Page 36 of Mountain Men Heroes

“It’s a clean shot, but we need to get you back to town and get it looked at.” Like every man, he thought he was invincible.

With expert hands, Remy wound the cleanest part of her scarf around his leg and finished it off with a knot. They had a long walk back and they needed something to hold at least that far. Back at the cabin, she could dress it better and radio in from the plane for help.

Remy felt her mouth go dry as reality set in. They were stuck here until he could fly them out. “You sound like you know who did this. Why would whoever he is want to shoot you?”

“Before you arrived, Brax was a more or less permanent fixture of the Savage family and this town. He’s been missing for the better part of three months now. No one knows what he’s been up to for the most part. Until now. When I left you, I used the trees as cover and wound around the side of the lake.” As Remy looked on Ethan’s expression warred between settling on either pissed off or completely sickened.

“I caught him dumping buckets of something into the lake,” he growled. “Before I could dive out of the way he had three rounds off. I didn’t expect who I thought would be a friendly to fire at me, so he caught me off guard. I was lucky enough to catch one of those three shots.”

She didn’t know what to say to that, but lucky sure the hell wasn’t on the list.

She pushed her glasses up a notch and thought over what he’d said. This lake system fed into a few streams that eventually fed into other lakes.

He gave a dry chuckle. “I guess we found our culprit, after all, Doc.”

“If he was so close to your family, why the hell did he turn on you?”

“No idea, but I’ll be finding out. He came to stay with us when we were only boys. His family lives off-grid and couldn’t provide for him. My father took him in to help out, but Brax was always getting into trouble. Carried around a chip on his shoulder as long as I’ve known him. And now he’s gotten into something that has put us both in danger.”

She gripped the ends of the scarf and secured the knot tighter.

His lips tightened and fisted a clump of leaves. “Argh, damn! Not so tight!”

“Sorry. Doctor’s orders. Can you stand?”

It took a couple of tries, but with a little help he managed to get upright by the third attempt.

She slipped his arm around her shoulder. “Do you remember anything else?”

“Whatever he had in those buckets required gloves and I noticed he didn’t touch the water.”

“I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t go skinny dipping earlier.”

He paled. “Fuck me. We have to get back and radio in the rangers.”

She agreed, but he wouldn't be making it any farther than the cabin.

For being shot he moved surprisingly fast. With one brief stop to gather her things, they closed in on the cabin within thirty minutes of setting out. The whole trip she’d been on high alert and her head on a swivel.

Remy helped Ethan up the steps of the enclosed wraparound porch encasing his cabin. “Wait inside. I have to get the first-aid kit from the plane and while I’m at it I’ll radio into home base.”

“Not in a million years, beautiful. We’ll both go or we both stay.”

“Oh no!”

He moved to push past her, but would not be responsible for putting him through more pain when she could be back in less than fifteen minutes in a hard run.

“We made good time. But you can’t make it another twenty feet much less the quarter-mile. We can’t afford the time lost if we don’t tell them what you found.” Sunshine brushed the horizon, and tiny lightning bugs twinkled like fairy lights throughout the forest, giving the menacing dusk a false sense of safety.

He gave a nod and accepted his defeat. But the way his expression darkened he didn’t like it any more than she did. “Remy.” Her name came out in a low, graveled whisper that begged her attention. She turned to find him leaning against the door, his skin pale. Worry screwed his face up in a frown. He limped closer and reached for her waist. “Use it if you have to.” He tapped the gun strapped into her holster.

She licked her lips. “Trust me. I will.”

She dashed inside and fumbled in her suitcase for a replacement scarf and wrapped it around her neck as she walked. She never left home without one and today didn’t seem like a good day to leave behind her lucky charm.

When she stepped out of the door again, the heat of his gaze hit her square between the shoulder blades. Without looking back, she took the porch steps two at a time and hit the ground running. There’s no telling what he put in the water or how many animals or people could die from it. At least they had the who. Now they needed to find out the why, but most importantly a way to counter whatever he dumped. And she had to make sure Ethan didn’t kill the man before any of that could happen.

Four

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