Page 37 of Bernadette
“No, it’s just that she probably won’t be able to go out on missions. I know I haven’t gone out on any since the other women have been coming in, but I miss it. I can stay in the office if I have to, but with Bernie here, I can go out and gather more Intel.” She looked at him, then reached over and took his hand in hers. “Don’t worry, I won’t neglect you.” She leaned in to brush a kiss against his lips, but let out a scream when one second Wyatt was right there beside her, then all of a sudden, his horse stumbled and the man of her dreams, her husband of only four days was flying through the air. She didn’t know who screamed louder, her, the horse, Wyatt, or the howl of the wind that had just started.
Morgan knotted her reins over the saddle horn, dismounted, and ran to Wyatt. Before she could reach him, she swore when her horse took off at a dead run, heading for home. That was when she heard the bark of a gun, and the dirt between her and Wyatt was shot at. She immediately crouched, and pulled the gun she had put at the small of her back earlier that morning after dressing. With that in her hand, she did a three sixty to check out the area, and because there weren’t any trees for miles around, but plenty of shallow hills, her first thought was sniper.
It took everything she had to keep her wits about her, and the first thing she did was look at the time. Somehow, she knew that would be important in the coming hours. When she finally made her way to Wyatt, she realized he was out cold. He had a bruise on his forehead, and the way his arm was positioned, she knew his collarbone, or his shoulder, was broken, sighing in relief when she felt a strong pulse at his neck.
She looked around frantically, and stared in shock when she saw Wyatt’s horse was lying on its side, panting. She made her way over to it, and swore when she saw his front leg from the knee to the neck was full of holes. Her initial thought when she saw the damage to the animal was buckshot. The horse was shot with buckshot. As she approached the horse slowly, she saw both front legs were at weird angles and had to wipe her tears when she realized both front legs were broken.
Knowing what she had to do, she stood, looked at the horse, aimed her gun, and pulled the trigger. She sighed in relief when she hit her target on the first shot, because there was no way she could shoot the horse again if she had missed that first time. She grabbed the gun from the saddle, along with the saddlebags and canteens. With them in her arms, she went past Wyatt, and into an area that held some protection from all directions. She dumped her items on the ground, then returned to try and wake her husband up. When he didn’t move, she grabbed the shirt at his shoulders and pulled. During the time it took to tug and pull him inside the protection spot, no more shots rang out, but Morgan wasn’t about to give up hope that the shooter had left.
Once she settled Wyatt as best, she could, she reached for her phone, then swore when she realized she’d slipped it inside one of the saddlebags on her horse, because she knew there was no phone signal that far away from the ranch. She frantically searched Wyatt’s pockets and ended up finding his phone in his saddlebags. Just as she suspected, no cell service, and only about ten percent of battery life left. Not that it would do her any good. She was pinned down, no way to communicate with anyone, and one horse had run off, while she’d had to put the second one down. Resigned to sit and wait, she looked at her watch and was surprised that an hour and a half had gone by while she’d been trying to get Wyatt to safety. There was nothing for her to do but wait.
* * *
Morgan jerkedawake when she thought she heard something in the distance. Off and on for the last few hours, someone would take shots in her general direction. These only occurred when she tried to leave her protection area. The only thing they hit was the ground, but she knew she was being watched. Not wanting her rescuers to get hurt, she turned on the flashlight she’d found in one of the saddlebags, made her way to the entrance to her hideout, and began sending Morse Code. When the noise from the ATVs suddenly stopped, she sighed in relief and swore beneath her breath when another shot rang out.
“Why did you have us stop?” Chuck asked Bernie as he helped her from the back of the ATV. She only threw him a glare and walked back to the others. She had been giving a slicing motion over her throat to have them cut the engines.
“What’s up?” Ava asked as she hopped off the back of Justin’s machine, then they all ducked when they heard a shot. “What the fuck.”
“I saw Morse Code flashing in the distance,” Bernie began, and pointed to where she’d seen it.
“What did it say?” Alice asked.
“Pinned, shooter, Wyatt’s hurt.” They all ducked again when another shot rang out, and Ava only nodded to the crowd.
“On it,” she said, then disappeared. Bernie studied Justin as he watched his girl disappear, and saw he was okay with it. They had stopped about an hour back when they’d found a saddled horse wandering in a meadow, and stopped to let Wilson calm the animal, then he removed the saddlebags. After he’d checked the animal out, he’d slapped it on the ass and told it to go home. Bernie would have to ask about that later. She shook her head, then looked at Dillon.
“Question,” Chuck said.
“How do we know it’s Morgan that sent you that code and not the person shooting?”
“Good question,” Bernie said as she dug out her own flashlight and went back to where they’d left the ATV. It took several tries, but she was finally able to get a response back from the person wielding the other light. She asked questions that only Morgan would know—questions about her time in the military.
“It’s Stuart,” Bernie said with relief in her voice. She looked at Chuck and nodded. “Trust me. I asked a military question.” It wasn’t Chuck that looked doubtful as much as Morgan’s brothers did, causing Bernie to sigh deeply. “I asked what her rank was when she retired.”
“Ah,” the Stuart men said as one, then looked between her and Dillon. “What do you want us to do?”
“I need someone to go back a few miles and call it in.” Bernie looked around, then up into the sky. “Whoever you talk to, tell them to bring a helicopter. I don’t know how badly Wyatt is hurt, or if Morgan’s hurt too. She didn’t say. Ava’s circling around looking for the shooter. You ladies, I want you to go in the other directions and get eyes on the area Morgan and Wyatt are holed up. Hold your positions, and take down anyone who you see that isn’t one of us.”
“Maim only?” June asked as she checked her gun.
“Correct,” Bernie barely had the words out of her mouth when all the women seemed to be there one minute, then gone the next. They blended into their surroundings. Bernie nodded in satisfaction to see they hadn’t lost their edge.
“I’ll go,” Chuck said.
“Go where?” Bernie demanded.
“Back to call Tom.”
“Oh,” she said, and watched as Dillon held out the satellite phone and gave him a quick rundown on how to use it. Lucas volunteered to go back with Chuck, and Dillon said it was okay, but not before he made sure they both had weapons on them and were willing to use them. They hopped onto the back of their individual ATVs, and at the last minute, Bernie stepped up, grabbed both sides of Chuck’s face and brought him in for a kiss. She broke it off as fast as she’d planted one on him, and looked directly into his eyes as she said, “You be careful.”
“I will.” Chuck grinned as he started the machine, and reached up, grabbed the back of her neck, and kissed her again. He made sure she was steady before he nodded to Lucas, and they both left to head back to the ranch. Lucas drove closer and called out they would get a signal where they had found the horse. Chuck nodded and opened up the throttle to get back there as fast as possible. At the last minute, Carl said he would go with them to call his own boss to let him know what was happening. Maybe he could come out and investigate with them. If not, then he would be kept in the loop, and he said he’d let April and Dolly know what was happening.
“What’s next?” DJ asked after they couldn’t hear the machines any longer. He looked out over the range, and up at the sky. The longer they sat there, the darker it became, and not just because of the coming night. It looked like the clouds were rolling in. When Bernie started donning her rain gear, the others took that as a sign to do the same thing. She grabbed a pair of binoculars and passed them to Dillon after looking through them.
“Is that horse dead?”
Dillon scowled at her, grabbed the glasses, and looked through them, then he swore.
