Chapter Four
Luke
Nellie’s bark startled me. She rarely barked, it must be pretty bad. I turned to see Bailey racing through the trees, his eyes wide and frightened as if he had the hounds of hell on his tail.
“Whoa, boy,” I said calmly as I held up my arms to stop him from rushing into something and injuring himself. “Whoa,” I repeated.
Bailey slammed to halt in front of me then twisted to look behind him.
“What happened?” I asked as I took a hold of his halter and quickly scanned him for any injuries. “Where’s Amy?”
Jenny had told me to expect her to come out and exercise Bailey. I know in reality she was having her friend keep an eye on me. But hey, what should I expect?
The horse shied away, not listening to me.
“Whoa, calm down.” This was not good. I didn’t see anything wrong with Bailey, but something had scared him. It must have been pretty bad for him to desert Amy like this. Normally he was pretty loyal. I couldn’t imagine him leaving Jenny.
As I rubbed his neck to calm him down, I glanced up the trail hoping to see Amy coming home, her head down, embarrassed she’d let Bailey get away from her.
No, Amy.
“Come on boy,” I said, as I led him into the barn to remove his tack and give him a bucket of oats. When I was done, I stepped back outside and joined Nellie who sat at the barn entrance staring back up the trail.
My stomach clenched up with worry. She knew as well as I did that this wasn’t good.
I glanced up at the sky and shuddered. It would be dark soon. Should I call someone? Who? No, Amy would kill me if she was just fine and half the county came out looking for her.
“Let’s go,” I told Nellie as I started down the trail Amy had taken earlier.
It was easy to see Bailey’s trail. Both coming and going. His hoof prints in the soft earth was a clear marker. When the trail turned onto the logging road, I stopped a minute to scan the way as it snaked its way back and forth through the mountains.
Still no Amy.
Swallowing a lump of worry I started jogging. It was getting late. I needed to find her before it got dark.
It was Nellie who showed me where they turned off. I backtracked and followed her up the new trail. Where was Amy? This was so much further back than I expected. I should have called someone. If she was this far back, she was in trouble. Every part of me just knew it.
As the trail bent with the stream, Nellie froze and growled deep in her throat. I stopped and examined the ground.
I gasped when I saw the large paw print square in the middle of the trail. A mountain lion. A big one. It was obvious what had happened. The paw print. The lack of hoof prints beyond. Bailey had reared and turned for home.
But where was Amy? As I twisted and turned, my eyes scanned the ground, my heart slammed to a stop. There, on the ground, more paw prints and a muddy patch with specks of red blood. A lot of it, and a scrape on the ground where something had been dragged into the bushes.
“No!” I whispered. No, this wasn’t possible, I thought as my stomach turned over. Not Amy, no. Suddenly our mutual dislike seemed ridiculous.
Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to start to follow the drag mark.
Nellie barked, pulling my attention back to the bluff. She stood at the edge, looking down at the stream.
I glanced from my dog to the forest and the bushes, then back at Nellie. Sighing, I turned away to see what she had found.
Please, I begged. Please, be okay, Amy.
.o0o.
Amy
Slowly, the blackness was replaced by fuzzy clouds. Then my world became nothing but pain. Everywhere, pain. Sharp, aching, burning, pain. The kind of pain that made me wish for the darkness again.
What had happened? How had … Oh my god. The big cat, Bailey? The sudden awareness pushed the pain to the side as a new fear filled me.
A rustle above me on the trail made me hold my breath. Was that the cougar? Had he come back to finish me.? Was I to be his next meal? My heart raced as I tried to move. I had to get out of there. But, my muscles refused to work.
I had gone over the edge of the bluff and ended up in the long grass next to the steam. Maybe I could hide.
No, the cat would smell my fear from a half mile away.
A soft swish in the grass behind me made my blood turn cold.
A rock. A stick. My hands scraped across the ground as I desperately searched for a weapon. But there was nothing. I would have to face the mountain lion with nothing but my bare hands. Please, I begged. Please go away. Just go away. You don’t want me. I taste terrible.
Again, something moved behind me in the bushes. Then, a long black nose stuck its way through the grass. I took a deep breath ready to scream when Nellie poked her head through and licked my face.
Never, in a million years will anyone be as happy as I was at that moment. Reaching up, I pulled her into a hug as my body screamed in protest. I didn’t care about the pain. I just cared that I wasn’t going to be eaten.
Another noise had me twisting to find Luke looking down at me with a worried frown.
Yes, I thought as I slumped back onto the ground. Of course. Who else.
I smiled up at him, my heart raced with both relief and a touch of hero worship. The man had come for me. I was saved.
“Bailey?” I asked him as he knelt down next to me.
“He’s fine,” he said as his eyes traveled over my body looking for injuries. When he reached my feet, he winced.
“I saw a bunch of blood up there?”
“A deer,” I answered as I winced, the pain was killing me.
He nodded as he brushed my hair back to look into my eyes. Once he had seen what he needed to see, he slowly examined the knot on my forehead and shook his head.
“How long were you out?” he asked me.
“I just woke up,” I said as I tried to get up on my elbows.
“Hold on,” he said as he put a hand on my shoulder. His gentle touch did more to make me feel safe than anything I could ever expect. Luke was here. That was all I needed to know. My body felt as if I’d been run over by our football team, twice, but I was safe. No mountain lion would ever think of taking on someone like Luke. That was all that mattered.
Slowly, his hands traveled over my body. Down my arms, across my ribs. Gently prodding and poking.
I shivered. The least he could do was tell me before he started touching me like that. But not Luke. No, to him I was just another injured animal.
“You know,” I said, “if you just asked, I could have told you where I hurt.”
He stared at me for a moment then turned to focus on my ankle.
Holding my breath, I waited for him to pronounce his finding.
“It might be broken,” he said with a shake of his head. “But I don’t know if I can get that boot off without cutting it up. It seems…”
“Just cut it off,” I snapped, before I could stop myself.
He frowned. “They look expensive.”
I sighed heavily. “Does it really matter?”
He nodded slowly, as he used his pocket knife to slowly cut my boot away.
My stomach fell. The pain that continually shot through me had been a warning. But still, the new pain sent a cold chill through me. I so didn’t need this just now.
He winced when he cut away my sock. Not a reassuring sound. “This is going to hurt.”
I slumped back down and nodded. There was no use arguing with him. I could tell by his voice that he knew what he was doing. Of course, growing up on a farm he had dealt with tons of injured animals.
“I’ll be right back,” he said as he got up. Once standing, he pulled off his denim jacket and draped it over me.
“No,” I said as I reached out and grabbed his hand. “Don’t leave me. There was a mountain lion.”
“I saw the tracks,” he said. “Nellie will stay with you.” Then, turning to the dog, he pointed to my side and told her to lay down.
Nellie followed his instructions to the letter, curling up next to me, her eyes searching mine, silently begging me to be okay. I smiled at the dog as I petted her neck.
I looked back up, but Luke was gone. Gone like a breeze in a storm.
An empty, worried feeling filled me. Life had seemed so much safer with him there next to me.
Laying my head back I fought to hold off the pain as I conducted an inventory. My head hurt. Reaching up, I felt an egg-sized bump over my right eye. The back of my left hand had a nasty scratch. And my ribs felt like someone had used them for boxing practice. But it was my right ankle that was killing me. Sending throbbing waves of pain through my entire body.
Oh, Amy, I thought. I had really done it this time. Dad was going to worry all night when he didn’t get my text telling him I was home safe.
A scuff behind me made my heart jump. I quickly checked Nellie but she hadn’t moved. I relaxed, it must be Luke. Nellie would never let anything happen to me.
When Luke stepped back through the brush, Nellie looked up at him then laid her head on my thigh, her eyes never leaving his while she waited for another command.
Luke kneeled down by my feet and shot me a quick glance while he raised his eyebrow. Silently asking if I was ready for this.
My stomach turned over as I nodded back for him to go ahead.
He smiled gently then used his knife to cut away both of his sleeves on his flannel shirt. His large arms sent a comforting feeling through me as I realized how nice it was to have a strong man there at a moment like that. I know, not how girls were supposed to think. But mountain lions didn’t worry about political correctness.
Tearing the cut sleeves into strips, he laid them across my thighs then measured the sticks against my feet.
His large body moved smoothly as he worked to get ready. He knows what he is doing I reminded myself. I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth while I stared up at a pine tree overhanging the bluff.
Luke paused for a moment then started tying the splints in place, jostling my foot. I gasped as I instinctively pulled back.
“Sorry,” he said as he stared at me. “But I’ve got to do this before you make it worse.”
All I could do was nod as I let him get back to work. Once he was done, he leaned back and gently touched my calf.
“Impressive,” he said. “I would have screamed my head off.”
I looked at him through the tears in my eyes. I knew he was lying, but I also knew he was trying to make me feel better.
Turning away from me, he looked up at the sky and shook his head. I followed his gaze and shuddered. The sun was behind the mountains and the day had turned to darkening shadows.
“Where’s your phone?” he asked me.
He didn’t have a phone? Of course not.
Wincing a little, I pulled my phone from my jacket pocket. My heart fell. A spiderweb of cracked glass stretched across the screen.
It was dead. Of course, what else could go wrong with my life.
Luke shook his head. “Now we know why your ribs hurt.”
He sighed heavily and turned away. “I’ll get a fire going before I go get help.”
“No, you don’t,” I said. “You are not leaving me here. Didn’t you hear me, there was a mountain lion. No way are you leaving me here all alone.”
He turned back, then glanced up at the sky again as he slowly shook his head. “I can make a travois and drag you out. But there’s no moon tonight. That trail can get a little hairy. Besides, between the lion and the bears. I’m not happy about the two of us being away from a fire.”
My insides curled up into a tight ball. The thought of being dragged through a forest on a dark night. No. that was not happening.
“Okay,” he said as he looked at the sky again. “I think we should stay until morning. Between the fire and Nellie, we will be fine. I promise.”
I knew I was probably being unrealistic. But I was glad. It was nice having someone else make the decisions. My head felt too foggy to think straight. Closing my eyes for a moment. My insides relaxed. I was glad I wasn’t going to be left there alone, glorified cougar bait.
No, he was right. Staying was the smart move. Besides, I knew that as long as Luke was there things would work out. Or at least I hoped so.