.

She could see him struggle. The muscles across his shoulder and down his arms trembled every time he tried to push up and his breathing rattled. From what she saw it was a clean shot through the muscle of his calf. The pain had to be immense.

Given another chance at the asshole who did this, she wouldn’t hesitate again.

A twig snapped and her head shot up.

His big hand covered her shoulder, his fingers pressing against her shirt. “You don’t need to worry. He won’t be breathing long enough to hurt you again.”

She froze. “I wasn’t worried, but now I am. What does that mean exactly?”

He relaxed against the nearest tree at his back, as though he didn’t just confess to planning on killing someone, and brought his gaze to hers. “You don’t need to be afraid. As soon as I recoup from the blood loss—a couple of hours tops—I’ll be going hunting. This is Savage territory and that asshole just pissed all over the family for he’s done. That’s fine. But, no way in hell he’ll get a second chance at harming you.”

Her eyebrows climbed into her hairline. Oh.

“A little extreme, no? Let’s leave the egos aside for the time being. Now, lean back and give yourself a minute. Let me take a look while you get your breathing under control.”

With a few jerky movements, she unwound her scarf and tried to clean off the last of the crushed dead leaves and clumps of dirt stuck to his skin. He did the same to his hair and shoulders.

“I’ll be fine. Let’s get moving before he thinks a rematch is a good idea before I can take him on. I just need to let the pain fade a little.” A dime-sized hole pierced the thick muscle of his calf. No. He wouldn’t be. Her grandmother had taught her a lot about herbs and how to mix them into medicines. Many of them found right here on the side of this mountain, but none of them worked the magic he would need to do what he was talking about. And thank God for that.

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