Page 53 of Harrison Hyde and the Runaway Bride

“Did it have young?” Maria asked.

“Lone male,” Jake said.

“Okay. We can test the animal for rabies and know for sure. I’ll need someone to take that carcass to the clinic. Wear gloves. No unnecessary contact.”

“Got it. We can take it from here, ma’am,” Jake said.

Maria nodded and Harry took her hand to pull her to her feet. While she’d been talking to Jake, he’d picked up the mess. He’d put the used tools and rubbish into a plastic zipper bag, before returning it to the case. She watched him walk to the horses, admiring him to her heart’s content. It suddenly felt toMaria as if Harry was meant to be her man. It felt like he was the one. She hadn’t thoughtthe oneexisted for her. Hadn’t thought she wanted him to. But now she did.

He put the case into the saddle bag, tied the flap down. His black eye had faded to a pale purple. He caught her looking at him and smiled back at her.

A gunshot cracked, the horse reared, and Harry hit the ground.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Maria screamed Harry’s name and raced toward him as chaos broke out all around her. The startled cattle were thundering away from the sound of the gunshot and directly toward them. The hands were running for their horses then racing to turn the panicked cattle. Then with a whoop, Trevor galloped by. Maria, still in motion, pointed in the direction from whence the shot had come, then fell to her knees beside Harry.

He was out cold. She looked toward the thundering cattle just as several riders managed to turn them. They’d need to turn them more, but she couldn’t move Harry. She decided to trust the men and change the things she could. She opened his shirt. Blood pulsed from a well in his shoulder. She rolled him up to see the exit wound directly behind it, shirt still in place, torn and soaked with blood and dirt. Maria swore, and she never swore. She grabbed the med kit from the saddlebag and got to work to stop the bleeding.

Hoofbeats approached. Four more horses galloped toward them. Willow pulled Sundance to a stop. “We heard a rifle shot! You okay?”

“I’m good. Harry’s not,” Maria said. “Trevor went after the shooter.”

“I’ll go—” Bubba began.

“It’s my job, Bubba. Stay and help here.” Willow sent a worried look at Harry, then clicked her cheek, and galloped away.

Bubba slid off his horse, looped the reins around the saddle horn, and knelt beside Harry. “What can I do?”

Maria had rinsed the exit wound with saline, then alcohol, and packed the wound on both sides to stop the bleeding. “I don’t know why he’s unconscious,” she said as she worked on the entry wound, doing all the same things.

“Hit his head,” Bubba said.

She looked up at him, and he nodded at a rock sticking out of the ground a few feet from Harry’s head. There was blood on it. She turned Harry’s head, ran her hand over it, and felt the swollen spot in the back. “We need to get him back to the house.”

She hadn’t been trampled, she realized, noticing the hands and cattle not far away. The longhorns were calmer and the hands were talking gently from their horses, between her and the cattle.

Bubba looked toward the direction Willow and Trevor had gone. “Holy…”

Maria rose and looked, too. In the distance, Trevor was chasing after a man on horseback up a slight rise, swinging his lasso. He threw it, and as they watched, the lasso landed around its quarry, and Trevor gave a mighty yank.

The guy came out of his saddle so hard, Maria and Bubba winced.

“Jeeze, Lord, did he kill him?” Bubba asked.

“Willow’s catching up, she’ll deal with it. Let’s get Harry back to the house.”

Jake, the foreman, hollered from horseback, “Ambulance’ll meet you at the main house.” He held up his phone.

“They should be there by the time we are,” Bubba said. He sent a worried look out toward where Willow had gone.

“She’ll be all right,” Maria said. “Willow can handle herself.”

“I know, I just… Sometimes I feel bad I didn’t join up like Uncle Garrett wanted me to.” He picked Harry up with care, started toward his horse just as a four-wheeler came rumbling up.

Aunt Chelsea whipped off her helmet and said, “Put him behind me, Bubba. Maria, sit behind him on the cargo rack to hold him on.”

Bubba set Harry upright on the ATV behind her, as instructed.

---