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“You know about the kids on the hijacked bus, right?”
She nodded. “I heard about it on the national news. I couldn’t believe the Vanderses went off the deep end. But what does that have to do with my father and the ranch?”
Abe lifted a hand and scratched his wiry brown hair with streaks of silver dominating his temples. “That’s only part of the problem. I hear there’s a group called Free America stirring up trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Nothing anyone can put a finger on, but rumor has it they’re meeting regularly, training in combat tactics.”
“Doesn’t the local law enforcement have a handle on them?”
Abe shook his head. “No one on the inside is owning up to being a part of it, and folks on the outside are only guessing. It’s breeding a whole lot of distrust among the locals.”
“So they’re training for combat. People have a right to protect themselves.” She didn’t like that it was splitting a once close-knit community.
“Yeah, but what if they put that combat training to use and try to take over the government?”
Liv smiled and leaned back in her seat. “They’d have to have a lot more people than the population of Grizzly Pass to take over the government.”
“Maybe so, but they could do a lot of damage and terrorize a community if they tried anything locally. Just look at the trouble Vanders and his boys stirred up when they killed a bus driver and threatened to bury a bunch of little kids in one of the old mines.”
“You have a point.” Liv chewed on her lower lip, her brows drawing together. She could only imagine the horror those children had to face and the families standing by, praying for their release. “We used to be a caring, cohesive community. We had semiannual picnics where everyone came out and visited with each other. What’s happening?”
“With the shutdown of the pipeline, a lot of folks are out of work. The government upped the fees for grazing cattle on federal land and there isn’t much more than ranching in this area. People are moving to the cities, looking for work. Others are holding on by their fingernails.”
Her heart ached for her hometown. “I didn’t realize it was that bad.”
“Yeah, I almost think you need to take Rausch’s offer and get out of here while you can.”
Her lips firmed into a thin line. “He was insulting, acting like I didn’t know the business end of a horse. Hell, he doesn’t know the first thing about ranching.”
“Which leads me to wonder—”
Something flashed in front of the speeding truck. A rider on a four-wheeler.
Abe jerked the steering wheel to avoid hitting him and sent the truck careening over the shoulder of the road, down a steep slope, crashing into bushes and bumping over huge rocks.
Despite the safety belt across her chest, Liv was tossed about like a shaken rag doll.
“Hold on!” Abe cried out.
With a death grip on the armrest, Liv braced herself.
The truck slammed into a tree.
Liv was thrown forward, hitting her head on the dash. For a moment gray haze and sparkling stars swam in her vision.
A groan from the man next to her brought her out of the fog and back to the front seat of the pickup. She blinked several times and turned her head.
A sharp stab of pain slashed through her forehead and warm thick liquid dripped from her forehead into her eyes. She wiped the fluid away only to discover it was blood. Her blood.
Another moan took her mind off her own injuries.
She blinked to clear her vision and noticed Abe hunched over the steering wheel, the front of the truck pushed into the cab pressing in around his legs.
The pungent scent of gasoline stung her nostrils, sending warning signals through her stunned brain. “Abe?” She touched his shoulder.
His head lolled back, his eyes closed.
“Abe!” Liv struggled with her seat belt, the buckle refusing to release when she pressed the button. “Abe!” She gave up for a moment and shook her foreman. “We have to get out of the truck. I smell gas.”
He moaned again, but his eyes fluttered open. “I can’t move,” he said, his voice weak. “I think my leg is broken.”
“I don’t care if both of your legs are broken—we have to get you out of the truck. Now!” She punched at her own safety belt, this time managing to disengage the locking mechanism. Flinging it aside, she reached for Abe’s and released it. Then she pushed open her door and slid out of the front seat.
When her feet touched the ground, her knees buckled. She grabbed hold of the door and held on to steady herself. The scent of gasoline was so strong now it was overpowering, and smoke rose from beneath the crumpled hood.
Straightening, Liv willed herself to be strong and get her foreman out of the truck before the vehicle burst into flames. She’d already lost her father. Abe was the only family she had left. She’d be damned if she lost him, too.
With tears threatening, she staggered around the rear of the truck, her feet slipping on loose gravel and stones. When she tried to open the driver’s door, it wouldn’t budge.
She pounded on it, getting more desperate by the minute. “Abe, you have to help me. Unlock the door. I have to get you out.”
Rather than dissipating, the cloud of smoke grew. The wind shifted, sending the smoke into Liv’s face. “Damn it, Abe. Unlock the door!”
A loud click sounded and Liv pulled the door handle, willing it to open. It didn’t.
Her eyes stinging and the smoke scratching at her throat with every breath she took, Liv realized she didn’t have much time.
She braced her foot on the side panel of the truck and pulled hard on the door handle. Metal scraped on metal and the door budged, but hung, having been damaged when the truck wrapped around the tree.
Hands curled around her shoulders, lifted her off her feet and set her to the side.
Then a hulk of a man with broad shoulders, big hands and a strong back ripped the door open, grabbed Abe beneath the arms, hauled him out of the smoldering cab and carried him all of the way up the hill to the paved road.
Her tears falling in earnest now, Liv followed, stumbling over the uneven ground, dropping to her knees every other step. When she reached the top, she sagged to the ground beside Abe on the shoulder of the road. “Abe? Please tell me you’re okay. Please.”
With his eyes still closed, he moaned. Then he lifted his eyelids and opened his mouth. “I’m okay,” he muttered. “But I think my leg’s broken.”
“Oh, jeez, Abe.” She laughed, albeit shakily. “A leg we can get fixed. I’m just glad you’re alive.”
“Take a lot more than a tree to do me in.” Abe grabbed her arm. “I’m sorry, Liv. If it’s messed up, I won’t be able to take care of the place until it’s healed.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Abe. Working for me is the last thing you should be worrying about. I’ll manage fine on my own.” She rested her hand on her foreman’s shoulder, amazed that the man could worry about her when his face was gray with pain. “What’s more important is getting you to a hospital.” She glanced around, looking for the man who’d pulled Abe from the wreckage.
He stood on the pavement, waving at a passing truck.
The truck slowed to a stop, and her rescuer rounded to the driver’s door and spoke with the man behind the wheel. The driver pulled to the side of the road, got out and hurried down to where Liv waited with Abe.
“Jonah? That you?” Abe glanced up, shading his eyes from the sun.
“Yup.” Jonah dropped to his haunches beside Abe. “How’d you end up in a ditch?”
Abe shook his head and winced. “A man on a four-wheeler darted out in front of me. I swerved to miss him.” He nodded toward Liv. “You remember Olivia Dawson?”
Jonah squinted, staring across Abe to Liv. “I remember a much smaller version of the Dawson girl.” He held out his hand. “Sorry to hear about your father’s accident.”
Liv took the man’s hand, stunned that they were making introductions when Abe was in pain. “Thank you. Seems accidents are going around.” Liv stared from Abe to Jonah’s vehicle above. “Think between the three of us we could get Abe up to your truck? He won’t admit it, but I’ll bet he’s hurting pretty badly.”
“It’s just a little sore,” Abe countered and then grimaced.
Liv snorted. “Liar.”
“We can get him up there,” the stranger said.
“Yes, we can,” Jonah agreed. “But should we? I could drive back to town and notify the fire department. They could have an ambulance out here in no time.”
“I don’t need an ambulance to get me to town.” Abe tried to get up. The movement made him cry out and his face turn white. He sagged back against the ground.
“If you don’t want an ambulance, then you’ll have to put up with us jostling you around getting you up the hill,” the stranger said.
“Better than being paraded through Grizzly Pass in the back of an ambulance.” Abe gritted his teeth. “Everyone knows ambulances are for sick folk.”
“Or injured people,” Liv said. “And you have a major injury.”
“Probably just a bruise. Give me a minute and I’ll be up and running circles around all of you.” Abe caught Liv’s stare and sighed. “Okay, okay. I could use a hand getting up the hill.”
The stranger shot a glance at Jonah. “Let’s do this.”
Jonah looped one of Abe’s arms around his neck, bent and slid an arm beneath one of Abe’s legs.
The stranger stepped between Liv and Abe, draped one of Abe’s arms over his shoulder and glanced across at Jonah. “On three.” He slipped his hand beneath Abe.
Jonah nodded. “One. Two. Three.”
They straightened as one.
Abe squeezed his eyes shut and groaned, all of the color draining from his face.
Liv wanted to help, but knew she’d only get in the way. The best thing she could do at that point was to open the truck door before they got there with Abe. She raced up the steep hill, her feet sliding in the gravel. When she reached the top, she flung open the door to the backseat of the truck cab and turned back to watch Abe’s progression.
The two men struggled up the hill, being as careful as they could while slipping on loose pebbles.
Liv’s glance took in her father’s old farm truck, the front wrapped around the tree. Smoke filled the cab and flames shot up from the engine compartment. She was surprised either one of them had lived. If Abe hadn’t slammed on his brakes as quickly as he had, the outcome would have been much worse.
Her gaze caught a glimpse of another vehicle on the other side of the truck. A four-wheeler was parked a few feet away.
Anger surged inside Liv. She almost said something to the stranger about how he’d nearly killed two people because of his carelessness. One look at Abe’s face made Liv bite down hard on her tongue to keep from yelling at the man who’d nearly caused a fatal accident. Once Abe was taken care of, she’d have words with the man.
Jonah and the stranger made it to the top of the ravine.
The four-wheeler driver nodded to the other man. “I’ll take it from here.”
“Are you sure?” Jonah asked, frowning. “He’s pretty much a deadweight.”
Jonah was right. With all the jostling, Abe had completely passed out. Liv studied the stranger. As muscular as he was, he couldn’t possibly lift Abe by himself.
“I’ve got him.” The stranger lifted Abe into his arms and slid him onto the backseat of the truck.
Despite her anger at the man’s driving skills, Liv recognized sheer, brute strength in the man’s arms and broad shoulders. That he could lift a full-size man by himself said a lot about his physical abilities.
But it didn’t excuse him from making them crash. She quelled her admiration and focused on getting Abe to a medical facility. If the stranger stuck around after they got Abe situated, Liv would tell him exactly what she thought of him.
Chapter Two (#u9c0b0983-063a-5623-a95f-e83e9f3f1224)
Hawkeye couldn’t follow through on his pursuit of the other guy on the ATV. Not after the fleeing man caused the farm-truck driver to crash his vehicle into a tree. He’d had to stop to render assistance and pull the older man out of the cab before the engine caught fire, or he and the woman might have died.
“I’ll follow on my four-wheeler,” Hawkeye offered.
“No need,” the woman said. “We can take it from here.”
Hawkeye frowned. Though young and pretty, the auburn-haired Miss Dawson’s jaw was set. Her brows drew together over deep-green eyes as she climbed into the back of the cab next to the injured truck driver.
Hawkeye wanted to argue, but he didn’t. She was mad at him for something. Then he realized she’d probably only seen one ATV fly out into the road. Hawkeye had been far enough behind the other guy, he hadn’t emerged onto the highway until the truck had already gone off the road.
The Dawson woman wouldn’t have seen that there were two ATVs. He smiled and turned away, understanding why she was angry, but not feeling the need to explain himself.
He watched as the truck took off. Then he climbed onto his four-wheeler and followed the group back to Grizzly Pass and the only medical facility in a fifty-mile radius.
The clinic was a block from the Blue Moose Tavern—Hawkeye’s temporary boss had set up offices in the apartment above the bar. As Hawkeye passed the Blue Moose, Garner stepped out onto the landing and waved at Hawkeye, a perplexed frown pulling his brows low.
Hawkeye nodded briefly, but didn’t slow the ATV. Though it was illegal to drive an off-road vehicle on a public road, he held steady, pulled into the clinic driveway and hopped off.
An ambulance had pulled up in the parking lot and EMTs were off-loading a gurney. A sheriff’s vehicle was parked nearby.
Olivia Dawson stood beside the truck, talking to Abe and a sheriff’s deputy. One of the EMTs shone a light into her eyes.
She pushed his light away. “I’m fine. It’s Abe you need to worry about.”
“Ma’am, it looks like you hit your head in the accident. You might have a concussion.” He insisted on wiping the dried blood from her forehead and applying a small butterfly bandage. “I suggest you see a doctor before you drive yourself anywhere.”
“Really, I’m fine.” She pushed past him and gripped Abe’s hand.
The deputy flipped open a notepad. “Ma’am, could you describe what happened?”
“A four-wheeler darted out in front of us on the highway. We swerved to miss it and crashed into a tree. You might want to send a fire engine to put out the fire and a tow truck to retrieve the truck.”
“Will do, ma’am.”
