The Soldier's Promise

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“Good. We need support. It would be great if you could donate some baked goods. We also need any books you can spare for the library and items for the garage sale. Crafts and services are welcome. For instance, Stephanie will conduct a dog-training session and donate free training services to the highest bidder. Cash would be good, too. We’re going to list the donors in the newspaper.”

A bit of blackmail proposed by Stephanie, but Eve wasn’t going to mention who suggested it. Stephanie had a way of antagonizing the powers that be. Being the only vet for forty miles, she didn’t have to worry about a boycott by clients.

She looked down at her watch. “I have to pick up my son. Anything else?”

Al glared at her as he left. The others followed without comment. So far, the council had skittishly refused to go along with him on promoting his nephew, relying on the fact that Tom had not officially left. They all knew Tom had more friends than any of them had.

She looked at her watch. Just enough time to go by the Hannity cabin if she stopped on her way from school to the baseball field. Nick would be with her then.

Maybe that would be a good thing. She would make a quick apology, drop off the copy of the deed and tell him the work to enlarge the porch could go ahead.

That way she would be safe from those feelings that had been so persistent. Safe. She was beginning to hate that word.

Nick was waiting for her at the school. He jumped in the car. “You’re late,” he said.

“I know. City business. And I have a quick call to make on the way. That okay with you?”

“Where?”

“The last cabin on Lake Road.”

“You mean the guy with a dog. Awesome.”

“What do you know about that?”

He shrugged. “All the kids are talking about it.”

“What are they saying?”

“Maybe he robbed Maude’s and the gas station.”

“And you think going there is awesome?”

“You always tell me never to believe everything I hear. And you’ve been there. You wouldn’t let me go if you thought he was bad.”

Her son was ten going on forty. Not only that, but he would also make a good lawyer.

“You’re right. I don’t think he had anything to do with those robberies. But I’m just going to drop something off with him, and then we’ll leave. I want you to stay in the car.”

“Aw, Mom. I want to see the dog.”

He always wanted to see the dog. Any dog.

She turned onto Lake Road toward the cabin. Mr. Manning was replacing some of the slats holding up the porch railing. She wondered why he bothered doing the work. Did he plan to stay? Fix the cabin and sell it?

Biggest question of all: Why did she care?

She didn’t, she told herself. She grabbed her briefcase and looked at Nick, who was peering at Mr. Manning with great interest. “You stay here. You can get started on your homework.”

“You said you wouldn’t be long.”

“I promise.” She leaned over and kissed his tousled hair.

She took a deep breath. Maybe she’d been magnifying that attraction.

Maybe he would be even ruder than before. Maybe...

But Stephanie liked him. She was a good judge of character. Except, apparently, for husbands.

She walked up the steps. He straightened. His shirt was open and her gaze went to a hard, muscled chest sprinkled with golden hair. She willed herself to look at his face as she came toward him.

Also a mistake. Lord, but his eyes were mesmerizing. Particularly when they seemed to look inside her and see her errand for the sham it was.

“Mayor Douglas.” His expression was grim.

“I received a copy of your deed and I have your building permit. I made copies of both for you.”

“My attorney is sending me a copy of the deed,” he said curtly. “He also told me that the sheriff had questions about me.”

Eve felt her face flush. She hated that. “I’m sorry. It seemed a way to dispel rumors. But I shouldn’t have authorized it. The questions should never have been asked.”

“Discovered I’m not an ax murderer, did you?”

“Not as far as Tom could discover,” she said. “He’s our police chief. He was supposed to do this surreptitiously. He apparently didn’t succeed.” She tried a small smile. She almost gave him the other reason, namely that one of the deputies had needed stopping, but that would probably be insulting, as well. To both of them.

His grim expression didn’t ease. His thick hair was combed, but he hadn’t shaved. His eyes were just as cool as they had been during their first meeting. Cool and enigmatic.

There was pain in the hard lines around his eyes and mouth, reflecting experiences she couldn’t even imagine.

There was definitely nothing easy about the man. Especially the raw sexuality that he exuded...and it slammed into her.

He moved to the door and stood aside, an invitation to enter. Frissons rocketed along her spine as she brushed by him and moved inside. She tried to concentrate on the cabin interior and not her sudden proximity to a man who sent all her senses spiraling out of control.

“I can’t stay. My son is in the truck,” she said. She handed the documents to him. Her hand shook slightly. Stop it. You’re not sixteen. The smell of wet paint permeated the room. Newspapers covered the floor and two walls were painted a sand color, while another was half-done. The only furniture was a well-worn sofa that sagged in the middle.

“I would invite you to sit but, as you can see, I’m not exactly ready for the visitors who seem to keep coming.”

“Will you ever be ready?”

“I doubt it,” he said grimly, but she thought she caught the barest hint of humor in his eyes.

She saw a dog toy in the middle of the room. “My son loves dogs,” she said. “Would it be okay if he met yours briefly? Then we’ll have to go to baseball practice.”

“He was out with me, hiding under the porch,” he said, “and he was only there because I insisted. I can tell you he’s even less tolerant of strangers than I am, so maybe it’s not a good...”

A yell came from outside. The kind of yell that screamed fear and pain. Then there was loud barking.

Eve’s blood turned cold as she turned and ran out the door. Nick, holding his right arm, stood next to the small porch. His face was white. “Don’t come near,” he said in a trembling voice.

A dog resembling a German shepherd growled next to him and moved around in attack mode.

“Amos!” Joshua Manning’s voice was sharp and commanding, as he moved even faster than she had. “Stand down. Amos.”

“No!” Nick said. “Not the dog. Rattlesnake bit me. The dog’s trying to protect me.”

Terror thrust through Eve like a spear. She knew from first-aid classes that the first rule after a bite was to stay still. She also knew how fast a snakebite could kill, and that the snake could strike again. There had been several bites in the area in the past two years. Of three victims, one had died and the others had lingering effects. All those facts raced through her head as she saw the coiled rattler and made a move toward Nick.

“No! Stay still, damn it. You’ll make things worse. You can’t help him by getting bit yourself.” A strong hand shot out and grabbed her arm, stopping her. She fought to get loose.

Eve wanted to grab her son and run to the car. She started to move again. But he tightened his hold. “You want to do something, get my gun. It’s on the top shelf of the closet in the back bedroom. Ammunition is next to it.”

He paused. “You know how to load a gun?” Before getting an answer, he turned to Nick. “You’re doing good, boy. Real good. Stay totally still.”

Reason fought against instinct. His eyes and voice made her listen. They came from someone used to being obeyed. Confident and competent. Still, the fear inside her was overwhelming. She couldn’t lose Nick. She couldn’t.

Her legs didn’t want to move away from the one person in the world she loved with everything inside her. Nick looked so brave standing absolutely still, just as he was told. How could she be any less brave?

“Of course I can load,” she said as she ran into the house, frantically searching for the room, then the closet, then the gun and bullets.

She lived on a ranch with snakes and coyotes and other unfriendly creatures. Her father had made sure she knew how to use a rifle and revolver. She loaded the gun and ran back out just in time to see Manning toss the snake with one of the slats he’d obviously torn from the porch. It landed six feet away from her son and the dog.

She aimed at the snake and fired. Once, twice. Again and again until the bullets were gone.

“I think you’ve killed it several times over,” Josh Manning said. “Not bad shooting.”

He took the gun from her hand with a gentleness she hadn’t expected. “You’ve got one hell of a kid there. Kept his head. But I think Amos has been bit, too. He put himself between your boy and the snake.”

Eve hugged Nick as hard as she could without squeezing his arm. “I told you to stay in the car,” she said in shaking voice.

“I saw the dog’s head poking from under the porch. I just wanted to see him,” Nick said. “He tried to protect me.”

Amos was still standing at Nick’s side. But blood was coming from one of his paws, just as it was coming from small punctures in Nick’s arm.

“Stand down, Amos,” Josh said softly. “Well done.” His voice was more gentle than Eve could ever have imagined as he ran his hands over the dog, seemingly looking for injury.

“We have to get your son to a doctor as soon as possible.” He picked up Nick. “Try to keep that arm still,” he said to him. “And a little below your heart.” Then he turned to Eve. “The keys to my Wrangler are on a hook just inside. It has more room than your pickup. Get them. And soap up a washcloth and bring it out. I’ll put the boy in the back of the Jeep.” He paused. “Better take the gun inside, too.”

He carried Nick to the backseat of the Jeep parked at the side of the cabin. Eve didn’t want to leave Nick, not for a second, but Joshua Manning seemed to know what to do. She knew all the rules about snakebites as well, and he was doing exactly what she’d learned. Get safely away from the snake. Wash the bite to kill bacteria. Keep the patient calm. The less the victim moves, the less damage will incur.

She hadn’t been very good at the calm part. She ran into the house, replaced the gun in the closet, quickly wet a washcloth and doused it with soap. She grabbed the keys as she ran out to the Jeep.

Joshua—she thought of him that way now—had a first-aid kit out and had already applied a compression bandage just above the wound. He was in the middle of splinting Nick’s arm with a short stick. She handed him the washcloth, noticing that the arm was already red and beginning to swell.

“Stay as still as you can,” Joshua was telling her son. “It’s important.”

“I know,” her son said. “I’m a Cub Scout.” He said it with bravado, but she heard the tremor of fear in his voice. He was also clenching his teeth from pain.

Eve ran to her truck and found the cell phone, then returned to the Jeep as she punched the number for Dr. Bradley. The number rang and rang, each ring seeming to last an hour. Then, after what seemed like forever, the nurse finally picked up.

“Janie, Nick has just been bitten by a rattler. Do you have antivenin?” The level of her voice raised with every word. She was choked with fear. She wanted to grab her son away and hold him tight. She listened, then hung up.

“The doctor’s not in, but his nurse is trying to reach him,” she told Joshua.

“We’ll drive in. If he’s not there, I’ll call for a helicopter to get us the county hospital,” Joshua said. “I’ll drop Amos off at the vet’s.”

She stared at the phone, then wrapped her arms around her own body, hugging herself to keep from screaming, only to be jarred by his impatient voice. “Get in the backseat with him. You can put his head on your lap, just keep the wound area below his heart. I’ll put Amos in the front seat with me. Call ahead to Stephanie, will you?”

“Of course. I have her number.”

She maneuvered inside the car and raised Nick’s head to settle on her lap, then arranged him so his heart would be above the wounded arm. She held his other hand and the Jeep moved. Her heart pounded. She saw Nick bite his lips and knew he was in pain. She wished it was her pain.

Her cell phone rang. Dr. Bradley. “Where is the bite?” She heard the urgency in his voice.

“The lower part of the arm.”

“You’re sure it was a rattler.”

“I saw it. So did my son and Mr. Manning. It happened near his cabin.”

“You’re in luck. We had another bite a few weeks ago, and I ordered extra antivenin. The sooner he gets it, the better he’ll be. Bring him in, I’ll suction out the venom and give him the antivenin. Then I think you should take him on to the county hospital. Oh, and Eve, keep him lying down and still. The arm should be below...”

“I know. We’re on our way,” she said and hung up. She turned to Josh. “Doc Bradley has the antivenin. He said to bring him in as quickly as we can.” She then called Stephanie and told her what had happened. Steph was in her office seeing patients and said she would be waiting for Amos.

Doc Bradley was standing outside his clinic when they arrived. “Bring him inside. Did you bring the snake?”

“No,” Josh said. “But there’s no question it was a rattler. About four and a half feet long. Mayor Douglas shot it—” he looked at his watch “—fifteen minutes ago.”

Only fifteen minutes. It seemed a lifetime.

Doc Bradley nodded his head. “Good. Can you carry him inside?”

Then he saw the dog lying on the front seat, shivering, and gave Joshua a questioning look.

“He was bit, too. I’m taking him to the vet right after I get the boy inside.”

Doc Bradley hurried them into a treatment room. Joshua laid Nick on the treatment table and said, “I’ll be back after seeing to Amos.”

Dr. Bradley examined the fang marks, took blood from the area to determine the amount of venom then applied a Sawyer Extractor to remove as much venom as possible and slow the spread of the remaining venom in the arm. The arm was already swelling, and although Nick tried to hide it, she knew he was terrified as well as in growing pain. Being a Cub Scout, he knew as well as she how quickly a bite could maim and kill.