Page 24 of Defending Our Ever After

“…and the deer. Keep this on you and stay alert,” Dad says, turning over his handgun to me. I can tell from his expression this is not the time for questions, so I readily accept it and start to jog in the direction I heard Dylan call out from. “Good job, baby girl.”

I don’t acknowledge his final words, but I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face at one of his infrequent compliments.

“Look at your hit, Julia!” Dylan exclaims when he sees me. “I’m going to make sure everyone starts calling you Deadeye.”

“Holy shit,” I whisper, kneeling beside the stag. With my hand on its chest, I repeat my earlier prayer and say another one for Dale; knowing something has gone terribly wrong for him to be back up here in the dead of winter. When I finish, I look up at my brother and nod. “It’ll be a while before someone’s back with the ATV, so let’s get started.”

“Too bad they already killed the pig for Christmas dinner,” Dylan sighs, and I shake my head at how soft-hearted he’s gotten about the livestock.

“You know it takes time to prepare the meat, and I’ve never once seen you shedding any tears when you devour bacon,” I point out pragmatically.

We both draw our blades and get to work on field dressing my kill. Dylan stays focused, his knife-work and movements are textbook, but after my exchange with Dad, every sound from the forest around us draws my focus away from the task at hand.

“I got this, Julia,” Dylan murmurs, after a bit. “You can just keep watch.”

“Sorry, I…”

“It’s okay. I think something happened to Dale’s family, so it’s best if you keep an eye out.”

“Did you hear anything he said to Dad?” I ask him, narrowing my eyes in his direction.

“No,” he says, keeping his eyes downcast. “They were whispering. But Dale looked older than when he left. And why would he be back this soon? That wasn’t his plan.”

“We’ll get through this,” I promise him, watching the woods around us and wondering if someone will be out on the ATV before predators start to circle us, drawn by the strong, coppery scent of the deer’s blood.

“Like I’m worried? I’ve got Deadeye covering my six!”

“Okay, knock it off with theDeadeyeshit,” I mockingly growl at him. It is kind of flattering when your little brother thinks you’re worthy of a nickname like that, though. Just then, the sound of the ATV reaches my ears and I let out a huge sigh of relief.

There’s no mistaking the man heading in our direction and I let out a whistle to catch his eye.

“Someone call for a cab?” Russ asks in his best attempt at a New Yorker accent when he pulls up near us.

Dylan lets out a laugh as I roll my eyes.

“Shit! That’s huge! Christ, Julia, you’re a rockstar with that bow.” Russ looks suitably impressed by my contribution to our lauder.

“Pardon me, the woman previously known as Julia, will now be addressed as Deadeye,” Dylan responds, trying his hand at an upper crust English accent, and getting a fist bump from my guy.

“You ready to move this back to the house? Your dad wanted us home ASAP,” Russ says, reaching out to rub his hand up and down my back.

“Yeah, I’m going to leave the guts behind, but we’re good to go,” Dylan tells him. “They’ll be gone by nightfall.”

“What have we been taught about feeding the wildlife?” I ask, knowing that even though we don’t have time to clean up the mess, it’s still not smart to give hungry predators a trail of breadcrumbs that will lead to our home.

“We’ll have to get some of this portioned out for Lee,” I tell the guys as we heft the remains onto the trailer. “I promised him I would in exchange for this bow.”

“Let’s wait until we hear what happened to Dale and his family before we go making plans.” The tone of Russ’s voice brings me back to our days on the road and I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve had it easy during the past few months.

Shelby

“I’m sorry, I covered our tracks the best I could, but he needs medical attention and I didn’t feel safe in town.” Dale’s voice has changed significantly in the past few weeks. It sounds brittle and we all look at each other, waiting for an explanation.

“Here, Jace and Eddie, transfer Steve onto this board and put him on the table. Shelby, start boiling water and find my bag. Where’s Trisha?” Elsbeth is the first of us to mobilize and get us all moving. “Dale, where’s Steve’s family and your other son?”

“They’re all heading to Steve’s in-laws outside of Missoula. Steve wouldn’t have made the trip, he’s…” Dale’s voice cracks and he reaches out to grab the doorframe to support his weight.

“Rachel, go find Trisha—right now,” Elsbeth says, snapping her fingers in the direction of the fireplace, where the teenager is sitting and watching as everyone buzzes around to help.

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